sundance-communications.com/forum Forums Other TDM Phone Systems 1A2 and Comkey Telephones & Systems 4 Prong Jacks

One of the old WECO phones I have, had a 4 prong male jack (don't know what they're actualy called) on the connector cord. I had eventually fitted an RJ11 to the end of the cord, but was thinking the other day that I prefered to have the phone in original form.

It wasn't that hard finding an adaptor on ebay for the original jack, but then I happened upon a shop not that far from my house which it seemed had slipped through some kind of time rift from the late 60's. The guy had loads of the 4 prong type equipment, from adaptors to wall mounts, ones which had two housings for an RJ11 and the 4 prong. He even had a 6 foot, 4 prong extension cable!

The shop blew my mind. He had hand held, battery powered, three station citizen bands transcievers, in their original late 70's boxes!

All this to say that I actually really like the 4 prong jacks. I think they make a very sturdy connection. Sturdier then an RJ11 or RJ45.

I'm with you. I think they're a much better connection. I actually threw out a bunch of them earlier this year. I mean, you really can't keep everything.

There was also a 6pair (12 pin) version that I saw once.

Sam

I've got a box of old WE stuff that I removed from various places and can't resolve myself to throw away!

Yeah, I'm a major hoarder, not as bad as my dad though. His house is down right claustrophobic! The man has one of everything!

I really like the 4 prong adaptors. I think I might do an overhaul of all the jacks in my house, then when I eventually move out, the new tenants will have a nervous breakdown trying to figure out how to hook up their phones, ha!

why not go really retro and hardwire the phones ?

LOL! No, I think that would be a little too much! I like a bit of leeway!

Skip said: I will always have a special place in my heart for the 42A block. The plastic base was almost indestructible (ABS?), and the screws and washers were plated with something that made for true long-term reliability. I only wish I had saved some of them when they were everywhere...

As far as the 4-prongers go, they came in all kinds of colors! I have a couple of grey 549A jacks, and I could swear I have a dark red (burgundy?) one somewhere. I've seen them on the bay thing in others colors as well.

You guys aren't kidding about the screw term and 4-prong stuff making for a better connection. The quality of modular plugs and jacks seems to vary widely, and some of the import stuff gets noisy pretty quickly. When I look at the jack fingers and plug contacts on modular stuff that has been installed for a year or two, they often show visible deterioration (especially when viewed with a small magnifying glass). Meanwhile the WE stuff from the 1960's is still working just fine!

Jim
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Hoarding old WE stuff in a secure undisclosed location.

Jim, I completely agree about the modular plugs and jacks. The little plastic latch on the rj11 or rj18 breaks off all the time, making the plug effectively useless. The money mindset behind all these so called "innovations" is "lean and mean". They got the lean part right, but I'm still looking for the "mean".

I haven't seen one of those in years...about 5.

I haven't seen one of those in years...about 5.