70 lines
4.3 KiB
Plaintext
70 lines
4.3 KiB
Plaintext
***Conversion box*** by Captain B
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Test sets (Lineman handsets) are obviously a useful phreak tool for beige
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boxing. But, unless you're willing to drop a couple hundred bucks to buy
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one at your local authorized Harris telecom products dealer, dumpster dive
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for one, or take the chance doing the ol' 5 finger discount with some Ma
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Bell truck, It's better to use a one-piece phone (Like the Apollo or
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Super-mini flip phones from Radio Hack, or the ConAir flip phone availible
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at K mart stores). Or, you could convert a phone that has a keypad in the
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handset to a psuedo test set for beige boxing purposes (As I'll be
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discussing here). Yes, you could also convert a phone without a keypad in
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the handset, but you'd better have a way of sending DTMF via acoustic
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coupling, such as with a tone dialer (If you can still find one at the
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local Radio Hack). Also, since most lineman handsets have features that
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are either on most phones, or not absolutlely needed for the more
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exclusive features, It's just all the more reason to beige box with a
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regular phone. The driving principal behind making this is very similar to
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the one used for the Bungee box. Because, you'll be modifying a handset
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cord for this. The difference is that only 1 end of the handset cord will
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me modded. Here's what you'll need...
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*A handset cord
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*Modular crimp tool
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*Wire cutter (Unless the crimp tool has it built in)
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You'll also first want to check how many conductors there are inside your
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phone handset. If It's 2 conductors, It'll be simpler. If there's more
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than 2, it becomes necessary to isolate which 2 wires are used to power
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the handset. (Well, at least that's it was with a 4 wire phone handset I
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was converting). To check the amount of conductors in the handset, remove
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the handset cord and look inside the hole where the handset plug from the
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cord goes. Hopefully, It's 2 conductors. And yes, you check the number of
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conductors in the handset cord instead, but since handset cords always
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seem to have 4 conductors when bought as new, that could mislead you. I'll
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go more into isolating the 2 wires involved for powering the handset on a
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4 conductor handset cord in a minute. Let's get into making this. Take the
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handset cord, look first at the little wires in the plug to observe for
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the color scheme (Thus making note of correct polarity) then, cut off that
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handset cord plug as close as possible with where it connects to the cord.
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Carefully, strip off a bit of the insulation using the modular crimp
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tool's stripper. Take a 2 line (RJ14) modular line cord plug, and push the
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line cord plug over the end of the handset cord, facing the same way as
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the previous handset cord plug was. (In other words, if the little spring
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clip on the handset cord plug was facing down, crimp the line cord plug on
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facing the same way as that was). Then insert that end of the handset cord
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into the modular crimp tool properly, and squeeze the handles together
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firmly until it stops (which is quite fast). See the instuctions that came
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with the modualar crimp tool if you need more help. Now, if a 2 conductor
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handset was used, you can just plug it into any working modular jack. If
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the handset has more than 2 conductors, connect up an in-line coupler
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(Female-to-female RJ14 connector). Then, connect a modified 2-line (RJ14)
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line cord (with 4 alligator clips) on the other end of the in-line
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coupler. Try connecting the clips in different combinations of 2 at a time
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to the screws holding the red and green wires inside a modular jack or out
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at the TNI until you get a dial tone. Of course, you'll want to either
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remove the cover from the modular jack by unscrewing the center screw, or
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prying it off if it has no screw to access the 42A block with screw
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terminals inside. Or, in the case of the TNI, open it on the Telco access
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side using a 3/8 hex bit on a 1/4 drive ratchet or spinner handle. (These
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can be found at Home Depot stores). In a TNI, the red and green wires run
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from the subsciber modules contained in the customer side to the screw
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termianls on the telco side. Use that for reference. (Disregard the other
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colored wires there). If you only have one line service, make sure you
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connect up to the 2 screw terminals that have phone service, of course.
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Otherwise, there won't be a dial tone, of course. The conversion box makes
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for a handy placebo to a lineman's handset, don't you think? As always, be
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careful and have phun. --
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