TAP No. 19 - Snoop Light, Taping Fortress Tones

YOUTH INTERNATIONAL PARTY LINE vA a JUNE 1973 no.19 Northwestern Bell Telephone is starting to take the bells out of pay phones to prevent, they claim, collect calls to pay phones and "signal calls" where people hear their phone ring once and call back to a pay phone. Thus, if you have a life- or-death situation where you must be called back, you're out of luck, So much for the argument that "pay phones are a public service"... Robert McCrie, editor of Security Letter, a anti-ripoff newsletter showing companies security methods, ‘s plugging YIPL for business execs. He calls us "a bunch of nuts" and puts in our address with the warning "don't use the office address" (of their company). Security Letter, 475 Fifth Avenue, N.Y.,N. Y. 10017. Use an office address-you're writing for a company, remember. Say you want to subscribe to Security Letter, ..John D. deButts, chairman of AT&T, in U.S, News and World Report, (Tomorrow's phone service- Why it Will Cost More) comes up with some outrageous state- ments like "a public telephone is a public service", "Service in New York City today is good" and"'we ‘had always felt the Bell System companies were well out ahead in the fairness of our employment practices", Also"People don't visualize the uses for Picturephones". George Orwell did in 1984, but deButts doesn't mention bugging or privacy at all. Another item of interest: "Do you have 2 telephone listed for John D. deButts at 200 Z. 66 St?... Yes, that is 421-2277"... "In Kansas City, the existence of just such an arrangement be- tween the telephone company and the chief of police was re- vealed". That's 2 quote from Monopoly that YIPL printed in issue #1, Well friends, we all know how big corporations often exert political pressure to help their friends into office, don't we? Nixon just named Clarence M. Kelley, the police chief of Kansas City to be Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Maybe all those wires will go to a little box on Clarence's desk... MEAT! Several of you have written about-meetung other phreaks in your area, Some feel that this would invite infiltration, and that meeting at electrical supply stores is probably a lot safer. This way you could see who you meet before you meet them. Then again, you don't know if they're in the "field" unless you ask. Others have said that if another phone phreak convention is held, that would be the ideal place. Or, again, YIPL could receive requests to meet other phreaks in your area, and send pairs of people the name and number of each other simultaneously, from rea- ders whom we feel are cool. If you send in, be patient. We'll try to match another reader, only one, for each request. HOT FLASHE A friendly Pa Bell worke? says that though most telephone kompanies use the amount of resistancé in ringing the bells on @ line to determine the number of phmes connected, in some (college) towns they run spot checks of total line re- sistances that detect phones even with the bell disconnected, So a good policy is to make up a one-line "conference" call maker (YIPL #1)and to leave the switch in the center-off position when not in use. MONKEY WARFARE- nical bandits st lies the coin- £ the little beasties you find they fall into two major types; the egg-headed cranker and the flat-faced change Sorter, The d change sor- ter was the pioneer of the modern gi of coin suckers. ot; it gages the coin's size and gives you for it. t two coins inserted are visible through two rounded windows(spray paint) and is very gullible. It sucks nickels, dimes, round pop tops, #14 brass washers. Also the larger pop tops with the tails attached and many other bulky items plug it and render it use- less till serviced. The egg-headed crander is more sophis- ticated. It comes with different slots on the side for different coins, and has a thumb and index crank like a nose on the middle of its face. It is much more selective in what it gives credit for. @ut #14 washers and, if you use great care, round Pop tops if they are both scotch taped can achieve the desired effect. (Be sure to carry something to push them in with like the pop top tab as the tape sometimes stops the "coins" from rolling in far enough.) WARNING: if you use funny money be generous, you don't want a ticket from a meter that is filled with washers, It might lead to embarassing questions). After tiring of the above methods and wishing to become a mass destroyer of meters, send to Edmund Scientific Go. (300 Edscorp Bldg. , Barrington, N, J. 08007) for their mass meter disabler (they call them giant surplus horseshoe mag- nets). A meter is after all a one-handed clock, and clocks and magnets don't mix. Their