Path: utzoo!telecom-request Date: 24 Jun 91 15:59:15 GMT From: Dennis Blyth Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Hook Tapping Reply-To: Dennis Blyth Message-ID: Organization: NCR International - Europe Group, Dayton Sender: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 486, Message 3 of 12 Lines: 59 Michigan State University, 1968 [Previous writer suggested dialing using switch hook to tap out the digits.] I would not recommend your method, because it is *likely* to generate trouble tickets at the CO. (or at least it would have 23 years ago!) I learned that the hard way. In 1968 at Michigan State University I was Program Director of our campus radio station, and we ran a contest called 'civil war week-end' wherein the object was to award 'points' to the dormitory with the *most* correct calls/answers to our questions about rock 'n roll oldies. We generated thousands of phone calls in a very short time. Our phone number was 5-6111 (Centrex), specially set up for the week-end contest. It over-flowed to 6112, 6113, and 6114. Students quickly learned that it was faster to dial the 5 and 6 normally, then 'bat the switch hook' for the last three digits. About 45 minutes into the contest, I received a ring on one of our normal business lines. I thought it strange, because we had 'busied out' the other lines by calling from one line to another, picking it up, and putting it on hold. It was the technician at our local CO, who threatened to take us off the air if we did not cease and desist with our contest. I asked him how he knew about it and he said he had a pile of trouble tickets for 56111 and that he learned it was a line just installed the day before for our station. (Since we relied on MBT to carry our signal to our transmitter, his threat was credible, and we immediately ceased the contest, citing 'technical difficulties'.) I said I had a hard time believing it was our station that was generating the volume of calls. He said they had not had so many calls since the day President Kennedy was shot. He invited me to the CO to see. When I arrived, we ran the contest for three minutes, and the noise from the equipment was deafening. He explained that one of the campus exchanges was 'electronic' and the other was not. In about 45 minutes, he had about 100 'punch card' trouble tickets, which was automatically generated by the 'electronic' equipment. He said each time somebody 'dialed' using the hook, that a ticket was created. We agreed to run the contest for only three minutes out of every ten minutes for the rest of the week-end. During the contest times, on one exchange there was a delay of 30 seconds before one could get a dial tone, and a 20 second delay on the other. The MBT technician said the equipment would normally give 20 people per second a dial tone per exchange. I quickly learned 'the power of the mass media'. BTW, the technician said that if he had not been able to locate the source of the trouble, that in the next 15 minutes he would have had to call a VP of MBT and ask permission to 'pull the plug' on all service but service set up for emergencies, doctors, civil defense, police, hospitals, etc. I know this is 'an oldie' but hopefully, it is a 'goodie' that has some relevance to your topic. Thanks for allowing me this opportunity to reminisce.