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Old 18th Sep 2012, 9:56 am   #1
Ryan_1993
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Default Need help deciding on a vintage landline phone for my bedroom

Hello guys,

So for as long as I can remember (I'm only 19) I've been fascinated and have collected various pieces of vintage technology and objects over the years. This ranges from my vintage amp, record player, 8-track player, retro lamps and vintage cameras etc. Obviously, my parents and my mates think I'm crazy, but I just love collecting.

So my bedroom is pretty much a homage to showing off my collection and I've drawn inspiration from my favourite decade the 1970's. I've given it a sorta 70's space age twist, but I have also tried to keep functional and modern for obvious reasons.

Anyways, what I want is a retro landline telephone for my desk. This is basically where all my studying for work and university gets done and the desk is relatively deep, so space isn't much of an issue.

I am undecided what to actually get though. I've narrowed it down to two models I really like, either, a 1930's black GPO 200 pyramid series, which I think looks rather timeless and stunning to look at, but I'm not really sure it would actually match the seventies feel of my room and it is rather expensive for a good example about £170-£200

Then there is the much cheaper alternative a 1970's GPO 746 series, both phones are in black as the main colour schemes of my room is black, white and very light olive green.

I hope someone can provide some useful information of either of these two phones to help me out as I like both, but I'm not really sure how the 200 series would actually look in this type of environment or how it performs as an actual phone in 2012.

I may post photos of my vintage getup if this would be helpful.

Another important issue is that I'm unsure if "Sky Talk" supports pulse dialling, but if this is an issue I have heard of Pulse to Tone converters, which you can purchase to convert the pulse tones from the rotary dial into digital signals for it to work with the modern tone dialling systems.

Thanks and hope someone can help.
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Old 18th Sep 2012, 12:06 pm   #2
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Default Re: Need help deciding on a vintage landline phone for my bedroom

As far as I know, the 746 is typical 70's. A dialgizmo will do the converting to numeric tones. The # and * tends to be hard to get OK, even when the dialgizmo claims to do it.
The only skype adapter I have tested who copes with pulse dialing is the xlink adapers, and they are to high cost related to speech quality and compatibility.

Sky talk will need an older skype version to make short numbers, so you may dial out, or you use the pc for dialling, and the phone for talking, and receiving (ringing at) incoming calls

dsk
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Old 18th Sep 2012, 12:14 pm   #3
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Default Re: Need help deciding on a vintage landline phone for my bedroom

Hi Ryan and welcome,

Go for a 746 to start with - they're still cheap and work brilliantly, especially if you take time to clean the dial contacts (ask here for advice) and replace the old carbon microphone with a 1980s electronic one.

They still turn up at car boots and at junk shops. £20 should buy you a really nice example if you're patient. Grey/brown is least desirable so least expensive. Red is probably the most sought-after. Ivory is very common indeed and so should be inexpensive, and fits in well with most decor.

Look out for:
  • Fading or discolouration: see if the plastic under the handset is a different colour to that which has been exposed to the sun. Green ones seem worse in that respect, and the ivory ones can go a nasty mustardy colour which looks like tobacco staining but which doesn't really clean off.
  • Damaged coiled handset cords: these can be easily replaced, but nice if you don't have to.
  • Sticky dials: check that the dial turns smoothly, and returns to its rest position swiftly. After you've played with a few, you'll know what's right and what's not
  • Cracked cases: the commonest place is at the front, on the left and right corners, starting at the bottom.
  • Bizarre colours, e.g. orange, pink, turqoise: these are non-original and may even be just spray painted and so chip easily.
  • "Modern" replacement microphones: if you peer through the holes in the mouthpiece and can see red plastic with a grey centre, then a new microphone has been fitted which is good news. The old, silver coloured ones tend to go crackly and lead to faint outgoing speech.
  • "Modern" bell motors: the originals were marked "500 OHMS" on each coil, the newer ones "2000 OHMS". The newer ones draw less current so will allow other phones on the same line to ring better, but it's no big deal if the older type is present.
  • Scratches and cigarette burns: These are often impossible to disguise, whereas filth and grime can be removed with ease.
Good luck,

Nick.
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Old 18th Sep 2012, 12:16 pm   #4
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Default Re: Need help deciding on a vintage landline phone for my bedroom

Hi,

This forum post, albeit concerned with a different question, suggests pulse dialling is available with Sky Talk but availability might vary between areas. We had a simialr question some time ago concerning Talk Talk in which it was discovered that although these services use BT lines, it can vary between areas according to the call provider's own equipment.

You could always call Sky Talk to enquire, but your average 'helpline' operator may not know the answer. In fact he/she may not even know what pulse dialling is. If you can, it might be easier if you can borrow a suitable telephone from someone and try it. You don't necessarily need a 'vintage' telephone; many modern-ish 'phones can be switched between tone and pulse dialling.

A pyramid 'phone would look rather incongruous in a 'seventies' room, I'd have thought. Also, as money is obviously an issue, why not consider a 706? A black one with an alpha-numeric dial would look OK.

