Telephone Dial Repairs  Antique Telephone Repairs  Cloth Telephone Cords

Print out an Information Sheet to include with your dial or telephone

VTS INDUSTRIAL COMPANY

ANTIQUE TELEPHONE REPAIR
LOW COST TELEPHONE & ROTARY DIAL REPAIR  
&
FREE SUGGESTIONS TO HELP YOU FIX YOUR OLD TELEPHONE*

*Go to our Index of Free Suggestions to see if you can fix your old phone, first!

Call us at (928) 859-3595

E-Mail jydsk@tds.net

When you wish to send your telephone or dial for repair,

please print out and enclose an Information Sheet.

This page updated May 2, 2008

NOTE: For repair of post-1984 digital phones, or if you are

in the Midwest and want a closer telephone repairman,

please contact Dennis at:

A-1 Electronics Repair, 500 S. High Street, Belleville, IL 62220

(618) 235-6959, email a1-telephone@usa.com

courtesy of Paul A. Rauth

STOP! WE URGE YOU TO LOOK AT THE "YELLOW PAGES"

AT http://www.porticus.org/bell/yellowpages.html

AND COMPARE OUR SERVICES. SHOP WISELY!

This is NOT a hobby for us, it is a permanent part of our livelihood.

Our goal is to provide the highest level of service at the lowest price!

Before proceeding, see our Free Information Pages.

NOVICE OR PROFESSIONAL TELEPHONE PEOPLE CAN BENEFIT FROM RALPH MEYER'S BOOK

"OLD-TIME TELEPHONES!

Design, History, and Restoration

 READ MORE ABOUT THIS AMAZING BOOK
 
 

Here's what a telephone repairman likes to find, LOTS of antiques in one place. Do you have old telephones and/or parts for sale? If so, I am always interested.

Hi, and welcome to Steve Hilsz's Telephone Repair web page. I've been in this business for over 40 years, since I was a teen-ager in San Francisco, California. Since then, I've repaired thousands of old telephones for satisfied customers. Old telephones are really neat artifacts because, in nearly all cases, they can be made to operate on modern telephone systems without changing much of the telephone wiring. If you are handy with telephone wiring, we have some solutions.

Need assistance in identifying the precise model of your

Western Electric #300-series telephone set?

Just click the image to go to Paul Fassbender's

very concise and tremendously helpful web page.

This is the Western Electric "workhorse" Model #302-#304 telephone Art-Deco set, used from the late 1930's until 1955 when it was discontinued. This phone is sometimes referred to as the "I Love Lucy." To the great dismay of the old Bell System. many thousands of these phones survived and have faithful and enthusiastic users to this very day.

About VTS Industrial Company

I live in a little desert town called Salome, Arizona. My business name is VTS Industrial Company. From Salome, I can drive for five hours and be in Las Vegas, Nevada, or in San Diego, California, or in Flagstaff, Arizona, or even in Los Angeles, California. My "back yard" is pretty large. My main business is repair of old phones,

but I also buy and sell artifacts from old navy ships, and I salvage old telephone

switching and signal equipment for base and precious metals to supplement my income. I like to stay busy but I always have time to help bring your phone to life.

People send old telephones here for repair from all over the USA. Turnaround time averages 3 days and the average cost of repair to phones other than wooden wall types is usually less than $40 plus shipping. This is possible because of my low overhead and my experience with repair of over five thousand antique phones. I'm not going to charge you a huge price to fix your phone because I don't have to. We all have enough trouble with gasoline and heating bills, so I promise to do my best to keep your telephone repair bill down.

Read the Suggestion Pages to see if you can diagnose and repair your old phone, at home.

Google "Steve Hilsz" for all sorts of reference material.

PLEASE NOTE: WE ARE ON DIAL-UP

AND LARGE IMAGE ATTACHMENTS SHOULD BE

AVOIDED BECAUSE OF LONG DOWNLOAD TIME

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OOPS!

Did you recently purchase a telephone from eBay, an estate sale, a garage or flea

market sale at a "great" price, only to find out that it doesn't work?

Well, don't worry. It's not going to cost an "arm & a leg" to get it working

 properly... You are at the right place! Send it here for a free estimate of repairs.

In most cases, you'll find that you really saved some big bucks, really important

in this current recession and rotten economy!

Contact me and I promise I will do my best to help resolve

the problem you are experiencing with your old phone.

Print & Enclose an Information Sheet with your telephone.

WHAT CAN BE REPAIRED?

