There are neat retro products out there like the ThinkGeek Bluetooth Retro Handset or the Victorian Retro Phone Handset. Though these are really nice devices, its somehow still not the same feeling like in the old days using the original products from the past. My parents still have this "Hrabia" phone, not in use anymore but fully functional. Yes, one of the first phones used at home with a dial plate! "What do you want to do with it?" my mother asked, "Actually... use it!" i answered and thought, what if i could get it to work over voip, jumping to the past every time a phone call is made? :)
Here the unmodified retro telephone:
Some information on the bottom side:
Simple electronics inside:
I want to run it with my Linksys/Sipura PAP2 Analog Telephone Adapter, but it got the wrong connector:
So i need to attach a cable with RJ-11 connector to the phone. The handset-cable (white and red in the picture) is connected to L1 and L2:
Get a cable with RJ-11 connector, cut off the outer pair, we just need the inner pair (green and red in the picture) connected to L1 and L2:
Connect it to the PAP2 ATA and give it a try:
Nice, it works, i can hear a tone from the PAP2. Incoming phone call works too, the feeling of old telephony is back :) Even the (poor) quality is the same like in the old days! ;) There seems to be an issue with dialing via the dialing plate, i might need to tweak some PAP2 settings.
[Update]
According to Linksys forums: "PAP2 and SPA devices aren't able to process pulse dial, only tone dial."
But DSLReports forums state: "There are some ATA's that do. This has been previously discussed in this forum. Also, you could buy an inline pulse-to-tone converter"
There are even still such converters sold actively: http://www.dialgizmo.com/
And some people build their own:
Hardware