fisher@scotty.DEC (Burns Fisher, MRO3-1/E13, DTN 231-4108.) (10/01/85)
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Someone answered that one could get the central office to automatically ring
back by dialing XXX-YYYY where XXX varies according to CO, and YYYY are the
last four digits of your phone number.
In at least two widely separated geographic locations (Rochester, NY and
Northboro, MA) XXX is 981.
To repeat the instructions, dialing this number will give you a dial tone.
Flash the switch hook and you get a different tone. Hang up and your phone
will ring in a few seconds. When you answer, you have the tone again. (I
can't remember if it is a regular dial tone or the high tone...I suspect
regular dial tone.) You have to be patient to get out of this mode. It
seems to consider an on-hook of many seconds to be a flash, so to get back
to normal dialing, you have to hang up for a long time, like 20-30 seconds.
In addition, you can use this number test your tone generator. After you
dial the magic number and get the dial tone, dial 1234567890 with tones.
If your tones are within tolerance, you will get two high-pitched beeps
back in response. Otherwise, nothing. Note that this does not test
# and *.
Happy hacking,
Burns
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