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From: Michael A. Terrell on 8 Aug 2010 18:21

Meat Plow wrote:
>
> On Sun, 08 Aug 2010 15:44:09 -0400, Michael A. Terrell wrote:
>
> > Meat Plow wrote:
> >>
> >> I could whistle at 2600hz and hang up the central opertator line. I
> >> made a blue box for a friend but he got busted before he used it. He
> >> was a greek with dual citizenship and had a girlfriend in Greece he
> >> would call using a reel to reel tape with some prerecorded tones on it.
> >> He got the idea from one of his greek buddies that was here visiting
> >> that built a working blue box and recorded the tones and their
> >> sequences on tape. The box was easy to build, all tin can 741 op amps
> >> on a self etched PC board. Problem was tuning it, I was only 17 back
> >> then and had no way to tune it. Said friend was set to take it to
> >> school electronics class and tune it when the FBI hauled him off one
> >> early morning in his boxer shorts :) He was deported back to Greece and
> >> lost his US citizenship.
> >
> >
> > Even 'Dr. Johnny Fever' knew not to mess with the Phone Cops! ;-)
>
> They found out in part by talking to his girlfriend. She explained that
> he used a tape device. I stayed at his place the night before so i was
> there at 6 am Sunday morning when they came a knockin on his door. I was
> zipped up in a sleeping bag peering through an opening when he answered
> the door (had a safety chain) opening it part way just enough for an arm
> holding a gold badge to pop through :) I stayed in the bag while they
> looked for a tape device which he didn't have there at the time. They
> found a loop of tape on an Echoplex tape delay box for guitar that he had
> and un-looped it with a pencil thinking they found the evidence :) They
> asked him who was inside the sleeping bag and he said just a friend and
> they never bothered me. He had hid the blue box pretty well and it wasn't
> found because they found the tape quickly so they were satisfied they had
> what they were looking for. When they left I dug out the blue box and
> destroyed it. Since they really had no evidence of a device that could
> make the calls but knowing the calls came from his number back when he
> was living with his parents they could only deport him and revoke his
> citizenship. He never went on trial for the calls. Just was given a plane
> ticket and said see ya later. They probably made it impossible to get a
> visa back into the country since I never saw him again. But he did call me
> maybe 10 years later from Greece. He said he was in a friends recording
> studio. That was in 1982.


You're lucky it wasn't Scully & Mulder. They would have know where
it was, before the door was opened. ;-)
From: Grant on 8 Aug 2010 18:47
On Sun, 08 Aug 2010 16:08:50 -0400, "Michael A. Terrell" <mike.terrell(a)earthlink.net> wrote:

>
>N_Cook wrote:
>>
>> Geoffrey S. Mendelson <gsm(a)mendelson.com> wrote in message
>> news:slrni5tik9.1ih.gsm(a)cable.mendelson.com...
>> > N_Cook wrote:
>> > > Got a few no-name URCs from UK Poundland "pound shop" , badged as
>> Signalex ,
>> > > 81415, 10 in 1 . 1 GBP for all the functionality of a URC. This type you
>> can
>> > > set it to flicker away to itself until it reaches the end of a batch of
>> > > codes.
>> > > Removed the 3.58MHz resonator (why so apparently accurate?) .
>> >
>> > That's the NTSC color carrier frequency. Not only were they made in the
>> > billions over the years (every US/Canada/Japan, etc) color TV had one,
>> > so did every VCR, and lots of other things.
>> >
>> > I'm sure they will still be around for a while because while digital TV
>> > has taken over in the US, it has not in the entire world and anything with
>> > a composite video input or output needs one.
>> >
>> > They became the defacto standard for things like telephone dialers,
>> > and many things that needed about a 4mHz crystal because they were so
>> cheap
>> > and plentyful.
>> >
>> > One of the famous "blue boxes" (telephone hacking devices) was made by
>> > taking a Radio Shack tone dialer and replacing the 1mHz crystal with a
>> > 3.58mHz one.
>> >
>> >
>> > > With 1.5V
>> > > pk-pk locked in with receiver over range 2.7 to 5.1M, and again about
>> 300K
>> > > to 11M would operate using 1.5V. So far have only used with original
>> 3.58M ,
>> > > 6M and 7.5M sine inputs. Am I serendipitously likely to get a hit
>> > > somewhere, at least the unit on/off model recognition code if not
>> function
>> > > code plus the model code
>> > >
>> > > So 2 out of 2 of these URC have been amenable to this mod but no match
>> to
>> > > the unit in question found so far. Is there any general guidelines for
>> > > makers to choose certain types/ranges of coding for different types of
>> > > equipment or is it totally open for them to choose? Assorted bits of kit
>> > > show at least partial responses to some of these off-spec codes, but not
>> my
>> > > target one so far.
>> >
>> > Look up LIRC (Linux Ifrared Remote Control). There is a library of remote
>> > codes, a way of capturing new ones from a remote and since the definitions
>> > are in a text file, they are easy to "hack".
>> >
>> > There are all sorts of input and output devices, if you have a PC with a
>> > regular serial port (not USB), you can build a transmitter from the proper
>> > plug, a resistor and an IR LED.
>> >
>> > Geoff.
>> >
>> >
>> > --
>> > Geoffrey S. Mendelson N3OWJ/4X1GM
>> > To help restaurants, as part of the "stimulus package", everyone must
>> order
>> > dessert. As part of the socialized health plan, you are forbidden to eat
>> it. :-)
>>
>> I was not aware of that frequency as being significant , the equivalent over
>> here is millions of 4.433619MHz and x2 of that , quartz crystals for Phase
>> Alternate Line. That would explain why it was Never The Same Color (twice)
>> if they could get away with using ceramic resonators rather than quartz.
>
>
> Sigh. The ceramic resonators were used as a chroma trap. Quartz
>crystals were used for the color reference. As far as 'Never The Same
>Color', network programing was carried across the US on buried coaxial
>cables or by microwave relays. Unlike tiny European countries, we
>couldn't broadcast from a singe site. Because of this, they were video
>amplifiers and equalizers spaced at regular intervals. Because it was
>mostly tube, and there were thousands of them in each network they
>required constant maintenance. When the network switched to a different
>feed from a different studio, there was a phase difference. temperature
>changes on the coax caused it's properties to change, as well. That was
>why VIR and VITS were developed. It allowed for automatic equalization
>to compensate for temperature changes, or when a signal had to be
>rerouted. There were a lot of redundant paths, to allow for equipment
>failures, or live remote feeds in the days before STL equipment. The
>flexibility of the system was proven when Bell Telephone technicians
>tied every TV station in the country together in a couple hours, to

>allow full, live coverage of the assignation of President Kennedy. I
I thought he kept them secret? --'^^^^^^^^^^^ Freudian slip?

Wonderful what slips a careless spellcheck will show ;)

Grant.

>was at school when it was announced over the PA system. Less than an
>hour later, all the students were in the auditorium watching the news
>coverage live. By using some spare equipment and knowing the system
>inside out, they were able to adapt it to a use it wasn't designed for,
>with no permanent changes.
>
> Also, when the nation wide distribution system was designed and
>built, there was no color TV. The fact that it could handle color at
>all proved that it was well designed.
>
>
> Sneer all you want about NTSC, but the 'National Television System
>Committee' was around a long time before color TV.
>
>http://www.ntsc-tv.com/
From: Meat Plow on 8 Aug 2010 18:57
On Sun, 08 Aug 2010 18:21:05 -0400, Michael A. Terrell wrote:

