248 lines
12 KiB
Plaintext
248 lines
12 KiB
Plaintext
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Bridging Heads, Residential and Business Multiline Distribution boxes, Line and
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Trunk Splitters, and Other Bell System Wire Terminations.
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- How to Use, And/Or Abuse Them -
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(Including a tutorial on basic telephone eavesdropping techniques.)
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***************************************
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Written by : Agent 07/29/84
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04
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***************************************
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In this article, I will first describe the termination, wiring, and terminal
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hardware most commonly used in the bell system, and I will include a section on
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methods of using them.
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***************************************
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-------------
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Local Network
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-------------
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the local telephone network between the central office/exchange and the
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telephone subscribers can be breifly described as follows:
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from the central office (or local exchange) of a certain prefix (es),
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underground area trunks go to each area that has that prefix. (Usu- ally more
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than one prefix per area) at every few streets or tract areas, the underground
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cables surface. They then go to the telephone pole (or back underground,
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depending on the area) and then to the subsribers house (or in the case of an
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apartment building or mutliline business, to a splitter or distribution
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box/panel).
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***************************************
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Now that we have the basics, I'll try and go in-depth on the subject.
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------------------
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Underground Cables
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------------------
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these are sometimes interoffice trunks, but usually in a residential area
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they are trunk lines that go oto bridging heads or distribution cases. the
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cables are about 2-3 inches thick (varies), and are either in a metal or
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pvc-type pipe (or similar). Rarely (maybe not in some remote rural areas) are
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the cables just 'alone' in the ground. Instead, they are usually in an
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underground cement tunnel (resembles a small sewer or stormdrain) . The
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manholes are >heavy< and will say 'bell system' on them. They can be opened
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with a 1/2 inch wide crowbar (hook side) inserted in the top rectangular hole.
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if you get it open, go inside!! There are ladder rungs to help you climb down.
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you will see the cable pipes on the wall, with the blue and white striped one
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being the interoffice trunk (at least in my area). The others are local lines,
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and are usually marked or color coded. there is almost always a posted color
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code chart on the wall, not to mention telco manuals describing the cables and
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terminals, so I need not get into detail. Again: >if you can get into a bell
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manhole, do it!, it will pay off <. Also, there is usually some kind of test
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equipment, and often bell test sets are left in there. so get your crowbars!
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***************************************
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--------------
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bridging heads
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--------------
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the innocent-looking grayish-green boxes. These can be either trunk bridges
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or bridging for residen ces. The major trunk bridging heads are usually
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larger, and they have the 'western electric' logo at the bottom, whereas the
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normal bridging heads (which may be different in some areas depending on the
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company you are served by. GTE b.h.'s look slightly different. Also, do not
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be fooled by sprinkler boxes!) can be found in just about every city.
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to open a bridging head: if it is locked (and you're feeling destructive),
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put a hammer or crowbar (the same one you used on the manhole ) in the slot
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above the top hinge of the right door. pull hard, and the dorr will rip off.
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very effective!
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if it isn't locked (as usual), take a 7/16 inch hex socket and with it, turn
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the bolt about 1/8 of a turn to the right (you should hear a spring release
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inside). Holding the bolt, turn the handle all the way to the left and pull
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out.
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now inside, first check for a test-set (which are often left by bell
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employees). There should be a panel of terminals and wires. Push the panel
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back about an inch or so, and rotate the top latch (round with a flat section)
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downward. Release the panel and it will fall all the way forward. There is
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usually a large amount of wire and extra terminals. The test-sets are often
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hidden here, so dont overlook it (manuals, as well, are sometimes placed in the
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head) . On the right door is a metal box of alligator clips. Take a few
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(complimen- ts of bell...). On each door is a useful little round metal
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device. (Says 'insert gently' or 'clamp gently-do not overtighten' etc..) on
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the front of the disc, you should find two terminals. These are for your test
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set. (If you dont have one, dont depair-I'll show you ways to make basic
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test sets later in this article). Hooking the ring (-) wire to the 'r'
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terminal; and the tip (+) wire to the other. (By the way, an easy way to
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determine the correct polarity is with a 1.5v led. Tap it to the term. Pair,
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if I doesnt light, switch the poles until it does. When it lights, find the
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longer of the two led poles. This one will be on the tip wire (+)) behind the
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disc is a coiled up cord. This should have two alligator clips on it..its very
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useful, because you dont have to keep connecting and disconnecting the fone
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(test set) itself, and the clips work nicely.
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on the terminal board, there should be about 10 screw terminals per side.
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follow the wires, and you can see which cable pairs are active. Hook the clips
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to the terminal pair , and you're set! Dial out if you want, or just listen
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(if someone's on the line). Later, I'll show you a way to set up a true 'tap'
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that you can set up, and will let the person dial out on his line and receive
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calls as normal, and you can listen in the whole time. more about this
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later...