monster 5 Ib, job concealed in a pack or purse can stop a meter with a couple of rubs. After it is stopped any money deposited will give credit till city demagnetizes it, OFF A METER TODAY, IT'S GOOD FOR YOUR SOUL! AND IT FEELS GOOD TOO, JACK FLASH. IOWA- A RED BOX IN EVERY POT If you are one of those readers who would love to build a red box but don't have electronic experience, the tape method is for you. With only a small cassette recorder (price-$25) and a telephone Pickup coil(about $2) you can easily and quickly record the sound of pay phone money. The pay phones are now Single-slot types which make a tone when you deposit coins, but the earpiece is discon- nected momentarily so that you hear nothing. But if you call up a friend and deposit money, he will hear it, He can then record the tones off of his Phone, and use them whenever he goes to a pay phone to make long-distance calls. ‘The usual method is to have your friend call you at the Pay phone(one that rings; some don't) and this way you can deposit money and get it back when you hang up, Pickup & hang up again. You deposit 6 quarters, 2 dimes, and 2 nickels. The tape can be played to the operator for a sum of $1.80, or rewound quickly for more quarters or dimes or whatever, Volume is important if the operator is to be fooled. The beeps should be loud and clear, with little background noise. A recorder with Automatic Level (AGC) is good to use for recording. For playback to the operator, a small 2 1/2" external speaker is useful, because you can easily take it away from the mouthpiece of the phone when you want to skip a particular coin sound. The correct volume is set as follows: At the pay phone, alternately play the tape and deposit money, holding the speaker about 1" from the phone mouthpiece, When your friend hears the two at the same tevel, mark the volume ‘control on the cassete for future use. It!s that easy] Use phone booths where people won't see you playing the recorder and become suspicious. And in case your suspicions are aroused, simply erase the tape. DEAR YIPL I have some black-box info you might be interested in. This info came from a Bell V. P, talking to his nephew. He says some central Offi¢es have a computer tied in to all its tandems which randomly checks the resistance of the calls going on. When it detects a low-resistance call it prints out all available info, your number, his number, time SuppoSedly the second time the same conditions are detected between the same two numbers someone gets screwed, usu- ally he who has the box. I can't Say how true all this is, but its plausible, they do have diagnostics equipment. In R.L,(A.C, 401) 959-XXXX (any numbers) gives a high Pitch that makes the tandem cheep, 958-XXXX gets some lineman's office. 955-XXXX gives employee new and Bell vropoganda.238-0000 gives you a line that doesn't ring or answer, All should be free. It would be a great user ser- vice if you could compile and publish a list of what over- Seas senders go where, P. S, - I would appreciate it if you could clarify your mail status and how the F, Bl. gets your subscriber's names, -SAVROK, R.L - We bulk mail at the post office where they are broken up into different mail bags. From that point the issues are Scattered around the country, and our mail gets probably more mishandling than outright censoring, due to sloppily managed postal service. It is also Possible that certain individual postmen throw out YIPLs, but if a manager did it as policy it would leak out too fast. Cooperation between the post office and FBI in revealing subscriber names is totally illegal and would be very embarassing if leaked. Not to mention that we will sue all Parties involved if it occurs, All you postal workers let us know what treatment YIPL mail gets in your area, We might mention that we do not trade, sell, or otherwise expose our mailing list. Boycorr mr. The. for your enclesen bill. 1. Held bill ar EACH END 2. Move lett hand vwni it has right. Cbill wom has fold up addle) ves hands APART Axo 3, Meves, hawt Morea % divers lay bill bermcen pelos awd clap Bi, 5.Spinnle AND ware bi Dent forget, oc) : DEAR YIPL ‘Those individuals who are in the habit of squirting epoxy into pay phone coin slots would be better advised to squirt it into the locks instead. That way the machines will function in case someone needs it. Of course, up- right, moral YIPL readers love Pa Bell too much to do such a thing. -R.F.,LA, CAL, - DEAR YIPL Only problem with red box #16: faint tone(constant) in background with periodic soft beeps even when no button is depressed. Can anything be done? I bought what I thought were good quality ($1.20) Inter- national rectifier switches (coin silver