Telephone tribute to Indy — name them phones

[unbeldi]

Here is a small collection in tribute to this weekend's Indianapolis 500.

No, they are not the infamous Daytona 500s, and they were not made in Indianapolis.

If anyone knows them, share your knowledge !

They will show their faces after the race.

[rdelius]

Sets were built in Yuggoslavia by Iskra  (Spark) Model ETA82 won some kind of design award.Knock offs were made in the far east

[unbeldi]

Quite a finish!

But you got to be in it to win it.   And rdelius didn't leave it to chance in expert manner.

[unbeldi]

The red telephone set is the Iskra ETA-81, with a rotary dial and the ivory one is an ETA-85 with a push-button pad that still produces pulses. They were manufactured in 10/89 and 4/88 respectively.


The Iskra ETA80-series was first presented at the Ljubljana Electronics Fair in 1978, under the name Olimpik, and went into production in 1980. They were designed by the Slovenian designer Davorin Savnik, and built by Iskra modeller Viktor Bančič.

The series was produced in various colors from a thermoplastic polymer. The housing consists of an upper and lower half, held together by four screws, which sandwich a printed circuit board that mounts all electronic components.

At first, sets were issued with a rotary (pulse) dial on models ETA81 and 82. In 1986, Models ETA 85 and 86 had a push-button dial (EODI 06) that also generated pulse dialing. The models ETA 87 and 88 had DTMF keypads (TG03). A manual version (ETA83/84) without dial was available for hotel installations.  The odd-numbered models (ETA 81, 83, 85, and 87) had a black round push-button in the lower left area on the face that served as a signaling key by grounding, as seen in my sets. Also made were some other varieties with number memories and recall buttons. It's hard to find them all, and I haven't tried, I am happy with mine in my favorite colors.

The ETA80 series won several international awards for design. It has been exhibited as part of the permanent collection of outstandingly designed modern products at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, the Museum of Modern Art in Munich, and the Ljubljana Architecture Museum in Ljubljana. In 1984, Japan's Ministry of Industry and Foreign Trade crowned the phone with the National Award for quality design ("G-Mark"), which was known around the world as one of the highest awards for this kind of creativity. At least sixteen foreign manufacturers reproduced the phone, and sales are said to have exceeded 200 million units overall.

[unbeldi]

One of the knock-offs of the ETA-80 series was made by TeleQuest in the U.S., in 1984.

They named the model "GRANDPRIX", for the same reason, I suppose, that I had the idea of posting this thread on this day.
The pushbuttons of the dial were arranged in a circle, with a hold button in the center.

[AL_as_needed]

My parents had a grandprix until fairly recently as a "back-up" phone for when those new fangled cordless died or the power went out. Either above or just below the hold button it had an indicator light that flashed on ring and also noted when the line was on hold. 

Wonder if it's still hiding in the basement somewhere....?                                               

[unbeldi]

My parents had a grandprix until fairly recently as a "back-up" phone for when those new fangled cordless died or the power went out. Either above or just below the hold button it had an indicator light that flashed on ring and also noted when the line was on hold. 

Wonder if it's still hiding in the basement somewhere....?                                             

Yes, the red indicator light can be seen in that picture of the dial, above the hold button in the center.
Of which color was the set ?

TeleQuest made a great variety of unusual telephones and I believe some people do collect them.   It was the time right after divestiture, when customers could own not only the shell, but the entire telephone.

[AL_as_needed]

Yes, the red indicator light can be seen in that picture of the dial, above the hold button in the center.
Of which color was the set ?

It was an orange, similar to the one pictured. There is one shown on paul's site that is the exact color, only that particular one has an addition pin stripe.