Advice on a 5302

[Dennis Markham]

Bill, I'll take some photos of the complete handset and post them here tomorrow.

[bingster]

Is the "65X" marking depressed or raised?  It looks raised in the photo, which would make it an original mark made at the time of manufacture.     

[Dennis Markham]

Bingster, the 65X is depressed.  I was talking with Jorge about this and he too has a handset marked with the 65X.  That may have been G1's earmarked for the 5302 conversions.

As promised, some photos.

Notice the "F" on the transmitter cap, indicating (to me) that a F1 transmitter lives below.  The receiver cap has an "H" which would indicate an HA1 receiver element.  The supporting receiver "cup" also has the H designation.

[Phonesrfun]

I'll be darned.  There is a receiver cup.

-Bill Geurts

[rp2813]

Wow, those G/F handsets are the coolest things!  The yang to the E/F's yin.  Clearly (no pun intended) it was worth the trouble to produce adapters for older technology F1 handset parts to still be deployed or they wouldn't have done it.  They must have had a real sh**load of F1 and HA1 elements on their hand(set)s.  Those components made it into three very different types of handsets made over a period of several decades.  Amazing.  We should be so lucky to have anything electronic or mechanical made today be so seriously overbuilt to last for the ages.

[bingster]

F1 and HA1 elements ... Those components made it into three very different types of handsets made over a period of several decades.  Amazing. 

They even made it into candlesticks and steel wallphones to replace the big clunky receivers and transmitters.  They were quite the adaptable things, weren't they?

[Jim Stettler]

Wow, those G/F handsets are the coolest things!  The yang to the E/F's yin.  Clearly (no pun intended) it was worth the trouble to produce adapters for older technology F1 handset parts to still be deployed or they wouldn't have done it.  They must have had a real sh**load of F1 and HA1 elements on their hand(set)s.  Those components made it into three very different types of handsets made over a period of several decades.  Amazing.  We should be so lucky to have anything electronic or mechanical made today be so seriously overbuilt to last for the ages.

Who has the newest F1 element. I have one with a really late date in my shed.

I have a shed mission this weekend. I need  to dig out some sculptura's and a 500 set. I will try to find the element and check it's date.

Jim

[JorgeAmely]

Dennis:

The one I have is just like yours, but the components are dated/marked as follows:

Ear cap: single character "3" molded in plastic on the side that faces the speaker
HA1: 6-2-41
HA1 cup: stamped H2

G1 handset: receiver side is stamped 62 and below that there is a 39X
                    transmitter side is stamped 69X

F1: 5/41, nearby there is an orange stamp "1162" and in orange also "355R"
F1 cup: stamped B2


The threaded ring comes off easy, but the capsule seems stuck. The handset is grooved.

[rp2813]

I'll have to pull apart my old butt set.  I think it has an F1 capsule dated 1963.

[rp2813]

The 5302 arrived yesterday and it has exceeded my expectations.  I've never had a phone with a #6 dial and this one operates smooth as silk.  Of course I had to open up the case and the handset as soon as I got the phone out of the box.  I'm really impressed with the way they managed to adapt the 302 into becoming a full-featured 500, and there's a sort of hybrid sound of bakelite contacting thermoplastic when you hang up the receiver, not exactly 500 but not exactly 302 either.  The GF transmitter cap did prove to be a tight fit for the F1 capsule, but my experience has been that F1's are less prone to failure than T1's so I don't anticipate having to pull my capsule any time soon.  The short switch plungers are an interesting quirk.

One thing I will need to work on is the ringer, as it has a serious knock to it that if set to "loud" will compete with the gongs, but I love the old-school ring as an addition to the 500's that ring in other parts of the house.  I've checked a couple of 302's I have around here to look at their ringers, one of which I know had a pleasant tone to it, and observed where their gongs were positioned and also what appeared to be a tension adjustment on the ringer coil.  The spring for that adjustment is in the middle position on both 302's and the 5302.  Is the tension adjustable, or does that spring always stay in the middle spot?  I'm thinking the knocking sound might be mitigated if I move the tensioner, but welcome any advice on this.

I like the compact size of the 5302, the old school mounting cord opening in the middle of the case, and the solid feel of everything about this phone.  It seems to me that this makeover brought the 302 up to the same indestructible standard as the 500.  I think it's great that all of WECo's old-school guts and components got a new lease on life though this restyling.

This is a phone I'm going to admire and enjoy for many years to come.

[McHeath]

Thanks for the interesting review of a 5302.  I don't have one but need to add one to the 500 collection sometime. 

[Phonesrfun]

RP:

The tensioning spring is there for the exact purpose you are thinking of using it for, although you don't have a lot of choices   

The gongs are also adjustable, since their mounting holes are eccentric, and give some latitude of adjustability.  You can't hurt it by playing with it, that's for sure.

-Bill Geurts

[rp2813]

Thanks Bill. 

I did reposition the gongs to the same rotation as on the two other 302's I have out for comparison.  The one gong that rides on the adjusting lever was way out of whack.  I'll play with the tensioner and report back on what I get.

Ralph

[rp2813]

I repositioned the tensioner as follows:

Facing the side of the phone base with gongs closest to you and coil behind them, I moved the tension spring from the center to the groove on the right.  The striker would barely move on the ring cycle, and even with gongs positioned close to it, the phone barely rang--but--as one might expect, the knocking was gone.  I moved the spring all the way over to the groove on the left.  That made the knocking worse. 

The problem with keeping the spring in the groove on the right side is that if I ever wanted to adjust the volume to ring louder, the striker would never be able to reach the one gong that moves further away from it when the volume lever is adjusted.  I may be able to play with this more and get the striker to work on all adjustment levels, but that will involve repositioning the gongs very close together.

I also noticed that the tensioner is seriously bent when in the groove on the right, but I guess that's normal.  Still, it just looked wrong to have it there.

I went back to the middle position for the tensioner and adjusted the gongs some, and the knocking has been reduced somewhat and is a little more tolerable.  I'm wondering if I should change out the coil completely.  Could that make a difference?

[Phonesrfun]

Maybe a photo of the ringer would be in order, since a "knocking" sound could describe a lot of different things.  It should be solve-able, however.

-Bill Geurts

PS:  The coil itself has no moving parts, so I cannot see how the coil would cause a knocking sound.