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How many of you actually use your antique phones?

Started by BDM, September 21, 2008, 04:19:03 PM

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So, how many are actually using their phones?

I have no modern phones
several at any given moment
Maybe one hooked up, when I'm in the mood
Hardly ever. Besides, they scare the kids
Heck no! Are you kidding? Display only!!

Jester

Bill,

Do you have a E1A inline with your princess, or do you rely on hearing the rest of the house to let you know the phone needs answering?  I've thought about disconnecting the ringer in the subset of my Imperial and tying in a remote ringer.  The 684 has a B1A, and it sounds about like the B3A in the 354 in the dining room.  I really like the sound of the Bell Chime, so I'll probably stick one in the bedroom one of these days.  I know this is the wrong thread, but I think the Bell Chime would make a really cool WAV. file.  Kind of sounds like a doorbell on Valium.
Stephen

Phonesrfun

I do have the E1A ringer on the 701B.  It is right under the headboard on my bed, so I have the ringer turned all the way down.  As a result, I hear the wall vibrating more than the more pleasant sound of the ringer itself.  As you know the E1A was one of those early single gong ringers, so it does not have the dual tone of a ding-dong type ringer anyway.  I had delayed hooking up the E1A just because it was going to be more work, but I cannot always hear the 202 in the living room, even though it is hooked up to a 684 subset.  That subset is just lying on the carpeted floor and the carpet dampens the sound of the 684.

In the apartment I had before moving into my present house, I had ringers and phones all over the place.  The Panasonic gave me extra ringing capacity and every time the phone rang, it was kind of like a fire drill.  I toned it down a bit when I moved.

-Bill
-Bill G

gpo706

GPO:

living room:

746 ivory

Bedroom:

706 Grey
706 Ivory
706 Red
312 Black
8756 Ivory
706 ivory
746 topaz yellow

WE - bedroom

500 C/D black
500 C/D red
554 black

all on one line (!)

Thank god they dont ring all at once...
"now this should take five minutes, where's me screwdriver went now..?"

gpo706

Sorry there's a 746 green under the table I keep knocking off-hook with my feet, need to get a space for it....
"now this should take five minutes, where's me screwdriver went now..?"

McHeath

Wow, if they all rang on full volume at once you'd wake the dead! 

deedubya3800

I just love dragging up these old topics! :D

Of course I use my phones. Just like everything old I buy with few exceptions (like my light brown quart-size George Dickel powderhorn bottle with all the labels and leather still in place), I intend to use it when I buy it. I have a 1970 Zenith fully automatic turntable, a 1964 Royal Aristocrat typewriter, and I use them! Carefully, of course. ;)

But back to phones: My 5302 has found its (mostly) permanent home on my desk in the office. That's my phone, my favorite. It found me. :)

I've been having a hard time deciding what phone to keep by the bed, but right now I have the NT Dawn there. The ringer isn't too harsh for the bedroom and the cord is long enough to reach across it.

I still haven't told my wife about the 302 I brought home a week ago, so I only use it while she's not here. ::)

And my first old phone, the SC 500, is my standby phone right now, that I use if I need one somewhere where I don't usually keep one, like the bathroom or outside.

As for the other phones in the house, we have a two-piece set of crappy GE cordless phones that haven't been charged or used in months. The base unit isn't even hooked up to the line anymore. There's also a cheap Durabrand unit hanging in the kitchen whose ringer I keep turned off as it clashes with all the real ringers in the house, and there's a GE wall set in the back room that's still in excellent condition because we moved to the front of the house years ago. It's just still back there.

dsk

#96
As many as possible,
1: Franken-phone at my sons room. (1953 with dtmf circular dial) (Elektrisk Bureau Norway    (EB) )
2: 1934 model EB wall telephone for wet areas in the garage
3: 1934 model Risktelefonen made by EB on my desk
4: A 1936 modell Siemens (look like W48) in my bedroom
5: A 1932 EB at the kitchen
6: A 1950 Standard telephone & kabel at the guest room
6: :-X A dtmf phone in the livingroom
7: :-X A dtmf phone beside the PC
8:  :D and now a 1967 EB rotary with dialgizmo at on my desk at job. (wondering about change it to an EB 1953 with reverse dial)

http://tinyurl.com/2v565tg

dsk




Adam

Quote from: Phonesrfun on July 09, 2009, 05:33:32 PM
I also have a cell phone that I love to hate.

I don't think that counts!   :)

All of the phones in my place are from the 60's and 70's, connected via ATAs to my Asterisk switch.  I frequently switch the phones around, and take different ones of out my stock and put them in service in my place.

