Last month, AT&T forced us to switch to a voice over internet protocol (VOIP) phone service. When they did so my beloved Western Electric 500 rotary phone (that sits atop the cat scratcher I blogged about yesterday) could no longer dial outgoing calls. So much for backwards compatibility!
Thankfully, some Google searching led me to a device you can install in your rotary phone to turn it into a hybrid rotary/push-button phone. Old Phone Work’s rotary pulse to tone converter not only made the phone dial again but also added last number redial and stored numbers.
![imgsize](http://rootsimple.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/imgsize.jpg)
You need to be somewhat of a phone geek to install this gadget. It took me about an hour to sort out the wiring with directions specifically for WE500s that I downloaded from the Old Phone Works website. Thankfully, many vintage phones, such as ours, have labeled connections and are easy to rewire. The Old Phone Works pulse-to-tone converter, pictured above, fits completely within our old phone. The phone dials just as it used to, but at the end of each turn of the dial a pulse is emitted. The pulse-to-dial converter I bought won’t work on a conventional phone line (non-VOIP) as the voltages are too high. For non-VOIP service Old Phone Works has this pulse to tone converter.
The reasons we still have a land line–as well as why we haven’t switched to cable service–are complicated and will have to wait for a future blog post. But right now I’m enjoying the novelty of navigating phone trees with a dial phone. It’s one of the more ridiculous projects around the compound, but I like that a 50 year old phone, built like a tank, is still working.
Hey, we still have one of these tucked away. I didn’t know you could convert them, but we’re going to try. Thanks for the info.
Very interesting! I miss the bell ring of the old phones. Years ago, we replaced our old, rental phone (remember that?) with one of the new ones and the first time it rang I had no idea what that annoying chirping was. Thought a squirrel had gotten in the house.
Where we live, you’d need not be embarrassed to admit you’ve got a land line. Everyone does. There’s no cell service for miles around and our house; in fact, cell service is spotty outside of the few cities (they’d be called towns in other states) here and there. And yes, we live in the U.S.