[HaBi 1]    TAP No. 22

TAP No. 22 October 1973 Build The Answeroo The Answeroo is a handy device offered by no one (yet) that answers your phone before it rings. This is especially useful to lovers who live in their parent's homes and like to call each other late at night. Instead of the phones in the house ringing, a light or other appliance (radio, TV, etc.) comes on. You can then go to the phone, turn off the Answeroo, and talk. Relay 1 is the Line Relay (Issue #17). When the phone rings, it sends current to Relay 2 and the light. Contacts "B" lock Relay 2 on, and Contacts "A" put the phone on hold (not free). Using a 56 volt zener diode in place of the 1000 ohm resistor would give a "free" hold until you answered the phone, unless you then answer with a Black Box (Issue #11). The single-pole, single-throw on-off switch, two 115 volt AC relays (one of them should be double-pole, the other single-pole, for relays 2 & 1 respectively), the 5 mfd. non-polar capacitor (200 volts or more), and a resistor are all you need. Cost-under $15. Have fun! AUTOMATIC PHONE TAP This tap is a device which records directly from a telephone line all conversations on that line. It consists of 3 parts: An ordinary dial phone equipped with a "monitor" switch. (Or a mute box, black box, or issue #11) 2. A tape recorder. 3. A line relay. A monitor switch can be installed quite easily. All you need is a screwdriver, a Single-pole, single throw toggle switch and some electrical tape. Remove the cover from the phone, disconnect the green wire from the "RR" terminal and wrap one switch wire and the green wire together with a piece of tape. The other switch wire is wrapped around the "RR" screw and tightened. One position of the switch will give you a dial tone. This is the "Normal" position. The other position of the switch let you hear your phone line without getting a dial tone. This is the same as the "Free " position in Issue #11. Next you need a line relay that will be used to turn on a tape recorder when the phone is being used. Parts: A 1/2 watt, 10, 000 ohm resistor (10c) and a sensitive, low voltage relay, Lafayette Radio #99P60915 @ $2. 57 + .43 postage (Lafayette, 111 Jericho Tpke, Syosset, NY 11791.) When the relay is connected to the phone line (red and green wires) that is not in use (on hook) the relay will be activated thereby opening the circuit to the recorder, turning it off. When a phone is picked up, the voltage on the line drops, causing the relay to de-activate, thereby closing the N. C. circuit and turning on the recorder. Things to look for when choosing a recorder are: Cost, Size (small as possible for hiding the tap), Automatic Level Control, Automatic end-of-tape shutoff, and a remote on-off switch (usually in mike). The G. E. M8430 casette recorder meets all the above for $20. 00 at most discount stores. Get a 120 minute tape and a telephone pickup coil that goes on the handset. To Tap a Line: Hook up a telephone with a monitor switch (on "Free")to the desired line. 2. Hook the line relay up to the same two wires. 3. Switch the phone to "monitor" ("Free"). 4. Remove the handset. 5. Slip the pick -up coil onto the handset (the receiver) and plug it into the mike Jack on the recorder. 6. Hook the recorder's remote on-off switch to the N. C. contacts of the line relay. With the GE M8430, a convenient sub mini jack can be used. 7. Switch Tape recorder to Record. Now when a phone is picked up, the relay will turn on the tape recorder, which will record everything to be heard on the monitor phone. Don't get caught! Hi This may end some of the confusion about the number to call which gives you a computer-generated voice telling you your phone number. In NYC there are 4 numbers-They are-730, 840, 958, 880. One will always work (except in a few C. 0. s) The numbers rotate each month. Other boros may lead or lag 1 month. List is for 1973 but I think it will be same next year. - FLH, NY TAP You might tell Phellow Phreaks in NYC that there are three different 3-dig-it numbers to dial for finding out the number you're calling from, and that they are regional. What's more, Pa Bell likes to switch them now & then to confuse us. That's the reason (they're regional) that one might work for one area but not another. They are *958, 311, and 221. If N. Y. C. telephone subscribers have suspected that the number of "additional message units" they're being charged for on their monthly bill is too high, it's probably true. I got it on good authority (a former operator) that NY Tel routinely overcharges customers on additional m. u. every month. And they get away with it since message units are not verifiable, because they are not itemized like toll calls. You have to take their word. The padding takes place not in the computers but in Accounting, where Pa Bell's hardworking CPA's are under orders to pile on a heap of extra message units because who'll be the wiser? And when one complains to the B. O. Rep. that he keeps track of his calls and couldn't possibly have made so many, we're told that they will "check our equipment"a ruse, a diversionary tactic, because that's not where the skullduggery is being done. Get it? -IL R. Holdafone- Dear TAP, There existed among the gang back in Vancouver some very sick minds who delighted in setting various parts of a payphone on fire. What