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This Week's Phones - Iskra and VEF

Started by LarryInMichigan, January 23, 2014, 12:10:29 PM

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Russ Kirk

I have Russian phone and the first thing I noticed when I opened it was the poor manufacturing quality, i.e.  slotted screws with the slot off center, sloppy clearances, misalignment of parts etc.

How is the manufacturing quality of these Eastern block phones? 
- Russ Kirk
ATCA & TCI

Matilo Telephones

I have a polish Phone from the 80´s. It is a bit cheaply made. Not too thick plastic, easy solutions, but the workmanship is fine.

Seen some east German phones. They are most certainly not as bad as the russian phones described here.

I think the Iskra´s are more like western European quality. I think it very much depends on which country they are from. Probably the countries that had a good and high quality Industrial tradition before the war, tend to keep that up after ending up behind the Iron curtain, like Poland, Eastern Germany, Chekoslovakia, Hungary.
Groeten,

Arwin

Check out my telephone website: http://www.matilo.eu/?lang=en

And I am on facebook too: www.facebook.com/matilosvintagetelephones

LarryInMichigan

I also have phones from Bulgaria and Czechoslovakia.  The quality of the Bulgarian phone is somewhat better than my two Soviet phones but still not very good.  The Tesla Czechoslovakian phone is much better quality.  There is a Romanian phone on ebay now: ebay link which I wouldn't mind adding to my collection, but the price is a bit out of my budget.  I have no idea about the quality.

Larry

unbeldi

#18
Quote from: Matilo Telephones on January 23, 2014, 05:44:30 PM
I have a polish Phone from the 80´s. It is a bit cheaply made. Not too thick plastic, easy solutions, but the workmanship is fine.

Seen some east German phones. They are most certainly not as bad as the russian phones described here.

I think the Iskra´s are more like western European quality. I think it very much depends on which country they are from. Probably the countries that had a good and high quality Industrial tradition before the war, tend to keep that up after ending up behind the Iron curtain, like Poland, Eastern Germany, Chekoslovakia, Hungary.

Iskra certainly has a tradition for quality, perhaps not up to par with western products given the poor economic affairs of the time. I have for example an NOS 1961 ITV-4, like the OB-33 from Siemens, and it is all metal, and if it didn't have the Iskra stamps on it, I could not tell the difference in workmanship.

Of course Tito's Yugoslavia was not the typical 'Eastern Block' country, he tried to find a separate way to Communism than the neighbors to the east, being accepting to western relations. In the East, colored products were not plentiful; what the state produced was supposed to be consumed and black telephones were no exception.  This phone, the ATA11 was actually produced in Bakelite of various bright colors.

LarryInMichigan

Just for fun, I weighed the two phones.  The Iskra weighs about 1.7 kg and the VEF about 2.1 kg, so neither is especially heavy.

Last night, out of curiosity, I fiddled with the Iskra receiver a bit, pushing gently on the diaphragm in a few places.  When I put the receiver back into the handset, the volume was much better than it had been.  It is now probably at least 90% of what it should be, so i will probably not look for a replacement.  The transmitter is another story.

I bought yet another Soviet phone, pictured below, this week and am awaiting its arrival.  I don't know what this model is called or how bad the quality is.

Larry

twocvbloke

Quote from: LarryInMichigan on January 24, 2014, 09:57:07 AMI bought yet another Soviet phone, pictured below, this week and am awaiting its arrival.  I don't know what this model is called or how bad the quality is.

Larry


Dunno what that is myself, but at least if the transmitter or receiver is duff then you should be able to fit WE (or similar) parts as it looks to be a G-type handset... ;D