German W48A

[UglySteve]

Hi,
I'm new to this site, this is my first post.
I picked up a few phones this week. This is my German W48A. Sorry for the quality of the schematics, they are just a little bigger than a postage stamp. I'm not sure of how it should be connected. I connected the green and red wires to terminals A & B, and it seems to work. It doesn't sound great, and the transmitted sound is not very loud.  I don't know what company made it, I don't see a Siemens logo. I'm relatively new to phone collecting, I have 5 now.

Steve

[LarryInMichigan]

It looks like it was made by Krone.  The 'a' and 'b' terminals would be where the two line would would connect.  There are several possible reasons why the sound from the transmitter would be weak.  It could be that the transmitter is bad.  I have a number of European transmitters which do not work well.  You can try removing the transmitter and tapping it on a hard surface to loosen compacted carbon granules and see if that helps.

Larry

[UglySteve]

Thank you for the information, Larry. I will try banging the transmitter.
Steve

[.....]

Welcome to CRPF, Steve.

[dsk]

Welcome Steve!
As Larry says European phones unfortunately had not the same reliable carbon transmitters as W.E. had.   Many (but far from all) of the European phones also has a circuit pretty equal to yours, where a part of the DC current passes trough the balance circuit, and are not used in the transmitter. Replacing the transmitter with a W.E. transmitter may sometimes result in weak signal, but you may try.

dsk

[FABphones]

Hi and welcome. You have found the best forum for all things telephone.

Take a look here:
http://www.britishtelephones.com/siemens/w48.htm

Good info, clear photos and schematic/wiring info. 

Let us know how you get on.

[Pourme]

~

Welcome to the forum, 'Ugly' Steve.

Lots of great & knowledgeable phone guys and gals here!

(notice I don't have a portrait on my avatar myself)

[UglySteve]

Thank you all for the assistance.  Thank you for the link to britishtelephones.com, that looks like a good resource.  I tapped on the transmitter, but have to wait until later in the day to call someone and test.

I use the name "UglySteve", because usually, just "Steve" is not available, and If I called myself "GoodLookingSteve", it would sound pretentious. I prefer self deprecating humor.
Steve

[UglySteve]

How does the white and red wires of the British phone system translate to the red and green of the American phone system?  Also, are the other modifications described on

     http://www.britishtelephones.com/siemens/w48.htm

(disconnecting capacitor, adding a resistor) required on the American phone system?

A while back I got a Siemens Brothers London phone working, but doesn't sound good. I wouldn't expect a metal diaphragm receiver to sound good.

I did add a couple of capacitors to that one.

Steve

[rdelius]

Your German set was built by Krone

[dsk]

How does the white and red wires of the British phone system translate to the red and green of the American phone system?  Also, are the other modifications described on

     http://www.britishtelephones.com/siemens/w48.htm

(disconnecting capacitor, adding a resistor) required on the American phone system?

A while back I got a Siemens Brothers London phone working, but doesn't sound good. I wouldn't expect a metal diaphragm receiver to sound good.

I did add a couple of capacitors to that one.

Steve

Mainly Red and white in UK and Norway are equal to Green and red in the US, but the splitting of the ringer circuit changed the UK system slightly (UK master socket system).

The conversions to the UK master socket system made a need for converting older and non UK phones.  Some of those made the UK phone loosing parts of their voice circuit, often because it was taking shortcuts.

For us non UK members the best is to bring older UK phones back to the original circuitry. Modern UK phones may usually work well wit just adding a ringer capacitor to the phone.

Regarding the ringer load, putting in a resistor in series with the ringer has been an easy way to lower the load, one of the drawbacks are then the loss of energy in the resistor is ending up as heat.  If we could use a capacitor to rise the impedance in the ringer circuit, almost no energy ends up as heat.

dsk

[LarryInMichigan]

I tapped on the transmitter, but have to wait until later in the day to call someone and test.

Whenever I want to test the sound quality of a telephone, I call my own number and leave myself a voice message.  I can hear the quality when I listen the the recorded message.  As long as nobody see or hears me doing this (and thinks that I am insane - and they might be correct), it works well.

Larry

[UglySteve]

Whenever I want to test the sound quality of a telephone, I call my own number and leave myself a void message.  I can hear the quality when I listen the the recorded message.  As long as nobody see or hears me doing this (and thinks that I am insane - and they might be correct), it works well.

Larry

I just use an answering machine, no voice mail. Good idea though. It can be a good thing if people think your crazy, they leave you alone.

DSK, Thank you for the information. Very helpful.

[LarryInMichigan]

I just use an answering machine, no voice mail. Good idea though.

What about a mobile number?  If you have a mobile phone, call it.

Larry

[UglySteve]

I called it with my cell phone and spoke to my wife. It sounds good to her. The banging on the receiver may have helped. It doesn't sound as good as my Western Electric 302, but acceptable. The 302 is the best sounding phone I have. Sounds better than my WE D1 with a cheater subset.
I don't think I need to modify anything. Seems to be working fine.   
Thanks everyone for the help.
Steve