atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Other TDM Phone Systems 1A2 and Comkey Telephones & Systems 1A2 and some old WECO stuff

There was one US Marshall that I had a service call because his speaker phone wasn't working.
I would take the transmitter and move it away from the speaker and it worked great!

I would get the same service call three months later...

Question: On the picture of the Richard Nixon phone...Is that a Type Element from an IBM Selectric I see?

Yes, this is correct. There are few Selectrics II in repair in my workshop.

I typed all my college term papers on one of those boat anchors. Back when research meant actually going to a library and opening a book.

They still print pretty decent with carbon ribbon even in comparison with laser printers.

my dad still uses a Selectric occasionally to write checks!

Well, he's probably not wrong, since it IS called a typeWRITER, not a typeTYPER or a writeTYPER.

brb trademarking the term Typetyper. Thanks Uncle Arthur!

Another beauty:

I don’t know what happened to all of the pictures posted here before, but appears they are not visible anymore. This is sad, since reposting them will be a challenge!

Nevertheless, hope everyone is good here. Haven’t seen any activity on this board for a while. I hope 1A2 enthusiasm hasn’t died.

My system upgrade activities and stations restoration has been suspended for a while. But I’m too far already into my collection to stop it.

Some of the questions to other collectors here, as well as updates on my plans.

I’ve put a lot of effort into restoring my beige Call Director to a reasonable condition. I was able to find and get from Canada 2 NOS key strips for it to replace the cloudy old key strip I had on it and an apparatus blank in the third position. Now the only part which is missing is paper insert under the faceplate. My first idea was to produce it on my own with brown paper or golden foil. However, original paper insert will make it way better looking and authentic. In case if anyone has a stock of spare faceplate inserts for 18 button Call Director with old-style key I will appreciate a lot that person helping me in acquiring one:



My “Big System” plan now is close to having all the components needed to extend my 1A2 service from WE 551C KSU with 4 lines to a panel based system with 2x WE 584C panels, giving me 26 lines in total, 17 out of which will be serving the Call Director needs to light up all the buttons.



I have decided to build the equipment side of 66-type connection blocks utilizing Reliable Electric R66-A units. They are slightly larger in size vs. standard WE 66-blocks and should be more convenient for punching down the cross-connect jumper wires. 2 panels will utilize 6 full R66-A blocks (3 Amphenol outputs of 584C take 5 pairs for each line including CO T & R, station side T & R, A and A1, L & LG, plus one pair for common audible for each line). Four of the blocks are already here and the two others are on their way.
Station cabling side will be accommodated with a half size blue board.



I was lucky to take some wholesale amount of NIB SanBar 4000 and WE 400H refurbished KTU to fill the panels at a good bargain price. For now they are still stored in original boxes.



I feel a bit now as not being finally in a shortage of 82B connection blocks both in “old” and “new” cover design, so can sleep well without chasing after each one appearing on eBay.



Only issue with bringing it up and running with all the other components (beside time which is always in shortage) is the need to run 25 pair cabling throughout the house, which I currently rent. So every additional hole in the concrete flooring and tiles brings me closer to the risk of paying a huge repair compensation to the landlord when I decide to move out. My current system compactly occupies a wall in my office room and cabling is just run to the two stations connected directly to it.
Still in thoughts how to make it with minimal damage to the house.