I recently purchased a Northern Telecom G-Type rotary phone from the
70's. It doesn't ring when a call comes in.

I opened it up, but not sure if that is the problem with the magnets or
with the battery that seems to be boosting the signal to power the
ringer.

any ideas?
Anil Panguluri

Rotary Phones?
RCA Videodiscs?

I mean come on, it's going on 2006. It's on to camera phones and PSP
Movies.

I am willing to bet that you are still swinging your dicks instead of
finding a girlfriend.

Never heard of a rotary phone with a battery to help the ringer. Are you
absolutely sure that it has a battery inside?
Most likely problem is that the ringer has been disconnected to either
reduce the ringer load on the line or to prevent its detection by the phone
company. Check to see if there are any loose wires inside the phone.
Chances are that may be the problem. If the G-type is similar to the
standard 500 model phone, and follows the same color codes, you should be
able to find a schematic on the web. If you can't find it, I can send one
to you.
You might also have a problem with the hookswitch. There is a contact on
the hookswitch that completes the ringer circuit when on-hook, and opens it
when the phone goes off-hook.

--
Dave M
MasonDG44 at comcast dot net (Just substitute the appropriate characters in
the address)

Never take a laxative and a sleeping pill at the same time!!
wrote in message
ups.com...
I recently purchased a Northern Telecom G-Type rotary phone from the
70's. It doesn't ring when a call comes in.

I opened it up, but not sure if that is the problem with the magnets or
with the battery that seems to be boosting the signal to power the
ringer.

any ideas?
Anil Panguluri

writes:

I recently purchased a Northern Telecom G-Type rotary phone from the
70's. It doesn't ring when a call comes in.

I opened it up, but not sure if that is the problem with the magnets or
with the battery that seems to be boosting the signal to power the
ringer.

How have you wired it up? As I recall, it's not just 2 wires for some of
those phones to get the ringer working.

--- sam | Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ: http://www.repairfaq.org/
Repair | Main Table of Contents: http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/
+Lasers | Sam's Laser FAQ: http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/lasersam.htm
| Mirror Sites: http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/F_mirror.html

Important: Anything sent to the email address in the message header above is
ignored unless my full name is included in the subject line. Or, you can
contact me via the Feedback Form in the FAQs.

hey sam, i was wondering, do you have big nuts?

On 12/25/05 2:10 PM, in article
, "
wrote:

I recently purchased a Northern Telecom G-Type rotary phone from the
70's. It doesn't ring when a call comes in.

I opened it up, but not sure if that is the problem with the magnets or
with the battery that seems to be boosting the signal to power the
ringer.

any ideas?
Anil Panguluri



Here's a couple thoughts:

- What you think is a battery is probably the ringer series capacitor.

- In the 70's 2-party lines had the ring voltage(s) put tip-to-ground for
one customer (tip party), and ring-to-ground for the second customer (ring
party). In that manner, neither party heard the other's ring. Be sure your
bell circuit is not connected to ground, but is across the line's tip and
ring leads. This will be through the switchhook.

Don

wrote in message
ups.com...
I recently purchased a Northern Telecom G-Type rotary phone from the
70's. It doesn't ring when a call comes in.

I opened it up, but not sure if that is the problem with the magnets or
with the battery that seems to be boosting the signal to power the
ringer.

any ideas?
Anil Panguluri


Anil -

I had a similar problem with a 1950s Northern Electric phone, until I
remember that it was originally on a party line (office/house) - which had a
different ring frequency.

Steve Hilsz at Antique Telephone Repair in Salome, AZ repaired a damaged
rotary dial and found the correct ringer. I have been pleased with Steve's
service through the years
http://www.navysalvage.com/

He has telephone information pages
http://www.navysalvage.com/information.html

Ralph O. Meyer has written books on this subject, and has a web site
http://www.oldtimetelephones.com/

Want an authentic cloth covered cord - like Western Electric use to make,
see Odis W. LeVrier at House of Telephones in San Angelo, Texas.
http://www.houseoftelephones.com/index.htm

He purchased the 1930/1940s vintage braiding machines that made these cords
!!
http://www.houseoftelephones.com/photo.htm

Greg
w9gb

In article . com,
says...

