Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!ria!uwovax.uwo.ca!telecom-request From: bruce@camb.com (Barton F. Bruce) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Rotary Dial w/o Wire Connection Message-ID: Date: 17 Mar 91 08:26:00 GMT Sender: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Organization: Cambridge Computer Associates, Inc. Lines: 43 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 212, Message 3 of 10 In article JTUCKER@vax2.cstp.umkc.edu writes: > Is it possible to take a phone that only has pulse dialing and convert > it to tone dialing? Sure, but hardly worth it. When TT was still young, and most phones were rotary 500 sets, there were kits that would do it. They came in two flavors. One had a round plastic insert that was punched for the TT buttons that would fill the old rotary dial whole, and the other would have a whole new housing. You got to reuse most everything else. Later there were versions that were even notched for the modular jacks you were likely to want add with the new housing. Back then places like North Supply often stocked phones less ringers because whatever tuned party line ringer that was needed would be added in the field. Also back then it was still illegal use your own phones. Not having a ringer meant the test desk couldn't count it. A ringerless 500 set was $11, and a TT 2500 was $28. The versions with a straight line ringer were about $4 more. A replacement TT pad by itself was $23. The kit to convert a 500 to a 2500 was only peanuts less than the whole 2500 set. The dial brackets for a rotary dial go straight up inside, while for a TT pad they offset in towards the center a bit as the TT pad is narrower. The rebuild kits included little spacers to allow the TT pad to mount in a rotary dial phone. They also included an auxiliary terminal strip for the extra connections the earlier transmission networks wouldn't have screws for. Eventually electronic TT pads got down to maybe $10, and got static proofed so they were reliable. Kits would then have been cheaper, but so were complete phones. An imported 2500 set with an extra jack for hotel guests to plug their modem into and a message waiting light in ever pleasing ASH color, and by the case of eight may cost between $20 and $25 each during the regular 'specials'. You can even find much cheaper ones, but you may wish you hadn't. As you leave a NY subway, you may be able to buy one for less than $5, but you definitely get what you pay for.