
The Telkom Bratek was a Polish telephone developed in the late 80s, by RWT, Radomska Wytwórnia Telekomunikacyjna, once the Polish branch of the Swedish Ericsson company.
It is a compact modern designed telephone. All electronic components are mounted on a printed circuit board, but it does still have a mechanical ringer with 2 bells. Bratek means violet, as the Polish telephone authority Telkom names all its telephone models after flowers in this period.

I really love it’s design and I wanted one really badly for my collection, when I first saw it. It seems to be made for the Polish marked only and is not found very often outside Poland. So I had to save up some money and buy a good one through the internet and have it sent to the Netherlands.

It has a couple of unusual features, which make it very interesting. It came I various colours, like red, green, brown, white and there are versions with an earthing button and indicator light. Not only was it made with a rotary dial, but also with a push button key pad.

It can be converted from a wall version to a desk version. This is done firstly by adding a wall bracket, which is missing on the Bratek in my collection. Secondly the dial has to be oriented the other way. That is done by lifting it and turning it.

The most unusual thing about this model is its finger wheel, which does not have finger holes like regular dials. Instead it has u shaped openings in which a fingertip can be placed. This type of finger wheel is not unique to this telephone, as in England and the USA they experimented with this type too. It is however the only telephone that actually went into production with this feature. Using this dial is like using any other dial. You hardly noticed the difference with a normal dial, when placing a finger in one of the openings and turning it. It also helps that the dial is placed in e recess, thus preventing a finger from slipping out.
Hi, I just purchased 2 NOS (New Old Stock) unused Bratek A271 phones from Ukraine. The A271 has mechanical bell ringer and ringer volume control underneath. The other has electronic ringer and no ringer volume control, but the base looks identical to yours. However you say your phone has mechanical ringer. Unusual. Cheers from New Zealand
Hi Jim, congratulations on your find. Mine does indeed have a mechanical ringer. Perhaps it is an earlier version.
From the outside you would expect an electronic ringer, though. 🙂
Regards,
Arwin
Sorry for late reply. Seems there were several different versions of this telephone produced, with various options available. There are also quite a few different versions of the schematics for these phones too.
I have just finished converting my 2 phones from pulse to DTMF dialing.
I am electronics tech and in my semi retirement I manufacture the converters.
Here’s a sample of external unit: https://www.ebay.com/itm/283645667273
I also do internal version as well.
Cheers Jim