atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Other TDM Phone Systems 1A2 and Comkey Telephones & Systems 107A spokesman

Hi,

Was the Western Electric 107A spokesman speaker (which I believe had an internal amplifier) designed to be uses as alone (attached to a phone of course), or was it part of a package that included the speaker, transformer, transmitter, control unit, etc?

Also, did they come in other colors than black?

Just curious. They seem to be somewhat similar in appearance to the 760As that seem to be congregating on my phone display shelf lately, sans the knob of course.

Best,

Joe

Yes it did have an internal amp. You had to order the transformer separately and there were multiple colours....at least up here.

Didn't have to have it connected to just a phone. I once borrowed one for an army communications training exercise and connected it directly to a C42 radio, so the students could all hear what was going on over the net.

Joe, here is a cool link RE the entire 100 series of Western electric loudspeakers:

https://www.kadiak.org/tel/loudspeaker.txt

And more cool phone stuff on the same site:

https://www.kadiak.org/tel/index.html

And, if you have some time on your hands, and plenty of coffee, the entire site is fascinating [at least to me]:

https://www.kadiak.org/

Enjoy!!

Jim
**************************************************
Speaking from a secure undisclosed location.

Thank you Jim! I am familiar with that site, and check it out regularly. Some day, I will go there myself and look at the restored submarine TTY cable station.

Best,

Joe

The WECO Spokesman and the ITT Orator (essentially the same unit) was designed to be hooked to a phone so other people in the room could hear both sides of the conversation. Us phone guys found it invaluable for monitoring circuits that were "in trouble" (noisy etc.) I found another use for one and I still have it in the basement, wired to a 401 (Manual Intercom card) on my KSU.

It's a relic from the days when the kids used to play downstairs. When I wanted to call them for dinner (they wouldn't always answer the Intercom [couldn't hear the buzzer, TV on too loud etc.]) I would depress the associated line key on any phone and yell at them to come upstairs. They would hear that!

It was cheaper then hooking up a PA system for just one room.

Sam

I rigged up a pushbutton at the top of the stairs that sounds the buzzer and lights the lamp on my 6 button keyset. That usually means 'turn your darn music down!'

I have 1 also, since it already has a 600 ohm transformer and decoupling caps built in I added 2 BNC connectors to the top. One connected to the transformer the other using the caps as the input.

I have used this thing to monitor just about every type of circuit I have ever ran into.

Why BNC connectors you ask, I do mostly radio work and almost all of our test leads have BNC connectors on them so the chassis mount BNC was ideal for me.

Can you take a picture? that sounds neat!

I have used mine to monitor the Receiver Leads on a 2500 Set to PROVE to the local telephone tech (Qwest at the time) that NO, WE WERE NOT GETTING DIAL TONE, instead, we got a click, like something (NOT US) Dialed a 1 when we went Off Hook.

It took only 2 times for him to see the light.

is there away to use a 107a as a monitor with a modern pots phone system?

I would like to power it with a 9v dc? can i simply connect the black and yellow to the 9v and then the red and green to the pots two line? is the pots two line the tip and ring?

could i do the same with a 18v ac instead of the 9vdc?

thanks