Hi, I have an old rotary dial phone I got at a boot fair (swap meet I think). I converted it with 2 of the wires from a telephone extension lead and it worked fine for a bit, dialed out ok, sound and voice fine, however, its just started to fail to dial out.
I have a ring tone but when you dial the 1st number the dial tone dussapears as it should but after about the 3 rd number the dial tone comes back. It’s as if its failing to recognise the dialed numbers.
We can stil use it for answering only as the voice and sound work fine, just this oddity with the dial out.
Any help with this would be apreciated as I don’t know if I converted it wrong or maybe something has gone awry with the insides.
if the dial mechanism, including the relay (switches) involved, aren’t moving freely and making good contact it might be hanging up the line instead of dial closures.
I’m no telecomm expert (more of modern networking guy), but it sounds as though there’s something hinky with the wiring. Are you using a fiber-based carrier (like FiOS or similar), or is it copper wiring through-and-through? I can’t even remember the last time I saw a rotary phone in use, but since they use a series of electrical pulses to indicate the number dialed, I can see where a fiber network might respond with “WTF?” and reset the connection.
I know a guy who is a telecom expert (in fact, he used to be my “telephone company” from the other side of the country). I’ll probably be talking to him on Monday and can ask him what his thoughts are.
By the way - good on you rocking the old school tech. I’ve personally reverted to a cell phone that [gasp] just does phone calls.
Somephone networks no longer use or accept pulse dialing. In the good old days of rotary phones, you could simulate dialing by hitting the hangup on the cradle very fast. As long as you were quick and could count, you could dial actual numbers that way.
Try that. A pulse is simply opening/closing the circuit; if that does not produce a dialed number, then your system is no longer compatible with pulse dial.
(Some older tone phones had the option to switch to pulse - you dial the number and hear the clicking as if it was a dial phone.)
Old phone collector and user here. It does sound like your local exchange has discontinued pulse dialing. If the phone ever worked, it is most likely not a wiring issue as there are only two wires and 99% of the dial phones I’ve ever seen do not care if the wiring is reversed or not.
There are adapters that will convert dial pulses to tones, but they do not work on all VOIP systems. AT&T’s Uverse is a notable and ironic example of a system that you just can’t use a rotary dial phone with. (Well, not without spending a few hundred dollars to install a Merlin PBX in your house.) Beyond that, I don’t even know if BT uses the same tones as American phone companies or not. (I’m assuming you’re British from your phrasing and spelling.) if you don’t absolutely need the phone to be able to dial out, leave it there and startle people when those real brass bells ring.
Yup, a least it used to be that way. I remember an episode of Alice where the whole gang was accidentally locked in the basement with a rotary phone that had just been installed with a lock that very day. At one point it rang and Vera picked it up, shouted, “Stop bothering us; we’re in a lot of trouble here!” then slammed it down before anybody else could react. I was saying, “All they gotta do is bang the switch hook ten times to get an operator who can ring anybody they like.” It might have taken them a couple times to get the timing right, but it beats being stuck for who knows how long in the basement.
Yup, I’m in the UK, I found the phone at a boot fair (like eBay but in a field and generally mmore wet and muddy or baking heat and sunburn!) and it had been used by the sellers grandfather in his workshop for years.
I will give your suggestions a go when I get home tonight and I did see an adaptor that transfers from pulse to tone so may go down that route.
I found it odd that it initially worked for a couple of weeks then started doing this in the last couple of days but guess…
it’s just struck me that I changed service providers in the last couple of weeks and this involved a bt fella fiddling with the local exchange box at the bottom of my road… could it be that my new provider does not support pulse dialing, that may be tuw answer, i will contact tuem on Monday to find out… Watch this space…
Anyhoo, many thanks for your replies they may have sent me in the right direction.
