I finally got around to hooking up one of the touch-tones I picked up recently in order to use it for the purpose I got it for, to set up my voice greeting. When I went to use it, there was a crackling noise in the line. Great, I thought, no wonder it was a $1.99. That won't do because I want a clear message. So, I swapped the handset with the modular rotary I had. That worked, no crackling, but I didn't want a mis-matched phone and handset. So I tried the highly technical (and my favorite) way of fixing things - I took out the transmitter and gave it a few hard raps on the work bench, then did the same with the receiver. No more crackling noise!
Yesterday evening my mom's laptop modem would just sit there and negotiate and negotiate her dialup connection. It wouldn't connect on the first try. I unhooked the modem and hooked up the trusty 500 set and there was lots of noise on the line. I could hear it even over the dial tone. I dialed a 2 and the noise went completely away and wouldn't come back, even after making a call. I plugged the modem back in and it worked on the first try. Maybe it had something to do with it being 97 degrees yesterday? Whatever it was, the 500 set made a good hammer.
Next time that happens, I'm going to try it from the network interface to see if it's the 1953 inside wiring or the outside wiring.
Brinybay;
That's the first rule of repairs.
Smack it a good one, if it breaks it needed fixing anyhow.
D/P
An engineer bloke I once knew said the technical term was "percussive maintenance"!
I love how WE called a bit of cotton wool in a rec cup "acoustic dampening"
Works on lots of stuff...
Quote from: gpo706 on August 18, 2009, 07:52:43 PM
An engineer bloke I once knew said the technical term was "percussive maintenance"!
hahaha!!! Good one! ;D
Actually the Western Electric term for the cotton ball is "Cotton Acoustic Barrier". The Bell System Practices even told how to put it in the handset...not to stuff it into the handle but just lay it under the U1 receiver piece.
Quote from: Dennis Markham on August 18, 2009, 10:37:17 PM
Actually the Western Electric term for the cotton ball is "Cotton Acoustic Barrier". The Bell System Practices even told how to put it in the handset...not to stuff it into the handle but just lay it under the U1 receiver piece.
Wonderful, now I've got to take every one of my Receivers caps off and redo the cotton.
Actually, I thought the cotton was to keep the wire from pulling back while the tech worked on the receiver.
D/P
Be honest, who else thought the same thing I did?
D/P
When I was young I never knew what the cotton was in there for, it just seemed weird to me. Of course I never let mom and dad know I was taking the phones apart to see the cotton, that would have been dangerous info to leak out. :)
Way back in the olden days, when there were still 500's and '57 Chevys and go-go boots and all that stuff (mid 60's) I was in my teens. I was getting interested in phones. I asked a lineman (Sorry, Donna, they called them linemen back then), but I asked him why there was a cotton ball in the phone receiver. He actually gave me a straight answer. It was to deaden the hollow sound from within the hollow handset handle and to keep feedback from happening. I still to this day cannot get a 500 to feedback without the cotton, but it does make a difference. You can definitely hear the hollow sound without the cotton in most cases.
Quote from: Dan/Panther on August 19, 2009, 12:32:21 AM
Be honest, who else thought the same thing I did?
D/P
Oops, uh, well, I only re-did two of them. Then only because I was only checking to see if they even had cotton. Only two of my 500s had the cotton, the rest didn't.
Quote from: Phonesrfun on August 19, 2009, 01:34:10 AM
(Sorry, Donna, they called them linemen back then),
is okay, i sometimes even refer to myself as repairman. :o i would even doubt there were any females in the field in the mid- sixties. i think was probably early 70's when they opened up the "non-traditional" jobs. we have over 100 people at my garage. 6 are female. so i guess the whole affirmative action thing didn't go over so good. ;D
but that is off topic. i didn't know about the cotton in the receiver until i joined this forum. :-\
Once I worked together with another repairman and he used to say:
If it cant be fixed with a hammer, get a bigger hammer.
This is translated from Norwegian, quite foreward.
dsk