Hi Guys,

Moving up in the world!
The apparent scuff marks are extra crud on the phone,
fortunately, not gouges as I suspected in the Gumtree ad.
In quite good condition, some very minimal sunburn on the handset.

Image Link

Would anyone mind scanning some dial centres?
This does come with the transparent cover,
but just a clean piece of paper underneath,
it looks silly without the proper centre.

There are some USA reproductions to be found with Google, but nothing Australian (with out emergency number).

http://www.britishtelephones.com/pictures/diallab1.gifA.

It looks like my DTMF project is back on

Like this?

http://www.vintagephones.com.au/media/ccp0/prodxl/vintage-bakelite-wallphone-pmg-lg.jpg.

Yes that's the one Is that your phone?
I like the wall phones better, but am renting, so couldn't really do much with it.

Also, how do you get the cover off?
I can't see any tabs, and sticking a driver in feels like it will break the cover.

No, that's just an image I found on the web.

You would need to build a false wall or mount it on the side of a piece of your own furniture, such as a cabinet or wardrobe.

You ease the circlip out with a jeweler's screwdriver.

Blu-Tack!!!
Blob it on to the cover hard, then pull it out and the cover comes with it

Turns out mine was just turned upside down.
I just put blank paper over the number, and then photocopied it.

I have found that reproductions are available that look pretty good,
and also the original covers can still be purchased.

Dials of that vintage didn't have any emergency number on them. I'm not sure there was even a single standardised number to call. You had your own number written in by the installer in the centre of the dial, so you could read it out when answering the phone. These were the first experience most people had of automatic exchange dialling, and wrong numbers were a daily experience. These days most people don't even memorise their own mobile phone number.

Maven

They look horrible when the cover part is missing.
My copy is ok, but I ordered the set of 4 they sell at that site
linked by GTC.
I got a cover too, but not sure if it fits this phone.

The phone has a weird problem.
I connected the phone's red and white line wires together,
and connected that junction to the phone jack green wire,
and the remaining blue wire on the phone to the phone jack red wire.

This is connected to my Cisco router/IP phone thingy.
I don't expect the rotary dial to work, and it doesn't.

When I pick up the phone, I get a dial tone, but DTMF tones that I send the mouthpiece
with an iPhone app are not recognised. When I receive a call, the phone rings nicely,
but when I answer it, the IP phone doesn't stop ringing,
the call goes to message bank, and I can hear my own answering service taking the call....
I can hear that through the earpiece, but it's as if the phone company doesn't know
I've picked up the phone. But it knows I picked it up when it isn't ringing or I wouldn't get a dial tone.

Any ideas about that one?

As far as I remember, one of the wires need not be connected. By the sounds of it, connecting two of the three wires together is bridging out a pole on the handset relay contacts inside the phone.

I only read somewhere that the third wire is the ringer coil ground return,
and it actually did take connecting that to get the phone to ring.
Without that third wire connected at all, the phone did the same thing, but did not ring.

If you look at figure B for the phone socket wiring,
there is a screw terminal inside that socket connecting
the same two lines in case the third exists:
http://www.ji.com.au/telecomsplugs/

It appears there is some difference in what is presented to
the phone socket in my router when either my modern phone,
or this one is picked up...
but odd that it can initially pick up and get dial tone.

I am trying it on my Brother's real phone line tonight.

A couple of things.

It is not a pyramid phone. It is a 400 series phone that was introduced in Australia in 1958, but I cant tell if it is a APO or BPO version.

The other is that the dial on it is not original, after being described as needing blu-tack to remove the centre piece. The dial is a 1960's replacement, similar to ones used in British 700 series & early Australian 800 series phones.

I know nothing about connecting these phones to a router, but you might want to check if the line cord wiring is correct.

See my post from last year on line cord wiring:

http://vintage-radio.com.au/default.asp?f=9&th=7.

You'll see on the circuit diagrams that the line cord colour codes are different depending on whether it is hard wired or has a 603 type plug.

Mine is STC 401, and did have a plug with what looks like
original line cord with that wire that frays out when you strip it's sheath.

I just connected red & white together to emulate the
"no extension bell" configuration, looks like the lower right diagram in that thread.

It's possible I swapped the two terminals at the modern phone jack end,
but didn't think that mattered... the fellow in the other thread suggests it does matter.


The label was present, just reversed, and says: "Listen For Dialtone", and nothing else but the number written on it.

Yes, that means it is a APO version.

I have some scans of Australian dial inserts if you want to drop me a line.

Hi, I photocopied mine, but just masked the number written on it to make it blank.
Additionally, I've ordered some from that Aussie vintage phones site.

I do appreciate the offer though.

The phone does go ok on my Brother's real line,
so it looks like some incompatibility with my router thing providing the IP phone line.

I know there's 45 Volts DC at the phone line usually,
and some 120 Volt AC during incoming call to make the bell ring,
but I don't know what the phone does to the line when you pick it up,
to be able to measure the difference.
That might be worth looking in to.

On my only desk phone (at the moment) I have the green and white wire as the active pair and the red just terminated on an unused pin. The phone is working as designed through an ADSL2+ low pass filter to the wall socket.