If you really want a GPO bakelite instrument then yes, as you've discovered the 162/232 types (pyramids) do now fetch good money. Remember, too, that unless you obtain one which is known to have been overhauled and converted you'll have to do some work on it before it's suitable for use.

The later 300 series instruments might be more affordable; perhaps £80-£100 for a tidy one, cheaper if work is needed. Don't pay 'antiques centre' prices though as these are usually inflated.

A word on this "retro" nonsense now. "Retro", albeit a word in common usage, by and large refers to reproduction items. "Vintage" is a more apt word for the genuine, original, items. You're obviously not a fool and appear to know your stuff but, nonetheless, just don't be duped by the 'retro brigade'.
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Old 18th Sep 2012, 12:19 pm   #5
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Default Re: Need help deciding on a vintage landline phone for my bedroom

High quality replica spare parts available here:

http://www.gpospares.co.uk/

A new, colour-matched handset and line cord is a particularly worthwhile investment in many cases.
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Old 18th Sep 2012, 12:24 pm   #6
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Default Re: Need help deciding on a vintage landline phone for my bedroom

Also, don't overlook the "Trimphone" (1960s design but used throughout the 70s and certainly not out of keeping in your "space age" themed room), and also the pushbutton 700-series phones, particularly if a tone-dialling one (with * and #) crops up.

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Old 18th Sep 2012, 12:25 pm   #7
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Default Re: Need help deciding on a vintage landline phone for my bedroom

A BT746 is the 1970s phone.

DTMF keypads (which you hold against the mouthpiece and dial) used to be available free from most banks in the days when many people still had old-fashioned phones. Probably worth asking at a bank branch, in case they still have some old ones lying about.

If you want to play with computers and phones (and who doesn't? ) I can heartily recommend Asterisk. With a TDM410P card and FXS module (there are some inexpensive, functional clones to be found on eBay -- they work exactly the same as the "real" ones, but probably will not last long in a production environment handling thousands of calls per hour) it can deal just fine with pulse dialling (it even works voice menus just fine, just as long as you don't put * or # in them). Get the version with three FXS (connect to a phone) and one FXO (connects to exchange line), fit it into a scrap PC, install Asterisk and you can plumb three "retro" phones into one exchange line (and call between them). Note that if you use Asterisk between your retro phones and the exchange line, what it dials down the line will be DTMF anyway even if it was dialled in pulses.
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Old 18th Sep 2012, 1:17 pm   #8
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Default Re: Need help deciding on a vintage landline phone for my bedroom

Regarding other forums, I have got lots of help here:
http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php
dsk
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Old 18th Sep 2012, 2:51 pm   #9
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Default Re: Need help deciding on a vintage landline phone for my bedroom

Have you considered an "Ericofon" ?

First produced in the 1950s but used in a whole slew of 1960s/1970s movies and TV series when a sci-fi/space-age phone was needed.

http://www.ericofon.com/

They were used in lots of movies...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ericofon#In_the_Media
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Old 18th Sep 2012, 3:34 pm   #10
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Default Re: Need help deciding on a vintage landline phone for my bedroom

Hello thanks for the reply. Yes I saw them online, but I have to say I'm not really a fan. I do sort-of like the Trimphone, but after finding out some of them have a radioactive rotary dial it kind of put me off.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Nickthedentist View Post
High quality replica spare parts available here:

http://www.gpospares.co.uk/

A new, colour-matched handset and line cord is a particularly worthwhile investment in many cases.
Thanks for the link, glad to see you can still buy new parts for them. I'm now actually considering buying a unconverted and perhaps tatty Type 746 and give it a full restore and convert it myself as a little project. I'm really liking the glossy black versions and the two tone green, other colours less so. These two colours are the ones which would really match my room though.

I also forgot to mention in my OP that with me having no phone outlet in my bedroom and only one in the office across my hall. I am also going to have to purchase the RTX Wireless Phone Jack off Amazon, will this work okay with this kind of phone?

I've seen in the reviews section on amazon of people having had issues where it doesn't ring via the transmitter, although apparently this was solved when an ADSL filter was added onto the unit.
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Old 18th Sep 2012, 4:52 pm   #11
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Default Re: Need help deciding on a vintage landline phone for my bedroom

Don't be put off by Trimphone dials; the gas all leaked away donkey's years ago.
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Old 18th Sep 2012, 7:27 pm   #12
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Default Re: Need help deciding on a vintage landline phone for my bedroom

I would not expect a wireless phone jack to work with LD dialling, only DTMF. And you've got to get power to it anyway. Just wire in a standard extension socket, it's easy enough and less to go wrong.
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Old 18th Sep 2012, 8:27 pm   #13
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Default Re: Need help deciding on a vintage landline phone for my bedroom

I'm not really sure to be honest I was hoping someone would be able to tell me. The Wireless Jack does give it power though, as its plugged into a wall socket the then you plug the standard BT plug from the phone into the unit.

