Volume 1, Issue 3, File 5/10

                                ==Phrack Inc.==
                    Volume One, Issue Three, Phile 5 of 10
                         * PRIVATE AUDIENCE *

              (A BASIC LESSON IN THE ART OF LISTENING IN)

                           BROUGHT TO YOU BY

                          -[ THE OVERLORD ]-

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
                            PART I: THE LAW

Federal law:

Section 605 of title 47 of the U.S code, forbids interception of

communication, or divulagance of intercepted communication except by persons

outlined in section 119 of title 18 (a portion of the Omnibus crime control and

safe streets act of 1968). This act states that "It shall not be unlawful under

this act for an operator of a switchboard, or an officer, employee, or agent of

any communication common carrier who's switching system is used in the

transmission of a wire communication to intercept or disclose intercepted

communication."
What all this legal bullshit is saying is that if you don't work for a phone

company then you can't go around tapping people's lines. If you decide to

anyway, and get caught, it could cost you up to 5 years of your life and

$10,000. This, you are all assuming, means that if you tap someone else's line,

you will be punished....wrong! You can't tap your own line either. The

punishment for this is probably no more than a slap on the hand, that is if

they actually catch you, but it's a good thing to know..............now on to

the fun.....
                           PART II: TAPPING

Everyone has at some time wanted to hear what a friend, the principal, the prom

queen, or a neighbor has to say on the phone. There are several easy ways to

tap into a phone line. None of the methods that I present will involve actually

entering the house. You can do everything from the backyard. I will discuss

four methods of tapping a line. They go in order of increasing difficulty.

The "beige box": a beige box (or bud box) is actually better known as a

"lineman" phone. They are terribly simple to construct, and are basically the

easiest method to use. They consist of nothing more than a phone with the

modular plug that goes into the wall cut off, and two alligator clips attached

to the red and green wires. The way to use this box, is to venture into the

yard of the person you want to tap, and put it onto his line. This is best done

at the bell phone box that is usually next to the gas meter. It should only

have one screw holding it shut, and is very easily opened. Once you are in, you

should see 4 screws with wires attached to them. If the house has one line,

then clip the red lead to the first screw, and the green to the second. You are

then on the "tappee's" phone. You will hear any conversation going on. I

strongly recommend that you remove the speaker from the phone that you're using

so the "tappee" can't hear every sound you make. If the house has two lines,

then the second line is on screws three and four. If you connect everything

right, but you don't get on the line, then you probably have the wires

backward. Switch the red to the second screw and the green to the first. If no

conversation is going on, you may realize that you can't tap the phone very

well because you don't want to sit there all night, and if you are on the

phone, then the poor tappee can't dial out, and that could be bad...so.......

method two.
The recorder: This method is probably the most widespread, and you still

don't have to be a genius to do it. There are LOTS of ways to tape

conversations. The two easiest are either to put a "telephone induction pickup"

(Radio Shack $1.99) on the beige box you were using, then plugging it into the

microphone jack of a small tape recorder, and leaving it on record. Or plugging

the recorder right into the line. This can be done by taking a walkman plug,

and cutting off the earphones, then pick one of the two earphone wires, and

strip it. There should be another wire inside the one you just stripped. Strip

that one too, and attach alligators to them. Then follow the beige box

instructions to tape the conversation. In order to save tape, you may want to

use a voice activated recorder (Radio Shack $59), or if your recorder has a

"remote" jack, you can get a "telephone recorder control" at Radio shack shack

for $19 that turns the recorder on when the phone is on, and off when the phone

is off. This little box plugs right into the wall (modularly of course), so it

is best NOT to remove the modular plug for it. Work around it if you can. If

not, then just do you best to get a good connection. When recording, it is good

to keep your recorder hidden from sight (in the Bell box if possible), but in a

place easy enough to change tapes from.
The wireless microphone: this is the BUG. It transmits a signal from the

phone to the radio (FM band). You may remember Mr. Microphone (from Kaytel

fame); these wireless microphones are available from Radio Shack for $19. They

are easy to build and easy to hook up. There are so many different models, that

is is almost impossible to tell you exactly what to do. The most common thing

to do is to cut off the microphone element, and attach these two wires to

screws one and two. The line MIGHT, depending on the brand, be "permanently off

hook". This is bad, but by phucking around with it for a while, you should get

it working. There are two drawbacks to using this method. One, is that the poor

asshole who is getting his phone tapped might hear himself on "FM 88, the

principal connection". The second problem is the range. The store bought

transmitters have a VERY short range. I suggest that you build the customized

version I will present in part four (it's cheaper too). Now on to the best of

all the methods....
The "easy-talks": This method combines all the best aspects of all the the

