A Couple of Red Phones

[LarryInMichigan]

I bought this red Australian 802 and British 746 one day apart on ebay (ebay link 1 and ebay link 2).  Both were made in 1979, and they are almost exactly the same color.  Both came from sellers in the USA.  The 746 obviously still needs a proper line cord, but both phones work.

Larry

[unbeldi]

Beautiful.  Red is probably my favorite color in a phone.

[twocvbloke]

The 746 was made by Denis Ferranti Meters Ltd. of Bangor in North Wales, a few of my phones (particularly the MOD Mk.28 and the Storno versions of the 746) were made by them too, I think they were the last company to manufacture parts to maintain 700-type phones as I've seen DFM marked circuit boards from the 1990s on ebay now and then...

[LarryInMichigan]

I often see Ferranti electric clocks from England for sale online.  I would guess that it was the same company.

BTW, the sidetone on the 746 was really loud as it typically is on these GPO phones, so I connected a 150Ω resistor between terminals 1 and 10 following the instructions for reducing sidetone found inside a 706 that I have.  The sidetone is much more acceptable now.

Larry

[twocvbloke]

Yeah, the sidetone on GPO phones is usually a lot louder, I guess it stopped people talking too loudly on the phone back in the day...

[TelePlay]

As I said in my FOTM nomination for this phone, Larry got it for less than shipping from Australia. Here's proof.

" . . . for $27.09 plus $10.80 for shipping - a total of $37.89, less than what one would pay for shipment alone if this phone was sold by a seller in Australia."

This one just sold on eBay for just under $13 plus about $57 in shipping, and it's not as nice as Larry's red one above.

[LarryInMichigan]

That other Australian phone is an older model 801, so it is probably worth more than mine.  I certainly wouldn't pay that sort of shipping charge for such an item though.

Larry