https://forums.wirelessadvisor.com/ge...rk-turned.html

This is where we said our goodbyes, and tracked the analog shutdown.

speakin of old phones, i remember when i was little we had a digital phone and an old rotary dial phone. lightning hit our house and fried the TV, digital phone, but just made the rotary phone ring really loud lol. still works to this day! We had a service guy out a while back and his cell phone was dead and he had to call back to the office. he asked if he could make a call and we let him handed him the old rotary phone and he was like woa i havent seen one of these in years! lets see if i remember how to use one lol.

now i do have a question about them: is there a way to clean them? my grandmas phone she doesnt use it but about 3 times a month (its in the basement on a desk, only uses it if it rings while shes down there) its pretty crackily sounding. i hit the hang up lever where the phone sits a few times and that seemed to help. could i just take it apart and clean off what i assume is corrosion buildup on the hang up part but is there anything else i can clean?


haha my uncle had one of those old nokias pictured above and the only thing that killed it was the lawnmower:P

i currently have ye aincent LG UX145BKwas the penny phone like 3-4 years ago so it was outdated then)

before that i had a nokia 6210 and somehting else that was older...

ive only had nokias and LG's ive killed them allbut my current one off with water...

1st phone was in the washing machine for 20 minutes, second was i dropped it in a clean toilet (fell outa my sweatshirt pocket), phone worked battery was dead, only worked on a charger. phone after that i belive it still works just the screen is scratched to hell.

I personally like the nokias more, seem more stable and can take one hell of a beating before they die. my current phone randomly turns off.

Probably some carbon buildup on some of the switches. "Electrical Parts Cleaner" could probably be used (available at many automotive stores), but the disassembly & reassembly are up to you...

-BC

Man, I'd love to have old 8086, 286, 386, and 486 systems still. They are all sold as 'vintage' when you can find them now and are stupidly expensive. I've only had 386 and 486s before but knew people with the 8088, 8086, and 286 machines.

Back to phones, I used to have a Nokia 7110. I loved that phone to death but hated Cingular and just had to have the camera in my phone, which I never used because the quality was abysmal at best. No idea where it is now. This is my 3rd city since I had that phone and it is long gone by now.
https://www.robgalbraith.com/imgs/fog/nokia_7110.jpg
(Not a green phone, it's the image, phone was black)

My new phone is doing everything I wanted my old phone to. Messaging works perfectly while using media and on a call. It just works. Kinda nice.

CLR also works wonders on old contacts if you remove the switch from the unit. We had some power windows we couldn't get working reliably at all because the switches kept overheating and CLR stopped that.

Most often just a quick spray of contact cleaner will take care of things, but DO NOT USE WD-40! WD-40 will solve your problem in the short term, but it will come back with a vengence once that WD-40 attracts & collects a bunch of dust in the mechanisim. If a rotary needs to be lubricated I will use clock oil, and lube it drop by drop exactly where it needs lubrication, just like if you were oiling a clock.

Western Electric really made them right. Back then you didn't own your phone, you rented it from the phone company. If your phone broke it cost them money to put a man in a truck and drive out to your house to fix it, so they made sure they put a good phone in your house. They were designed to operate an average of 25 years before they were expected to need any service at all. Not like today. Your phone breaks after a year or two, you throw it away and buy a new one for $10.

Here's a pic of some of my phones at one of the collectables shows I do on occasion:

https://c4.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/i...4e667f4f2f.jpg

This one is one of my favorites though: Its a 554/2554 hybrid phone.

https://c1.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/i...6cb6fa267c.jpg

As of maybe 5 years ago I was able to get 8088 - 80286 machines for free (or nearly so), though I no longer remember where. It should still be possible. Cruise the "free stuff" section on Craigslist every day.

I recall a little over 20 years ago getting our first 8088 computer...installed a 300 baud modem to call up our local BBSs...thought we were really stylin' when we installed a 20 meg hard drive and 1200 baud modem! My wife actually went to work for a BBS as a chat hostess...back when people were charged by the hour to go online! Don't remember what happened to that machine...I think it went to Goodwill or something...

When I was a kid, our phone was the kind with a straight cord...didn't even have a curly cord like phones do now, or like the phones I saw on TV. Also had the legend: "WAIT for Dial Tone" above the phone number...CHurchill 9-3313. Strange how I can still remember my old phone number from when I was five years old, and the license numbers on the cars we had then, than I can remember such things now.

Sounds like a Western Electric 302

https://www.fuelly.com/attachments/fo...29819749e8.jpg

and here's the dial center you described:

https://farm3.static.flickr.com/2059/...e1ab8d0d58.jpg

I had a phone like that in high school (though it was a slightly different Nokia). To this day it's the best phone I ever had, I wish they still made 'em like that for sim cards. My home phone is a red rotary Ericofon :)

What's sad is the way the new stuff is practically pushed on you.

Look at the picture in post # 25. Top shelf between the clear 2500 and the translucent blue 2500. I think you will see something very familiar. The rotary Ericofones were extremely well made, but the touch tones had a design flaw in the switch hook mechanism and was prone to breakage.

They did make GSM models of those Nokias. My sister had one. She dropped it in the toilet at work one day and it actually worked better after she dried it out. She used to always sound muffled and tinny before, but after "the incident" she was always loud & clear. Take a look on Ebay, I'm sure you can find one for not much $.

-Jay