they would do is open the phone book up around the middle, pour gasoline on same, placed a paper cup containing a particular mixture in it upon the soaked book and walk away. In about two minutes, the book would be aflame and would parboil the plastic handset into submission and if the booth itself was molded out of plastic, a cheerful blaze greeted the pigs and other such carbon compounds. The mixture in the cup was about half a heaping teaspoon of Potassium Permanganate (chemical and hobby stores) and, to be added just before an innocent departure, one drop of glycerine (drugstores for ointment use). This pile of goodies usually erupts into a white hot flare capable of igniting almost anything, including gas fumes. The reaction, by the way, takes from 30 seconds on a hot day with finely ground Pot Per to 6 minutes on a cold day with clunky Compound P. Also ideal for quiet little garbage cans at school or maybe even Telco vehicle's gas tank in a small baggie or a gas sodden piece of construction that you feel is bad for the environment or simply remote & safe ignition of fireworks. Fagen Das Telefunken Gesellschaft Freundlichst, -BW, MANITOBA- We have some inexpensive instructional plan sheets for the display models featured at the Convention. The 2600 whistle perfector is a 2600 detector similar to existing toll-fraud detectors. The Displayed Red Box is similar to Issue #16's circuit with an improved IC timer, LED lights to demonstrate operation, and a few other improvements. The circuit can be used as a portable with a few changes we explain, and is far more reliable than the older circuit. The Dual Tone Oscillator is a circuit for demonstrating signalling tones, and can even be u§ed as a simple blue box. The sheets are 15~ each(free if you can't afford it). We also have copies of the Convention schedule (free), including Cap'n Crunch's and Joe Engressia's #'s. Dear TAP, When using a blue box to call any country which is on the IDDD list, if it has a 2-digit country code you can leave off the zero from in front of the country code once you have obtained a register (i. e. -KP61 2 2074 ST Instead of KPO61 2 2074). It will be treated as a customer-dialed call, which means you won't be able to reach the inward or other operators. If it is a 3-digit country code then it will be automatically treated as a customer-dialed call unless you use a special "operator country code" which starts with 0 & has no relation to the regular C. C. - E GORDON LIDDY, NY- To Destructory Assistance Two IOTC accessable areas are 202 and 713. Any WATS number such as 800-392-XXXX or 800-424-XXXX to these areas will work. Also 800-447-XXXX. (IOTC means you can box KP 011 country code ST and you'll be automatically routed to the correct 18- sender). Is there a direct route to Moscow off of the 182 sender? (White Plains) I've been gettinq some overseas point by dialing KP182ST, KP171121ST. It's usually a busy signal (distant) and when I call Japan and ask for Moscow she says it's too early in the morning and they don't answer. Dial KP713 141ST or KP202 141ST and ask for "overseas routing for Paris France please", or whatever. Ask for IOTC. She'll give you all the routing instructions (ignore "Mark XXX... 11). Call KP713 1513T. It's called "1st attempt failure desk" and it will record everythng you say to it. Play a radio newscast for them or talk about phone phreaking. -SW,TEXAS- NOTE: You can reach a Moscow Test Center by using overseas sender KP188ST, (although it's supposed to be served by NY4, 183) or IOTC KPOll 071ST, then KP071 095 080ST, when the trunk chirps play KP01 6ST. A Moscow test board will answer. They often speak some foreign languages (including some poor English). Also, try Israel, 972, or just 72. Here are some cities: 2-Jerusalem 53-98378-Tul Karem. 65-23854-Genin 3-Tel Avi; 53-98373-Nablus 2-97-Hebron 4-Haifa 59-Elat 2-922610-Auja 53-NaLviia 65-Afula, Nazareth Dear TAP, Did you know the restricted line feature of many Centrex installations can be bypassed? One may usually call outside by dialing 9 for an external dial tone and then dialing the number, provided that it lies in the local area. If more than 7 digits are dialed a recording comes on. But this may be bypassed by dialing 9 then 0 followed immediately by the first digit of the # then complete dialing of the number without the area code. When the assistance operator comes on insist that you have been having difficulty, reaching the local number even though you've been dialing the area code. Then you ask her to try the number for you, billing it to a credit card or the centrex line. This info should be very useful. -TA, NY Dear TAP, Toll restrictors are usually used at motels that have direct dial out type phones. A typical one will say "Dial 8 for local" "Dial 9 for long distance". When you dial 8 or 9 you will get another dial tone and then you can proceed to dial your own local number. Some phones you can dial info and/or 800 without the operator coming on the line but these are rare and on most types, the operator comes on the line and makes your call. The toll restrictor will not allow you to dial "1" in order to make your own long distance calls. However several of these restrictors only protect the first and second digits and can be beat in the following way: Dial the one digit shown on the