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Secrets of the Bell System

Kamakiri

Kamakiri

The New Dynamic
The "numbers stations" thread reminded me of something I heard long ago.

If you dial 990 on your phone (and this works), you will get a playback of your phone number. If your phone is being tapped, it will give the number of the phone tapping you, or a busy signal....supposedly. There are other combinations that I heard of from a guy I met once that worked for Ma Bell.....like 110 plus a couple other numbers unlocks numbers disconnected for nonpayment, 220 does something as well....etc.

Anyone ever heard of this? Try the 990 thing, it's pretty cool :yes:
 
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Back in the pre-touchtone days, you could dial 7-1-1 which would give you another dialtone, then dial 6 and quickly hang-up, and your phone would ring.
Used to drive my parents nuts.
 
as I recall, you used to be able to dial 1-1-0-1-1 (or was it 1-1-0-0-1-1?) and hang up, and the phone would ring.

Of course, it makes perfect sense to 'encode' lots of useful (but 'secret') service/support/maintenance functions accessible directly from the phone (whether rotary or TouchTone). Actually, it's amazing how much we've usefulness we've leveraged from the venerable 12-key TouchTone keypad (including "#" and "*", of course)!

Just like 'hidden functions' (service/setup/ menus, resets, stuff like that) on electronic equipment keypads. I am always lookin' for those :-)
 
I had something VERY bizarre happen to me at work on the phone several years back. Called this guy in Knoxville, phone went thru its routine of clicking, beep/buzzing, finally started ringing. Then these tones started playing-very softly at first, fairly high pitched, wasn't even sure I was really hearing them or the background noise of the phone. They got louder-and lower in frequency, & this sense of fear & dread came over me. Then, the guy I called came on & I asked him if he heard 'em, too-he didn't, but it was weird as hell, & the whole thing took place in like what, 15-20 seconds. They kinda sounded like they were playing in my head-NOT coming thru the earpiece-damnedest thing I ever heard. -Sandy G.
 
Then these tones started playing-very softly at first, fairly high pitched, wasn't even sure I was really hearing them or the background noise of the phone. They got louder-and lower in frequency, & this sense of fear & dread came over me.
Click to expand...

Somebody's been reading Steven King! :yes:

I remember the dial-a-number to see if you phone is tapped trick. Worked on my phone in Arizona, although I remember having to dial more than 3 numbers.
 
There was a number (in NY) that you could call and hear a rising pitch until it would just cutoff and then repeat again (low freq to high). One of the stories I heard was that if you heard any noise or clicks while the freq was on the upswing then you were tapped. More likely this was just a line check for the techs.

Anthony
 
It probly was nothing, but at the time it scared pure hell outta me. The higher tones-notes-whatever the hell they were-sounded something like what you'd hear in a cartoon. As they got lower, they grew harsh & ominous sounding. Never have heard anything like it since-don't particularly want to, either.-Sandy G.
 
You guys are reliving "Twilight Zone" episodes. Doo doo doo doo....Ever see the one
with William Shatner on an airplane and this evil creature was chewing on the wing everytime he looked out the window? Man, that one was crazy, but I stil think about
it everytime I have to fly... :worried:
 
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"Nightmare at 30,000 Feet", 1963. Nick Cravat played the monster. I can't remember who played Shatner's wife, but I think she played one of the stewardesses in the "Twilight Zone" movie re-make of that episode in 1982. John Lithgow had the Shatner role. Wanna see somethin' REALLY scary ?!?....-Sandy G.
 
Anybody here remember talking through the busy signal and talking to all sorts of folks in your area?
 
On the TV show 3rd Rock from the Sun, John Lithgow picks up Shatner at the airport and he (Shatner) comments about having seen something out on the wing.....Lithgow chimes in "so you saw it TOO?" What a hoot, talk about breaking thru the fourth wall, hell, they built a 5th wall and broke thru that too.

Anthony
PS The TZ episode didn't fly quite that high, it was 20,000 feet and was a turbo prop plane. Shatner's wife was named Ruth and was played by one Christine White http://imdb.com/name/nm0924614/
 
Back in the CB days, there was a way that you could dial a number, 540-9911 and 9912 as I remember, and if you hit the last digit at the same time, you'd connect. This was if you didn't want to put your number out on the airwaves. As I remember it was a simplex line, or the sound quality wasnt good, but it worked :)
 
Sandy G said:
I had something VERY bizarre happen to me at work on the phone several years back. Called this guy in Knoxville, phone went thru its routine of clicking, beep/buzzing, finally started ringing. Then these tones started playing-very softly at first, fairly high pitched, wasn't even sure I was really hearing them or the background noise of the phone. They got louder-and lower in frequency, & this sense of fear & dread came over me. Then, the guy I called came on & I asked him if he heard 'em, too-he didn't, but it was weird as hell, & the whole thing took place in like what, 15-20 seconds. They kinda sounded like they were playing in my head-NOT coming thru the earpiece-damnedest thing I ever heard. -Sandy G.
Click to expand...



I believe the ring you hear on the other end of the phone when you call someone is not their phone but comes from the Central Office of the phone company. So, you might have been hearing some of the phone companies equipment going haywire.
 
i wonder if that 990 thing works on bellsouth lines?

Another fun trick: On payphones (from what i noticed all over my county) i used to dial 8 about a hundred times. It would then ring for about a minue and then i'd get some fellow's answering machine.....
 
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