A Great Opportunity in Oregon

[Kenny C]

I TOLD YOU I SAW ONE lol

[bingster]

Wow, Briny!!!   The 202 is in the finish called "Old Brass," and I think you'll find the cord to be brown silk rather than brown cotton.  At least, it looks a bit shiny, and the specifications called for brown silk on an Old Brass phone.  Despite the few chips here and there, it's probably the nicest one I've ever seen.    Brilliant find!!!

[Greg G.]

I'm not sure about the cord, it may have been replaced, I would have to compare it with a known cloth cord of the same era.

It has a modular line cord hooked up, I thought that it was a no-no to do that w/o a subset?  I don't want to plug it in until I know for sure.

[paul-f]

It's a beauty!

Waiting for a supset is wise.  An alternative is to implant an AE mini-network in the base.  They fit nicely, especially when there's no dial present.

[Phonesrfun]

Briny:

Quite a stash you have there.  Congratulations.  And about that drive, well, no pain, no gain as they say.  

That Old Brass 202 does need a subset.  Looking at the way it is wired, I think if you plugged it in, you would hear dial tone, but there would be no connection to the transmitter, unless they have the black and white wires reversed inside the handset.  

Short term, you won't damage anything by plugging it in, but over the long-haul it can.  One of the purposes of the subset is to isolate the receiver itself from the DC loop through a capacitor.  With the DC going through the receiver, it sets up its own electromagnet which can demagnetize the adjoining permanent magnet in the receiver, making the receiver less sensitive.  This would be over the long term, but you will also hear some very loud pops in the ear when activating the hookswitch.  By loud, I mean very uncomfortable if you have the receiver held up to your ear at the time.

The handset cord does look original.

[bingster]

Unfortunately, you'll very often see these set up for direct connection to a jack.  There are even sellers on ebay selling restored 202s set up this way, and they go to the length of stating in the auction that a subset is unnecessary, and that you can just "listen for another phone to ring."  It shows A) a complete lack of understanding of the way a phone works, and B) an attitude that destroying a perfectly good telephone is okay as long as a profit is made.

Incidentally, yours is marked April, 1930.  Nice!

[LarryInMichigan]

Briny,

If you're looking for a subset (and another 202), here's another find right in your area: http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/atq/1868721894.html. 
( dead link 03-09-21 )
The Pacific Northwest is really the hot spot for phones (NOT Michigan!).

Larry

[Kenny C]

thatt is not a black 202 is it it looks like the same color as his

[Greg G.]

Ok, I'll keep you in suspense no longer.  Obviously, I made the trip.  That's a long haul!  A few miles more and I would have been in California!

This guy was out in the boonies, but what a cool place he has!  A former collector, but he laughed when I remarked that there must be a cure for the bug.  He said no, there isn't, he was keeping 3 phones.  Strangely enough, he said he never belonged to any phone collecting groups such as ATCA or TCI.

I went straight down there w/o stopping except for a couple brief pit-stops and gas.  Left my place just before 1pm, got to his place around 7:30.  I was aiming for 7pm, but I got lost and ended up halfway into the national forest.  We chatted for a bit, I looked the stash over, made the deal and loaded up.  I wanted to push all the way home that night because I had things to do Wednesday, and it's MUCH better to drive through downtown Seattle late at night.  I did however, stop at Mom's on the way back.  Even though I didn't get there until after 11pm, she had dinner and fresh coffee waiting, bless her heart.  I dug out the Select-o-phone to show her, she thought that was cool.  I pulled into my place around 3am.

Total of 17 phones, 16 of them complete, plus 5 dials w/bezels, a bag of dial center rings, some cords and few other misc. parts and screws.  I'm still in the process of inventorying them, but I have tested a couple of them, a 64 Starlight Princess (doesn't ring, but otherwise fully functional) and a Pre-WW2 Stromberg-Carlson crank converted to dial, fully functions, rings.  I gave him the asking price because I could easily see it was a good deal at that.  I'm factoring in the cost of gas this time, so total cost was about $180. 

[Greg G.]

Briny,

If you're looking for a subset (and another 202), here's another find right in your area: http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/atq/1868721894.html.  The Pacific Northwest is really the hot spot for phones (NOT Michigan!).

Larry

Ballard is just a mile down the road, much shorter drive.  But my discretionary money is used for now.  I was thinking a mini-network is the route I would go with this.  I do have a subset, but it's for my other (neglected) 202.

[LarryInMichigan]

It looks like the phones are already in great shape.  There must be well more $500 worth of phones and stuff.  That AE50 looks like quite a prize.

Larry

[Doug Rose]

Greg....the old brass 202 is a wonderful phone. Notice the brown Bakelite E1 handset under the paint. This was worth the trip just for it. Outstanding find!....Doug

[Greg G.]

Done doing a photo inventory.  Most of the phones tested out ok with exception of two or three, and even then, based on my experience, it's probably something minor and easy to fix.

Right now I have more questions about the misc parts that came with it. 

Pics 1-2. Let's start with this ringer, what phone was it used for? 

Pics 3-4.  Gizmo #1.

Pic 5.  Gizmo(s) #2. (buzzers?)

Pic 6.  Dial ring parts I'm unfamiliar with.  The three in the bottom row I think I've come across, but can't remember what phone dial uses them.  The two that look like throwing stars I've never seen before.

[Greg G.]

Pics 1-2.  Gizmo(s) #3.

Pics 3-4.  Some sort of light.

Pic 5.  Leviton part.

Pic 6.  Butt connectors.  Package says what it is, but what are they used for?

[Russ Kirk]

Well,  when I was a PBX installer:

The bells were used for extentions.  They are bell chimes and one of my favorites. I still have a few of these and use them in the house.

The two punchdown blocks are 66 blocks.  Most often used in PBX installation to terminate 25x cables.

The buzzers are just that. As a PBX installer I used these in 6 10 and 30 button phone PBX installations for buzzing phone to phone - intercom notification.  

Russ..