al@gtx.com (Alan Filipski) (03/15/90)
In article <90071.220057SAB121@psuvm.psu.edu> SAB121@psuvm.psu.edu writes: > >There's an even more interesting version of that going around near where I >lived. Get an air horn like the type used for small boats. Keep it handy by >the phone. Next time the bastard calls, give him a shot of that. It's almost >guarenteed that in 24 hrs or less he'll be stopping by an emergency room to >get work done on his ruptured eardrum. Sure, and the TV station can blind all the viewers by shining a laser into the camera. Does anyone have any evidence that anyone actually got his eardrum ruptured this way? I don't mean, "I heard from a friend", I mean like first-hand experiences or articles from reputable sources. If this happened to somebody, the first thing they would do, in this society, is sue the phone company and probably get rich. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ( Alan Filipski, GTX Corp, 8836 N. 23rd Avenue, Phoenix, Arizona 85021, USA ) ( {decvax,hplabs,uunet!amdahl,nsc}!sun!sunburn!gtx!al (602)870-1696 ) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
wb1j+@andrew.cmu.edu (William M. Bumgarner) (03/15/90)
al@gtx.com (Alan Filipski) writes: > In article <90071.220057SAB121@psuvm.psu.edu> SAB121@psuvm.psu.edu writes: > > > >There's an even more interesting version of that going around near where I > >lived. Get an air horn like the type used for small boats. Keep it handy by > >the phone. Next time the bastard calls, give him a shot of that. It's almost > >guarenteed that in 24 hrs or less he'll be stopping by an emergency room to > >get work done on his ruptured eardrum. > > Sure, and the TV station can blind all the viewers by shining a laser > into the camera. Does anyone have any evidence that anyone actually > got his eardrum ruptured this way? I don't mean, "I heard from a > friend", I mean like first-hand experiences or articles from reputable > sources. If this happened to somebody, the first thing they would do, > in this society, is sue the phone company and probably get rich. Considering the rather low bandwidth of the phone signals and the way the system is designed, I would bet that a signal loud enough to actually cause serious ear damage would come through the line as mostly distortion.... a phone connection isn't just a microphone on one end w/ an amplifier on the other-- the switching equipment in between will define the limits as being far below that dangerous of a level. obSex: To the person comparing Sports and Sex: my sport -- Frisbee Ultimate... a non-contact sport. But I can guarantee you that my sex life is a full-contact sport... b.bumgarner | Disclaimer: All opinions expressed are my own. wb1j+@andrew.cmu.edu | I officially don't represent anyone unless I NeXT Campus Consultant | explicity say I am doing so. So there. <Thpppt!> "I ride tandem with the random/Things don't run the way I planned them..."
gary@oak.circa.ufl.edu (Milo Kreuger (Freddy Kreuger's wimpy brother)) (03/15/90)
In article <1185@gtx.com>, al@gtx.com (Alan Filipski) writes: >In article <90071.220057SAB121@psuvm.psu.edu> SAB121@psuvm.psu.edu writes: >>There's an even more interesting version of that going around near where I >>lived. Get an air horn like the type used for small boats. Keep it handy by >>the phone. Next time the bastard calls, give him a shot of that. It's almost >>guarenteed that in 24 hrs or less he'll be stopping by an emergency room to >>get work done on his ruptured eardrum. >Sure, and the TV station can blind all the viewers by shining a laser >into the camera. Does anyone have any evidence that anyone actually >got his eardrum ruptured this way? I don't mean, "I heard from a >friend", I mean like first-hand experiences or articles from reputable >sources. If this happened to somebody, the first thing they would do, >in this society, is sue the phone company and probably get rich. If the phone the scum is using is high quality enough, it could cause a certain amount of temporary deafness... Too often, though, cheap phones and distant connections muffle the sound a great deal. At most he'd be annoyed. From what the original poster said, it sounds like someone in the phone company, possibly a repairman who links into the system at whatever telephone pole or cable node he happens to be at... What sort of situation would make it so impossible to get an unlisted number? It must be something pretty important or serious to not want to take about the only other option available to stop such a persistant person... (Perhaps Isaac is lonely...) =============================================================================== gary%maple.decnet@pine.circa.ufl.edu : Internet Our solar death that we deserve for being ignorant with our world! We will fry, we will die. We never learn, so now we BURN! It's time for the human race to die and give our world a chance to thrive! --From "No Turning Back" by S.O.D.