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on major prefix-area bridging heads, you can see 'local loops', which are two
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cable pairs (cable pair = ring+tip, a fone line) that are directly connected to
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each other on the terminal board. These 'cheap loops' as they are called, do
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not work nearly as well as the existing ones set up in the switching hardware
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at the exchange office. (Try scanning your prefixes' 00xx or 99xx #'s. The
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tone sides will announce themselves with the 1000 hz loop tone, and the hang
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side will give no response. The first person should dial the 'hang' side, and
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the other person dial the tone side, and the tone should stop if you have got
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the right loop)
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if you want to find the number of the line that you're on, you can either try
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to decipher the 'bridging log' (or whatever), which is on the left door. If
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that doesnt work, you can use the follwing:
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---
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ANI # (automatic number indentication)
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---
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this is a telco test number that reports to you the number that youre calling
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from (it's the same, choppy 'bell bitch' voice that you get when you reach a
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disconnected #)
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for the 213 NPA - dial 1223
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408 NPA - dial 760
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914 NPA - dial 990
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these are extremely useful when messing with any kind of line terminals,
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house boxes, etc.
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now that we have bridging heads wired, we can go on... (Dont forget to close
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and latch the box after..wouldnt want to get and telco people mad, now, would
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we?)
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***************************************
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------
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"cans" - telephone pole distribution
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------ boxes
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basically, two types:
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basically, two types:
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1> large, rectangular silver box at the end of each street.
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2> black, round or rectangular thing at every telephone pole.
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type 1 - this is the case that takes the underground cable from the bridger
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and runs it to the telephone pole cable (the lowest, largest wire on the
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telephone pole). The box is always on the pole nearest the briging head, where
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the line comes up. Look for the 'call before you dig-underground cable'
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stickers..
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the case box is hinged, so if you want to climb the pole, you can open it
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with no problems. These usually have 2 rows of terminal sets. these are all
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the cable pairs for your street . (Its similar to a miniature bridging head).
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use/abuse it in the same manner as we did before. (Note: all the active lines
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carry from 15 to 48 vdc, and even 90vac (when ringing), so be careful - it's
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not very wise to touch an open wire with one hand on a conducting thing and a
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hand from a tel. Pole, it >can< be harmful!)) oh, by the way, if you use ANI
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on every pair and you find one that isnt in use on your street, you can hook it
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up for yourself (almost). Also, you have to be able to imper- sonate a telco
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technician and report the number as 'new active' (giving a fake name and fake
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report, etc) I dont recommend this and it probably wont (almost positively
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wont) work, but this is basically what telco linemen do).
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type 2 - this is the splitter box for the group of houses around the pole.
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(usually 4 or 5 houses). Use it like I mentioned before. The terminals (8 or
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so) will be in 2 horizontal rows of sets. The extra wires that are just
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'hanging there' are provisions for extra lines to residences (1 extra line per
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house, thats why the insane charge for line #3!) if its the box for your house
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also, have fun and swap lines with your neighbor! 'Piggyback' them and wreak
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havoc on the neighborh ood (it's eavesdropping time...) again, I dont recommend
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this, and its difficult to do it correctly. Moving right along..
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***************************************
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------------------------------
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apartment / business multiline
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distribution boxes
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------------------------------
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found outside the buliding (most often on the right side, but not
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always..just follow the wire from the telephone pole) or in the basement. It
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has the terminals for all the lines in the building. Use it just like any
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other termination box as before. Usually says 'bell system' or similar. Has
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up to 20 terminals on it (usually) the middle ones are grounds (forget these).
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the wires come from the cable to one row (usually the left one) , with the
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other row of terminals for the building fone wire pairs. The ring (-) wire is
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usually the top term inal if the set in the row (1 of 10 or more), and the tip
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is in the clamp/ screw below it. This can be reversed, but the cable pair is
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always terminated one-on-top-of-each-other, not on the one next to it. (im not
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sure why the other one is there, probably as a provision for extra lines) dont
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use it though, it is usually to close to the other terminals, and in my
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experiences you get a noisy connection.
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final note: almost every apartment, business, hotel, or anywhere there is
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more than 2 lines this termination method is used. If you can master this
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type, you can be in control of many things... Look around in your area for a
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building that uses this type, and practice hooking up to the line, etc.
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as an added help, here is the basic 'standard' color-code for multiline
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terminals/wiring/etc...
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single line: red = ring
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green = tip
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yellow = ground (connected to l1 ringer coil in individual and
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bridged ringer phones (bell only)) usually connected to the
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green (tip)
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ring (-) = red
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white/red stripe
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brown
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white/orange stripe
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black/yellow stripe
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tip (+) = green (sometimes yellow, see above ^)
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white/green stripe
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white/blue stripe
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blue
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black/white stripe
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ground = black
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yellow
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***************************************
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----------------------
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residence terminal box
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----------------------
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small, gray (can be either a rubber (pacific telephone) or hard plastic (at &
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t) housing) deal that connects the cable pair from the splitter box (see type
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2, above) on the pole to your house wiring. Only 2 (or 4, the 2 top terminals
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are hooked in parallel with the same line) terminals , and is very easy to use.
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this can be used to add more lines to your house or add an external line
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outside the house.
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***************************************
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well, now you can consider yourself a minor expert on the terminals and
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wiring of the local telephone network. now you can apply it to whatever you
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want to do..
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I hope the article was informative. Be looking for 'invading the bell system
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- part II'
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***************************************
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Call The Works BBS - 1600+ textfiles! - [914]/238-8195 - 300/1200 - Always open
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