Telephone repair

Retro6

Retro6

Retro6

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Joined
30 Jan 2019
Posts
953
I know there will be a lot of people who don't use there landlines anymore but I still use mine and I like retro telephones. I've repaired/converted a good number of Bakelite and GPO rotary dial telephones in my time but with automated telephone services today rotary telephones are not much good anymore when you need to press numbers so the next best thing are the old push button telephones. The modern ones are crap and don't last long where as the old ones are better made and last for years and years.

I bought a nice old telephone push button BT telephone from a boot fair and I paid 7 pound for it because I was desperate at that moment in time where I needed a push button telephone to make some calls. The lady who I bought it from said it works but when I got it home and tested it, it was completely dead. I opened it up and I saw it had some liquid, possibly coffee had been spilled on it or something so I got out my IPA and a toothbrush and cleaned up the keypad and the circuit boards and then I plugged it in not expecting much and I got a dial tone and a responsive keypad... so I put it all back together and its been working ever since with no problems. The clarity is amazing on older phones when making and receiving calls.

I needed an extra telephone for another room and today I found another nice old push button telecom phone. It looks nice. I was told its working blah blah blah same story... bought it back home and tested it, it has a dial tone, but the keypad isn't functioning so I've got it apart, I've cleaned the circuit boards and keypad plus keypad parts with IPA and the keypad sort of works now I was able to dial out on it... just abouts... there is no keypad tone, having no keypad tone makes is hard to tell which buttons are working, so I need to find out why the there is no keypad tone also there are black pads on the keypad membrane that might be a bit worn... but first I need to make sure the electronic side of things are working as they should.

Does anybody know what electronic components I should be looking at for the keypad tones?
 
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FBi7 said:
My first memory of a landline phone was one of these bad boys.

https://flic.kr/p/2pLwazR

My mum had to get a locking device which attached to the rotary thing to stop us using the phone and generating sky-high bills!


Yes! I remember the patterns of clicks you'd hear on the line when you dialled a number.
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Excellent phones and fully serviceable. I have lots of these plus lots of bell sets and lots of spare boards still sealed in the packaging. I installed an old GPO bellset in my hallway which has been working nicely for years. Unfortunately these phones don't fetch much like they did around 2007/2012'ish. The value went right down on these so fast. They only fetch about 25 quid now in fully working order.

The money is in the Bakelite phones, I've got one from the 1930s all working but in those days you didn't have the rotary dial, to make a call back then you had to use the hook switch for the operator. I have a couple from the 1940s as well. I'll never sell those ones.
 
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5068A414-D449-43DB-8A96-601879D7220C_1_105_c_1024x1024@2x.jpg
 
I got the phone back together, there isn't much I can do. Electronically, everything is functional and working as it should but the keypad membrane I suspect is worn out hence the keypad being temperamental.
 
DXP55 said:
I had one of these but in Ivory - When moved from last house I sold it for about 40 quid. The bloke who bought it knew a BT engineer and had it alterd so he could use it.
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The ivory ones aren't as common and are worth a lot more than 40 quid now even in non working condition... they go for hundreds.
 
darael said:
I'm sure I've seen YouTube videos on computer repairs, where the worn carbon contacts on the keyboard membrane are replaced with sort of foil. I could be wrong though.
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There was one I used to watch called A1 Telephone repairs or something along those lines.

All these old phones will be retired once the landlines all change over from analog. I suspect you'll be able to get some kinda converter for them in the future made by old telephone hobbyists.
 
I also have one of those wall mounted GPO phones in my kitchen that was working for years until one day it stopped working and I never got around to repairing it, I did have a quick look at it once but I never went too deep into it and left it. It hangs there now mostly for decoration but at some point I will get it going once again as its nice to hear it ring and quite handy having a telephone in the kitchen so I never have to run for the phone if there is one in each room. The GPO wall mounts are rare and quite valuable.

 
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I love the sound of those old bell sets ringing. I was thinking about making a doorbell out of a spare bell set. The bell sets run on 50volts to 75Volts AC at 25Hz so finding a power supply that can put out that voltage in AC wont be easy but I suppose I could always modify an old mains transformer to put out the voltage I need although the current will be 50Hz and not 25Hz but should be fine. I have an original early 1900s door bell push button.
 
alex24 said:
I can still feel exactly what it's like to press those in my mind!

Do all of these retro phones still work with current lines? What are good options for getting one that will be working in years to come?
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They all work on todays lines. Some GPO rotary phones might need re-wiring with a 3.3k Resistor added to the board inside if they haven't been converted but its very easy to convert one. Most of them are already good to go.

I'm not sure how long the BT Line will stay analog they are expected to change soon. You'd then need a special converter to run retro phones but I doubt any will exist for a while when all the lines have changed over.
 
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