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From: motcid!lyman@uunet.uu.net (Michael Lyman)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Can This Be True?
Message-ID: <5444@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 21 Mar 90 18:22:49 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 191, Message 4 of 10


tmt@osf.org (Tom Talpey) writes:


>> I trust all of you readers can keep a secret: My 15 year old son told
>> me that he and his friends can place calls from pay phones using a
>> paper clip instead of coins. In addition they can place long-distance
>> calls the same way instead of using calling cards.  I did not believe
>> the claim until I saw the kids in action. They use the paper clip to
>> complete a circuit and it requires about five seconds.

	Back in the "olden days" a cassette recorder and a payphone
was all that was required for long distance chicanery ( plus a pocket
full of spare change ). It was a simple scheme: deposit a dime, or any
coin that would render dialtone (for kicks the method above was also
used ), dial a digit thus getting rid of the dial tone. Now it got
technical .... the cassette recorder microphone was held against the
earpiece and while the recorder ran, coins (usually dimes or quarters
) were slowly but methodically deposited into the phone, recording the
"ding-ding" as the coins dropped. 

When all the coins were deposited, the payphone was hung up. There was
a time-out associated with the no-dial condition so the perpetrator
had to be careful not to exceed this timeout, and above all, the whole
operation had to be *quiet* in order to make a quality recording.  The
stage was now set! 

Someone would dial "0" and ask the operator to place a long distance
call. The operator would ask to deposit $XX in coins for the first
three minutes. At this point the recorder (which has been requeued to
the begining) was held up to the telephone mouthpiece and the sound of
the coins dropping was played back for the operator. When the required
amount of $XX was reached, the recorder was stopped and the operator
said "thenk-yew" and three minutes of conversation usually to a random
number took place.

	I'm still not sure if it was the operator that had to listen
for the chimes that the coins made or the recorder faked out some
on-line equipment, but it was Iowa, it was the '60's and it provided
no end of paranoia to the little burr-heads on the block that the
phone police might one day be calling.

Just another story....


-M.L.


[Moderator's Note: In those days, the only way for the operator to
verify your deposit was to listen for the 'ding' of the nickle, the
'ding-ding' of the dime, and the 'bong' of the quarter, as each went
down the chute and caused a little metal arm inside to hit the bell.
We also found in the early days of ESS that pressing the three and six
keys at the same time created a pitch that 'sounded like a nickle' to
the operator when a manual collection was required (usually when for
some reason the equipment failed to capture the number being called
and the operator had to bubble it in herself.)  PT]