Customer Reviews

Telephone Repair Illustrated

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Along with an index, glossary, bibliography and schematics,
this will help someone troubleshoot a problem with their
telephone, cordless phone, or answering machine. Basic
information.

This book told me what I needed to know. I wanted to be able to troubleshoot some old telephones. I collect old payphones and had a few that didn't work. They do now. I rate the book highly.

You will be interested in this book if you:
o Want to learn the basics of how to repair or perhaps modify telephones.

This is not suitable for anyone who:
o Needs a text to pass apprenticeship or trade qualifications examinations;
o Has no background in electronics.

It's a brave person who repairs their own telephone and your telco contract or local laws and regulations may forbid you to do this unless you are a qualified technician. This will be useful, however, for the hobbyist who wants to experiment with telephones. Warning: never connect telephones that you have repaired or modified to the public switched network or use the network to conduct experiments. Your telco contract and local laws will prohibit this as it can result in shocks or injury to linesmen and damage exchange (US: "central office") equipment.

Basic techniques are shown along with instructions on how to use instruments for analysis, but there is so much variation in manufacture that this can only be very general. Hobbyists are advised to seek out the datasheets of the ICs used in any phone they wish to repair. My own experience is that many electronic phones use Chip-On-Board technology which makes them impossible to work with, but good luck anyway.

Topics covered include repairs to:
o Vintage telephones
o Rotary dial telephones
o Electronic (push-button) telephones
o Cordless telephones
o Answering machines (tape and digital)

There is a chapter on mobile (US: "cellular") phones, but this refers only to outdated analogue types no longer in use.

This is a 220 page trade paperback, of the high quality typical of TAB.

I wanted a book with basic information about telephone circuits, especially older classic phones. This one touches on that but really has more information on related topics. There are several chapters on basic electronics repair. The writing style is clean, and easy to read. It is not overly technical and should be easily understood by anyone with even a minimal background in electronics. However, the drawings are not very good. Looks like someone is just learning a computer drawing program. It is disappointing that the classic phone is given a not very useful wiring diagram rather than a schematic. Diacs are shown in the circuits as a "loop length compensator" with no explanation how that works. Very confusing. On the whole though, I would recommend this book. Nice little section on using the oscilloscope.