aem@mthvax.cs.miami.edu (a.e.mossberg) (03/15/90)
In article <90071.220057SAB121@psuvm.psu.edu> SAB121@psuvm.psu.edu writes: >There's an even more interesting version of that going around near where I >lived. Get an air horn like the type used for small boats. Keep it handy by >the phone. Next time the bastard calls, give him a shot of that. It's almost >guarenteed that in 24 hrs or less he'll be stopping by an emergency room to >get work done on his ruptured eardrum. In <1185@gtx.com> al@gtx.com (Alan Filipski) writes: >Sure, and the TV station can blind all the viewers by shining a laser >into the camera. Does anyone have any evidence that anyone actually >got his eardrum ruptured this way? I don't mean, "I heard from a >friend", I mean like first-hand experiences or articles from reputable >sources. If this happened to somebody, the first thing they would do, >in this society, is sue the phone company and probably get rich. I, of course, have no technical references handy. There is a decibel limit to the sound going through the telephone, and while it is high enough to be annoying, it is not high enough to cause damage. If you really care, you could ask on comp.dcom.telecom. aem -- a.e.mossberg / aem@mthvax.cs.miami.edu / aem@umiami.BITNET / Pahayokee Bioregion What is it about death that bothers me? Probably the hours. - Woody Allen
mpe@shamash.cdc.com (2375) (03/15/90)
A telephone only has so much frequency bandwidth and a fixed volume gain. If thousands of watts of energy are screamed into one end of the phone, a small (limited and clipped) amount of signal is actually transmitted.
ESV@psuvm.psu.edu (ANDREW COLL esv@psuvm.psu.edu) (03/16/90)
>In article <90071.220057SAB121@psuvm.psu.edu> SAB121@psuvm.psu.edu writes: >> >>There's an even more interesting version of that going around near where I >>lived. Get an air horn like the type used for small boats. Keep it handy by >>the phone. Next time the bastard calls, give him a shot of that. It's almost >>guarenteed that in 24 hrs or less he'll be stopping by an emergency room to >>get work done on his ruptured eardrum. I seem to remember that in older ITT or Western Electric telephone handsets, the earpiece had a varistor across it to protect the user from excessive volumes and such. I don't know if an El-cheapo phone has a similar device installed but from what I've seen, the cheap 1.5" speaker would probably self-destruct. Andrew Coll ESV@PSUVM.BITNET ESV@PSUVM.PSU.EDU
benfeen@ddsw1.MCS.COM (Ben Feen) (03/16/90)
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..........
