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I have an old, Western Electric 1-BA Telephone Answering Set from 1964 that I am fixing up. It looks identical to this one:
https://www.cedarknolltelephone.com/cedartel/1ba.jpg
I am trying to connect it to my home phone line, but having no luck and it is driving me crazy! I have tried combinations of connections yielding dial tone, or sound, or dial, or receive, but not all of them and the attached phone won't ring. I assume I have something connected wrong.
On the back is a terminal strip I cannot decipher with 13 terminals labeled thus:
[A][B][C][D][E][F][G][T][R][K1][G1][T1][R1]
There are jumpers connecting [A]and[B], [C]and[D], and [K1]and[G1]. Also, the wires leading to the phone are connected: Green to [T1] and red to [R1]. It is hardly user-friendly, and requires the removal of the whole cover just to get at it. Probably also a phone technician to install it!
On the side of the unit is a phono plug port, like you would plug large headphones into or something. Hoping this might be the interface, I tried variations there too but to no avail.
After staring at countless links via Google for several days trying to find the answer for myself, I am at my wit's end! Please help me make sense of the terminal strip, and how to connect it up.
Thank you all for reading this.

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On the terminal strip try jumpering 'T' and 'G' and connect to the green wire of the phone jack, 'R' to the red wire of the phone jack. (Substitute the expression Line Cord for Phone Jack if you are putting a 1/2 mudular line cord on the animal) And does the phone have a bell. The 1/4 inch jack is probably for recording the announcement with the microphone you didn't get. frown Too bad you didn't wind up with a 700, now THAT I could help you with! Repaired those hogs for 12 years!


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Thank you for such a quick reply! I'll go try that. For what it's worth, I already connected the wires as you suggested, however I haven't tried jumpering the [T] and [G] terminals. That might be the ticket.

As for the side plug, it might have had a microphone originally, but I can record the greeting through the handset as well. I thought it might be for an external speaker or something for listening to the messages.

Semi-related to this, the Model 500 phone attached to it has a lightly spring loaded wire between the bells that appears to adjust the tension of the clapper or something. What is this for? Does it activate/deactivate the ringer? I can't experiment with it to find out for myself since I can't get the thing to ring yet in the first place, so I thought I'd ask.

Thank you!

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The thin wire is the bias spring and was for when ringing current was low, you'd take it out of the notch to loosen the bias. The heavy one is for bell loudness and if you remove the screw to shut the bells off.


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I think you are going to want to connect the green and yellow leads from the telephone set together on terminal T1.


Ed Vaughn, MBSWWYPBX
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Wow! I love the support of this place! Thank you all for helping a newbie!

So far, I have tried jumping [G]and[T] and connecting like advised above. With the machine "on" I get nothing (I'll eventually want different results) but with the machine "off" I get a dial tone, I can send and receive calls, but still no ring.
So, out of curiosity, I removed the jumper and stayed connected; [G] to green, [R] to red, and got absolutely nothing, although I could hear a faint ringing through the earpiece.

Perhaps, before more trials, you folks could assuage my fear of connecting the wrong thing to the wrong thing, and zapping something irreparably. It has lasted 45 years and still functions, I don't want to be the one to cause the demise of a functional collectible.

And, as to the "collectible" status of this machine, I guess I don't know the "value" of it other than the sentimentality factor that my father bought it new and his voice is still on it from HIS youth. I am tinkering with something that was made shortly before I was, so to me this is a big deal and getting it working is beyond valuable to me. Perhaps to those of you here with vastly more knowledge than I have on the matter it is not that big a deal, but it is to me. That said, I deeply appreciate the fact that you all are even reading this, let alone the notion that you would help me. Again, thank you.

I'm off to the workbench again to try Ed's suggestion. I'll let you know what I find out.

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Ok, I just tried that, and got the same results. I'll try to upload some pictures so you can see what I am doing. Maybe that will help.

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Here is my current setup:

[Linked Image from img268.imagevenue.com]

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Well I tried my best to find the wiring schematic on this and nothing. T&R should be your incoming tip and ring. The T1 R1 should be out to the phone. So that's where I'd start, if you haven't already. The strapping could be for the outgoing message recording, but I really have no idea.


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Thanks! What do you mean by "the strapping?" I don't know what that means (sorry!).

I tried that connection setup first, as that made the most sense. Shortly after removing the cover, I made the newbie mistake of tightening all the terminal screws just because they were loose. Now I can't remember which of them might have been loose, as a clue as to which of them might have been originally connected to the house wiring. Dangit!!

I am at a loss.....

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