contacts, etc.) and they're hogwash. Will look for better constructed versions. Thanks for all-you folks are beautiful, -MM, NY- You've got a leakage problem. Some possibilities are to decrease the 47K resistor on the base of the shorting transistor, decrease the 22K resistor of the same trans- istor, or increase the 5 mfd. capacitor in the emitter circuit, Or try this: Move the collector of the shorting transistor to the other side of the .01 mfd. capacitor. This will almost surely load the oscillator beyond hope when the shorting transistor is turned on, but may affect the charac- ter of the beeps. It shouldn't be too serious, however. Probucts ! Hestace, Cup Canes ictater Support D EASY Te Foitow Ins TAvCTIONS BUILDASNOOP LIGHT CAUTION: THIS IS NOT A FOOLPROOF FONE TAP DETEC- TOR, but it's great for finding out if all the extensions in your home are hung-up. So if you're going to talk about "Konfiden- tial Matters" or other "Dopee Subjects" you're sure that when you say "I've got it maw" no one else has it too. To insure that all phones on your end of a conversation are hung-up, construct the very simple line voltage detector shown here, The light bulb is a 5 volt miniature type, such as a 1490 or ano, 27. Ideal is the phone company's own tiny slide-base jJamps found in multi-button (hold-button) Phones. For these , use a 470 ohm, 1/2 watt resistor to lengthen the life. ‘The capacitor is a 50 midi, , 100 volts or greater electrolytic type. Get the parts out of any radio or electrical store for about $2. ‘Then connect each of the two contacts from the light to the two contact wires of the capacitor, and install both the blue wire(inside the phone) and the "F" Screw, where the blue wire normally connects to. Be careful not to touch other screws or wires with the new parts you install. Carefully wrap up the connections with tape and close up the phone. Test thé light by Picking up the phone. The light will light, and if someone picks up an extension, it will go very dim or completely out. HOW IT WORKS: When a fone is in use(without a black box) the voltage on your phone line drops to about 4 volts, If the lamp is wired as shown, the 4 volts will flow through it when the phone is picked up. If another phone is used, the line drops to only 2 volts, and the light gets weaker. This other phone, however, must be on your phone line, and not, for example, on the line of a friend you're talking to, The capaciwr allows the high ringing voltage to pass around the lamp, so that the bulb is not accidentally fizzed if the pnone 1s picked up during a ring, You can install this in any normal dial phone, even if already equipped with a black box (Issue 11), The light will not light during free long-distance calls, however since we don't make free long-distance calls that's a minor problem, no? TOWAROS REAR OF PHONE { we are in the midst of the ‘Watergate, with all kinds of hearings and charges and the like, and everybody trying to see who at the White House is involved, when in fact the real criminals are not even being mentioned! Impossible? Not in korporate Amerikal The AT&T-owned Chesa- peake and Potomac Telephone Kompany was in every way part of the Watergate bugging operation. And don't believe for a minute that The Phone Kompany helps police as a rule, AT&T is Nixon's friend, not McGovern's. AT&T makes profits off the war, inflation, and wage controls, just as ITT, related to AT&T only by being a huge ripoff Korporation, and by the fact that ITT's anti-trust bribe makes it the other hidden ‘criminal in Water- gate. Nixon and politicians go on trial, but the real criminals go lon Welfare-with you footing the dill. ITT's other relationship to AT&T is that they buy used, beat-up phone booths from Bell for South Am- ericans! ITT's Memphis credit card is 525 8406 187 K(Area Code 901) Don't buy Morton frozen shit, Avis, Wonder, Hostess, or stay ata Sheraton Inn. Tell all the people you meet to do the same! LIGHT BULB GLUE WIRE Rom DIAL and your Shading hen’ If resistor is not needed, simply replace it with a piece of wire. YIPLIS YIPL is anti-corporate technology ° YIPL is how to do it 2 YIPL is for you YIPL is you YIPL is you sending in articles YIPL is you teaching others XIPL is you yelling at us when we say dumb things ¥IPL is us yelling at you when you don't say things YIPL is in need of your support, and your friends AT&T and ITT want to crush YIPL, but they know that pag is growing into the whole lot of together people that L is, WZ Sac % 7 °° ws light. It's not just the rate increases that burn me up about Bell. It's those local calls that sound like there's an atomic war on, after you've dialed a wrong number three times in a row. It's that lousy Bell