--
|Opus and Frodo live! | "Sometimes, when your cat just died and you've cut
off your favorite appendage(s) with a power saw and there's epoxy in the
Visine and you brush your teeth with Clearasil it helps to say 'What the
f*ck'" | This signature consists of non-blanks separated by blanks.terry@spcvxa.spc.edu (Terry Kennedy) (03/16/90)
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
dana@lando.la.locus.com (Dana Myers) (03/17/90)
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.......... Give us all a break. There are a whole host of reasons why this won't work. To start with, there is a reason why telephone handsets are made of non-conductive material - to protect the user against electrical shock due to lightning strikes or (possibly) power lines shorted to phone lines. Furthermore, there isn't necessarily a DC circuit from your phone to the offender's. In fact, without much data to back this up, I'd assert there is a great likelihood that no DC circuit exists on almost any phone call today. What if an extra-terrestrial link is in use (satellite link)? Where are the wires? Such an approach would do no more than fry the phone the battery, capacitor and wires are applied to. ***************************************************************** * Dana H. Myers WA6ZGB | Views expressed here are * * (213) 337-5136 | mine and do not necessarily * * dana@locus.com | reflect those of my employer * *****************************************************************
ruck@sphere.UUCP (John R Ruckstuhl Jr) (03/17/90)
In article <AZzm_Iy00VoE46Oac6@andrew.cmu.edu>, wb1j+@andrew.cmu.edu (William M. Bumgarner) writes: >al@gtx.com (Alan Filipski) writes: >>In article <90071.220057SAB121@psuvm.psu.edu> SAB121@psuvm.psu.edu writes: >>> >>>There's an even more interesting version of that going around near where I >>>lived. Get an air horn like the type used for small boats. Keep it handy by >>>the phone. Next time the bastard calls, give him a shot of that. It's almost >>>guarenteed that in 24 hrs or less he'll be stopping by an emergency room to >>>get work done on his ruptured eardrum. >> >Considering the rather low bandwidth of the phone signals and the way >the system is designed, I would bet that a signal loud enough to >actually cause serious ear damage would come through the line as >mostly distortion.... a phone connection isn't just a microphone on >one end w/ an amplifier on the other-- the switching equipment in >between will define the limits as being far below that dangerous of a >level. Based on experiments conducted while I was a college freshman, I assert that causing ear damage by the means discussed previously is not possible. There are several ways the large amplitude signal !might! be limited: I believe one or more are true. 1. The microphone saturates. 2. The switcher at telephone central office has protective limiting and/or conditioning. 3. If the signal is digitized to be transmitted between central office's, that digitization limits the signal. 4. The speaker saturates. There is likely (but I don't know) a regulation (FCC?) on the signal levels output by one's telephone (to the central office). Someone with test equipment at their desk might want to apply test signals to their office-mate's telephone handset speaker to confirm or contradict the theory of !speaker! saturation occuring below sound levels capable of causing pain. I don't believe limiting is more conspicuous in poor-quality personal telephone equipment. -- John R Ruckstuhl, Jr ...!hplabs!hp-lsd!sphere!ruck
jim@mmsac.UUCP (Jim Lips Earl) (03/17/90)
> 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.......... That sounds hokey to me. It is my understanding that there is no "direct" connection from your phone thru the phone company to the caller on the other end. I think it goes thru several amplifiers and limiting circuitry in between you and the caller. Also, I know the phone company used to have "fuses" on each user's phone "pair". So if you hooked, say, 120vac across your phone line, these fuses would blow, and you would be without service until the phone company replaces the fuses. I'm sure they'd be fairly pissed at doing such a thing to their equipment, also. -- Jim "Lips" Earl UUCP: ucbvax!ucdavis!csusac!mmsac!jim KB6KCP INTERNET: mmsac!jim@csusac.csus.edu ======================================================================= The opinions stated herein are all mine.
whs70@pyuxe.UUCP (W. H. Sohl) (03/17/90)
> In article <90071.220057SAB121@psuvm.psu.edu> SAB121@psuvm.psu.edu writes: > > > >There's an even more interesting version of that going around near where I > >lived. Get an air horn like the type used for small boats. Keep it handy by > >the phone. Next time the bastard calls, give him a shot of that. It's almost > >guarenteed that in 24 hrs or less he'll be stopping by an emergency room to > >get work done on his ruptured eardrum. > > The telecommunications circuits do NOT allow the passing of a signal that would be loud enough to rupture an eardrum. Today's telephone circuits pass a nominal range of frequencies of 300 to 3000 hertz within a finite range of amplitude (loudness). Telephone circuitry is designed to carry voice and is not designed, therefore, with the type of dynamic range of frequency and amplitude of even the cheapest forms of stero equipment. Bill Sohl Bellcore (Bell Communications Research, Inc.) bellcore!pyuxe!whs70
bph@buengc.BU.EDU (Blair P. Houghton) (03/17/90)
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.......... Ben, you have a lot to learn about Fiber Optics. --Blair "Molten silanes, anyone?"
