Hello all - I am a telephone collector in the UK, and have a box of 1A2 phones in the garage that I have never been able to do much with - but liked the look of anyway! I've just read through all the posts in this section, and have managed to wire up one of my phones to accept a call on line one (with lamp) thanks to a previous poster. It looks so much better as a 'working' phone, and I'll take the trouble to wire up the other lines of the phone back to my PABX.

I'm off now to trawl through the 'for sale' section, incase I can find anyone who will be willing to post stuff to the UK (most ebayers refuse )

Thanks again for your help,
John

John -

Welcome to the Board! Feel free to ask away. We're all here to help. What are you looking for? You've got a pretty good chance of finding it here - most of us have quite a bit of the "old stuff" buried away.

You mentioned in an earlier post that there are very few 1A2 phones in the UK. What does/did BT use for multiple line appearances?

Sam

Hello Sam - thanks for your reply!

The 1A2 sets we have over here tend to be for curiosity value rather than as working systems (we are used to seeing them on TV - Cagney & Lacey, the Sherrif's Office on Murder She Wrote - that sort of thing!)

When the GPO needed something akin to the 1A2, it used a key-and-lamp unit. These were desk-top units with a capacity for either 10 or 20 lines. Each needed either a single-line telephone connected, or a headset and dial arrangement. The same unit could have exchange lines, PABX extensions or private wires connected in any mix-and-match combination.

I don't think they were ever particularly widely used outside businesses like travel agents and ticket offices (but I stand to be corrected!).

Whereas the 1A2 had the lamp and button in one, the key-and-lamp used a lamp with a 3-position key below it (off - hold - on). Also, whereas the 1A2 came in a range of sexy colours, the key-and-lamp only ever came in 2-tone elephant grey.

You kindly asked what I was looking for... eventually, I would like to have a small working 1A2 system - but reading through the posts and looking at photos of other people's systems, I guess that the KSU units are very large (and therefore costly to ship). I might have to make do with my 1A2's wired up as single line phones!

Thanks again,
John

John -

The smallest KSU I know of is the Western/Northern Electric "Shoebox" - the 551B. It's about the size of a large lunchbox or a small toolbox. The power supply requires a 120Volt feed though and that might be something of a problem.

I'll see if I can measure the one I have somewhere in the dreaded basement and get you an idea of the weight.

Good luck.

Sam

Don't forget the ITT 601A. Since it was all plastic, it is a lot lighter to ship.

What part of the UK are you located?

Ed -

I forgot about the 601. Probably on purpose. I put a couple in for friends and on both units that printed circuit interruptor burned out.

I was always partial to the 501. Amazing that the WE, ITT and GTE were identical.

Sa

Hello all

Racedog - I am in Derbyshire, the finest county of the whole UK!

Sam and Ed - I am really surprised that they are that small - I had always imagined something the size of a washing machine to run the system.

Thanks for all your replies.

John

PS - I have three 1A2 phones, 2 of them are 6 button, and one is 10 button. They are all made by ITT. If I'm lucky enough to aquire a KSU, I would also be interesting in buying some more phones.

PPS - I also have another 6 button phone, but have discovered (thanks to this forum) that it is a three line phone, not a 1A2. I've never had it working because it is missing a handset. Would anyone be willing to sell me a black hard-wired handset for it? (or should I not be asking that in this thread?)

Thanks again,
John

John -

I looked for the KSU last night and couldn't find it. I'll try again this week, I'm pretty sure it's there, but yes, they're that small. They did get bigger - I worked with one that ITT (36A) made that was probably 28" wide and 16" high and 10" deep. That unit would handle about 20 CO Trunks and up to 54 Stations with 4 Links of Intercom.

The 6 button phone that has 3 lines - should have 3 line buttons and 3 hold buttons (H,L,H,L,H,L). If that's the case then it does NOT need a KSU. Matter of fact it won't work with a KSU. Line busy Lamps are provided by a separate 10V AC transformer. Incoming visual indication is by individual neon lamps.

I'll look for a black hard wired handset. The correct place to ask for any material is in the "Buy and Sell" forum.

Sam

Many thanks Sam.

The 3 line phone does have Hold, Line, Hold, Line, etc. as you describe.

When I bought it I didn't realise it was different - but it is a nice little phone.

John

John - I probably have a print for it somewhere if you can give me a part #.

The little "shoebox" KSU is about 15" x 8" x 6'. It's buried so I can't easily weigh it but it's probably 15 - 20 lbs,

Sam

Hi Sam - sorry it has taken me a while to reply, but I have been away from the computer for a few days.

I'm familiar with UK part numbers and where to find them/what they mean, but am at a bit of a loss with an American phone. The base is marked "MF1024". Is that the part number?

Thanks,
John

John -

That number doesn't ring a bell (excuse the pun) with me. It depends who manufactured the phone: ITT, Western Electric, Stromberg-Carlson, or someone else.

A quick question - are the buttons arrayed along the bottom in a horizontal row, or are they in a vertical row along the right side of the phone?

And is the phone rotary or touch tone?

The ITT (and I believe the Western Electric) models were either 576 or 577 models (2576 & 2577 for touch tone).

