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#61

Technical "Stuff" / Re: Making a governor tension ...

Last post by TelePlay - April 15, 2026, 03:45:14 PM

Just bent a new governor spring using 6 inches of K&S 0.015" diameter piano wire (got it from my local Ace Hardware store, one package of 4 foot long wires for $1.49 plus tax.

Wrapped 6" of the wire tightly around a 1/4" steel rod. Upon release, it had the desired 1/2" inside diameter.

Using one and one half turns of the coil, I straightened out the arm pieces for the hooks to the governor wings.

Using an existing OEM spring as a guide for the hooked arms, I bent the wire straight out opposite sides of the coils (keeping 1 and 1/2 coils), at the same length from the coils as the OEM spring to create the arms, at a similar distance from the coil as the OEM spring, bent a similar hook on each arm and finally trimmed the hooks so they would fit into the governor wings.

To test it, I had a #6 dial that would not return to 0. Disassembled, cleaned and oiled the dial on assembly. The original governor spring on the dial tested at 9.109 PPS.

Took that spring off and placed my newly bent spring on the governor. It tested at 10.962 PPS, Took the spring off and gave it a bit of a "slow down" adjustment. Put it back on and retested the dial. The spring was now running the dial at 9.930 PPS.

I doubt I will ever have to make another one so am wondering what the do with the remaining 3 1/2 foot long stands of 0.015" piano wire.

#62

Telephone Troubleshooting and Repair / Re: NE-2500D touch tone

Last post by Contempra - April 15, 2026, 03:12:20 PM

Try swapping the red & green line wires. It may be polarity sensitive.

Thank you Harry , It works fine now, but it wasn't ringing, so I connected the black "ringer" wire to the green wire, and now everything works perfectly... Thank you so much for your invaluable help. That's one of the many reasons I keep following this forum—I still read it even though I'm less active... 

#63

Telephone Troubleshooting and Repair / Re: NE-2500D touch tone

Last post by HarrySmith - April 15, 2026, 01:20:11 PM

Try swapping the red & green line wires. It may be polarity sensitive.

#64

Telephone Troubleshooting and Repair / NE-2500D touch tone

Last post by Contempra - April 15, 2026, 12:23:29 PM

Hello, Everyone. So I only had this phone since yesterday. IT Makes a dial Tone when I plug It in, but nothing else happens 😞.

I can't dial Any numbers or recieve calla or Makes calls.

Since I don't know anything about touch-tone phones, may be one of you knows what needs to be done with this phone because I have no Idea if the Working is correct or not.. Sée the photos..
Thank tout un advance

#65

General Discussion / Re: How many of you actually u...

Last post by 44lawrence - April 15, 2026, 09:32:16 AM

All my antiques (3 candle stick, AE35. 50, & a few more) are all useable with my bluetooth flip TLC & a Xlink. I also installed electronic transmitters in the some. I would use them a lot more if I had a land line ( bluetooth used with this cell phone scenario has some issues I don't like) but the cheapest is something like $45 a month, last years price.

#66

Technical "Stuff" / Re: What determines the volume...

Last post by dsk - April 15, 2026, 04:45:17 AM

Then you get the anti-sidetone reduced volume, and not the volume received by the other party, I'm not sure how much that will be, but if you have a third phone and measure the received volume from the 2 phones it may be a more accurate measurement.  Two phones connected in series, with a 9 V battery in the serie will probably make a slightly better measurement, maybe even with the transmitter part of the phone you measure from damped by winding up some clothing 

#67

Pay Phones - General Discussion / Re: Pay Phones From Around the...

Last post by Westrex - April 15, 2026, 01:23:10 AM

Here are some payphones I found in Washington D.C. while on vacation.

Photos 1-3: Post Office Museum (No Dial Tone) - 202/289-4599 - Near the restrooms & elevator on the lower level under the "Phones" sign. There used to be 2 other panel phones next to this one, but their spaces have been blanked out.

