Just a few things I wanted to ask about:
1) has anyone ever explored a way to activate the quiet/mute function so you can go on mute for a long period without holding the button down? It would be nice to enable mute and leave it on for long meetings. I found the general bsps on the 4A but didn't see anything like that.
2) Am I correct in the assumption that I will never find a set of blue 4A plastics? Any thoughts on having a badly faded tan one repainted blue? I know that's sort of a sacrelidge. Open to opinions.
3) I don't suppose anyone has a few 82B blocks they want to part with? There haven't been any appearing on eBay lately. Thought I would ask if any spares were to be had.

Thanks gentlemen...
Shawn

Hi Shawn,

It was funny to hear your request about the mute, the first time I've seen the question asked on this forum. The solution is to wedge a penny between the on button and metal housing while the mute button is depressed. Don't laugh, I worked in AT&T's HQs for years, and that was the acceptable method.

The 4A did come in blue, and I have only seen once on ebay, and it sold for a very high price, as do green, gray, yellow and red 4As. One of the sellers and 1A2 collectors I know works with an Auto Body shop that does custom paint jobs. They have successfully repainted items to match a given WE color sample. Its a long process with several layering of paints, but you can't tell from the original. Check out ebay seller
garyl1951 completed listings - he has a red Touch a Match that went through this process to die for!

The connecting block you mentioned is also getting scarcer, I set up 3 different searches on ebay to locate one, and it took about 6 months before I found one. And, like you, I could also use one! Western Electric components are getting less and less each year, not counting single line sets.

Yeah I am kicking myself for not bidding on a blue one that was on Ebay a year or so ago with a 2500 set. At the time I didn't have a blue 2565 so I didn't think I would want one. Now I do and I do
Funny you mention your friend... I was actually considering messaging him on Ebay to ask if he could help out or give a recommendation. I have watched his auctions and his work is beautiful.

As for the penny trick thats awesome. I would have never thought of that. Sometimes the best solutions are the simplest. I wouldn't laugh about anything that worked. The lack of permanent mute is what has kept me from using my 4A at my desk for work. I spend a lot of time listening on work calls...

As for the blocks... Yeah I know all of this stuff is harder to find. In about 1994 I worked for a resort and we replaced the Dimension PBX switch with a Definity switch. At the time all retail and admin areas were on 1A2 and that was all ripped out for digital sets. There was literally a mountain of phones, panels, speakerphones, cables, call directors etc in one of the storage garages. I could have probably had whatever I wanted. Shame I didn't rummage through and get some stuff. Hindsight is 20/20 I suppose. At the time that stuff was literally worthless.

Do you have a picture of this 82B block?

History seems to repeat it self; during Divestiture, I was working in AT&T's HQ in Basking Ridge. They had an entire exchange serving HQ, with 2565, Touch a Matics and 4As as the standard office configuration; but after the split up, they started replacing the Centrex and 1A2 equipment with a Definity. Installers were more then happy to leave the station sets with anyone instead of hauling them back to their trucks. Also, employees could order directly from the WE catalog; I wish I had taken advantage of more items then I did, I still miss that golden opportunity every time I look back! Most meetings always included a conference bridge, using a 4A. The penny for mute was the best trick and always used!

You have a slim-to-none chance of finding blue or any of the other "non-promoted" colors.

Re the 4A MUTE feature: The accepted method was to tell a new employee to use a dime. When he was distracted, you replaced the dime with a penny.

This was learned from a previous generation of telephone men who maintained S x S switches like the 701. You told the new guy who worked the day shift to use a quarter to make busy any faulty switches. Then the night guy, who maintained the switches, would replace the quarters with pennies.

I can vouch for the quality of the repaint jobs offered by the TCI / ATCA member. He announces the next color(s) to be done, and then waits until he has a decent-sized batch before he gathers them and gets them painted.

How many 82B adapters do you need? I have a few that I would be willing to sell.

Arthur, what are you looking for the 82b? Any chance you have a 6 button TT card dialer in your inventory?