ESTIMATES OF REPAIR
 Read About Telephone Repairs And Low Costs

Access & Print Out an Information Sheet to Send With Your Telephone

HELPFUL INFORMATION PAGES

Click on the line above to access many helpful suggestions

WANT TO POLISH YOUR OLD PHONE?

NOVUS will do the trick, check it out!

When you send your old telephone to us for repair,

ESTIMATES ARE ALWAYS PROVIDED FREE OF CHARGE.

Always include an Information Sheet to help speed things along.

The shipping address for USPS is:

VTS Industrial Company
P.O. Box 429
Salome, AZ 85348-0429

For UPS or other carriers:

VTS Industrial Company
66776 E. Highway 60
Salome, AZ 85348-0429

Don't forget the Information Sheet for your telephone.

email me at jydsk@tds.net

We Accept On-Line Credit Card Payments At PayPal
 
 

A FASCINATING STORY:

I repaired this Western Electric #202 cradle telephone for Peter Hunn. Here's the history of this particular phone, and it's connection to Dick Clark, in Peter's own words:

The phone came from the original Bandstand-type studio at WPEN Radio, 2212 Walnut Street in Philadelphia. WPEN aired a "kids dancing to pop records" style of program called The 950 Club (as WPEN was at 950 on the AM dial). During that consistently #1 rated show the Western Electric #202 telephone was used by the radio engineer on duty to take directions from the 950 Club hosts regarding which record to play next, etc. These hosts had a similar phone on a desk that was supposed to represent a shop counter in the studio's "record store" motif.

Bob Horn, another Philadelphia DJ who figured that he could successfully adapt the popular 950 Club concept to television, took the program across town to WFIL-TV. When he got fired by WFIL for a DWI conviction, WFIL's cub DJ, Dick Clark, got the job...and the rest is well-known history.

The WPEN studio containing the #202 had been dark for years when I first spotted it. If I remember correctly, it was off the hook...

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LINKS:

Below is a link to a great place to buy decorating accessories.

Just click on the banner to go to their website:

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If you live in Great Britain and are interested in

Vintage Telephones, take a look at what

ABDY TELEPHONES has to offer

++++++++++++

Source just about any part, telephone, or

repair service at PHONECO, INC

++++++++++++

RESEARCH OR PRINT YOUR OWN

DIAL NUMBER CARDS.

A big Thank You to Dave Margulius

in my home town, San Francisco, for

a great site devoted to Dial Number Cards

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Digital Telephone? Answering Machine?

Get in touch with A-1 Electronics Repair

500 S. High Street, Belleville, IL 62220

(618) 235-6959, ask for Dennis

++++++++++++

DID YOUR SERVICE PROVIDER STOP SUPPORTING

PULSE (ROTARY DIAL) SERVICE FOR GOOD?

Take a look at what Oldphoneworks has to offer:

The Rotatone Pulse-to-Dial Converter

+++++++++++++

KELLOGG SWITCHBOARD & SUPPLY

Dave Margulius & "Kellogg Mike" Neale

combined forces to bring you this great

Kellogg Reference Site

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WOW! A comprehensive website

of BRITISH TELEPHONES

by Bob Freshwater

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A new site with historical information

on 4th Generation Phones (Plastic Classics)

#500 (rotary), #1500 and #2500 (touch tone)

and even Automatic Electric #80

A Work in Progress

++++++++++++

An absolutely fascinating site:

TELEPHONE WORLD

by Dave Perrussel

THANKS, DAVE!

++++++++++++

NEED INFORMATION ON BELL SYSTEM

TELEPHONES AND FACTS?

BELL SYSTEM MEMORIAL

HAS WHAT YOU NEED!

Click Here

++++++++++++

This is where I go to find schematics.

The Telephone Collectors International Library

has everything I need and you will find it helpful.

Locate drawings for American Telecommunications Corp,

Automatic Electric, Dutch PTT Phones, ITT, Kellogg,

Ericsson, Leich, North Electric, Northern Electric,

Siemen's, Stromberg-Carlson, and Western Electric.

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*If you have some questions about fixing your antique phone, call or e-mail and I'll do my best to assist you. If I can't help, I'll try to suggest an alternate parts or repair facility. There are some great suggestions and schematics at the ATCA web site.

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Want to make your old payphone collect coins?

Would you like to build your own telephone tester?

The OLDPHONEGUY has a great site.

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If you would like to download an excellent PDF about old telephones and repairs,  Dr. Jeffrey Race has a marvelous treatise on Old Telephones.