jon@Apple.COM (Jon Singer) (03/17/90)
In article <45.260081ad@spcvxa.spc.edu> terry@spcvxa.spc.edu (Terry Kennedy) writes: >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 There is one more interesting fact, which I have not yet seen mention of here: Telephone handsets are made of PLASTIC. You could probably put a good solid thousand volts on the stupid thing, and the person talking into it would never be the wiser, unless they stuck their tongue through the itty bitty holes. Fat chance! Even if you _could_ put a high-voltage pulse through it (doesn't matter how small the wires are - remember, if the pulse is short, you aren't going to push enough coulombs down the wire to blow any fuses), and even if the phone _weren't_ transformer-coupled, the worst you could do is offend the person's ear with a fairly obnoxious "BANG!" sound. I suspect that this technique might have worked...about a hundred years ago. I think that the handsets were still metal then, and the switching was all definitely capable of handling DC. Cheers from Your Little Electronic Friend (or is that Fiend?), jon singer (Former Hardware Hack, current technical writer. When I'm not at work or in bed, sometimes I design and build pulsed lasers. I typically operate them at 20,000 volts or so. I have at least _some_ understanding of this issue.) -- =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= When I think back on all the | crap I learned in highschool / | Jon Singer It's a wonder I can think at all! | is jon@Apple.COM, or - Paul Simon, Kodachrome | (AppleLink) SINGER2 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
larry@kitty.UUCP (Larry Lippman) (03/18/90)
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.......... The above reference is utter nonsense. At best, the discharge of a capacitor into a telephone line will provide a *mild* click at the far end. 500-type or equivalent telephone sets which employ a passive network all have a varistor across the receiver element, with such varistor being specificically designed to suppress clicks. Telephone sets employing electronic networks attenuate clicks using a combination of amplifier limiting with varistors and/or diodes. A continuous sound above a certain level will also be limited at the receiving telephone by the above means. The auditory threshhold of pain is generally considered to be 140 dB SPL (Sound Pressure Level), which is approximately equivalent to 2,000 microbar (dyne/cm^2 for CGS fans). Since the volume of air between the eardrum and the receiver diaphragm is "considerable", since there is considerable air "leakage" between the ear and a telephone handset, and since the diaphragm displacement in a receiver element is rather small, it is virtually impossible to achieve 140 dB SPL even if the receiver element were directly driven by a power amplifier (obviously not found in a telephone). Furthermore, there is NO WAY for sufficient energy to be transmitted through the switched telephone network into a loop-powered telephone set with a handset to create such a sound pressure level. While one can no doubt create a sound which will make *some* people at the receiving end *uncomfortable*, it is improbable that any pain, let alone auditory damage, can be inflicted. <> Larry Lippman @ Recognition Research Corp. - Uniquex Corp. - Viatran Corp. <> UUCP {boulder|decvax|rutgers|watmath}!acsu.buffalo.edu!kitty!larry <> TEL 716/688-1231 || 716/773-1700 {utzoo|uunet}!/ \uniquex!larry <> FAX 716/741-9635 || 716/773-2488 "Have you hugged your cat today?"
benfeen@ddsw1.MCS.COM (Ben Feen) (03/18/90)
Awright, awright! We've wasted enough bandwidth - Can we drop the
discussion about the car battery and the phone? (which, by the way, worked
before the ESS, but only on unprotected MODEMS.)
--
|Opus and Frodo live! | "Sometimes, when your cat just died and you've cut
off your favorite appendage(s) with a power saw and there's epoxy in the
Visine and you brush your teeth with Clearasil it helps to say 'What the
f*ck'" | This signature consists of non-blanks separated by blanks.chrz@tellab5.tellabs.com (Peter Chrzanowski) (03/21/90)
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.......... This just keeps going round and round... The fact is, most central office phone switches, even local ones, are DIGITAL these days. The phone switches I'm familiar with encode each sample into eight bits. No matter HOW LOUD a sound you put in, or HOW MUCH VOLTAGE you put on the line -- there's only so much signal that's going to come out the other end. Finally, you PROBABLY won't damage the phone company's equipment by doing stupid things to it (you'd have to get past the lightening protection) but if you do they'd be within their rights to make you pay for the damage.