Telephone collectors??

[Motorola minion]

Yes, consider your mind blown. Adding non-Western Electric, non-leased equipment was absolutely verboten. I think they could detect current draw.

Chris Campbell

Chris, I think that is true and I can confirm with my Verizon contact. I was made aware of this possibility after I added two or three extra phones (one was a bootlegged WE Trimline I still have) to our rural pulse line in the mid 70s. My dad had gotten the Telco to connect a bell box and a candlestick dial phone his grandparents had. In all, we had three "sanctioned" telephones. It was hard to be heard on that classic though.

For that reason stated above, individual line's ringer current, we disconnected the ringers in a few of these, as the others could be heard everywhere. Dad was happy we disconnected ringer on the bedroom phone.

[Firedome]

I miss the sound of the old bell ringers, I need to put some of our WE phones back into service. I stubbornly hang on to our land-line, as I hear way better through it than cell/smart phones due to a WE set's superior speaker and still prefer, by far, their handset configuration with transducers directly next to ear and mouth, as God intended... LOL.

[19&41]

I had to give up the POTS line here as the service interruptions became more frequent and longer. I switched first to Clear.net and when it's plug got pulled, I went over to VOIP with OOMA and use a Panasonic PBX unit for my dial out and ring in.

[William]

Like you, Roger, I prefer talking on a landline for the same reason as you.

Bill

[TC Chris]

I miss the sound of the old bell ringers, I need to put some of our WE phones back into service. I stubbornly hang on to our land-line, as I hear way better through it than cell/smart phones due to a WE set's superior speaker and still prefer, by far, their handset configuration with transducers directly next to ear and mouth, as God intended... LOL.

Of course, in the old days we all liked to gripe about "Ma Bell." And there was some basis for it. Prices were high (remember the concept of "long distance"?) and some areas of innovation were suppressed. But one thing they offered was technical standards, including standards for what was then the principal purpose of telephones--talking to people. Intelligibility was a big thing. You could understand people because the emphasis was on the frequencies that mattered for perceiving speech.

Each of my successive cell phones has got worse. And no, it's not because I'm getting old man's ears, which I am, but because the manufacturers are emphasizing things like cost and size and features at the expense of voice quality. Deregulation has its downsides. I guess the young people think it's quaint that oldsters like me use a phone for talking to other people.

Chris Campbell

[Firedome]

All so true. The one silver lining has been not worrying about time-based "long distance" costs anymore, we all remember making those calls rare and short in order to save money.

I need to figure out how to keep our landline w/o the terrible Verizon costs. We have landline and internet service (crappy and slow) thru Verizon, and it's now crept up to $95 a month. I'm terrible w/ computer & phone tech, can anyone tell me how to get good land-line service for less or free? We also have separate cell service, also Verizon, we may be switching to Cellular One or another one for less than the current $53.mo, we need only very minimal cell service.

[19&41]

Yow, that's a high price to pay for POTS. It must be because the costs to maintain it are going up and the patronage is going down. My service for a virtual landline is $6.89 a month. It's free, but the mandatory surcharge (tax) must be paid. This, with a cell phone backup at $25 a month is a price I can deal with.

[TC Chris]

I need to figure out how to keep our landline w/o the terrible Verizon costs. We have landline and internet service (crappy and slow) thru Verizon, and it's now crept up to $95 a month. I'm terrible w/ computer & phone tech, can anyone tell me how to get good land-line service for less or free? We also have separate cell service, also Verizon, we may be switching to Cellular One or another one for less than the current $53.mo, we need only very minimal cell service.

The problem is that local phone companies were monopolies. It was a trade-off. In the early 20th or late 19th century there were multiple phone companies in many towns, and the streets looked like wire farms. So we granted monopolies, subject to regulation of rates and service practices. But that means that each town had one company. Even if another one had wanted in, the capital costs of building out the system of wires and switching equipment were prohibitive.

I was wondering, however, if there is a way to homebrew a system to use mechanical phones with cell phone systems--some form of interface that would digitize the old output and send it on. Just speculation; digital is way above my pay grade.

Chris Campbell

[19&41]

I need to figure out how to keep our landline w/o the terrible Verizon costs. We have landline and internet service (crappy and slow) thru Verizon, and it's now crept up to $95 a month. I'm terrible w/ computer & phone tech, can anyone tell me how to get good land-line service for less or free? We also have separate cell service, also Verizon, we may be switching to Cellular One or another one for less than the current $53.mo, we need only very minimal cell service.

The problem is that local phone companies were monopolies. It was a trade-off. In the early 20th or late 19th century there were multiple phone companies in many towns, and the streets looked like wire farms. So we granted monopolies, subject to regulation of rates and service practices. But that means that each town had one company. Even if another one had wanted in, the capital costs of building out the system of wires and switching equipment were prohibitive.

I was wondering, however, if there is a way to homebrew a system to use mechanical phones with cell phone systems--some form of interface that would digitize the old output and send it on. Just speculation; digital is way above my pay grade.

Chris Campbell

Have a look at this thread, particularly the tutorial in post #15. It concerns a device some are using to adapt older telephones to cell service.

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/foru ... ic=23294.0

[Firedome]

I looked at it, thanks, seems promising but as a certified Luddite I have no idea about 90% of what they were talking about.

[19&41]

Spend some time with the Classic Rotary Phone Forum. There is a lot of information of value there and helpful people as well.

[Motorola minion]

I did and they were on a different level with those gadget names and google voice. Thanks for that link, it was very helpful.

At one time, dial phones would operate on a land line, assuming I grounded the yellow wire. Then we got an Arris modem from Comcaste that would take pulse dial and ring a bell phone, without that connection.

After some issues with that rented modem, I bought a Motorola (what else?) modem that has the same RJ-11 voice jack. It will ring the WE trimline but ability pulse dial is gone and I have to be ok with that I guess.

[Firedome]

Dave I need you to school me on hooking my WE phones up!

[19&41]

I also use a Motorola WiFi router. The simplest adapter to convert dial pulses to DTMF (touch tone) signaling is with a Dialgizmo adapter with a VOIP adapter. The VOIP provides the telephone connection, including your ringer, to your internet, for 1 phone. The Dialgizmo will provide conversion for dialing 1 through 0. There are other makes of dialing adapter as well which are covered on the Classic Rotary Phone Forum.

[19&41]

Dave I need you to school me on hooking my WE phones up!

There's a section on the Classic Rotary Phones Forum that has wiring layouts for most of the phones you would deal with. also the color sequence and pinouts of the RJ-11 plugs and jacks.

[Firedome]

Good info thnx!

[TC Chris]

There's a section on the Classic Rotary Phones Forum that has wiring layouts for most of the phones you would deal with. also the color sequence and pinouts of the RJ-11 plugs and jacks.

Hey, post over on that forum that I've got the auto-card-dialer instruction book in case somebody wants it.

Chris Campbell

[19&41]

You go ahead and do it. There is a well laid out area for classified sales and it's simple to join. They are all nice folks and they don't find pleasure in ridiculing anyone.