I recently purchased a Northern Telecom G-Type rotary phone from the
70's. It doesn't ring when a call comes in.

I opened it up, but not sure if that is the problem with the magnets or
with the battery that seems to be boosting the signal to power the
ringer.

There are no batteries in standard 500-type phones. You're
probably looking at the DC blocking cap for the ringer itself.

Although it's aimed mainly at Western Electric sets, this
may help, as there was a great deal of commonality between the Canadian
and WeCo equipment.

http://tinyurl.com/a8bkc

Fascinating site anyway...

http://www.bellsystemmemorial.com

Happy tweaking.


--
Dr. Anton T. Squeegee, Director, Dutch Surrealist Plumbing Institute.
(Known to some as Bruce Lane, ARS KC7GR,
kyrrin (a/t) bluefeathertech[d=o=t]calm -- www.bluefeathertech.com
"If Salvador Dali had owned a computer, would it have been equipped
with surreal ports?"

"gb" wrote in message
...

I had a similar problem with a 1950s Northern Electric phone, until I
remember that it was originally on a party line (office/house) - which had
a different ring frequency.

Steve Hilsz at Antique Telephone Repair in Salome, AZ repaired a damaged
rotary dial and found the correct ringer. I have been pleased with
Steve's service through the years
..
Possible that it was a different frequency ringer. There were/are telephone
systems in use that employed several different ringing frequencies.
That form of ringing system was sometimes, not quite accurately, called
'Harmonic Ringing'.
In one system up to five different ring frequencies could be used; for
example, 16.6 cycle, 25 cycle 33.3 cycle 50 cycle and 66 cycle. Using that
method all the phone customers on that same line would have the same number
but the suffix, which was originally a letter, would be different. The phone
ringers were electrically and mechanically tuned to their frequency. The
weight on the ringer arm of say the 16.6 cycle was noticeably bulkier and
heavier than that on other frequency ringers.
At one time, for example, our phone number, on a four party line, was
579-2567 A; the 'A' denoting that our ringer frequency was 33.3 cycles. The
advantage was that although it was a party line there was secrecy of
ringing.
Another feature was that by sending ringing out over the line 'to ground' it
was possible in some administrations to have up to ten different parties on
a line (usually long rural lines); using the five different frequencies of
ringing to ground, one each side (Tip/Ring) of a single pair party line.
Another possibility is that the OPs phone was non frequency specific but is
still wired as a 'party' line customer's phone from a telephone system that
used one frequency of ringing, usually around 20 hertz! Or that the ringer
is merely disconnected either to avoid too many ringers on the one line,
especially very long lines from the telephone exchange, or because a
previous customer wanted it that way.
I may have circuit diagram for that phone in an old telephone company
handbook and tomorrow (after Christmas) will see if can find it.
Cheers. The other Terry S!

I am not sure if it is a battery, but it does look like one - a big
block with leads going into the dial, ringer, etc. probably something
that would boost the incoming/outgoing signal into ringer/voice, etc. i
will try to post a picture of it soon.

Back in the 70s, people would disable the ringer so that the phone company
couldn't tell how many phones were in the home. Bet someone disconnected
the bell some kind of way.

On Sun, 25 Dec 2005, wrote:

I recently purchased a Northern Telecom G-Type rotary phone from the
70's. It doesn't ring when a call comes in.

I opened it up, but not sure if that is the problem with the magnets or
with the battery that seems to be boosting the signal to power the
ringer.

any ideas?
Anil Panguluri

Well, here goes that troll again.

On Sun, 25 Dec 2005, Erich J. Schultheis, The Man with the 15 inch Cock. wrote:

Rotary Phones?
RCA Videodiscs?

I mean come on, it's going on 2006. It's on to camera phones and PSP
Movies.

I am willing to bet that you are still swinging your dicks instead of
finding a girlfriend.

Beautiful. Yes, the solution shown at http://tinyurl.com/a8bkc works
like a charm.
Thanks Dr. Squeegee.

The exact link is
http://www.bellsystemmemorial.com/im...errewiring.jpg.
Note that there may be a 'fat' black wire and a few 'thin' black wire.
move the 'fat' one. probably disconnect the phone from the wall to
ensure you don't fry anything by accidental contact.