phone to make local calls (usually 8) then dial the first two digits of the exchange you're in plus the digit 1 and you will find a new dial tone and the world at your fingertips. You may dial direct and the motel line is charged for the call, or you may use your favorite box without worry, assuming you have used another name at the register. - Sparky Dear TAP, I am an electronics technician by trade and a past employee of Pa Bell and Johnny General. I have been a phreak since 1956 when I made my first free call. The resistance of the ringers is not the factor measured when friendly test board "bridges" your line. The circuit (basically) that they use is as follows: You will recognize the circuit as a simple ohmmeter, but why is the voltmeter connected in series? I don't know but Pa. measures current with it. "100 volts of short" means a dead short on the line. Zero volts, an open. Now the important part, the reversing switch. The test board man flips it back and forth and the bounce of the meter (hook an ordinary ohmmeter to a capacitor and reverse the leads and you'll see the same effect) lets him estimate the # of ringers. Cruddy insulation, temperature, and distance from the C.O. affect readings. A key telephone may look like 3 ringers, etc. Capacitance is most important with the D. C. winding resistance next. At one flip per second, coil inductance is very important., too. As for detecting phones without ringers, Pa Bell can't do it. I have 17 telephones and a key system (I use my own "one bell simulator", 3650ohms and .47 mfd. in series). You can safely connect as many ringerless phones as you like. Peace be with you on the tandems forever (ka.-chi-rp). - Almon B. Strowger, CA. NOTE-. Connecting extra extensions is In Issue #1. NOW WE CATCH RED BOXERS by Milton Moritz, United Telephone System I personally view the red box as a much less dangerous item to us than the blue box. The basis for this is as follows: The red box does not work on all pay phones. The electronic tones which it produces match those of the new "single slot" pay stations. Older pay phones still use the two internal bells to register the coins dropped into the phone. Telephone operators are trained the electronic tones. Our pay stations all produce exactly the same tones. If the red box is slightly out of adjustment, the operator will normally recognize the tone as abnormal and report the call for further inquiry or investigation. Each toll call, whether from a residence phone or pay station, is rated and billed by our computer. The amount of money collected from each pay station is also reported to data processing and a computer printout compares the calls billed to that station against the money collected. When a pay station starts going "short" we immediately check to see if this is electromechanical failure, operator error, data processing problems, internal theft, or external theft. Thieves and cheats are, like the rest of us (our emphasis), creatures of habit, and their activities will form a pattern in a fairly brief period of time. " Security Letter is an anti-ripoff newsletter for corporations that is itself a ripoff at $48/yr. , and who attended our convention last year without permission to rip us off and report on the convention. In Telephony, Ed. Robert McCrie's latest issue, we're told, rips off part of Ron Rosenbaum's excellent article from the Village Voice on our second convention. If you happen to be receiving SL, you're wasting your money. The articles are a waste and filled with (stolen) errors. anyway. - TAP. Dear TAP, In a past issue, you told us about Security Letter, and I sent off for a subscription. Why the fuck didn't you people tell me that they also charge $48 a year for a subscription to their 4-page deal that comes out every 2 weeks. A little hint about sending telegrams by phone: I sent one to Florida on April 29, and didn't get the bill until September 1. A nice little thing to keep in mind... You mentioned this obliquely in one issue, but I thought I'd clarify it. To get a call for a nickel on a fortress phone: insert a nickel. You will hear a slight change in the background noise. Hold down the hook switch until you hear a very faint click in the handset, about a second. Let up the hookswitch, and you have a dial tone. Unfortunately, the dial will not be connected, so you have to tap out the number on the hookswitch, which takes practice. -CS, HOUSTON Dear Persons, Under the bank Security Act, passed several years ago, all banks that handle checking accounts must make photo copies of all cancelled checks and keep microfilm records in their central records dept. These copies can be inspected on demand by Treasury Dept. Agents, without any warrants whatsoever. When the Fed snoops get around to harrassing radical libertarians (individualist anarchists) then I'll be under strong possibility that Big Brother is watching my financial transactions. Until then, however, I'm not going to give them a head start over a miniscule 50c check to YIPL. (I'm not saying "I don't care until it hits me"). ACLU, Proxmire and others are fighting the Act, but Chairman Patman of the House Banking committee is for it and won't hold hearings on it. -RE, NY NOTE: TAP suggests readers send money orders, which need not contain your real name or address.

[HaBi 1]    TAP No. 22