Photos 4 & 5: Library of Congress: James Madison Memorial Bldg. (Working) - 202/488-9862. - Around the corner from the lobby after security

Photo 6: Library of Congress: James Madison Memorial Bldg. (Working) - 202/863-9401 - In the blue section near the elevators (signs can direct you to the phone, but a building map can be found here.)

There's another working phone in the red section of the Madison Bldg. on the 6th floor. I didn't get a photo of it, but it also works and has the number 202/479-9411 (there's a picture of it somewhere on Google).

#68

Western Electric Pay Phones / Re: WE Phone Booth with Phone ...

Last post by 5415551212 - April 14, 2026, 07:51:01 PM

Paul Vaverchak died some time ago, before the fall of 2014.

IIRC, someone on the Forum bought his key cutting equipment, maybe "payphone installer." Don't know.

Thats sad to here thanks for the update.

[1-NNY-XXXX]

#69

Technical "Stuff" / Re: Converting old wall-mount ...

Last post by 5415551212 - April 14, 2026, 06:46:04 PM

Oops, just saw this, sorry: yeah that looks like an awesome and impressive project! (You mentioned it on my phone booth thread as well; thanks.)

I run a small company with a friend, called Telehamster. It's a private ATA network, mostly kid-oriented but includes adults too. We get old rotaries and pushbuttons working (thanks to this forum!) and let kids talk to each other without screens/algorithms/spam being involved.

Nice! You have your own Central Office Exchange (COE) running.
Unless your wanting to keep it a walled garden, I encourage you to expand your exchange's reach and connect it to c*net, the goals and purpose are well aligned, you'd just connect your subscribers to the broader hobbyist telephone community.

Head over to ckts.info reserve an Office Code;
Since you are operating as a service provider (COE) with the goal of connecting many subscribers and offering quality service to me at least thats good reason to 'slurp up' a full 10,000-number block (they encourage only 1000's blocks for most hobby COE's);

North American C*net works in the format 1-NNY-XXXX.
Where
N is managed by c*net (digits 2-9),
Y is your assigned code, managed by c*net, (digits 0-9),
X is the numbers your COE manages and assigns to your subscribers (use digits 2-9)

This would allow you to keep your existing 4-digit internal numbering plan completely intact (as long as you don't use 1 or 0 as leading digits). By claiming a prefix like 1-NNY, you can configure your Asterisk so any C*net user dialing those 8 digits would be routed directly to the XXXX number on your exchange.
Just configure your gateway/server to strip the prefix and ring your local extensions. It's a clean way to stay reachable from the outside c*net world while maintaining your local dialing.
Then for outbound calls, just implement a steering digit (I.E. dialing 1 first) to reach other central offices on the c*net network and keep 0 for operator of course.

So for your users calls would be:
    Local: XXXX (4 digits)

    C*net North America: 1-NNY-XXXX (8 digits)

    C*net International: 011 + Country Code + Number
 In Asterisk you'd set   
    Pattern _XXXX: Dial local SIP/DAHDI channel.

    Pattern _1XXXXXXXX: (The 8-digit c*net North American format). The switch performs an ENUM query against the C*net registry (e164.arpa or the private C*net zone) to find the SIP URI of the remote COE.

    Pattern _011.: (International). The switch strips the 011, looks up the country code and remaining digits in the global ENUM database, and routes the call over the internet to the International COE.
Cheers
--Stephen

#70

Technical "Stuff" / Re: Converting old wall-mount ...

Last post by chconnor - April 14, 2026, 03:28:20 PM

Side question regarding your private network are you aware of c*net? C*net

Oops, just saw this, sorry: yeah that looks like an awesome and impressive project! (You mentioned it on my phone booth thread as well; thanks.)

I run a small company with a friend, called Telehamster. It's a private ATA network, mostly kid-oriented but includes adults too. We get old rotaries and pushbuttons working (thanks to this forum!) and let kids talk to each other without screens/algorithms/spam being involved.