Xref: utzoo sci.electronics:10625 misc.legal:15867 alt.sex:10891 misc.misc:9356 Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!uupsi!njin!spcvxa!terry From: terry@spcvxa.spc.edu (Terry Kennedy) Newsgroups: sci.electronics,misc.legal,alt.sex,misc.misc Subject: Re: Phone Harassment Message-ID: <45.260081ad@spcvxa.spc.edu> Date: 16 Mar 90 06:03:24 GMT References: <21849@watdragon.waterloo.edu> <13746@watcgl.waterloo.edu> <90071.220057SAB121@psuvm.psu.edu> <1185@gtx.com> <1990Mar16.001210.27602@ddsw1.MCS.COM> Distribution: na Organization: St. Peter's College, US Lines: 28 In article <1990Mar16.001210.27602@ddsw1.MCS.COM>, benfeen@ddsw1.MCS.COM (Ben Feen) writes: > I saw an interesting method of getting back at phone harrassers - It > involves a car battery, a large capacitor, and some wiring thru your phone. > I'm not gonna go into it, but if you go through a certain sequence, you can > send a surge through Ma Bell's wires, straight into the offender's > handset.......... Uh-huh. Right. First, if you indeed send a high-current "surge through Ma Bell's wires" the first and _only_ thing you're going to take out are the fuses for _your_ phone line. Even supposing you got past that, _and_ that it was a local call _and_ it was on a mechanical switch (which is getting less and less likely), the phone on the far end is transformer-coupled, so all they would hear is a brief "click". Since any calls outside the local mechanical switch are transformer- or electonically- converted to 4-wire, it wouldn't get out of your local switch. Likewise, when you feed the A/D converter in an electronic switch, it won't see it either. By the way, current local loop cable is something like #24 or #26 cable (down from #18 tin-over-copper in the old cotton-wrapped pressurized lead- jacketed cables). You can't put a lot of current through #26. If you did, you'd melt the cable (that's why they have the fuses at their end). If you did melt the cable, you'd have some _very_ irate telephone security folks visiting you - or at least you would have when I was working for the phone company... Terry Kennedy Operations Manager, Academic Computing terry@spcvxa.bitnet St. Peter's College, US terry@spcvxa.spc.edu (201) 915-9381