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Who among us has the newest WE 500? And newer non-WE 500 types?

Started by bellsystemproperty, October 25, 2009, 07:31:42 PM

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bellsystemproperty

Who has the newest 500 or any rotary phone? I understand Cortelco made 500s until 2007. My newest 500 off the top of my head is from 12-80. Pictures would be good. Is there any company, in any country, that you know of that still makes rotary phones.

Phonesrfun

I do not know the answer to your question from the standpoint of actually making rotary phones, and I presume the question was inferring that some country would have to make rotrary phones because they only have old rotary switches.  I just don't know, but I doubt it.

Supposedly, Cuba has been largely upgraded by other south American countries that it has friendly ties to.

It just gets down to cost.  It costs one HECK of a lot more to support, man, and maintain an old electromechanical switch.  By far less costly just to put in an electronic switch.

As to the phones themselves, nobody that I know of would continue to make a mechanical pulse dial.  They were mechanical and subject to becoming mal-adjusted and having issues with heat, moisture and dirt.

Many phones these days have the touch-tone keypad and a switch that can switch between tone and pulse.  However, so many have now even dropped the use of pulse as an option.  However, it is all done on a chip and not mechanically generated, so its not suceptible to dirt and moisture.  To a lesser degree heat and cold.

So, the short answer to your question is that I do not know of anyone making these dials.
-Bill G

bellsystemproperty

What rotary phone do you have that has was made most recently? Also, I saw a
"rotary phone" on Ebay. It looked like it had an actual dial that sent out tones and the dial had twelve holes, for star and pound. It was in pink, and looked like a 500. I don't know if it could be called an actual rotary phone, but it did look like the dial spun. It's still crap, since it was made in China.

AET

I hadn't seen one of those yet. That would be a classic way to modern convenience.
- Tom

Phonesrfun

I always thought those were buttons arranged around in a circle to look like a rotary dial, but I may be wrong.  Every once in a while someone will be trying to sell one of these an an antique on e-Bay, since the Crosley version of the 302 resembles the real thing.  I also think some sellers don't know the difference.

My most recent rotary is an ITT refurb dated 1987
-Bill G

bellsystemproperty

Someday I am going to get a recent Cortelco 500 model. Then I can say this was the last rotary made. The one on Ebay I think did have a spin dial, but it sent out tones, not pulse, and had twelve holes. I imagine it is very poor quality.

McHeath

From what I've learned Cortelco made the final rotary phones.  The production was ended in December in 2006, so they had a good long run.  Why they were still being made in the era of smart phones and WiFi I don't know, perhaps they were popular with nostalgia minded folk or with companies that wanted a phone that the employees would not want to dial.

I have one of these late model Cortelcos, it was made in July of 2003 and was new in the box when I bought it last December off E-Bay.  I think I paid 25 bucks for it, but am not sure.  Interestingly, it follows the pattern of the late Western Electric 500s very closely, it is essentially made exactly the same way, with only the ringer being different.  (It's a Cortelco redesign from 1990 that they hold the patent on, still has the same double gongs but uses a magnet to move a steel ball to ring them)

It works great, and while it's clearly not up to the quality of a WE 500, it's still a nice phone.  Here is a picture:


McHeath

Now my newest Western Electric 500 is an ivory model from 1984 that I bought new in 86'.  It's one of the CS500 models, intended for sale to the customer, and is built pretty much like any other late Bell System era 500.  The handset on this phone is dated 85', so I guess that by that point they were not exactly flying off the shelves. 

I think I paid about 20 dollars for it.  They had all the colors to pick from, I liked ivory because my folks had one and so it was familiar.  Now I wish I'd bought several of them in different colors. 

Here are a couple of pics of it:


bellsystemproperty

It is weird that Cortelco made them for that long. They still make the 2500, and with bell ringers.

gpo706

Quote from: McHeath on October 26, 2009, 12:33:08 AM
I think I paid 25 bucks for it, but am not sure. 

Yeah, yeah thats what I tell them too when a another big parcel appears at the door... LOL
"now this should take five minutes, where's me screwdriver went now..?"

phoneguy06

Given that we're on the subject of new 500s once again, I might as well chime in and re-post base plate and components pictures as well, along with a shot or two of my 2003 red Cortelco 500 set. Incidentally, only once on eBay have I ever seen a Cortelco 500 AS, which are the very last 500s entirely manufactured and assembled in Asia.

McHeath

Yah I think your ash Cortelco 500 and mine are from that same lot on E-Bay last year, if memory serves.  (or maybe I'm forgetting exactly) 

I like that bright red 500, isn't it dated the same, July of 2003?  Maybe they only made 500s in batches by then, so July of that year was when they made the years allotment of them.  I've planning to buy their dialless 500 they still make, it's also red, when I get a few bucks ahead.  I wrote the factory once about buying parts from them, but they referred me to their distributers to buy goods.


phoneguy06

Quote from: McHeath on October 27, 2009, 03:33:53 PM
Yah I think your ash Cortelco 500 and mine are from that same lot on E-Bay last year, if memory serves.  (or maybe I'm forgetting exactly) 

I like that bright red 500, isn't it dated the same, July of 2003?  Maybe they only made 500s in batches by then, so July of that year was when they made the years allotment of them.  I've planning to buy their dialless 500 they still make, it's also red, when I get a few bucks ahead.  I wrote the factory once about buying parts from them, but they referred me to their distributers to buy goods.



My 2003 ash Cortelco is indeed from the same lot as yours, they were the ones that were sold for $20 each by StarTech Tel on eBay last December. The red one is interesting in that it came in a box for another ash VCH 500 from July 2003, and even the base plate label indicates that it should be the ash phone. Only the case is stamped "Cortelco" as the handset simply has a blank space where either the company name or the volume-control thumbwheel would have been; even more interesting is the fact that the handset is obviously from the same mould as the VCH, given that the mid-section of it pops off as if it were the VCH. All in all, it's an intriguing hybrid set that definitely indicates that Cortelco was simply using up what it had left at the time as production in the U.S. wound down.

AET

So, who was buying these in the 21st century besides us?
- Tom

bellsystemproperty

The red 500 is very nice. It would be cool if Cortelco reintroduced the 500, but with something like the Dialgizmo built inside it so that it would work for those on voip.