Hi there everyone,
im a guy who loves to build, create, as well as restore vintage electrical equipment.
Ive restored early tv sets. Built amplifiers, tube radios, transmitters, etc. Though ive never played with a vintage phone.
So i picked up a Northern Electric "Galion" style phone , it is missing the f1 handset, but its easy to find another f1 online. Im going to enjoy this restoration, any new piece of tech intrigues me, as i get to learn all about it and how it functions, during the restoration. Perhaps hiding the pulse to tone converter inside the shell itself.
Oh and when this phone is working and looking decent, its going into my Ham Shack. I cant have a modern portable phone sitting next to my 1920s and 30s transmitters and receivers. So this baby will get reworked and given a new home.
Anyhow, im sure ill have fun. Im glad to be here :)
where are you located? Oregon, or Washington?
Welcome to the Forum. North Electric made the Galion, it is a common mistake to mix them With Northern Electric. A F1 is a WE or NE handset, the North is similar, but different. Good luck on your restoration and Welcome....Doug
Quote from: Babybearjs on April 08, 2017, 09:27:03 PM
where are you located? Oregon, or Washington?
Babybearjs, im in Tacoma Washington.
Doug, thanks for the info. I walked out to the garage and it is indeed a North Electric. So it looks like the F1 handset will work just fine, theres a half dozen on ebay as we speak.
The North handset actually uses Western Electric transmitter and receiver units. However, the handset looks a little different on the outside:
http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=11757.msg125201#msg125201
Welcome to the forum. Nice to have some more people from the west coast. I'm from Grass Valley CA.
I was hoping for Oregon, but Washington works.... anyway, Phil McCarter lives in Oregon and has quite a nice Central office setup... He's in Jefferson, OR. other then that I don't know anyone else in the area that you could partner with about phones.... I'm in Boise, Idaho, just southeast of you.... Welcome to the forum and if you want printed information about everything phones... TCI (Telephone Collectors International) Has a Online Library with tons of info about phones...
I'd suggest not trying to hide a pulse to tone converter inside the shell. My land line is VoIP, so I plugged my Dial Gizmo into the modem phone line. Now my whole house is covered. I like to use my vintage phones throughout the house!
I'm sure you could find some place near your phone line service connection to put your pulse-tone converter.
Quote from: retromodder on April 08, 2017, 11:01:31 PM
.. im in Tacoma Washington.
Welcome! I'm about an hour north of you in Lake Forest Park.
Even if you do not Bluetooth cells onto your house lines, an XLink BTTN between your vintage phones and your Voip box will solve everything. Better than any dialgizmo or other such device. The xlink will tolerate slow dials, foreign dials, all dials and can be adjusted for all sorts of dial timing. It has a setting for "extra ring power" if needed, increasing the REN it puts into the house wiring. Works extremely well as a vintage phone to VOIP interface.
As far as the different ways to hook up vintage phones in my home. A lot of the terms that were thrown at me are new to me, so i will have to study up and see whats correct for me.