The part number for those companies would look something like: 257600BA30M

That would be a Tone Dial ("2" prefix), 3 line each with hold (576), in Black (color code 00), Straight line ringer (BA=bell assembly), terminated with 'spade' terminals on individual connectors (code 30), with a "metropolitan" dial [letters and numbers] (code 'M')

Or it might be a: 57705LR40R

That would be a Rotary Dial (no "2" prefix), 3 lines each with hold and having the 'exclusion' feature (577), Green (color code 05), No ringer (LR= less ringer), Plug ended connection, (code 40), with a "regular" dial [having numbers only] (code R)

There are of course other options and codes, but this should give you an idea about one type of phone. I no longer have prints for that model of Stromberg-Carlson sets and I'm not sure if Automatic Electric or Northern Electric ever made one - but let us know what you have and we'll try to help.

Sam

Hi Sam

The phone has buttons along the bottom, and is rotary dial.

It is an ITT phone, and is a 57600BA30M. That's quite a comprehensive identification system - we Brits never include the colour in the part number.

I also forgot to say - to all in general - that if you need help sourcing any British phones, I am more than willing to help!

John

Well John, you're in luck. I've got the prints for it. I've got a Holiday party tonight so I'll be home late and probably not in any shape to do anything -

But tomorrow, if you like, I can probably scan the docs and email them to you.

Sam

Too funny! :rofl:
Reminds me of what Henry Ford said:

"Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants so long as it is black."

Thanks Sam - that would be appreciated... I hope you enjoy your Christmas party.

John

I have never seen a phone like this. Any chance you could post a picture?

Jeff -

It looks just like a 565 set, except that it ends in a batch of spade tipped conductors and every other button is a hold button.

Sam

So, it would just connect to 3 separate POTS lines, plus the external transformer you mentioned for the lamps?

Hi Jeff - I've just tried to take a photo, but my camera has decided not to play along (it is a while since I used it, so I think it feels neglected). I've also trawled the net to find a picture, but can't find a hide nor a hair of one.

I'm sure I saw a picture of one on ths board somewhere (I've only just joined, and spent a rainy day reading as much as I could - so much, that I can't remember what I read where!)

Will keep trying with the camera, but yes, from what I am told it connects to three pots and a transformer (although in my house it will connecte to three PBX extensions instead)

John

John -

I tried to send the file this morning and it didn't go through. (It's about 30mb and might be too big).I zipped it and resent it and had to leave. I'm not sure if it'll go throughh either.

So you may get one or two copies of the PDF. If, when I get home it still hasn't gone I'll rescan it as two or three files instead of one and send it in pieces.

Bear with me.

Sam

Hello Sam

Thanks for the files (and your message). The plans came through loud and clear, and I shall enjoy following them to wire up the phone properly.

I've recently bought myself an A3 size printer, so I shall print them out at a large size - will make them even easier to follow. I'm only 40, but recently my eyes need things to be bigger!

John

John -

Glad they came through OK. Apparently my new HP scanner defaults to OCR mode at 300 pixels per inch (millimeter?). So default mode turns 8, 8.5" x11" sheets into a 32 mb file. Zipping the file shrunk it to a tiny 31mb. :bang:

Apparently Verizon won't let me upload a 30mbs email. I have to check that out.

I created a "custom" setup at 150 pixels per....whatever and the file dropped to 5 mb.

Anyway, I'm glad they came through OK.

Sam

I chatted online with "Raj" from Verizon. My maximum attachment size is either 8 mb, 10mb or 20mb. If you're confused, so am I. He was very polite but English was certainly not his first language and possibly not his second.

I think I'll just try and keep the files under 8mb.

I give up.

They asked me for my opinion and I told them.

Sam

Ah yes,

the Bangalor help line.

I will never buy another Dell computer because I once tried to buy a video card, and it took almost 20 minutes for the dear soul in Bangaloor to copy down the credit card number. Probably had to make several copies to pass to his buddies, as I had my ID stolen shortly thereafter and all sorts of attempts at using that credit card overseas. I could get no response to complaints at Dell, until I did a search for the corporate offices in Texas, and had the uknowwhats to call Michael Dell's office and gripe profusely.

Thus, I have never bought another Dell product again.

Joe

Sam, I just looked on the Verizion site and it looks like 8 meg is the standard limit even though Outlook etc can do up to 20 meg.

8 meg may be a standard ISP limit as I checked my TOU with Manitoba Telecom and it basicly says the same as Verizion.

And to muddy things further some places block incoming .zip attachments of any size unless the sender is white listed to prevent viruses etc.

Joe, that is exactly why I immediately as k for a supervisor whose primary language is English. Being that I am retired, I have the time to wait, call-back, complain to corporate, harras my legislators and aalll that stuff, FINALLY!

There are a number of sites you can share files over for free, with no limit on size. You upload 'em and then give the other person the password. Google 'free file uploading' or 'free file sharing'. I wouldn't recc. it for personal data, but seems perfect for something like this.

Lightning - how do you ask someone who doesn't speak english to get you someone who does?



HTH

- Matt

Me like ee all same big man him speak ee english pidgin.

Jim's got the idea! Only he forgot "Thankyu please"