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Old 29th Mar 2020, 11:36 am   #1
Sparks
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Default GPO 713 Pendant phone and 'under desk'dial.

I'd be interested to know if this bygone arrangement, together with a bellset and/or Jack unit, actually had any benefits over a traditional type 700 telephone which had all of the component functions in one package.

Were there any particular businesses or trades that specified the 713 phone and all its add-ons ? Were there even any domestic installations ?

I quite like the 713; it's a neat variation of the 700 but I wonder if it was really necessary to begin with ? There must have been some applications in mind for it. BTW, here's one of mine (on the left).
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Old 29th Mar 2020, 12:21 pm   #2
Dave Moll
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Default Re: GPO 713 Pendant phone and 'under desk'dial.

I believe the supposed advantage was saving of space, though I would have thought the saving was minimal.

I have its elder (Bakelite) brother, the 246. In lieu of an appropriate bellset, the plastic box bottom left contains an induction coil.
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Old 29th Mar 2020, 12:45 pm   #3
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Default Re: GPO 713 Pendant phone and 'under desk'dial.

It would be used for an incoming calls only location such as a workplace.
The dial would be mounted remotely in the bosses office so that workers have to ask to make an outgoing call.
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Old 29th Mar 2020, 12:50 pm   #4
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Default Re: GPO 713 Pendant phone and 'under desk'dial.

Thanks Dave and Refugee. It occurs to me that having a dial-blank phone would also prevent unauthorised outgoing calls.

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Old 29th Mar 2020, 6:29 pm   #5
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Default Re: GPO 713 Pendant phone and 'under desk'dial.

I have seen this arrangement used on a television studio technical control room desk. If I remember correctly, the handset was mounted on a steeply sloping panel above the horizontal desktop and the dial unit was below the desktop. The arrangement was presumably to save space on the desktop and to ensure that the handset was always readily accessible.

The dial unit is retractable by means of a clock spring.

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Old 29th Mar 2020, 7:43 pm   #6
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Default Re: GPO 713 Pendant phone and 'under desk'dial.

Thankyou pmmunro. I suspect various types of control room were envisaged as a likely home for the 713. I've certainly seen them in a few airport control towers over the years (but never with a dial unit), often with a key and lamp unit or push button telephone switches, albeit not recently.
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Old 29th Mar 2020, 9:10 pm   #7
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Default Re: GPO 713 Pendant phone and 'under desk'dial.

I have seen similar on a taxi rank for passengers to call for a car if none are already waiting.
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Old 29th Mar 2020, 9:28 pm   #8
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Default Re: GPO 713 Pendant phone and 'under desk'dial.

I can't see a pendant phone lasting long on a taxi rank ! I have a phone that was designed for this very purpose, railways, level crossings and so on. Basically a type 746 circuit and handset in a heavy metal case with a lockable door. Usually a few on ebay.

The control tower at Leeds Bradford Airport once had a pendant phone with a red handset. I believe it was the direct line to West Yorkshire Fire Service at Birkenshaw. I don't know if there were dials, bells and buzzers with it.
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Old 29th Mar 2020, 11:19 pm   #9
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Default Re: GPO 713 Pendant phone and 'under desk'dial.

Those taxi rank ones did used to get broken but the taxi company would know once the wires were pulled and anyway the people would not get to hire a car if they did break it.
I have never looked in one of those motorway phones as I have always managed to fix the car reasonably quickly.
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Old 30th Mar 2020, 1:28 pm   #10
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Default Re: GPO 713 Pendant phone and 'under desk'dial.

Quote:
Originally Posted by pmmunro View Post
I have seen this arrangement used on a television studio technical control room desk.
We used them on the MIC at Kirk o' Shotts transmitting station (pictured) and other Monitoring and Information Centres, Peter. Kept the desks tidy, I suppose.
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Old 30th Mar 2020, 3:11 pm   #11
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Default Re: GPO 713 Pendant phone and 'under desk'dial.

Thanks Russell. Nice pictures. I wonder if the 713 is still used anywhere in its original, or in a professional, capacity ?
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Old 31st Mar 2020, 12:11 pm   #12
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Default Re: GPO 713 Pendant phone and 'under desk'dial.

Quote:
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Quote:
Originally Posted by pmmunro View Post
I have seen this arrangement used on a television studio technical control room desk.
We used them on the MIC at Kirk o' Shotts transmitting station (pictured) and other Monitoring and Information Centres, Peter. Kept the desks tidy, I suppose.
Slightly off topic but whats the computer on the right hand side of the picture please?
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Old 31st Mar 2020, 1:36 pm   #13
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Default Re: GPO 713 Pendant phone and 'under desk'dial.

Quote:
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Slightly off topic but whats the computer on the right hand side of the picture please?
It was a Commodore PET, and was used for collating fault information from the transmitter outstations (relay sites). The lines of fault data would be printed out of a morning, first thing, and unfurled down the corridor for assessment if it was a particularly long list!
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Old 31st Mar 2020, 1:37 pm   #14
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Default Re: GPO 713 Pendant phone and 'under desk'dial.

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Originally Posted by Sparks View Post

I quite like the 713; it's a neat variation of the 700
Spurred on by this post, I've just found mine in the shed. I KNEW I had one somewhere!
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Old 1st Apr 2020, 1:30 am   #15
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Default Re: GPO 713 Pendant phone and 'under desk'dial.

It could used with a loudspeaking telephone (LST4). You still needed to dial/hangup from the LST4 though in this arrangement. However the LST4 was originally designed to fit into a 19 inch rack in which case it the inbuilt handset would not be accessable and hence the pendent handset needed.

Needed a 9 way cable to interface though
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Old 1st Apr 2020, 8:07 am   #16
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Default Re: GPO 713 Pendant phone and 'under desk'dial.

Thanks John.
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Old 3rd Apr 2020, 7:54 pm   #17
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Default Re: GPO 713 Pendant phone and 'under desk'dial.

Quote:
Originally Posted by russell_w_b View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by electronicskip View Post

Slightly off topic but whats the computer on the right hand side of the picture please?
It was a Commodore PET, and was used for collating fault information from the transmitter outstations (relay sites). The lines of fault data would be printed out of a morning, first thing, and unfurled down the corridor for assessment if it was a particularly long list!
A later PET where the cassette was replaced by a numeric keypad. But takes me back all the same....
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Old 3rd Apr 2020, 8:40 pm   #18
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Default Re: GPO 713 Pendant phone and 'under desk'dial.

This picture of the control tower at Leeds Bradford Airport, circa 1982, shows a key and lamp unit inelegantly stuck to the airfield lighting pedestal, complete with a jack unit and 713 pendant phone. There's a couple of under-desk dials lurking on the left of the control desk and the aforementioned red 713 somewhere in the middle of the desk.
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Old 3rd Apr 2020, 9:37 pm   #19
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Default Re: GPO 713 Pendant phone and 'under desk'dial.

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Originally Posted by duncanlowe View Post

A later PET where the cassette was replaced by a numeric keypad. But takes me back all the same....
There were several PETs like that on the station, Duncan, along with a few BBC Micros. Here's a gatuitous pic of the one in the KoS Line Termination room. Just side-on, though.
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Old 3rd Apr 2020, 11:47 pm   #20
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Default Re: GPO 713 Pendant phone and 'under desk'dial.

There was one on the vision supervisor's desk in the LMCR (Lightweight Mobile Control Room) in the 80s. It was connected to a DEL (Direct Engineering Line) to CAR (Central Apparatus Room) in TC (Television Centre). I quite miss all those acronyms.

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