Arthur, I have been looking for 2 but any is better than none.
Its funny you mention the quarters in the switches. Last fall on a trip to Hawaii I sat next to a lady who had worked for GTE all her life as a switch maintenance person. She said in the 50s and 60s she used a lot of bobby pins and change in her job... But she didn't always have change so the bobby pins were more highly used. She did not however tell me about the exchange program. hahaha


Regarding the other post from Jeff Moss above about what do they look like:

Let me look in the barn, as soon as I can find it, since it's covered in snow, and we expect another foot or so tomorrow.

Thanks Arthur, appreciate your checking! Jim

Yeah... Happy winter eh? Well at least for you guys. For us it's been like April all month. No snow, no rain. Going to be a crispy summer in Idaho....

I have a 91B and a 149A in my inventory, but no 82B.

Thanks for looking Jeff I appreciate it!

Arthur, who is the person you are talking about that does the repaints? I don't think that is the same person as Jim mentioned above from eBay. Any links I should be looking for?

Hi, yes its the same person. Gary describes the process in one of his completed listing for the red Touch a Matic; search on 151202034148 to read. The seller is garyl1951.

I actually have been talking to him but he indicated that the red sets were the only ones he went through the repaint process on. That was a bit different sounding from what Arthur had mentioned above so thats why I asked. Gary is certainly very helpful. I still think those sets of his look amazing.

Another query: Is there an acceptable practice for running the 4A supply from the KSU 18V supply via the 82B so you dont have to have the wall transformer?

The 4A BSP doesn't really cover that. Good idea? Bad idea?

As seldom as I use them it seems wasteful to have the individual transformers powered 24/7 when the KSU is up all the time and I'm not using the 18 volt supply for anything.

ITT's practice used to say that you could run their Orator from either an 18 Volt wall transformer or from the KSU Power Supply.

But I'm not sure about the 4A.

Sam

I have two 4As connected to the KSU power supply and they work perfectly. The 4A BSPs indicate you can use a spare for the power. Hope this helps.

This is the bsp I was using. https://etler.com/docs/BSP/512/512-700-100_I5.pdf
Is there another I should be looking at?
Nice to know it can be done. I just wondered if there was a way to derive spares off the 82b block to strap to the ac terms normally connected to the transformer.

It's probably not possible to do that with an 82b I'll have to look at more carefully. I bet it is easy with a 223 block setup

There are definitely terminals that will allow you to strap the violet/brown pair over to feed the AC power in to the 4A. They are pretty much adjacent to each other. Keep in mind that the screw terminals in the 82B are numbered by the pin numbers of the 25 pair connector. In this case, terminals 24 and 49 would be strapped over to the terminals marked AC. You would then send power to the 4A over the violet/brown pair from the KSU.

You beat me to it Ed! I was just going to post that I figured that out. 24 & 49 for the win! Thank you for confirming for me.

I'm still looking for a couple 82b connecting blocks if anyone feels like rooting about and seeing if you can find some for me! Just send me a message.

Also Ed you were correct about pins 24 and 49 but what is interesting is that the 82b schematic shows those dead ending on the block but apparently they pass through to the line set. I haven't figured out which one or both pass through but with a 2565 set connected there is a short that will blow the fuse at the ksu. So that was a bummer. I just haven't taken a phone set apart to see if the violet brown pair is connected to and which of them passes through the 82b. Just thought it odd since the block diagram schematic really looks like that pair terminates at the block... I'll futz with it more when I have some spare time.

My stuff is packed up right now but I have a painted and non-painted blue 2565 with 4A speakerphone and 82B connecting blocks. However after seeing the painted ones, I would go ahead and get them painted. I agree you can't tell them apart and the finish looks better than original IMHO. The only drawback to painting them is getting the lettering on the transmitter again.

Yeah if I want to go the painting route I was thinking of maybe having one of the tint shop/vinyl places see if they could do a repro lettering overlay for the transmitter. I thought they might be a better option than transparent labels. I thought scanning the original and then duplicating on wrap material might work...

My problem with the painting is finding someone to actually do it for me. Thats something Im not good at and if someone was batching blue I figured that would be lots easier.

Join TCI. There's a member there who does painting with Polane, "The Paint of Choice" for people who want to change the colors of their phones.