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I recently found this great article by J. B. Calvert Titled Basic Telephones.

It's a bit advanced, but if you want to learn more about the theory of telephones

I suggest you read all of it.

++++++++++++

Looking for old telephone schematic drawings?  Mike Elmore has an excellent site.

++++++++++++

Paul Rauth has brought his FINEST EFFORT

to CD-ROM. I had a ball with the authentic

sounds of old phone ringers & dials, and the

dial-tone and other signals of yesterday.

Click the image to go to Paul's page:

Here is another great CD-ROM about early telephones, from Paul Rauth

TELEPHONES, A Look At The Past

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Vince Budnick has an excellent web site with great information on the PTT telephones once made in Holland and sold in great quantity by Radio Shack. His site also has information on Automatic Electric, Western Electric, Intercoms, and other old telephones.

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TELEPHONE DIAL REPAIR

Is this Modern Art? Not really. It's the remains of a Main Spring from a German telephone dial. The spring had disintegrated and I decided to have some fun with the pieces.

 Your Old Dial Can be Restored To Life 
 READ ABOUT DIAL REPAIR
TOUCH TONE PADS (OLDER)

 This is a Strowger Dial manufactured by Automatic Electric Company and used on Private Automatic Exchanges. This is just one of many dials that I can repair for you. Labor averages six dollars per dial and any needed repair parts, plus return postage, are extra.

TELEPHONE SUBSETS (RINGER BOXES)

Your early telephone (candlestick or cradle set) is really only one-half

of a "telephone set." The Ringer Box is properly called a "Subscriber' Set" or

more commonly a "Subset." Now, you can purchase a universal Subset from

Lowe Tech Phones in Peachtree City, GA. Click Here for more information.

IDENTIFY YOUR WESTERN ELECTRIC 1949-83 TELEPHONE

Many, many thanks to Paul Fassbender for providing a concise listing

of the Post-1949 Western Electric model numbers and applications. Just click here

or on the image to link to Paul's fabulous site.

Take a look at Paul's Main Web Page for a wealth of information.

A very large selection of Vintage Telephones and repair parts

is now available from Oldphoneworks.com. They have recently

combined the assets of Chicago Old Telephone Company

to become a real powerhouse in the vintage telephone

repair and supply business. They are located in

Kingston, Ontario, Canada but have U. S. facilities.

Call 1-800-843-1320 or click on the image.

CLOTH COVERED TELEPHONE CORDS

My old friend, Mr. Odis W. LeVrier, of House of Telephones, San Angelo, Texas had a dilemma. He couldn't find decent cloth handset and line cords. So, he looked for and found sources for the original components of cloth cordage and ended up buying two weaving machines. Today, Odis makes just about any type of cloth cord in brown, black, green, ivory, and "rattlesnake" colors. You can purchase ready-made cords or bulk cordage from him. Visit his new website at the link below:

http://www.houseoftelephones.com

Or, call House of Telephones (325) 482-0101 and tell Odis that Steve sent you.

SOMETIMES, I FIND IT DIFFICULT TO BELIEVE

THAT BEAUTY LIKE THIS CAN STILL BE CREATED...

A beautiful, Jade Green 1-A Monophone

lovingly made by hand at TelephoneCreations.com

RAY KOTKE of TelephoneCreations.com has mastered the art of recreating

the glory of color phones of the Art-Deco era. Click on the image to

learn more about his magnificent endeavor.

There are two Telephone Collectors Clubs:

Telephone Collectors International

Antique Telephone Collectors Association

Click on the image above to visit the ATCA web site.

You probably wonder what Antique Telephones have to do with "Navy Salvage."  Before "9-11," my wife & I used to do a lot of salvage work aboard old ships. For three years we were without any salvage work, and involved ourselves in old telephone repair. Now, President Bush has ordered the "Ghost Fleets" to be dismantled and we are pursuing contracts at various facilities. If you are involved in dismantling military weapons systems and have questions about precious-metal recovery, please don't hesitate to contact us about gold, silver, and other precious-metal recovery. Meantime, we have established new contacts in Brownsville, Texas, which are keeping us very busy. When we are in "home port," many of our Navy relics are to be found on eBay, seller JYDSK.

The view above is the old dry-dock at Hunter's Point Shipyard, San Francisco, California. The ship at left is the frigate USS LANG. The hull at the right is the frigate USS GRAY.
 

Thank You for visiting

jydsk@tds.net

Copyright © 2002, 2003, 2008 Steve Hilsz, all rights reserved