Phone Taps

Phone Taps by The Jolly Roger
Here is some info on phone taps. In this file is a schematic for a
simple wiretap & instructions for hooking up a small tape recorder
control relay to the phone line.
First, I will discuss taps a little. There are many different
types of taps. there are transmitters, wired taps, and induction
taps to name a few. Wired and wireless transmitters must be
physically connected to the line before they will do any good.
Once a wireless tap is connected to the line,it can transmit all
conversations over a limited reception range. The phones in the
house can even be modifies to pick up conversations in the room
and transmit them too! These taps are usually powered off of the
phone line, but can have an external power source. You can get more
information on these taps by getting an issue of Popular
Communications and reading through the ads. Wired taps, on the
other hand, need no power source, but a wire must be run from the
line to the listener or to a transmitter. There are obvious
advantages of wireless taps over wired ones. There is one type of
wireless tap that looks like a normal telephone mike. All you have
to do is replace the original mike with thisand itwill transmit
all conversations! There is also an exotic type of wired tap known
as the 'Infinity Transmitter' or 'Harmonica Bug'. In order to hook
one of these, it must be installed inside the phone. When someone
calls the tapped phone & *before* it rings,blows a whistle over
the line, the transmitter picks up the phone via a relay. The mike
on the phone is activated so that the caller can hear all of the
conversations in the room. There is a sweep tone test at
415/BUG-1111 which can be used to detect one of these taps. If one
of these is on your line & the test # sends the correct tone, you
will hear a click. Induction taps have one big advantage over taps
that must be physically wired to the phone. They do not have to be
touching the phone in order to pick up the conversation. They work
on the same principle as the little suction-cup tape recorder
mikes that you can get at Radio Shack. Induction mikes can be
hooked up to a transmitter or be wired.
Here is an example of industrial espionage using the phone:
A salesman walks into an office & makes a phone call. He fakes
the conversation, but when he hangs up he slips some foam rubber
cubes into the cradle. The called party can still hear all
conversations in the room. When someone picks up the phone, the
cubes fall away unnoticed.
A tap can also be used on a phone to overhear what your modem is
doing when you are wardialing, hacking, or just plain calling a
bbs (like the White Ruins! Denver, Colorado! 55 megs online!
Atari! Macintosh! Amiga! Ibm! CALL IT! 303-972-8566! By the way, i
did this ad without the sysops consent or knowledge!).
Here is the schematic:
-------)!----)!(------------->
)!(
Cap ^ )!(
)!(
)!(
)!(
^^^^^---)!(------------->
^ 100K
!
! Ask to speak to their supervisor... or
better yet the Group Chief (who is the highest ranking official in
any office) who is the equivalent of the Madame ina whorehouse.
By the way, some CO's that willallow you to dial a 0 or 1 as the
4th digit, will also allow you to call special operators & other
fun Tel. Co. #'s without a blue box. This is ver rare, though! For
example,212-121-1111 will get you a NY Inward Operator.
Office Hierarchy
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Every switching office in North America (the NPA system), is
assigned an office name and class. There are five classes of
offices numbered 1 through 5. Your CO is most likely a class 5 or
end office. All long-distance (Toll) calls are switched by a toll
office which can be a class 4, 3, 2, or 1 office. There is also a
class 4X office callen an intermediate point. The 4X office is a
digital one that can have an unattended exchange attached to it
(known as a Remote Switching Unit (RSU)).
The following chart will list the Office #, name, & how many of
those office exist (to the best of my knowledge) in North America:
Class Name Abb # Existing
----- ----------------------- --- -----------------
> 1 Regional Center RC 12
> 2 Sectional Center SC 67
> 3 Primary Center PC 230
> 4 Toll Center TC 1,300
> 4P Toll Point TP n/a
> 4X Intermediate Point IP n/a
> 5 End Office EO 19,000
> 6 RSU RSU n/a
When connecting a call from one party to another, the switching
equipment usually tries to find the shortest route between the
class 5 end office of the caller & the class 5 end officeof the
called party. If no inter-office trunks exist between the two
parties, it will then move upward to the next highest office for
servicing calls (Class 4). If the Class 4 office cannot handle the
call by sending it to another Class 4 or 5 office, it will then be
sent to the next highest office in the hierarchy (3). The
switching equipment first uses the high-usage interoffice trunk
groups, if they are busy then it goes to the fina; trunk groups on
the next highest level. If the call cannot be connected, you will
probably get a re-order [120 IPM (interruptions per minute) busy
signal] signal. At this time, the guys at Network Operations are
probably shitting in their pants and trying to avoid the dreaded
Network Dreadlock (as seen on TV!).
It is also interesting to note that 9 connections in tandem is
called ring-around-the-rosy and it has never occured in telephone
history. This would cause an endless loop connection [a neat way
to really screw up the network].
The 10 regional centers in the US & the 2 in Canada are all
interconnected. they form the foundation of the entire telephone
network. Since there are only 12 of them, they are listed below:
Class 1 Regional Office Location NPA
-------------------------------- ---
Dallas 4 ESS 214
Wayne, PA 215
Denver 4T 303
Regina No. 2SP1-4W (Canada) 306
St. Louis 4T 314
Rockdale, GA 404
Pittsburgh 4E 412
Montreal No. 1 4AETS (Canada) 504
That's it for now! More info to come Future update to the
Cookbook! Have fun!