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Poor audio on Western Electric 554 non-dial wall phone from 1961

Started by pete1980, April 04, 2017, 09:42:38 AM

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pete1980

Hi all!

I've got a non-dial WE 554 wall phone that I have cleaned up, wired in the disconnected ringer and put in a modular cord as it was previously hard wired.

I'm down to an odd audio issue that I can't figure out.  I'm hoping someone here can be of some assistance.

The dial tone, busy signal sound perfectly normal through the ear piece.  When a call is connected, the audio is horrible, almost sounds like a radio playing through a speaker that has been blown out.

I got a replacement "UI" receiver and it did the exact same thing. 

I'm at a loss for what to check next.  Any advice would be greatly appreciated.  Let me know if any pictures or anything would help diagnose.

Thanks!!!

Pete

TelePlay

First, welcome to the forum. You will get plenty of help here.

Where is the call being placed from? The "caller" phone may have a bad transmitter. Try making a call to another phone to see if it is your phone or that one calling phone. If you are listening to your own voice, you may have a bad transmitter. Carbon granules can clump up within the transmitter and both reduce volume and create static.

If you are "receiving" a call from a smart phone and hearing static, then someone more knowledgeable than I on the forum may have a solution.

pete1980

Thanks for the response and the welcome - I have fixed up a few phones recently and look forward to being able to use this forum.

The calls are from a few other phones that work well in other instances, both old rotary phones, a voip phone and my iPhone.

It's a non-dial so I can't exactly dial out, but I can call into a voice response system from another phone and pick this one up and it also sounds just as bad.  I tested the same thing using a local weather line.


LarryInMichigan

Did you verify that everything is wired according to the diagram?  Also, there could be a dirty and/or corroded contact somewhere or even a loose screw.  Does flexing the handset cord make a difference?  There could be a weak spot in the wires.

Larry

compubit

I'll throw in my 2 cents for troubleshooting:

Isolate the issue:
1) Swap out another handset (keep all other wiring, including the coiled cord) If you're getting eecent results, then it's something in the handset.
2) Disconnect the ringer. You mentioned that you had to reconnect it - it could be a bad ringer that's putting current drain on the line or otherwise causing interference..

A thought: dial tone and busy signal are "constant frequency" sounds - voIce is not. There could be a bad part somewhere in the network, such that the variable frequencies of voice are getting garbled or cut off (frequency-wise).

Anyone else have any thoughts?

Jim
A phone phanatic since I was less than 2 (thanks to Fisher Price); collector since a teenager; now able to afford to play!
Favorite Phone: Western Electric Trimline - it just feels right holding it up to my face!

AL_as_needed

I had a similar issue with a rotary trimline last year and pulled a few handfuls of hair out before i realized my wall jack had lint and other "crud" inside the receptacle that prevented strong contact between the contacts and gave me low voltage. This is of course assuming its using a wall adapter plate and not hard wired directly into the network.
TWinbrook7

Pvt-telco

Just a couple of things can you show a photo of the wiring inside the unit? And do you have DSL? If you do, and your modem is on,and your telephone is not plugged into a filter, the receive will be very weak. But I am inclined to think that it might be from the wiring.

andre_janew

I somehow got a couple of wires mixed up on my Kellogg 500 phone and that resulted in low audio output.  Even though it is a WE clone, the wiring colors are a bit different in that red and green go to the transmitter and yellow and black go to the receiver.  I had looked inside the handset to see where the wires went and figured how things at the other end should hook up!

pete1980

Thanks guys!  This was a bit of a rookie mistake on my part.

The suggestion of reviewing it vs the wiring diagram got me there.  When I added the line cord, I had tip and ring wired backward to the network.  I reversed them (so they were correct) and it works perfectly!

Thanks for all the suggestions, I really appreciate it.

poplar1

What kind of telephone line are you using?
It should not make a difference if tip and ring are reversed on a non-dial or rotary dial phone.
"C'est pas une restauration, c'est une rénovation."--François Martin.

pete1980

I'm using a standard line cord purchased from Home Depot, I cut the end off and stripped it.

If polarity doesn't matter (which does make sense the more I think about it) maybe it wasn't a solid connection before?  It was odd behavior though, I'd expect a faint or staticy sound if the connection wasn't solid.


pete1980

Here's my gem!  I'm glad it now works good as new.

mentalstampede

A poor connection is the most likely culprit. Generally speaking, the only phones that are sensitive to polarity are early touch tone units or certain types of payphone.

Quote from: pete1980 on April 14, 2017, 04:19:25 PM

If polarity doesn't matter (which does make sense the more I think about it) maybe it wasn't a solid connection before?  It was odd behavior though, I'd expect a faint or staticy sound if the connection wasn't solid.
My name is Kenn, and I like telephones.

"Progress isn't made by early risers. It's made by lazy men trying to find easier ways to do something." --Robert Heinlein

AL_as_needed

Buffalo number, where did that baby come out of? (assuming that's the original dial card) 

I have now two ex-buffalo area phones both showing one of the odd-duckling TTX-XXXX CO numbers.
TWinbrook7

pete1980

It came out of the telephone company building (same building I work in).  It was on the top (16th) floor right outside of where all the microwave equipment was.  The number was the main telephone company switchboard for decades.