WECO In The Box 302 Type ID Help?

[Fabius]

About 20 years ago at an ATCA show in California someone was selling US Navy surplus telephones sealed in Navy boxes. Several were already open but I was fortunate to get one still sealed with the Navy marked tape and stickers. I came across the box the other day. I don't remember the details about the phone. I do remember it was WECO 302 type but no dial. Here's a pricture of the ID sticker on it. A type 250?

[poplar1]

Jeremy was selling these 250s. They are equivalent to a non-dial 202: just an AA1 mounting, F-type handset, hook switch, D4U mounting cord and H3C handset cord. They require a subset.

[Fabius]

Thanks for the information. Jeremy who? Was he the one selling them 20+ years ago? I really don't think it's a 202. I'm pretty sure it's a non dial 302 of some type. I'll take pictures of the whole box in a few days.

[unbeldi]

Thanks for the information. Jeremy who? Was he the one selling them 20+ years ago? I really don't think it's a 202. I'm pretty sure it's a non dial 302 of some type. I'll take pictures of the whole box in a few days.

An AA1 handset mounting is just like a 302 housing/F1 combo but without the network components and ringer. The housing is marked AA1 instead of H1. These were distributed to replace desk stands when the customer already had a subscriber set on the wall. The combination of the new AA1 with the supplied F1 handset with the existing subscriber set was called a type 250 hand telephone. It is electrically equivalent to a 202 as determined by the electrical components of the existing subscriber set, that's what Poplar tried to explain.  Remember, a 202 is an electrical specification, not a shape or housing type.

The box is marked 250A-3, so it is a black AA1 mounting without a dial. If the desk stand had a dial, it had to be removed and mounted in the AA1.

[Fabius]

Thanks. I think I got it now.

[unbeldi]

Here is a 250-type telephone set that was on eBay recently.
Looking at the bottom view carefully you'll see the AA1 marking by the housing cord exit.

[Fabius]

Thanks.

[unbeldi]

In 1950, going by Catalog No. 11, Western Electric actually provided two versions of these conversion kits.

250A is the number for the manual version, and 250B is for the version with a dial. The latter included a 5HA dial.

They needed to provide a new dial for installations where the old dial was still a No.2 dial with the external finger stop and old switch contact set.


Just to complete the series of 25x-type telephones, the 251 was a similar kit, but included the AB1 mounting, which differed in the mounting bracket for the ringer (not included), so that independents could install their harmonic ringers in the set. It also had an induction coil, I believe.

The 252 telephone was the wall-mounted version of the 251, and looked like the 354 wall set, again came without the ringer.

[Doug Rose]

Awhile back when I found all the 302s form a hotel, they were many AA1 (not to be confused with an A1) that were refurbed by WE in 1947 and 1948 to H1 sets. The coil, condenser and ringer were added but the AA1 marking was left. I still have some, very different and all the dates matched except the AA1 shell which was earlier....Doug

[Babybearjs]

I got one of these back in 2007 and added all the guts and put the ringer box away. these came with mostly 3 bar magnetos, but I'm sure they had the 5 bar version....