Telephone 332CB. - UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Discussion Forum

keithinuk · 5th Jun 2016, 1:37 pm

On a wander around the local car boot today I found two 332CB phones, so for a tenner, I couldn't say no, they look to be in good condition, with original cables, both have drawers, no chips or cracks, just in need a clean up.

Question, do I leave them as is and just get them working, or do I add the dials?

I can use dial phones at home, my Gecophone works well and I do have 332 parts about.

JohnBHanson · 5th Jun 2016, 3:45 pm

If you are intending to use them I would add dials, that way you will get more use and pleasure. If you are just using them for display I would leave them as is.

julie_m · 5th Jun 2016, 5:30 pm

A CB phone is electrically identical to a rotary-dial phone that is permanently on-normal.

Back in the 1990s, the banks used to give out DTMF keypads that could be held against the mouthpiece of a pulse-dialling telephone to transmit the DTMF tones to operate their automated balance enquiry service. If you could get hold of some of these, you would be able to use them without fitting dials.

On an Asterisk PBX, you can use immediate=yes in the sections of your chan_dahdi.conf that refer to the FXS ports into which the phones are plugged; then as soon as the handset is lifted, dialplan execution will begin at extension "s", stage 1 in the context specified in chan_dahdi. So you could just pick up the handset and be connected straight to a number. If you're using a Handytone or similar analogue to SIP converter as opposed to an internal analogue card, then you will have to investigate if or not that can be programmed to dial a number immediately the handset is picked up (most of them can).

keithinuk · 6th Jun 2016, 9:19 am

I have an old 332 chassis and parts from a damaged phone I had, so I can change one to a dial phone and leave the other as is.
Both have square capacitors and the phone receivers date 51 and 53.

julie_m · 6th Jun 2016, 2:51 pm

Don't feel too guilty about spoiling the originality of your 332s -- unless you do something really egregious like fitting the PBU from a 782! (Yes, it has the same pink, orange, brown, blue and slate grey wires, and fits through the aperture.) GPO phones were designed purposely for bits to be swapped about easily; and when an exchange was converted from manual to automatic, as many existing phones as possible probably would have been fitted with dials in the field, rather than swapping them out whole.

keithinuk · 6th Jun 2016, 9:31 pm

Not really, I have the parts to make one into an original 332 with dial, as I already had a 332 which had a hole in the back of it and the other one is already working as a 332CB.
I can use a dial phone on my home phone system.

5th Jun 2016, 1:37 pm	#1
keithinuk Retired Dormant Member Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: Hertfordshire, UK. Posts: 208	Telephone 332CB. On a wander around the local car boot today I found two 332CB phones, so for a tenner, I couldn't say no, they look to be in good condition, with original cables, both have drawers, no chips or cracks, just in need a clean up. Question, do I leave them as is and just get them working, or do I add the dials? I can use dial phones at home, my Gecophone works well and I do have 332 parts about.

5th Jun 2016, 3:45 pm	#2
JohnBHanson Heptode Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Worthing, Sussex, UK. Posts: 661	Re: Telephone 332CB. If you are intending to use them I would add dials, that way you will get more use and pleasure. If you are just using them for display I would leave them as is.

5th Jun 2016, 5:30 pm	#3
julie_m Dekatron Join Date: May 2008 Location: Derby, UK. Posts: 7,735	Re: Telephone 332CB. A CB phone is electrically identical to a rotary-dial phone that is permanently on-normal. Back in the 1990s, the banks used to give out DTMF keypads that could be held against the mouthpiece of a pulse-dialling telephone to transmit the DTMF tones to operate their automated balance enquiry service. If you could get hold of some of these, you would be able to use them without fitting dials. On an Asterisk PBX, you can use immediate=yes in the sections of your chan_dahdi.conf that refer to the FXS ports into which the phones are plugged; then as soon as the handset is lifted, dialplan execution will begin at extension "s", stage 1 in the context specified in chan_dahdi. So you could just pick up the handset and be connected straight to a number. If you're using a Handytone or similar analogue to SIP converter as opposed to an internal analogue card, then you will have to investigate if or not that can be programmed to dial a number immediately the handset is picked up (most of them can). __________________ If I have seen further than others, it is because I was standing on a pile of failed experiments.

6th Jun 2016, 9:19 am	#4
keithinuk Retired Dormant Member Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: Hertfordshire, UK. Posts: 208	Re: Telephone 332CB. I have an old 332 chassis and parts from a damaged phone I had, so I can change one to a dial phone and leave the other as is. Both have square capacitors and the phone receivers date 51 and 53.

6th Jun 2016, 2:51 pm	#5
julie_m Dekatron Join Date: May 2008 Location: Derby, UK. Posts: 7,735	Re: Telephone 332CB. Don't feel too guilty about spoiling the originality of your 332s -- unless you do something really egregious like fitting the PBU from a 782! (Yes, it has the same pink, orange, brown, blue and slate grey wires, and fits through the aperture.) GPO phones were designed purposely for bits to be swapped about easily; and when an exchange was converted from manual to automatic, as many existing phones as possible probably would have been fitted with dials in the field, rather than swapping them out whole. __________________ If I have seen further than others, it is because I was standing on a pile of failed experiments.

6th Jun 2016, 9:31 pm	#6
keithinuk Retired Dormant Member Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: Hertfordshire, UK. Posts: 208	Re: Telephone 332CB. Not really, I have the parts to make one into an original 332 with dial, as I already had a 332 which had a hole in the back of it and the other one is already working as a 332CB. I can use a dial phone on my home phone system.