FF33 modification?

[Bilbo42]

Hi. I am new to the forum and am not allowe to add pictures yet, but my question is pretty easily explained without them. The other day I saw an FF33 that had a push button added in the upper right hand corner of the case just below where the lid closes . It looks like a regular modern spring loaded on/off push button with the shaft protruding through the phone housing and the guts of the switch on the inside of the housing (when the lid is open, you can see the guts of the switch. There is a two strand wire coming from the switch and connecting to the positive and negative terminals of the phone that are normally hidden by the battery case cover. The battery cover is not there. Everything else looks like a normal FF33. The body of the switch appears to be bakelite and the shaft is not like a modern push button shaft, but rather mushroomed on the end where it would be pushed. If anyone can shed light on this, I would appreciate it. I would like to add it to the collection if it is a period modification. Thanks, Bil

[Funksammler]

Difficult to judge without a pictures, but it does not sound like a wartime modification. It sounds like the switich is switching off the battery when the lid is closed which is not a functionality that would be required in the field.

You can easily link photos into the forum if you use Photobucket or similar, so perhaps try your photo that way and we can have a closer look at the modification.

regards,

Funksammler

[Bilbo42]

FF33 Push button photos

I am wondering if this might be a period modification and what for...or if someone just messed with it!! Hoping to post links to Photobucket below. Thanks, Bil
[IMG]<a href="http://s144.beta.photobucket.com/user/Bilbo42/media/Camera%20Awesome%20Photos/FF33pushbuttonphoto_zps1c4e988e.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r191/Bilbo42/Camera%20Awesome%20Photos/FF33pushbuttonphoto_zps1c4e988e.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo FF33pushbuttonphoto_zps1c4e988e.jpg"/></a>[/IMG]

[IMG]<a href="http://s144.beta.photobucket.com/user/Bilbo42/media/Camera%20Awesome%20Photos/FF33withpushbuttonphoto_zpsaf89488a.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r191/Bilbo42/Camera%20Awesome%20Photos/FF33withpushbuttonphoto_zpsaf89488a.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo FF33withpushbuttonphoto_zpsaf89488a.jpg"/></a>[/IMG]

I saw the thread at http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...highlight=FF33 that said that the phone in his pictures may have been a test phone. The one I am looking at does not have the dialer but the battery case door is missing like in his photos!

[Funksammler]

Thanks for posting your photos.

Judging from these it is certainly not an "official" modification, somebody just had a go and installed a pushbutton. When this was done is difficult to say, but most likely post war as modifications to army equipment were not typically done at the time. Also the way that the modification was executed looks very "un-German" as even postwar the German industry upheld high standards of engineering and manufacture when re-using FF33's. You just would not find exposed wires and switches if it was modified by German industry after the war.

Only one wire to the battery terminal can be seen, so it is not entirely clear what the modifier wanted to achieve. Perhaps he was using a hands-free microphone without a switch (e.g. like an intercom) and included the pushbutton to switch the battery power to the microphone.

regards,

Funksammler