News:

"The phone is a remarkably complex, simple device,
and very rarely ever needs repairs, once you fix them." - Dan/Panther

Main Menu

A couple of new touch tones.

Started by podor, February 11, 2016, 05:55:09 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

podor

I had some extra money from selling some parts from my other hobby (classic Toro push mowers), so I bought some nice touch tones. One of my earliest memories is of a telephone repair man coming to the house to fix the green 2500 in my parents bedroom. It is what got me hooked on phones in the first place. I couldn't have been more than 3 or 4. I happened to find a nice green 2500, just like the one my parents had. It is a complete numbers matching phone from 8/73, which would be the right vintage. My parents bought their house in '74. It was filthy, but in good shape. Just a good cleaning and buffing was all it needed. It had an Amphenol connector, so I replaced it with a matching 505a.

The other is a nice 1500. I've been looking on and off, and saw this one by accident. I got it for a fair price. Everything is 5/66 or 6/66 except the dial ('68) and the handset cord, which has no date. I'm not sure if it is an aftermarket replacement or what. It came in the condition you see it, including the Chicago area number card.

jsowers

Those are two nice touch-tones. The hard-wired ones aren't easy to find, so you did well. They're also not always numbers matching. Many of them went back and were turned into modular 2500s, which makes the hard-wired ones more scarce, or at least that's my take on it.

Also I've noticed Chicago is evidently a good place to find 10-button phones. Touch-tone didn't catch on in the early days and wasn't available everywhere, so the big cities seem to have more of them. But I've found them even in places like Myrtle Beach, which is AE territory.

It's always nice to be able to recapture some of your childhood. I have phones like the ones I used as a child, but the dearest one is one my aunt Betty actually used back when I was a kid. The phone company let her keep it when she got a private line and she kept it in the basement for 40 years. Finally when they cleaned out the basement after she and my uncle died, they found it. It's just a dirty old party line AE40, but it's the real thing!
Jonathan