Category Archives: pots

Is there any truth to the (to me) bizarre idea that you can "track" a phone call better depending on how long it goes on? [duplicate]

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I have heard many prank calls from ~2004-2007. In many of them, completely different people all mention the same thing about them "tracking the pranker", clearly in an attempt to scare the prank caller into ceasing to call them, … Continue reading Is there any truth to the (to me) bizarre idea that you can "track" a phone call better depending on how long it goes on? [duplicate]→

Ask Hackaday: With Landline Use in Decline, What’s to be Done with the Local Loop?

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Walking is great exercise, but it’s good for the mind too: it gives one time to observe and to think. At least that’s what I do on my daily walks, and being me, what I usually observe and think about is the local infrastructure along my route. Recently, I was …read more

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Wood and Carbon Rods Used for This Handsome and Effective Microphone

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Anyone who was active in the phreaking scene or was even the least bit curious about the phone system back in the Ma Bell days no doubt remembers the carbon capsule microphone in the mouthpiece of many telephone handsets. With carbon granules sandwiched between a diaphragm and a metal plate, …read more

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Hardware Hack Makes Robocall Blocking Service Even Better

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Sorry to bear sad tidings, but your car’s extended warranty is about to expire. At least that’s what you’ll likely hear if you answer one of those robocalls that have descended like a plague upon us. We applaud any effort to control the flood of robocalls, even if it means …read more

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House Training a Military TA-1024A Field Telephone

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After spotting some interesting military phones at a museum, [CuriousMarc] wondered what it would take to retrofit these heavy duty pieces of telecom equipment for civilian use. He knew most of the internals would be a lost cause, but reasoned that if he could reverse engineer key elements such as …read more

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Teardown Of A 50 Year Old Modem

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A few years ago, I was out at the W6TRW swap meet at the parking lot of Northrop Grumman in Redondo Beach, California. Tucked away between TVs shaped like polar bears and an infinite variety of cell phone chargers and wall warts was a small wooden box. There was a …read more

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Reverse Engineering a Telephonic Relay Device

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The Plain Old Telephone Service, or POTS, doesn’t get a lot of love from the average person anymore. Perhaps once in a while a payphone will be of use when a phone battery has died, but by and large many people simply don’t have hardwired phones anymore. However, that doesn’t …read more

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