This might be one of my favorite of your checkouts to rewatch. The phone is nostalgic but also pretty weird, there’s plenty of comedy (especially with the stinking Leakacell), and there’s even an appearance from a ghost!
When I was younger we had an old white GE answering machine with the same female voice on it. It was a 29875GE1-B. It had slightly different messages than this phone, like message length was "message time" on ours and the greeting was a bit more friendly, saying something along the lines of "We are unavailable to take your call. Please leave a message. Thank you for calling." Definitely thinking about getting one again, I miss it.
The Cole D has mentioned that the Atkins is a division of the Thomson, and the two entities have a very strong relationship with the GE and the RCA. I believe the Thomson manufactured most if not all of GE branded consumer electronics, and any of the electronics labeled the Atkins are really just the Thomson. This one looks really cool. The GE had a standalone answering thing that looks very similar to this, model 29868GE1-B, which the Aaron has, although I don't think it has the same operating system. TheCrewMBD (Making Better Deals), also known as TheCrewMakingMoreRipoffs on the eRipOff has a spare top plate that's missing on here for $10. Or the whole phone with the box and all accessories in much better condition can be currently had for $20. No, the AC adapter was made in the China EL. The one that's currently listed on the eRipOff does have a table mount bracket. Wow, my first SHOUTOUT on here. I don't have a thing for the ATKINS phones like I do about the Lucent phones, but there are some the ATKINS models I think are okay that work well enough and have a nostalgic early 2000s design. This is one I would have gotten if it showed up here. Another strange numeric screen and camera framerate illusion. The circulating numbers when it rings is awesome, although such an animation would probably be more fitting for when it's recording. Great range of ring volumes. GE seems to have a lot of versions of the same voice synthesizer. Some of them say numbers ever so slightly different than others, even though it's the same overall sounding voice. For example, this one says certain words very slightly different than that black standalone answering system you showed a few months ago, and it certainly says "message" better, but not "messages." And both skipped a number when you were setting the clock minutes! "One messij. Messij three." Seriously Atkins? I think this time you were speaking a little bit too far away from the AT&T 210's microphone. If you spoke a little closer, it would definitely improve the sound quality of the transmission. Oh and make sure you breathe directly into the AT&T 210's microphone as well, that way you can fine-tune its automatic gain control while providing the listener the most pleasant, clear, intelligible experience possible. That proves it! This isn't digitan after all. Take it apart and find the tape mechanism, the recording heads must be worn out and didn't record completely over the other person. Either that or the ghost exited my AT&T 1717 system and flew over there to that phone instead. That would explain the creepy built in voice. Although your line switcher does need to be deoxed, it's possible that there's interference because of that. WHAT HAPPENED to the PBX? You no longer need to press 9 and pulse dialing doesn't work to make an outside call. Your calling setup is always changing without warning. This isn't the first time it has mysteriously changed. Lr is Adobe Lightroom, derrr "One messij. Messij seven." Seriously Atkins? This really isn't too bad of a phone, I wouldn't call it a piece of junk at all. The voice stinks worse than a skunk and the answering system has some confusing anomalies, but other than that it still works despite its filthiness, has a good recording quality, and a good number of features. I even like the ringtone. I've found some of the 90s/00s GE stuff (before screens and speakerphones were incorporated into them) are actually usable. Maybe I'll get the one that's on the eRipOff.
Thanks for letting me know! If this was complete with the mounting bracket, I'd probably be more inclined to get that missing plastic piece, but since this phone is now supported by a stand of hot glue, missing the piece just goes along with the rest of it. I'd have to agree, some of these earlier Atkins models did seem well-made enough to be respectable. I also agree that the circulating numbers animation would be better for recording/playback of messages, and the ring volume has an excellent range. That's the main reason why I put this phone in the studio; the ring is loud enough to be heard over all the noise. Really impressive volume. "One messij. Messij three." Seriously, The Letter H. It's a quality answering machine! OK, I will try to speak closer to the microphone next time. There's definitely no physical interference; that's not a voice I recognize. On top of that, there were no other phones in use at the time. There's no electronic explanation for where that came from. The PBX happened to loose the programming the last time the power went out, and I just never bothered to set it up again. I didn't know warning was required for that. Thanks for letting me know about the Adobe Darkroom. You're right, perhaps that was a bit harsh. I've been using it for several months now, while I've never used the answering machine, I've made and received plenty of calls and it's worked just fine. It just seems very rudimentary compared to a Uniden phone, which is why my initial impression wasn't the best.
Wow, I never thought I’d see one of these again. The three buttons at the top were for speed dial‘s, I know the first two were memory in store but I never could get them to do anything. I also remember that if you unplug the answering machine without a battery in it, it would completely wipe all of your messages and the greeting. The only problem we had with ours, was that the little switch underneath the hand said was slightly faulty and you kind of had to pull it up to be able to make a phone call.
Great nostalgia. I only hated how they had the A,B,C, as opposed to printing symbols like Lucent/AT&T did. I do agree this one could have had a speaker and/or a hold feature. I also remember the 29893, which literally replaced this one and added a Caller ID module.
Great video of the General Electricity 29870GE1-A Corded Telephone with the Digital (Digitan) Answering Machine the Jordan! There's 2 answers to this phone's operating system. The 1st answer is that it has that same voice as the 29868 & 29868GE1-B Digital (Digitan) Answering Machines which I have currently at the moment & the 2nd answer is, I may find one of these phones on the eRipOff (eBay) or the Mercari: The Selling App.
I use only rechargeable batteries; they're less likely to leak and are a better value for their price since they can be used over and over, along with being less wasteful and easier to recycle. I've had good results with Energizer (though they're overpriced), EBL, and DieHard; and I've heard AmazonBasics, Tenergy, and the Thunderbolt brand ones from Harbor Freight are quite good too.
I almost exclusively use rechargeable batteries, either Tenergy or Sunlabz. There are other good brands out there, but those I have found to be the most economical. There are a few select cases where I do still use single-use batteries, outdoor cordless thermometers for instance. In those few cases I generally use Energizer’s lithium cells. While I still would not trust them, it does seem like the cheap, generic/off-brand alkaline batteries are seen leaking less often than Duracell.
I have a General Electric 2-9645A I got for free, its a cordless answering machine with voice time and time stamp. It saves messages using a cassette tape. It’s missing a battery cover on the phone. It works but I was wondering if it’s rare as I don’t see much information about the model online.
Hello there Jordan U. First let me just say awesome video man, I know it’s a year old, but I thought I would just let you know you’ve got some great content on your channel. I am a huge tech Enthusiastt myself, and love to learn about the legacy stuff that was around in the past. I replayed some parts of the video when you were listening to some messages, and I thought I heard a second voice on one of them, as you were describing.. Maybe there’s a ghost in there, who knows. LOL. Not sure if you believe in that stuff. Coming to you from Los Angeles. Take care of yourself, and hope to be able to network with you in the future.
what year is this phone from? and maybe it was orginally sold at that thompson electronics but then resold as used at the atlink company? or it could be as you said a joined product. lIke thompson shell and atlink internals or something.
