Revelation and GPO phones now up and running. - UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Discussion Forum

andy1702 · 28th Jul 2015, 9:21 pm

Thanks to some of the other members on here, I've finally got my Revelation PBX up and running with various old dial telephones. It's only a few weeks since I bought my first old telephone at a local car boot sale and since then more have followed, mainly thanks to E-Bay. All of the telephones have been dismantled and cleaned. Wiring has been chacked over to make sure of proper conversion to modern standards and a 3.3k resistor added to units with 500 ohm bell coils to allow multiple phones to be connected to a single extension. While in bits the cases were polished up with Brasso. This is a very gentle abrasive and works well not just on the main case, but also to remove small scratches and other blemishes on clear parts, such as the dials and dial centre cover.

While this work was going on I was also getting a connection established into the C*Net system, using a Grandstream ATA to connect two lines into the Revelation, which in turn is currently connected to four extensions, although this will eventually be increased to 12.

Connecting to C*Net was not straight forward because of my dynamic IP address, which seems to change every day or so. It took a few days tinkering with settings (thanks to everyone who helped with this) but now the connection seems to be very reliable and amazingly clear.

The next phase of work will involve connecting my BT line to a 3rd line on the Revelation and re-wiring some of the currently normal phones, so eventually every telephone will be able to make and receive both C*Net and BT calls.

The finishing touch has been a bit of work with free open source software 'GIMP' to make some custom dial labels. Photos of a rather suntanned 706 and a couple of 746s attached. Don't look at the grotty cords. I need to re-stock the orange hand cleaner, which seems to be the only thing that effectively cleans them.

Andy.

Nickthedentist · 28th Jul 2015, 9:33 pm

Impressive stuff, Andy.

Dave Moll · 29th Jul 2015, 8:05 am

Well done! Welcome to the world of vintage telecommunication.

Quote:

Originally Posted by andy1702

It's only a few weeks since I bought my first old telephone at a local car boot sale and since then more have followed, mainly thanks to E-Bay.

Unfortunately, this is a progressive disease for which there is no known cure!

You may, however, consider joining the Telephone Heritage Group.

28th Jul 2015, 9:21 pm	#1
andy1702 Retired Dormant Member Join Date: Jun 2015 Location: Chesterfield, Derbyshire, UK. Posts: 110	Revelation and GPO phones now up and running. Thanks to some of the other members on here, I've finally got my Revelation PBX up and running with various old dial telephones. It's only a few weeks since I bought my first old telephone at a local car boot sale and since then more have followed, mainly thanks to E-Bay. All of the telephones have been dismantled and cleaned. Wiring has been chacked over to make sure of proper conversion to modern standards and a 3.3k resistor added to units with 500 ohm bell coils to allow multiple phones to be connected to a single extension. While in bits the cases were polished up with Brasso. This is a very gentle abrasive and works well not just on the main case, but also to remove small scratches and other blemishes on clear parts, such as the dials and dial centre cover. While this work was going on I was also getting a connection established into the CNet system, using a Grandstream ATA to connect two lines into the Revelation, which in turn is currently connected to four extensions, although this will eventually be increased to 12. Connecting to CNet was not straight forward because of my dynamic IP address, which seems to change every day or so. It took a few days tinkering with settings (thanks to everyone who helped with this) but now the connection seems to be very reliable and amazingly clear. The next phase of work will involve connecting my BT line to a 3rd line on the Revelation and re-wiring some of the currently normal phones, so eventually every telephone will be able to make and receive both C*Net and BT calls. The finishing touch has been a bit of work with free open source software 'GIMP' to make some custom dial labels. Photos of a rather suntanned 706 and a couple of 746s attached. Don't look at the grotty cords. I need to re-stock the orange hand cleaner, which seems to be the only thing that effectively cleans them. Andy. Attached Thumbnails

28th Jul 2015, 9:33 pm	#2
Nickthedentist Dekatron Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Oxford, UK. Posts: 17,840	Re: Revelation and GPO phones now up and running. Impressive stuff, Andy.