> Meat Plow wrote:
>>
>> On Sun, 08 Aug 2010 15:44:09 -0400, Michael A. Terrell wrote:
>>
>> > Meat Plow wrote:
>> >>
>> >> I could whistle at 2600hz and hang up the central opertator line. I
>> >> made a blue box for a friend but he got busted before he used it. He
>> >> was a greek with dual citizenship and had a girlfriend in Greece he
>> >> would call using a reel to reel tape with some prerecorded tones on
>> >> it. He got the idea from one of his greek buddies that was here
>> >> visiting that built a working blue box and recorded the tones and
>> >> their sequences on tape. The box was easy to build, all tin can 741
>> >> op amps on a self etched PC board. Problem was tuning it, I was only
>> >> 17 back then and had no way to tune it. Said friend was set to take
>> >> it to school electronics class and tune it when the FBI hauled him
>> >> off one early morning in his boxer shorts :) He was deported back to
>> >> Greece and lost his US citizenship.
>> >
>> >
>> > Even 'Dr. Johnny Fever' knew not to mess with the Phone Cops! ;-)
>>
>> They found out in part by talking to his girlfriend. She explained that
>> he used a tape device. I stayed at his place the night before so i was
>> there at 6 am Sunday morning when they came a knockin on his door. I
>> was zipped up in a sleeping bag peering through an opening when he
>> answered the door (had a safety chain) opening it part way just enough
>> for an arm holding a gold badge to pop through :) I stayed in the bag
>> while they looked for a tape device which he didn't have there at the
>> time. They found a loop of tape on an Echoplex tape delay box for
>> guitar that he had and un-looped it with a pencil thinking they found
>> the evidence :) They asked him who was inside the sleeping bag and he
>> said just a friend and they never bothered me. He had hid the blue box
>> pretty well and it wasn't found because they found the tape quickly so
>> they were satisfied they had what they were looking for. When they left
>> I dug out the blue box and destroyed it. Since they really had no
>> evidence of a device that could make the calls but knowing the calls
>> came from his number back when he was living with his parents they
>> could only deport him and revoke his citizenship. He never went on
>> trial for the calls. Just was given a plane ticket and said see ya
>> later. They probably made it impossible to get a visa back into the
>> country since I never saw him again. But he did call me maybe 10 years
>> later from Greece. He said he was in a friends recording studio. That
>> was in 1982.
>
>
> You're lucky it wasn't Scully & Mulder. They would have know where
> it was, before the door was opened. ;-)

Bwahahahah I loved that show when it was on.



--
Live Fast, Die Young and Leave a Pretty Corpse
From: Meat Plow on 8 Aug 2010 19:04
On Sun, 08 Aug 2010 18:19:53 -0400, Michael A. Terrell wrote:

> N_Cook wrote:
>>
>> So was that Allen Funt who televised the assignation between JFK and
>> Marilyn Munroe?
>
>
> Yawn. Keep proving your stupidity. The President being shot to
> death was a national tragedy. Maybe the next one will be in England, so
> you can have an even bigger laugh. Maybe you'll get to roast
> marshmallows at the wake.

I remember that day as well as I do 911. Us kids were having a 'circus'
in a neighbor's back yard. I went home to get something, forget what it
was, and my mom was pissed off and crying and told me I couldn't have
what I wanted because the pres had just been shot. That was Nov 22 of 63
so we must have been experiencing global warming back then if it was warm
enough to play outside with normal clothing as I remember.



--
Live Fast, Die Young and Leave a Pretty Corpse
From: whit3rd on 8 Aug 2010 20:39
On Aug 8, 4:46 am, "N_Cook" <dive...(a)tcp.co.uk> wrote:
> Am I on a hiding to nothing? trying to crack a device with unavailable
> remote control, and no button functions to speak of.

Many universal remotes need to know what KIND of box
before the code search works. It helps to know the
corporate entity that built the box (for instance, TiVO
responds to Philips satellite converter box commands,
because some Philips satellite converters were TiVO
equipped). And some of my Apple computers responded
to (? Samsung or Goldstar) TV codes. It seems odd that TV
codes operated the FM radio in a desktop computer.
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