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Vintage Telephony and Telecomms Vintage Telephones, Telephony and Telecomms Equipment |
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20th Mar 2022, 3:15 pm | #1 |
Triode
Join Date: Jan 2022
Location: Stratford, Taranaki, New Zealand
Posts: 30
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Looking for info on this test phone
Hi there, does anyone have any info on this phone. It must be some kind of test equipment, but my searches couldn't find anything similar.
Any help is greatly appreciated. |
20th Mar 2022, 4:25 pm | #2 |
Nonode
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Nuneaton, Warwickshire, UK.
Posts: 2,039
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Re: Looking for info on this test phone
I remember something similar, in a black rubber housing, that post office engineers used. They used to call them a butt phone, or butinski as I heard one engineer call it once.
Cheers Aub
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20th Mar 2022, 6:54 pm | #3 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: West Cumbria (CA13), UK
Posts: 6,130
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Re: Looking for info on this test phone
It has a 700-series look about it in the same way that mine below has a 300-series look about it. I never quite tracked down the details of mine, but the balance of opinion was that it was of Australian origin. Maybe yours is a later version from the same (or similar) source.
edit: I should add that Aub is describing the GPO tele. 280.
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20th Mar 2022, 7:07 pm | #4 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Staffordshire Moorlands, UK.
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Re: Looking for info on this test phone
obviously made for the new zealand system as it has reverse dial numbering
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Kevin |
20th Mar 2022, 7:25 pm | #5 |
Dekatron
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Greater Manchester, UK.
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Re: Looking for info on this test phone
They are called butt phones, presumably because they hang from the linesmans tool belt and are a pain in the butt ()
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20th Mar 2022, 7:42 pm | #6 |
Dekatron
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Re: Looking for info on this test phone
Or at the very least, the dial is.
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20th Mar 2022, 8:06 pm | #7 |
Dekatron
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Location: Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire, UK.
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Re: Looking for info on this test phone
When the outer sheath is stripped from a telecoms cable to expose the “ pairs”, it is known as the butt. “. “120m dis to the butt” would mean I can see a disconnection measuring 120m to the end of this length of cable. The engineers test phone was used to “prove” dial tone from the exchange at the end of cables, hence it was( and still is) referred to as a butt phone.
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21st Mar 2022, 5:25 am | #8 |
Dekatron
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Greater Manchester, UK.
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Re: Looking for info on this test phone
That's a fascinating explanation Tim, and sounds far more plausible and GPO acceptable than mine.
I suppose the word is used because the wires are ready to be butt-joined.
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21st Mar 2022, 10:25 am | #9 | |
Dekatron
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Location: Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire, UK.
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Re: Looking for info on this test phone
Quote:
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22nd Mar 2022, 12:01 pm | #10 |
Tetrode
Join Date: Apr 2021
Location: North Surrey, UK.
Posts: 66
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Re: Looking for info on this test phone
In auto exchanges, the Tele 280 was called a Butt as a contraction of Buttinski, a humourous adaptation of "Butting in" to a circuit.
For the TOs working in gangways of selector racks it was the fashion to carry the 280 on one shoulder, leaving the hands free but the phone immediately available, which earned it the local name of a Parrot. In the late 1970s the Tele 280s were replaced en-masse because even in monitoring mode (red button out, transmitter disconnected) the resistance applied across a circuit you plugged into was low enough to corrrupt data calls which were a gowing new use on the old PSTN. |
22nd Mar 2022, 1:19 pm | #11 |
Dekatron
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Location: Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire, UK.
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Re: Looking for info on this test phone
I have a “ parrot” somewhere. It’s a long time since I have heard that reference. It’s the old rubber one isn’t it?
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23rd Mar 2022, 1:31 am | #12 |
Triode
Join Date: Jan 2022
Location: Stratford, Taranaki, New Zealand
Posts: 30
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Re: Looking for info on this test phone
I've cracked it open, and will add more pictures later.
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23rd Mar 2022, 2:27 am | #13 |
Triode
Join Date: Jan 2022
Location: Stratford, Taranaki, New Zealand
Posts: 30
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Re: Looking for info on this test phone
If someone maybe might be able to work out a schematic, or a way to hook it up here are a whole lot of pictures
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23rd Mar 2022, 9:19 am | #14 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: West Cumbria (CA13), UK
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Re: Looking for info on this test phone
As to connecting it up, referring to the images in the original post, I would use the alligator clips to connect white to A leg and red to B leg of a telephone line. You can probably ignore the green wire.
Without tracing out the wiring in detail, it looks as though the rocker switch should make a loop and enable it to dial out or answer an incoming call in one position and in the other an incoming call should result in a burring sound from the receiver, or any sound on the line can be monitored without making a loop. Pressing the red button appears to connect one side of the line to the green wire, making an earth recall if the green wire is connected to earth. In normal circumstances, this can be ignored as it is only used with a PABX providing this function. edit: I should add that the NZ origin is positively confirmed on the track side of the circuit board.
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Mending is better than Ending (cf Brave New World by Aldous Huxley) Last edited by Dave Moll; 23rd Mar 2022 at 9:27 am. |
23rd Mar 2022, 11:17 am | #15 |
Triode
Join Date: Jan 2022
Location: Stratford, Taranaki, New Zealand
Posts: 30
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Re: Looking for info on this test phone
Thanks for the help Dave. I do wonder if it is perhaps a New Zealand only device.
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23rd Mar 2022, 12:12 pm | #16 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Feb 2005
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Re: Looking for info on this test phone
It may only have been produced there, but it should work elsewhere, though dialling numbers containing digits other than 5 and 0 would require some recalculation unless a non-NZ dial were substituted - or something like a suitably-configured Dialgizmo were interposed between the 'phone and the line.
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23rd Mar 2022, 12:25 pm | #17 | |
Triode
Join Date: Jan 2022
Location: Stratford, Taranaki, New Zealand
Posts: 30
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Re: Looking for info on this test phone
Quote:
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25th Mar 2022, 11:37 am | #18 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: West Cumbria (CA13), UK
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Re: Looking for info on this test phone
Have you had any success with this yet?
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25th Mar 2022, 3:25 pm | #19 |
Triode
Join Date: Jan 2022
Location: Stratford, Taranaki, New Zealand
Posts: 30
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Re: Looking for info on this test phone
Yes, when I connected it up with the alligator clips everything seemed to work fine, the red position on the switch seems to be the off hook position, and the blank position seems to be on hook. When called the reciever does make a wonderful chirping noise, and the phone dials out just like any other.
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25th Mar 2022, 6:06 pm | #20 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: West Cumbria (CA13), UK
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Re: Looking for info on this test phone
Glad you have it sorted.
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