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Just bought these. Anyone have any info please?

Started by andy1702, November 05, 2016, 12:05:39 PM

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andy1702

While having a scan of E-Bay I just found these three phones. American equipment is quite rare over here (UK) and at $19 for the phones and $36 for the shipping, that comes in around the £45.38 mark, which seems to be pretty good going.

The listing didn't say much about them other that 'Old GTE phones' so If anyone can tell me anything further it would be much apreciated. They should be here in about a fortnight, so I'll post more about them then.
Call me on C*net 0246 81 290 from the UK
or (+44) 246 81 290 from the rest of the world.

For telephone videos search Andys Shed on Youtube.

rdelius

The rotary set is a GTE-AE type 80-E mid 70s to mid 80s.Not a well made set.I do not know what company made the 2500 sets.If marked GTE,might be North supply Premier.if so not USA made but good sets

andy1702

I've a feeling the two 2500s might be made by different manufacturers. looking closely at the printing on the buttins it seems to vary in style slightly between the two.

I remember the rotary from a multitude of 70s and 80s TV shows we got over here. I seem to remember one used to turn up regularly on something like Dallas or maybe Dynasty.
Call me on C*net 0246 81 290 from the UK
or (+44) 246 81 290 from the rest of the world.

For telephone videos search Andys Shed on Youtube.

twocvbloke

The middle 2500 looks like it'll definitely be a Premier, I've seen a few on ebay here in the UK, with the Premier name on the base with that Tone/Pulse switch on the faceplate, the other 2500 though, anyone's guess, could be WE, ITT, Cortelco, Premier, etc., & plenty to choose from...  ;D

andy1702

These phones have now arrived. Now for what maybe a stupid question... Being a Brit this is the first AE 80E I've seen. My question is how do you get the dial off? Is there a way of putting a label inside the finger wheel? It looks like something has been stuck to the surface in the past. Even if the finger wheel is solid, I guess there must be some way of getting it off?
Call me on C*net 0246 81 290 from the UK
or (+44) 246 81 290 from the rest of the world.

For telephone videos search Andys Shed on Youtube.

twocvbloke

There's usually a tiny pinhole on the fingerwheel that you have to poke something fairly strong through with the dial turned all the way clockwise, and it unclips and pops off, my two AE/GTEs have screw-on dials so haven't got the pinhole so haven't tried to do it on one...

As for dial cards, the norm for GTE-era dials was to use stick-on labels rather than inserted cards, hence why you have residue of something being stuck on there previously... :)

twocvbloke

Oh, and don't try to force the dial off, the plastics they used are rather brittle these days and break if you so much as think of looking at them...  :o

rdelius

Later AE fingerwheels were held in place with one screw through the plastic.A sticker with the telephone number covered up the screw

andy1702

Thanks, I got the finger wheel off today and managed to give it a bit of a clean up. I have to say this is proabbly the cheapest and nastiest phone I've ever seen. I guess they were built to a price, and I guess that price was about 10 cents!  ;D

It has it's place in history though, so they do need to be preserved.
Call me on C*net 0246 81 290 from the UK
or (+44) 246 81 290 from the rest of the world.

For telephone videos search Andys Shed on Youtube.

dsk

#9
I have some, but not many American phones and the AE80-E is the one who impress me most :( If it id possible to make it simple, they have succeed in every part!  Here is a picture of another dial, because my dial has a sticker covers the screw.

The 2500 dial impress me, so simple, and still reliable.  When I grew up and watched movies, the touch tone telephones were so impressing!  The first touch tone phones came her in 1982.

dsk

twocvbloke

Quote from: andy1702 on November 23, 2016, 01:26:07 PMI have to say this is proabbly the cheapest and nastiest phone I've ever seen. I guess they were built to a price, and I guess that price was about 10 cents!  ;D

Yeah, AE went the way of today's chinese manufacturing before they bit the dust, making everything to as low a budget as they could get away with, and as a result, they break easily and probably will end up pretty rare because of that, so, top investment there, in theory!!!  ;D

My "starlite" that has no "lite" is the same way, all plastic, all PCB and as little effort put into making it, I still like the phone (chocolate brown, looks good enough to eat!), but, it's already shed a few bits of plastic here and there n the inside so it's one of them phones that may just fall apart just sitting there, never mind being used...  :-\

rdelius

AE (GTE)and Bell system knew deregulation was in the works so there was no reason to build long lasting tough telephones to lease for 20+ years.AE cut corners more than WE but later sets based on 500 and 2500 designs had printed circuit networks held in place with double sided sticky tape and plastic switches based on miniture relays.

twocvbloke

The same thing happened with the GPO, a lot of the hardware went from metal to decent plastic to cheap plastic the closer they split the GPO into BT & the Post Office, my "Storno" branded Pye-TMC 1746 (basically a GPO 746F, but supplied to the armed forces as it had a NATO stock number) is a good example, the No. 54 dial on that is all plastic apart from the governor, the contacts and the screws, the rest looks like a fisher price toy, and were used on late-model & refurbished phones in the 80s, then they moved onto their newer "inphone" line of telephones, most of which were just bought in or licensed to BT (Northern Telecom being a major contributor), all fitted with cheap parts...

Once upon a time, businesses were kept going by selling spare parts, today, they make more money out of making bad parts that fail and can't be replaced, so you have to buy new over and over again...  :-\

markosjal

I posted on another thread here how the Mexico Indetel (Also sold in USA as ITT Own-a-Phone) reminded me of cheap AE hardware . I got one reply that seemed to not believe in my reference to the cheap AE hardware that I mentioned. I am glad I was not totally off my rocker as that seems supported here.

I probably would have invested in ONE AE phone but I doubt the two others are AE. But then again I might have to buy 3 AEs to make one working unit as they were such crap in that era. The earlier models were much better.

Mark
Phat Phantom's phreaking phone phettish

andy1702

Yes Mark, the build quality is not good at all, so you weren't going mad.

The thing that seems to let down pretty much all American phones from the 70s is the dial finger wheel. They always seem to be some sort of discoloured plastic that never quite sits central or level. I've particularly noticed it on 500 series. It's surprising that such a well built phone in other respects uses such a horrible dial.
Call me on C*net 0246 81 290 from the UK
or (+44) 246 81 290 from the rest of the world.

For telephone videos search Andys Shed on Youtube.