Basically in the pack you get two units. One is a master what plugs into an electric wall socket as well as the houses internal phone line. The other unit is what you use in a location you want the phone line extending too. Again, you plug this unit into an electric socket and then plug the phone into that. So it should be able to power a telephone. I did read on the amazon reviews though that people have had different amounts of success with them, apparently fitting a DSL filter onto the secondary unit fixes a lot of issues.

Would be good if someone has one and can confirm that it works, otherwise I'll try and see if I can wire a telephone line into my room.
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Old 18th Sep 2012, 8:49 pm   #14
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Default Re: Need help deciding on a vintage landline phone for my bedroom

As stated above, installing a phone extension is a piece of cake for a semi-comptetant person. The hardest bit is usually working out a way of running the cable without it looking ugly or causing people to trip up.

I've never heard about your clever wireless device, although it sounds potentially useful in some circumstances. The ADSL filter trick works because these filters convert the 2-wire output of the unit to the 3-wire system used by most UK-made telephone gear from that era. Specifically, they contain a capacitor to derive a ringing signal for the phone's bell, which is delivered to the phone via the blue wire in the line cord. Obviously, the manufacturers weren't concerned about compatability with older devices, so saved a few pence by omitting this capacitor.

But as AJS says, these units may well be useless for pulse-dial phones. I've glanced at the instructions online, and they don't say either way, which usually means they're not supported.

Nick.
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Old 18th Sep 2012, 9:05 pm   #15
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Default Re: Need help deciding on a vintage landline phone for my bedroom

I am going to take the risk, I can always sell them if it doesn't do what I want just to see if it works. I don't wanna fit a phone jack if I don't have to, especially since I don't think my parents would be too happy about it either. I'd have to run the wire externally on the outside of the house. I think that would be the most practical way.
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Old 18th Sep 2012, 9:05 pm   #16
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Default Re: Need help deciding on a vintage landline phone for my bedroom

I would strongly advise wiring an extension telephone socket, a lot of mains interference seems to get into these mains converters which can be heard when using the telephone. They are also more expensive.

I have here a wall mount 741 in superb condition, in ivory, fully converted and fitted with a Rotatone pulse to tone converter. I know it's not the colour you are after, but if you are interested, let me know.

All the best,
Matty
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Old 18th Sep 2012, 9:32 pm   #17
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Default Re: Need help deciding on a vintage landline phone for my bedroom

Thanks for the replies.

After speaking with my dad he says it just wouldn't be viable to fit a telephone jack into my room as it has several implications.

Firstly it's a pretty new house 12 years old and it has all the cavity wall foam insulation stuff, making it difficult not impossible but (more costly) to drill a wire externally from the master box outside and up into my room

So then I suggested how about running a wire from the office telephone jack in the room next door, but then when it comes to the wall to get into my room it would have to go through the airing cupboard with our water tank and it's pretty much impossible to get inside of it with the tank and all the fitted in wooden shelving.

I honestly can't think of any other option other than a Rotatone module and a RTX wireless transmitter, I just hope to it works.
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Old 18th Sep 2012, 10:24 pm   #18
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Default Re: Need help deciding on a vintage landline phone for my bedroom

Phone extension wiring is pretty unobtrusive- what about along the skirting board from the office jack to office door, tuck round the doorframe in a corner and so on into your room? Or even just run it under the edge of the carpet if you have fully fitted stuff.

I'd have no qualms, but then I'm not your Dad (though I may well be rather older.....) and I do live quite happily with bright orange Cat5 cable tacked to our skirting boards
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Old 19th Sep 2012, 6:33 am   #19
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Default Re: Need help deciding on a vintage landline phone for my bedroom

Does anyone know where they sell the little plastic covers for the centre number label of the dial? As a lot appear to have them missing, well the ones which are pretty cheap anyway. I've decided to look for a cheap unconverted 746 and do the work myself as it looks pretty straight forward, should be easy enough. If the case is tatty its useful that you can buy brand new cases as well if needed.

I'll also upgrade the microphone to an electronic one if the specific one i get hasnt been done already, I have heard that the standard carbon ones are pretty poor, especially after long years of use.

Also some that ive seen for sale have rather stretched out recvier cords, is there a fix for this? or would I be better off buying a brand replacement cord and wiring a in a replacement? How difficult is it to wire up a new cord into the reciver? Are there any guides online how to do this online. I do think I'll be fine converting the phone, but it's a pretty small environment to work on inside of a reciver lol.

All in all, should be a good little project

Last edited by Ryan_1993; 19th Sep 2012 at 6:47 am.
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Old 19th Sep 2012, 7:52 am   #20
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Default Re: Need help deciding on a vintage landline phone for my bedroom

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ryan_1993 View Post
Does anyone know where they sell the little plastic covers for the centre number label of the dial?
Er, see post 5 above, specifically "Finger Dial Label Cover (Opal) - Clear"


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