service. Lousy service comes from rotten equiptment and asinine employees. The equiptment is rotten because Bell doesn't feel like buying new equiptment. It costs money and doesn't make money for them. Thus, there is no reason. People don't enjoy peircing tones that blow their ears out, or taps and clicks constantly on their private conversations. But people don't count, unless they're the few who own stock, lots of stock, It's a fact that in New York City the phone com- pany puts the new equiptment in the richer areas and badly neglect service in predominantly non-white areas. Recently they sent out printed leaflets in the bills saying that they were changing to a new dial tone to improve service. Result- a new dial tone with no improvement in service. The employees are another problem. Though there are many polite employees, the bad ones do their best to make up for their numbers. They listen to your conversations, act like they do you a favor, and cut you off if you start to get apoplectic from not being able to strangle them, It has often happened that an operator will accuse you of being a bother or of lying to them, and they then pronounce your sentence- your phone will be disconnected for the night. Too bad you only get credit if service is cut for 24 straight hours. And if you call the business office you get to talk to the latest invention of Bell Laboratories-computor people. They recite certain phrases and no others. Sometimes they blow a fuse and keep repeating phrases in random incoherent tones. You don't have to be sick to work for Bell; as their ads say, "We'll train you". Why do some operators monitor your calls? Because operators themselves are harassed and monitored by their supervisors, and the supervisors don't make clicks when they listen to you_and the operator. Employees are treated like children, like boy scouts, or as if they're in the army (2s many employees are hired because they're "pre-disciplined"), Employees are urged to act like they have some personal stake in AT&T and to protect its equiptment with their life. Little insects that eat cloth wire remain a pain in the ass to operators bodies because Pa Bell won't spray their fossilized equiptment or (God forbid!) replace it with plastic wires. Profits before People-AT&T's Success Story! But cheer up folks! Soon AT&T will eliminate thousands of jobs by charging for information calls, brainwashing us into dialing our own calls, and soon there will just be one big daddy computor®AND THAT'S ALL! Who needs people “27 Light and Sound Weapon Tested we repgited I mnagurine ssa in of the of prove s. Sule ‘uy Has dh they see and ther the rest feel a contributions, 19 its, 2 apidly flashing lights. will ger attacks not oaly in {known epileptics but in about 4 Per cent of apparenily normal people as well."” New Scientist said. BACK ISSUES-50¢ 1+ Extensions, conference switches 2+ Blue Box Story and Abbie on ripoffs 3+ Telecommand Story 4- Pey Phone Issue 5- Blue Box 1 Now obsolete & Blue Box 2 ‘ing your organ card calls and 1972 code per project(See issue 11) 14-International Calls & AT&T Papers 15-1973 Credit Code. T Network 16-Red Box Plans 17-Red Box, Line Relay 18-Call St PA How Re not to get ving Lon e cals I-BELL BUTTON- 50¢ 10/ DESTRUCTORY ASSISTANCE: Just Send as much info as you want back in a stamped, self-addressed envelope, YIPL. c/o TAP, room 418, 152 W. 42 St., NYC Mailing adaress only, don't send cash, PLEASE! HEAD CRASH Using the same format as "Destructory Assistance", Head Crash will try to distribute info relating to computor systems, WE HAVE- passwords and account numbers, some “operator only" commands for the PDP-10, and a program which will print out all jobs and account numbers under IBM's HASP 360 system. WE NEED - more account numbers and passwords, listings of cancer, virus, "the green Phantom" etc, and any operator only commands for any system. 10036 R, SYSTAT BE ALL YOU CAN BE-READ A case of Steal This Book has been donated to raise money for YIPL and we're offering them at $2.25 each. YIPL also reccommends Monopoly, an amazing look at AT&T that will astound even veteran phreaks with all it's dirt, They're at $1.20 each, Both prices include postage. YIPL is that kind of thing that you don't subscribe to unless you have to, Since we all have to, it's $4ia year, If you can't afford ¥4.you really need YIPL so it's free. Renew your subscription if the number next toyour address is less than 9. (Free subs must renew also. Just serid-us a note, please. ) Published for informational purposes only by the Youth International Party Line YIPL will not demand payment on any item listed if you are short on funds. A this news-fact sheet is supported by your However