I Hate Me!

[Greg G.]

But I love the Ballard Goodwill! Apparently they charge a little more for vintage AE 80s.  This is the same Goodwill where I found the $1.99 71 SC rotary.

Some problems that are probably minor (I hope).  The dial is sluggish.  When I dial my cell and let the dial return freely on it's own, I get a message saying "You didn't dial enough digits".  When I help the dial return ever-so-gently when I dialed my cell, the call went through.  So it basically will send and receive, transmitter and receiver ok, but it doesn't ring.  

For $2.99 I'm not complaining. That probably would have been the starting price on ebay, but with $10-$12 for shipping factored in.

BTW, on the AE date stamps, the middle digits are obviously the year, but which one is the month and day?

[bellsystemproperty]

I'm sure you can get it to ring. Rotary phones are never broken, rather the user has wired it incorrectly.  I have the same no ring problem on my black AE80 which I must resolve.

[Phonesrfun]

Definitely resolvable.

[Craig T]

Yep, that one is broke, send 'er here for parts .  Nice find Briny!

[McHeath]

Re: I Hate Me!

Yeah I understand the feeling.  Just when you've sworn off buying yet another old phone one comes along, and shazam, it's in your shopping bag on the way out the door.

I've only seen one AE 80 in person, it was a rather tired and beat one, seriously overpriced at an antique store, but it certainly is an interesting design. 

[stub]

Brinybay ,
Man you have all the luck. None of those around here .  Most of the time this works, move 9 red to 8 and discard yellow and it should ring. I think the code reads month, year, day. If this isn't right , what is the name of the 13th month?  That has to be your birthday gift to yourself ! BTW if I'm wrong on info, don't worry about it . It won't the first time!!!! Stub

[Greg G.]

Oh, and thanks to whomever (I forget who) gave the tip on removing stuck caps.  The transmitter cap was on tight as a fill-in-the-blank, but instead of using the strap wrench like I did with my FMN AE 80, I used the hair dryer on it for a couple minutes and it came right off.

[Dan/Panther]

Does the hairdryer method work on bakelite ?
O.K. I'll play along Brinybay, I hate you also.
D/P

[Dennis Markham]

Dan the only time the hair dryer did not work for me was on an E1 handset.  I ended up using a strap wrench.  But on Bakelite (F1) caps, G1's with plastic caps or G1's with Bakelite...warm them up and they'll come right off.  Wrench on them cold will often break threads.

[bwanna]

you're on a roll aren't you briny

[Greg G.]

you're on a roll aren't you briny

And running out of room in my small apt!  I bought a bookcase today from an office furniture liquidator to use as a display for my phones.  Speaking strictly in dimensions, it fits the space I intended it for, but aesthetically, it detracts from the decor because it's too large.  I may have to turn around and sell it again and scale back on the number of phones I want to display.               

[Dan]

I know about the bookcase thing.... I have two filled and shelving too and they are now on the floor

[gpo706]

I like these AE80's like someone crossbred a WE 500 with a GPO 700, which mat be what happened...