First Post

[elawson]

I'm Eric and live near (out in the "boonies") Snowflake, AZ.  The town name is neither a political statement, nor weather related.  Erastus Snow and William Flake came up with the name in the late 1870s. 

Five years ago I retired from Verizon Wireless. My jobs there were RF engineering, capacity planning and network system performance.  Since I could hold my own as a tech, even though my job title was Senior Engineer, I also got the "weird, strange and unusual" problems that no one else could figure out.

I still hold my commercial driver license and I also am an intermittent GS 0391-12 "telecommunications specialist" for the US Dept of Health & Human Services....I help with the logistics and take care of the telecommunications and IT needs of a portable hospital (like M*A*S*H, but with grey tents).

Phones.

I have a Western Electric 317 that was likely given to my late father in law.  He worked for Niagara Mohawk (electric utility), so it was likely to have been retired from service at a small hydro plant.  It has been modified to work on a POTS line. I'm probably going to convert it back to "normal".

I was recently given a Federal Telephone & Radio FTR-804A.  It works, although the handset cord is a bit worn.

I was also (a long time ago), given a pair of CEECO GBU-301A "phone in a box" sets.  These also work.

I used to have an old EE8 phone on my desk at Verizon next to a sign saying "IN CASE OF EMERGENCY".  I'm not sure what happened to that phone...it just "up and disappeared" after I retired.

I have a detached garage that is far enough from the house to be beyond shouting range, and I'm working on a "power house" (solar PV) that is also beyond shouting range, so I'll probably put the WE 317 on the wall in the house and set everything up as an intercom system.


So, that should be enough for now.  :-)


Eric
Snowflake, AZ

[HarrySmith]

WELCOME
You have found the best forum on the net. Lots of knowledgeable, helpful people here. Don't hesitate to ask if you have any questions on your phones. Also a warning, everybody here has Phoneitis. It is a progressive, incurable disease. It leads to more & more phones and/or related items. The only treatment is more phones Good luck with your setup. BTW - we LOVE pictures.

[MMikeJBenN27]

Welcome!  Hope you like our forum!

Mike

[elawson]

Thanks.

Based on a 30 second look (we are still moving into the new home), the 317 phone is missing the little table for writing messages, and based on the inside schematic drawing, it is also missing the magneto and condenser.  The wiring looks to be there, but "rearranged".

I also noticed that it has 317P stamped at the top of the box that is covered by the door and next to the terminals on the side is (faintly) stamped with L1 GND L2 and COND. 

In the box is some sort of inductive "thing" (at least it has an iron core) with three terminals on each side.  It has an inked part number of U-282863-4.  On one leg of the iron core that would be against a mounting surface is penciled 91 92 and on the other leg is (I think) penciled 30.  I don't think this goes with the telephone as it's mounting holes don't line up with any existing holes in the wood. 

I'll dig around in the forums and see if anything was written about the mystery inductor.

[HarrySmith]

Can you post pictures? Lots of them
We will need them to help sort it all out.

[elawson]

Here are some picture of the device I'm talking about.  It was not attached to the phone, rather than just sitting there in the box.  These are top and bottom view.

[HarrySmith]

I cannot identify it. I am not a woodie expert but others here are. Someone will know what it is. Can you add photos of the phone? Inside & out.

[poplar1]

That is an Automatic Electric induction coil. It looks like the type used in the AE 40 and AE 50. In any case, it's not part of a WE 1317P.

In the 1317, the condenser was optional. If there is a short wire between  the 2 COND terminals, then your phone never had one. One reason for a condenser was so that if someone forgot to hang up the receiver (after eavesdropping, for example),  the phones on the party line could still be rung.

[elawson]

Eavesdropping, on a party line?  Really?  Wow.

Until I was 7, our phone number was 3...pick up the phone and wait for the operator and *everyone's* phone rang when anyone was called.

I can remember my dad, "Okay everybody.  It's getting hard to hear."  Later, after he hung up the phone, he'd mumble something about people listening in.  Since he was a marine, the terms he often used were ones I probably wasn't supposed to hear.  :-)