Currently, I am using:

Office desk: Western Electric red 565HKM key set
Office desk: Western Electric green 2500DM ('cause you gotta have touch tone sometimes for like calling banks and things)
Bedroom: Western Electric yellow 702BM Princess
Kitchen Counter: Stromberg-Carlson red 2500D with numerals only dial
Living Room: Western Electric chocolate brown Touch Tone Trimline desk

I like having rotary phones in service, unfortunately, the ATA that serves my living room can't handle rotary, so I have to have a Touch-Tone set there.

-Dave Haber
Massapequa Telephone
C*NET 1-798-7619
Adam Forrest
Los Angeles Telephone - A proud part of the global C*Net System
C*Net 1-383-4820

AdamAnt316

Here's a list of what I have connected to the line at the moment:

Bedroom:

  • Yellow Western Electric "Princess" model 702B
  • Yellow Automatic Electric "Starlite" model 192/TEL-900N

Office:

  • Beige Western Electric "Card Dialer" model 660A1
  • Black Western Electric model 211/G1 space saver

Living room:

  • Black Western Electric model 500D

Kitchen:

  • Moss green Western Electric model 500DM

Bathroom: (yeah, really :D)

  • Ivory Western Electric "Princess" model CS2702BMG

Basement:

  • Turquoise Western Electric "Trimline" model 220A/AD1
  • Radio Shack "French Continental" model 43-320

Porch:

  • Western Electric "Country Junction" model 951A1-03

All of them, except for two or three, ring. I have at least seven ringing phones hooked to the line, and haven't notice any ringing issues. Either the modern FiOS interface boxes can support more ringers than a standard POTS line, or I'm causing havoc with something...  ???
-Adam

stub

BDM,
        I keep my AE phones rotated each week . I now have a AE 183 ( Red)in the grand kids toy room , a WE -554 BMP( 1977) in red in basement.
        When my oldest granddaughter (11) comes over, she like to use a AE Stairstep Base Automatic Desk Set , with subset.
        My wife likes to use the 1908 AE wooden wall set. 
        When I need to use  touch call, I have a touch pad wired in series with a mod . end to  hook up any phone I have . stub

Bill- When you get tired of looking at that 11 digit Strowger phone, that doesn't work , just pack it up and I'll take it off your hands!!!!!!!!   stub

Kenneth Stubblefield

Jim Stettler

I typically have a Pink TT princess in the bedroom and a 3 slot in the basement. there is also a spare beige SC500 that is on the computer deskI also have a single slot hooked up to a boothette. I have another working single-slot in a Stainless steel superman booth. I haven't gotten around to hooking it up yet.

The rest of the current phones are a 6-handset cordless set-up w/ intercom, CID, ect and a 12 year old Home receptionist phone. The home receptionist downloads my services and and lets me access them thru soft buttons. It has been in daily use for the last 12 years.
Jim S.
You live, You learn,
You die, you forget it all.

Kenny C

i usualy keep a 302 hoked up but i am using the AE40 for now and rarely a 500
In memory of
  Marie B.
1926-2010

Tom B

I have a '56 500 in the hall and a '60 Aqua and beige 2500 touch tone in the main bedroom. All 11 of my phones work, that's most of the fun of restoring 'em. I can see little point in having a set that's there only for cosmetic reasons. I will rotate all the phones apart from the 2500 as you always will need the touch tone.
Tom

cchaven

I have two in use at the moment...a clean thermoplastic 302 from the late 40's in the bedroom and a '35  202 with E1 handset and 684BA subset downstairs.  The downstairs phone occasionally gets swapped out for whatever other telephone I feel like using at any given time...sometimes it may be a 3-slot payphone...or just something I'm tinkering with.  Occasionally it'll even be a non-dial deskstand or a '54 500.

Jeff

AE_Collector

#104
Quote from: stub1953 on September 21, 2010, 08:49:38 AM
I now have a AE 183 ( Red)in the grand kids toy room
stub

Ken: Have you had the red 183 for a long time? I have 183's (My Avatar in case anyone was wondering what a 183 is) in every color but the red was by far the hardest one for me to get. Turquoise (again, my Avatar) was first and then it was many many years later when I decided to get them all.

It was when I was just considering maybe getting them all that I stumbled upan a red one in an antique store for $85 but couldn't see paying that much. They wouldn't deal at all so I decided to "think about it". A few months later I was back in the store and thought I'd look at it again but someone had looked at it before me.

Awhile later I started buying them in all colors on ebay and even snagged a great deal on a gray one before having to pay something like $170 plus shipping for a Garnet Red one to complete the collection.

Terry