Auction 70 - WE 1500 1960 Field Trial Set (?)

[HarrySmith]

Hi Steve, Welcome to the forum. Thanks for the info. A push button phone that is not touch tone? Interesting, I was not aware of that, I assumed anything push button would be. Any other info you have would be appreciated, we are always hungry for more!

[paul-f]

There are numerous examples of dials made in the 1970s and 1980s that are pushbutton pulse dial sets.  In those days, many exchanges had not converted to DTMF and many phone makers wanted to offer the "modern" feature of pushbutton dialing.

This could be the subject for a separate topic, if there's interest.

For example, many of the Teleconcepts phones could be ordered as Rotary, Tone or "touch outpulse."
   http://www.paul-f.com/Teleconcepts.html#Models

Also, many of the novelty phones made in that era had a switch to select either Pulse or tone dialing, so they could be installed on any exchange.

[Just a collector]

Actually, the proto 1500 set was not pulse (rotary) so, maybe we shouldn't even be discussing it here

It did use tone dialing, just not Touch Tones (DTMF).

As I recall, the tones generated were more like MF tones.

I'll mine for the article, and take some photos.

Steve

[rdelius]

I got some prototype junk at the same show also.
11 button tone dial (dist) on the 11th button
1960 10 button princess tone dial
lucite f1 transmitter
protoype artifishial larynx built from e1 parts
rec capsules for the f1 prototype
other stuff
Robby

[HarrySmith]

We are not rotary nazi's, we do embrace those newfangled tone phones once in a while.
Thanks again for the info.

[Adam]

We are not rotary nazi's

NO TOUCH TONE FOR YOU!

[AE_Collector]

Uh Oh...you've woken up the Touch Tone Nazi..

I prefer Touch Calling (AECo) anyway!

Terry

[GG]

For use in PBXs and also PAXs (switches having no outside lines), there was also "DC Code" signalling, produced by Ericsson, Philips/Norelco, and GPO's "usual suspects."  

This required more than one pair to the telephone, and used low-voltage AC and rectifiers.  When you pressed a button, it would selectively send AC or half-wave rectified DC across various combinations of pairs in the line cable, and those signals were read by the switch.  

Ericsson produced a handsfree intercom system using this method (with optional handset in the rear), which is recognizable by its dialing buttons being in a single row.  Norelco's version was built into a more-or-less-conventional telephone set, of which my examples are 2-tone gray with handsets that look very much like G3s.  For the GPO examples, go to the Britishtelephones website and poke around.  

I worked on the Ericsson stuff about thirty years ago (eek!).  The intercom units were associated with a crossbar type switching system.   At that point a newer version was just coming out, might have been called Ericom; had "telephones" that looked like squared-off Trimline handsets sitting on their backs.  They would operate hands-free but you could pick them up and use them as handsets.

Whether Bell ever looked seriously at a system like that for use in PBXs, I don't know.  It would not have been suitable for the public exchanges due to the extra wire pair required.

The Norelco/Philips version was advertised to indie telcos, with a wall-mounted converter unit that took the DC Code signals and turned them into dial pulses.

The first widely-available keyset phone with pulse dialing was called something like Star Touch and sold for about $115 in the mid 70s, which was a lot in those days.  It was basically a 2500 with a different set of innards and a wall transformer.  It was not tone/pulse switchable: pulse output only.

For a while AE sold keypad pulse phones (early to mid 80s or so): one version of this was a Starlite that looked as if it had a 12-button keypad but the * and # buttons had no designations printed on them and didn't function.  These were presumably an outgrowth of the fact that GTE still had plenty of Strowger exchanges in service and wanted to at least give subscribers the option to modernize their telephone sets, and then of course sell more of them to the general public.  

[AE_Collector]

For a while AE sold keypad pulse phones (early to mid 80s or so): one version of this was a Starlite that looked as if it had a 12-button keypad but the * and # buttons had no designations printed on them and presumably didn't function. 

AE UDK - Universal Dial Keypad. In 80E's as well as Starlite's.

Terry

[GG]

Thanks Terry (BTW, check your messages:-).  AE advertised these to the public as "pushbutton convenience without the monthly fee." 

For a while some cynics claimed that the reason for UDK was to prevent GTE subscribers from accessing the various competing long distance carriers that required dialing an access number and then sending DTMF to dial your billing code (six digits, not particularly secure) and the destination number.  That interpretation fails because one could always use a UDK phone to dial the carrier, and then a DTMF phone in parallel with it to dial the billing code and destination. 

No doubt you have in your collection one of those 1960s/70s AE phones with the rotary dial and DTMF keypad next to each other (looks like the base unit of an 880 speakerphone)?  Those were never sold to the general public as far as I can tell, but they could very well have caught on. 

[AE_Collector]

No doubt you have in your collection one of those 1960s/70s AE phones with the rotary dial and DTMF keypad next to each other (looks like the base unit of an 880 speakerphone)?  Those were never sold to the general public as far as I can tell, but they could very well have caught on.  

AE 890. Yes I have a beige one but it will soon turn into a Turquoise one since I have a Turquoise 880 that is missing its turquoise speaker. Problem solved!

Terry

[GG]

Lions & Tigers & Bears, oh my!

For anyone who doesn't know this, those AE dials with the star and diamond instead of asterisk and pound-sign keys, are exceedingly rare.  Next-rarest after that, have the asterisk and pound sign but also do not have OPER above the 0.  

Only thing is, under the brushed metal faceplate you may find that the cutouts in the respective housings were specialized for the respective two types of phones, and they aren't interchangeable.  Or I may be mistaken and it'll all work.  Except that the dial keypad is in a beige enclosure, so you'll have a slightly two-tone phone there.

Re the missing speaker: PhoneCo or other suppliers may have an 880 with a smashed up main housing and an intact speaker unit, whether beige or turquoise, with which to replace the missing one.  

(Do you also have one of the AE Autovon sets with the red precedence keys arranged in a horizontal row to the right of the touch calling keypad?  I've only seen one of those before and it sure isn't mine!  Those were used in Autovon in Europe (NATO), and the WE version were used in the US, so very few of them would have made it back here to land in the hands of historic telephony enthusiasts.)

[AE_Collector]

The one that is built on the 880 chassis? Not me but I wish. Doesn't Paul-F have one?

Terry

[paul-f]

Yes he does.

  http://www.paul-f.com/weAutovon.html#NonWE

And it could be yours for an appropriate amount of cash and/or a very interesting trade.

[AE_Collector]

And it could be yours for an appropriate amount of cash and/or a very interesting trade.

I don't think I have much of anything in my collection as interesting as that phone. How about multiple relatively uninteresting items!

Terry