other methods. It only has one drawback... You need a set of "Easy-talk" walkie

talkies. They are voice activated, and cost about $59. You can find 'em at toy

stores, and "hi-tech" catalogs. I think that any voice activated walkie talkies

will work, but I have only tried the easy-talks. First, you have to decide on

one for the "transmitter" and one for the "receiver". It is best to use the one

with the strongest transmission to transmit, even though it may receive better

also. De-solder the speaker of the "transmitter", and the microphone of the

"receiver". Now, go to the box. put the walkie talkie on "VOX" and hook the

microphone leads (as in method three) to the first and second screws in the

box. Now go home, and listen on your walkie talkie. If nothing happens, then

the phone signal wasn't strong enough to "activate" the transmission. If this

happens, there are two things you can do. One, add some ground lines to the

microphone plugs. This is the most inconspicuous, but if it doesn't work then

you need an amplifier, like a walkman with two earphone plugs. Put the first

plug on the line, and then into one of the jacks. Then turn the volume all the

way up (w/out pressing play). Next connect the second earphone plug to the mice

wires, and into the second earphone outlet on the walkman. Now put the whole

mess in the box, and lock it up. This should do the trick. It gives you a

private radio station to listen to them on: you can turn it off when something

boring comes on, and you can tape off the walkie talkie speaker that you have!
               PART IV: WIRELESS TRANSMITTER PLANZ


This is a tiny transmitter that consists on a one colpitts oscillator that

derives it's power from the phone line. Since the resistance it puts on the

line is less than 100 ohms, it has no effect on the telephone performance, and

can not be detected by the phone company, or the tappee. Since it is a

low-powered device using no antenna for radiation, it is legal to the FCC.

(That is it complies with part 15 of the FCC rules and regulations). It,

however is still illegal to do, it's just that what you're using to do it is

legal. This is explained later in part 15... "no person shall use such a device

for eavesdropping unless authorized by all parties of the conversation" (then

it's not eavesdropping is it?). What this thing does, is use four diodes to

form a "bridge rectifier". It produces a varying dc voltage varying with the

auto-signals on the line. That voltage is used to supply the the voltage for

the oscillator transistor. Which is connected to a radio circuit. From there,

you can tune it to any channel you want. The rest will all be explained in a

minute....
PARTS LIST

item                |              description

C1                  | 47-Pf ceramic disk capacitor

C2,C3               | 27-Pf mica capacitor

CR1,CR2,CR3,CR4     | germanium diode 1n90 or equivalent

R1                  | 100 ohm, 1/4 watt 10% composition resistor

R2                  | 10k, 1/4 watt 10% composition resistor

R3                  | .7k, 1/4 watt 10% composition resistor

L1                  | 2 uH radio frequency choke (see text)

L2                  | 5 turns No.20 wire (see text)

Q1                  | Npn rf transistor 2N5179 or equivalent

L1 may be constructed by winding approximately 40 turns of No. 36

enamel wire on a mega-ohm, 1/2 watt resistor. The value of L1 is

not critical. L2 can be made by wrapping 5 turns of No. 20 wire

around a 1/4 inch form. After the wire is wrapped, the form can

be removed. Just solder it into place on the circuit board. It

should hold quite nicely. Also be sure to position Q1 so that the

emitter, base, and collector are in the proper holes. The

schematic should be pretty easy to follow. Although it has an

unusual number of grounds, it still works.
              |------------------L1----------------|
             --                                    |
        CR1 /  \ CR2              |----------------|

A--------------/    \ --|         ----|          |     |

|       \    /   |         |   |          C2    L2

|    CR3 \  /CR4 |         C1  R2    |----|     |

R1         --     |         |   |    gnd   C3    |

|         |      |         ----|          |-----|

|        gnd     |             |                |

|                |             |-----|----Base  collector

|                |                   R3     \   /

B-----------------------|                   |       /\ <- Q1

gnd       /

|

|

emitter(gnd)
The odd thing about this bug that we haven't encountered yet, is that it is put

on only one wire (either red or green) so go to the box, remove the red wire

that was ALREADY on screw

1 and attach it to wire 'A' of the bug. Then attach

wire 'B' to the screw itself. You can adjust the frequency which it comes out

on the FM channel by either smooshing, or widening the coils of L2. It takes a

few minutes to get to work right, but it is also very versatile. You can change

the frequency at will, and you can easily record off your radio.
                       PART FIVE: HELPFUL HINTS

First of all, With method one, the beige box, you may notice that you can also

dial out on the phone you use. I don't recommend that you do this. If you

decide to anyway, and do something conspicuous like set up a 30 person

conference for three hours, then I suggest that you make sure the people are

either out of town or dead. In general, when you tap a line, you must be

careful. I test everything I make on my line first, then install it late at

night. I would not recommend that you leave a recorder on all day. Put it on

when you want it going, and take it off when you're done. As far as recording

goes, I think that if there is a recorder on the line it sends a sporadic beep

back to the phone co. I know that if you don't record directly off the line

(i.e off your radio) then even the most sophisticated equipment can't tell that

you're recording. Also, make sure that when you install something, the people

are NOT on the line. Installation tends to make lots of scratchy sounds, clicks

and static. It is generally a good thing to avoid. It doesn't take too much

intelligence to just make a call to the house before you go to install the

thing. If it's busy then wait a while. (This of course does not apply if you

are making a "midnight run").
All in all, if you use common sense, and are VERY careful, chances are you

won't get caught. Never think that you're unstoppable, and don't broadcast what

you're doing. Keep it to yourself, and you can have a great time.
                   -[ OVERLORD ]-

THANKS TO:
The CircleLord

TARAN KING

Knight Lightning

The Forest Ranger

P-80 systems
Watch for more advanced tapping, how they catch you, and verification in the

near future.