A haul of NOS WE 500s on E-Bay

[McHeath]

This would be a sweet prize:

http://tinyurl.com/yj82z26 ( dead link 08-04-21 )

[Phonesrfun]

I noticed that auction too.

I joined the Oregon Air National Guard in 1972 and went to Air Force Tech school in ground radio repair.  At that time, the guard and the Air Force both were loaded to the gills with 500 and 565 sets.  All were Western Electrics that were supplied by the Air Force directly from Western Electric.

The back room had several cases of these, just like pictured, all in boxes ready to go.  Being in ground communications, we had lots of phones.  While telephones per se were not my Air Force "specialty", hooking them up and interfacing them to the radio equipment was.

It really does not surprise me that there were boatloads of these lying around for someone to pick up surplus years later. 

When military Autovon came out with DTMF (touch-tone) access, the rotary dial phones in the military were fast outdated.  Autovon was and still is a proprietary and secure military communications system.  The military ran most of its tactical and higher priority business over the Autovon system and did not use the commercial telephone network.  I can only imagine what technology and computers and digital communications had done to upgrade all that even further.

I noticed that with TV interviews of recent White House appointees, most of the higher ups have two phones on their desk.  One commercial and one secure that has the Autovon DTMF dial.  The Autovon dial has a fourth column of numbers for selecting priority and security that the standard touch tone dial does not have.

It is interesting to see the History Channel and their disclosures of now declassified hardened cold war communications facilities.

My stuff was all as a run of the mill week-end warrior, so it is now interesting to kind of go back in time and imagine what all was happening behind the scenes.

[Phonesrfun]

For what its worth, a link to something that explains Autovon phones:

http://home.att.net/~wd0giv/Autovon.html

[Dan/Panther]

Personally, I think he may have gotten  more for them individually.
D/P

[Dan/Panther]

If I won them, I would post them individually over a few weeks time, and most likely double the investment.
I would like one of them, but not eight.
D/P

[Dennis Markham]

Someone bought them.  The Buy It Now ended the auction.  I wondered if someone here got them.

[Dan]

The link I see says the auction is still going on.....

[Dennis Markham]

Dan, you are correct.  I don't know what I was looking at that made me think it had ended.  Old age creepin' up on me.

[JorgeAmely]

Let go of the Diet Coke, Dennis.  

[Dennis Markham]

Diet Coke. No Pepsi.

[Dan/Panther]

Jorge;
I drink Diet coke all day long, and....Oh Never mind I forgot what I was going to say.
D/P

[Phonesrfun]

Now I know I am in the right forum.   

[JorgeAmely]

Bill:

Are you spiking your Diet soda with Novus 2? Don't polish and drink!! 

[AET]

i guess I'm the only Sun Drop guy here.

[Dan]

I love Sun Drop, I just can't get it in Cincinnati.I get it when I go down south. I drink diet dew instead. Sun Drop should be bought by Coke to compete against pepsi with their Mountain Dew. Vault/Mello Yello just don't cut it against Dew, but Sundrop would.