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FrankenPhone!!!! eBay 170609748405

Started by Doug Rose, March 05, 2011, 10:42:27 AM

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Doug Rose

Kidphone

HarrySmith

The seller clearly states he made this, and others. I think it is a pretty cool way to have an operational phone without the use of a subset. There was a lengthy discussion on one of these a short time ago on the list. It was listed as a prototype, not by this seller, and many on the list were highly suspicious. It appears they were correct as this guy says he made a few D1's & B1's.
Harry Smith
ATCA 4434
TCI

"There is no try,
there is only
do or do not"

Doug Rose

Quote from: HarrySmith on March 05, 2011, 12:34:23 PM
The seller clearly states he made this, and others. I think it is a pretty cool way to have an operational phone without the use of a subset. There was a lengthy discussion on one of these a short time ago on the list. It was listed as a prototype, not by this seller, and many on the list were highly suspicious. It appears they were correct as this guy says he made a few D1's & B1's.
Harry...I agree.... he stated he did it.

I also think anytime you see a circuit board in a  70 year old phone, it's a frankenphone.

I have never seen a "real" 202 with a ringer in it. I have never seen any evidence of a "real" prototype with a ringer in a 202. Riveted metal around a base cover does not a protype make. It makes a home brew....Doug
Kidphone

mariepr

Quote from: Doug Rose on March 05, 2011, 10:42:27 AM
Be very afraid!..

Looks a lot like all of my B1 and D1 reworkings where every single one has an AE mini-network. The only phone that didn't get the mini-network treatment was an A1 because there was no way the coil would fit in there if a dial was installed. 

I will admit that making the extra inch high rim looks a bit bulky, but it's really quite clever. A customer who wants the look and feel of a pre-1940 phone gets it in one ready to plug in desk set.  The seller posted images of the insides so there is full disclosure on what the buyer is getting.   Nothing has been done to this phone that can't be reversed.  (The real hack jobs were those lamp conversions that drilled through the handset.)

That's all for now.. let me get back to wiring in the mini-network and Rotatone into that D1.  For those who want to do this, you can download my illustrated instructions from Don's website.  (And - be very afraid - there are also instructions for using a 2AB and Rotatone in a B1. Horrors! Violations of BSP!) 


Doug Rose

#4
Marie....if it makes you happy, fine. To me, it ruins a great antique phone. I can't see a reason to use them, but that's just me.

I like them all natural with no chemicals or fillers. 100% they way they were made to be. I open a beautiful old phone with a circuit board or a little chirpy ringer, it's like trashing it. Rotatone? You are correct, oh the "horrors"...Doug
Kidphone

paul-f

Quote from: Doug Rose on March 05, 2011, 01:29:56 PM
I have never seen a "real" 202 with a ringer in it. I have never seen any evidence of a "real" prototype with a ringer in a 202. Riveted metal around a base cover does not a protype make. It makes a home brew....Doug

Check out the photo of the Y-3419-19  on this page (second one down):
  http://www.paul-f.com/weproto.html#302proto

That's about as close as I've seen so far.
Visit: paul-f.com         WE  500  Design_Line

.

Doug Rose

#6
Quote from: mariepr on March 05, 2011, 07:02:43 PM
Quote from: Doug Rose on March 05, 2011, 10:42:27 AM
Be very afraid!..

Looks a lot like all of my B1 and D1 reworkings where every single one has an AE mini-network. The only phone that didn't get the mini-network treatment was an A1 because there was no way the coil would fit in there if a dial was installed.  

I will admit that making the extra inch high rim looks a bit bulky, but it's really quite clever. A customer who wants the look and feel of a pre-1940 phone gets it in one ready to plug in desk set.  The seller posted images of the insides so there is full disclosure on what the buyer is getting.   Nothing has been done to this phone that can't be reversed.  (The real hack jobs were those lamp conversions that drilled through the handset.)

That's all for now.. let me get back to wiring in the mini-network and Rotatone into that D1.  For those who want to do this, you can download my illustrated instructions from Don's website.  (And - be very afraid - there are also instructions for using a 2AB and Rotatone in a B1. Horrors! Violations of BSP!)  


I woke up from a nightmare of my A1 chirping like a cricket and my 2HB gone. YIKES!! Horrors!

I'm curious, when you  "upgrade your B1's and D1's with all this fine new equipment, are the potential new buyers aware of what was done to the antique phone? Are they aware its like putting a CD player in a '68 Camaro. Sounds much better than an eight track!

A good engineer can do almost anything to make something work. But a good engineer know about the "integrity" of the product.....Doug
Kidphone

RDP

Quote from: Doug Rose on March 05, 2011, 10:42:27 AM
Be very afraid!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170609748405&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT
There's a so called phone restorer amongst the fan collectors who does this, although this is not one of his, I don't approve of either.
It's like taking a 49 Cord and putting a Honda engine in it.

