Nifty Teletrainer

[G-Man]

It is very difficult to understand your harsh criticism of a product that used quality components from reputable manufacturers such as Cornell-Dubilier,  Jensen, Sprague, IRC, Carling, etc.

Perhaps you can elaborate as to what your perception of poor quality is.

They performed well and were low-maintenance devices. When these units were first designed, dialtone was not standardized so consequently there was no "RIGHT" dialtone since there were numerous tones used for supervisory tones.
  Since this was an instructional tool, the controls were intended to be under the supervision of the instructor and not the students; otherwise automatic operation would have defeated the purpose of these units.

You do not seem to understand the problems we had in educating our customers in the proper operation of their telephone instruments.

Rather than being used for marketing purposes we purchased Teletrainers from WECo to educate our subscribers when cutting-over to dial service. Afterwards we loaned them to schools to instruct youngsters in the proper usage of their family's telephone service, in the same manner that we taught PBX operators and business customers in proper telephone etiquette.

From a marketing perspective it would not have been cost-effective to use them to sell new services, especially since we were unable to meet the unprecedented demands on our facilities during that era. It would not have made much sense to sell services that were unable to provide.

I think the reason the Teletrainer units are poor in their simulation is because they were done on the cheap and given to schools with the phones.

Definitely on the cheap...  It was not an educational project, but a marketing project, to generate interest and entice people to sign up for service.  Marketing through children was already a well-known concept, it appears.
The engineers understood it, and they produced a toy, nothing more than absolutely necessary to satisfy the marketing managers.

[Kenton K]

Perhaps bad quality is not the right description. The teletrainer is solidly built, obviously meant to last, but the voice quality is not superb. The transmission quality between the phones is poor. The unit is great for demonstration like in a classroom, but not the best for real conversations between the two telephones. The dial tone/busy signal/ringing I have no complains about, just the talking quality. This is just the impression I got from the teletrainer.

[Russ62]

Hi,            I've had 2 202s, one of which I kept and and one I sold, and 1 634A ringer box, each of which has a small riveted on tag marked School Property Courtesy of Pacific Bell. I wonder if they were part of this program?          Russell

[Phonesrfun]

.... but the voice quality is not superb. The transmission quality between the phones is poor.

Now that is weird.  The only thing it should do to the voice circuit is put talk battery between the two phones.  The rest of the talk quality is up to the individual phones.

Does it have a have a hum?  I have never seen the schematic of one of these, but it must have some a power supply that creates DC talk voltage.  Maybe one of the rectifiers is bad, or an electrolytic cap has gone south. 

[Sargeguy]

I have a couple of the "Western Electric" versions of these and I could not get either to work properly.  Maybe if I read the BSP.  A teacher at one of the programs I consult to uses a more modern one with her students.  It is a smaller yellow box and comes in a case with the 69' Bell logo on it.  I recently got her a couple of TT phones to go with it with the help of forum members.

[TelePlay]

This is interesting. Two (2) 3/64 blue 500s with soft center fingerwheels in a suitcase made for carrying telephones.

So, what was the use, the purpose of this set up?

5 day auction starting at $99 with free shipping.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/151266653556

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EDIT:  Sold for $122.50 (3 bids) with FREE shipping

[Sargeguy]

Those go with a Teletrainer, which would have it's own suitcase.  The one I have is Samsonite.

[paul-f]

There are some good photos in this topic...

  http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=10892.msg116511#msg116511

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EDIT: "Two Blue 500s in an American Luggage Case" have been merged into this, the above topic link

[Owain]

Perhaps bad quality is not the right description. The teletrainer is solidly built, obviously meant to last, but the voice quality is not superb. The transmission quality between the phones is poor.

Perhaps this intentionally mimics poor transmission over public exchanges 40 years ago, and/or is to encourage Speaking Up and Enunciating Properly.

Pilots use radio simulators for training that add artificial snap crackle and pop instead of providing perfect transmission.

[TelePlay]

Pilots use radio simulators for training that add artificial snap crackle and pop instead of providing perfect transmission.

How true. When in flight, we routinely monitored 4 radio channels at once plus the aircraft com system - talk about learning to pick out the important stuff from everything else, including the noise.

[WesternElectricBen]

Hi guys,

I've just been going over this thread once again, as I saw one on eBay. I understand they aren't that great, though I think it would still be an interesting item in my collection. Would a Teletrainer w/ out the phones, but a case, be worth 30 dollars plus shipping?

Ben

[Sargeguy]

yes, but keep in mind that they are a fairly useless "White Elephant" if you have a PBX already and probably won't work properly. 

[Kenton K]

I think a teletrainer is wonderful addition to any phone collection. Once cleaned, it displays wonderfully. The tubes it uses are also inexpensive. $30 sounds reasonable, just beware of shipping; or be lucky and find one locally.

KK

[WesternElectricBen]

Yeah, I'm thinking of more displaying it, as it is sort of dysfunctional, although I would set up 2 phones beside it, so I could use it.

Good to know about the tubes.

Thanks,
Ben

[Kenton K]

Yah, I think they are roughly 5 bucks each online. Or you can ask any radio collector out there, they're always nicer.

KK