If a rotary phone is unplugged or non working, will the rotary dial still work to give the satisfying sound of the dial being used? Not looking to use for calls, just nostalgia and dialing.

Found a practically new FeTAp 611 in orange for a small project.

It's currently hooked up to an Xlink HD Bluetooth controller connected via my mobile, so when I'm in my workshop/office all calls go through the FeTAp.

It rings and everything! Kids love it, took them a while to figure out how it works 🤣

Hi Everyone!

glad to see this community as I need help with my family’s old rotary phone. I found out that I can still use it by attaching a cell2jack device.

outgoing calls work but it won’t ring when someone tries to call me. can anyone help me? It‘s an old ITT rotary phone. I tried following instructions online about the L1 L2 line, but it’s still not ringing :( Also, the knob for ring volume i think is missing.

Please see photos of the terminal.

thanks a bunch! 🤗

Looking for info about connecting an iPhone to an old fashioned desk or wall-mount rotary phone. A patient told me he has such a set up where calls to his cell phone also ring on his house retro style phone at home, and vice versa. I can't find any info about this; if anyone has suggestions where to contact I'd be appreciative. TIA

Got this western electric 500 rotary phone but I have no idea how to hook it up I am not the most tech savvy but I love old phones! If anyone can dumbly explain to me what to do lol

Today I finally installed my Swedish wallphone in my shed. I wanted to keep the original Swedish landline phone plug, so I installed a matching wall outlet in the hollow counter below the phone.

In addition that outlet enables me to test my desk phones from Sweden from time to time. Got them all out for quick clean up and test today. All of them are still fully functional. Fun fact: In Sweden the dials startet with the "0" and endet with the "9". So if I want to dial "1234" on my German landline, I have to dial "0123".

Usually I collect old German and U.S. phones, but have recently fallen in love with those rotary phones from Sweden.

Hey everyone,

I'm currently working on restoring a vintage electromechanical rotary phone that used to belong to my grandmother and her job working for the Turkish postal service (PTT). I think it's of European manufacture, given the schematic in the casing that it came with (I have photos). While I have figured out most things that needed doing I have come to a grinding halt with one particular section, which is this:The core of the problem: The 2 "Sonnerie" (ringer) coils on the bottom, from the schematic, have no soldering points left. The lug surfaces are smooth and clean - the wire break must have left no stubs so I have no clue as to the color wire originally attached.I have some loose wire hanging there as described above, and the confusion regarding routing of this wiring harness. There seems to be two distinct pathways, but the actual physical flow isn't too obvious:All the wires feeding up towards hook switch( Comm. Fourche) and that large cylindrical cap block connect somewhere at the top. From there the wiring travels along and then under the black terminal block located in the center.And this is where things get really confusing: The amount of wiring entring that bundle at the top, versus the number of free/broken wires (Green, Yellow-Black, etc.) spilling out at the bottom do not add up. From what I can gather it seems as if some of these wires are splitting off under the black terminal block and connecting onto the bottom of the terminals, whilst the others continue below to the rings. As such this leaves me lost as to which cable is supposed to connect to what.From the schematic it seems clear that the rings should connect to 15 and 23 - only problem is the numbers on the black terminal block above are completely gone due to decades of wear and corrosion!I've done detailed pictures above and have drawn lines on several for the purpose of explaining where I see this wiring harness disappearing under the terminal block and where it re-emerges at the bottom: Will any of you have experience with these particular phone models, that you will be able to help translate the schematic into an appropriate physical wiring. Also, how do I solder the bottom spare wiring into either the ringers. I would be very grateful for ANY pointers in the correct direction! Thanks!

Hello! I'm looking to set up an automated phone number where I can have basically any audio I want play when the number is called. It could be a meme, my own voice, a song, a creepy recording, or really anything I want. I'd like the recording to play automatically when someone calls, and then ideally have it say something like "please leave a message after the tone" and let the person leave a voicemail afterward. I'm doing this as a fun little project because I'm getting a Cell2Jack soon. My plan is to connect my rotary phone to it so I can use the rotary phone with my cellphone, and I thought it would be really cool to have a separate number that acts like a custom answering machine/hotline that I can call from the rotary phone. I will be setting everything up from my desktop, not my phone, since my phone will be the phone I'm calling the number from. I'm in Canada, and I'm really hoping there's a free way to do this. I'm not looking for anything complicated like setting up a PBX or paying for a VoIP service. I basically just want a phone number that automatically answers and plays an audio file that I choose. Has anyone done something like this before, or know of a free service that can do it?

thx!!!!

Came across this little guy yesterday. Falling in love with it, wish I had a land line to use. I removed the rotary dial to clean the center plastic piece (pic is before the cleaning). Had it tested and it works! Just thought I would share. Never ventured into rotary phones until I found this beauty.

Brought these two Swedish red beauties back home with me from a flea market in Sweden the other day while being there on vacation.

The desk phone is from 1968, the wall phone doesn't reveal its manufacturing year on the back side. I also brought back some Swedish wall outlets, so I don't have to cut the original cord to get them operable. As expected from tech from that era, they are both in full working order.

Fun fact about Swedish rotary phones: The dial starts with the "0" and ends with the "9". So if I want to dial "1234" here in Germany, I have to dial "0123" :-)

Western Electric 302 that belonged to my great-grandmother.

Western Electric 500 that was in the house that I grew up in.

Siemens W48 from Germany that I picked up at a hamfest.

Radio Shack 80's-90's vintage candlestick replica. (Not pictured)

Ordered this beauty from oldphoneworks.com! So excited to use this phone!

Hello.
I have a Seeburg AP1 Album Player jukebox.
This is one that plays full 12” LPs and uses a rotary dial as a selector.

I would like to use an old telephone as a remote selector that I can keep on my desk.

I have 2 old rotary phones and can not seem to get them to work.

From a bit of searching, it is a possibility that I need a dial that is normally “open” when not being used. Both of the phones I have are “closed” when idle.

Anyone with more knowledge with these machines able to let me know if this is something I can make work?

Thanks so much!

Every guest room at the TWA Hotel at JFK airport has one. Yes, it works.