Doug Rose

I sold this B1 last week for what I thought was a fair price for seller and Buyer. Just the way I found it except for a new leather bottom cover and a lot of elbow grease. The phone worked when I wired it to DT.

WHY would anything else be needed to "upgrade" this?? It's over 80 years old and really not meant for everyday use.

Sorry about beating a dead horse, but I am very passionate about this. Why would anyone ever screw with perfection??

I will now step down from my soap box....Doug

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300528554301&ssPageName=STRK:MESOX:IT
Kidphone

RDP

Very Nice phone Doug and, restored properly.

Doug Rose

thanks Ron.....I like the cartoon, since I am known to do just that, this is a keeper....Doug
Kidphone

GG




Yes, I saw the one offered as a "prototype" and there was just enough info in the text to make clear that the innards had been tweaked around enough times to make it "good cause for skepticism." 

Doug, that's a beautiful restoration you did there.   What do you think about 102 and 202 sets being connected to the WE subsets that contain a 425 network and C4A ringer? 

Now, for your reading pleasure, or nausea as the case may be:  When I was in college many years ago, I got hold of a GPO 232 with coil & condenser inside but without the integral bellset or a ringer box.  Sans ringer, and with no sources for original ringers, I built from scratch one of the dreaded chirpy things, using a bridge rectifier, a couple of capacitors and resistors, and one of those ubiquitous Sonalert tweeters.  Mounted the whole thing inside the phone with some easily removable double-sided tape.  (I can hear you thinking, "At least that unrepentant numbskull knew enough to not drill holes in the darn phone!"  And yes, that is true, I didn't want to drill holes in the base.)  This being considered preferable to not hearing incoming calls ring except on the Dutch Standard Electric phone in the adjacent room.  I still have that one, and it still has the dreaded chirpy thing inside, though I don't have a cellphone because anything newer than a solid-back transmitter sounds better and I get all the surveillance I want without paying extra for the privilege : - )

I've also been known to use the politically-incorrect resistors & capacitors "network", which I more or less figured out how to build by tracing the wiring on some British Ericsson N-1900s for PAX service that we used to import from Canada for the princely sum of about $8.00 US plus (cheap in those days) shipping.  Those Ericssons had the R/C "networks" in them (no induction coils, weird eh?) and were legit (and they had a cool sound to them, difficult to describe but nice), so therefore it seemed legit to use them in WE 202s and AE 1A Monophones and suchlike.  When we installed those for people, we always said "rewired with modern components" and the folks we dealt with weren't looking for precision accuracy, only for nice old phones that would work reliably at home in everyday use.  On Strowger exchanges.  Sigh...

mariepr

As was often said at the railroad museum, there is restoration for historical accuracy and there is restoration for use but the two are rarely compatible.  These phones will either have to be adapted for use or the only phones to survive will be the limited numbers in the hands of collectors.

My customers are not hard core collectors, just people who want an old phone for room decor. novelty or nostalgia. But they want it to work.  What I am seeing is a decline in the number of people who use traditional land-line CO service and more people switching over to VOIP services.  Rotary dials don't work on these services without that horrid little gadget called the Rotatone.   To each his own. For anyone who hates the idea of his 2HB putting out DTMF tones, I have this to say - don't install one in you phone.  Problem solved.

There is also unfortunately a double standard on not WHAT is done to modify a phone, but WHO modifies the phones.  Ray Kotke wrote the how-to on fitting mini-networks into D1s.  He makes cases that turn perfectly good 302s into subsets.  He also makes casings in colors never produced by their original manufacturers.  Don Woodbury "enables" this "desecration" by selling the needed circuits.  Stan Schreier - doesn't he make the circuits that allow 3-slot coin phones to work on normal household phone lines? Not exactly BSP.   But we'll have to give these gentlemen a pass since we need what they sell. 

Doug Rose

"My customers are not hard core collectors, just people who want an old phone for room decor. novelty or nostalgia. But they want it to work.  What I am seeing is a decline in the number of people who use traditional land-line CO service and more people switching over to VOIP services.  Rotary dials don't work on these services without that horrid little gadget called the Rotatone."

I disagree with this statement that:

"Rotary dials don't work on these services without that horrid little gadget called the Rotatone."

I sell working phones every week on eBay, 100% Natural working phones. No Mini AE networks, no rotatones no chirpy little ringers. I don't know where you got this information that they don't work, but it is incorrect. Check out eBay, people selling phones that have been in there family for years in working condition.  Rotary does work on VOIP! They ring too!

Do your customers know that the phones are a hybrid mix of old and new? Or just upgraded to work on today's lines;  that have some old parts....Doug
Kidphone

mariepr

I have to disagree with you Doug as not all VOIP services will read rotary pulse dialing.  Indeed even Rotatone does not work on all - Don says that they have not yet been able to get the Rotatone work on MagicJack. 

You have used a public forum to ask if my customers "know that the phones are a hybrid mix of old and new?" Would you please cite a specific listing that you believe fits this description and describe what you consider a "hybrid".