Certified Old Phart here. What a blast from the past. I found a similar unit with the fourth row of buttons at a second hand store in the early eighties and bought it for the sake of, well, what you did. A friend found out that I had it and desperately tried to buy it from me. Something about phreaking. Whatever that is, ahem. I declined, and besides I had already pulled the crystal in hopes of making a decoder for very early over-the-air pay per view. Strictly for research purposes, you understand.
Yep, did a lot of things for "research purposes" back in the day too. They usually ended with mom using all three of my names followed by "what the hell are you doing now? Lol Dad didn't mind too much as long as I filled in the hole that got explosively excavated into the yard.
@@ohmbug10 I feel that “all three names” thing deep in my bones. Worst I ever did was blow a chunk out of the sidewalk using the Gilbert chemistry set my mom bought me. She took it away, but only for a week. Ah, the fun they don’t let kids have any more.
@@markfergerson2145 Like Beaver Cleaver said; "Just about anything a kid does he's liable to get in trouble for". Lol. My buddy used to get some"heavy duty" chemicals from the pharmacy. He blew the door off the coal furnace. His dad wasn't very happy.
My Dad bought one of those DTMF encoders from Radio Shack, back when I was a wee lad, and we used it to *dial the phone* during that period between the time we still had a rotary phone but DTMF was supported by the phone company. Not too long after that the phone company updated our phones. (Yeah it took a long time to switch to DTMF in my neighborhood...heck cable TV didn't arrive until the mid 80s.)
OMG. I bought one of these in the 80's for use with my code-a-phone answering machine. Was also useful for by passing phone system restrictions. I still have it in a box.
I had one of those years ago. Found by a pole. Somebody suggested a lineman dropped it. I played around with it never seemed to make line do anything. Took it apart and yes very simple inside. I don't know if I still have it or not. Thanks for having it on the show.
I hate to have to admit that I remember seeing those devices when I was a kid. Funny how technology changes as quickly...or slowly depending on your perspective
I had one of those (AAA battery powered tho) in the late 80's, exactly for the reason you mentioned: to send beeps to my home answering machine while at my grandparent's house between school semesters. They had a official Bell System dial phone even at that late date.
Brought back memories. I had one from Radio Shack in the 1980s. Then one night a bolt of lightning hit the telephone line and turned my answering machine PCB into charcoal. Didn't need the DTMF box anymore and don't know what I did with it.
I used to have one similar to that. Found it by a pole. Actually used it in a dial phone lucky for me didn't know what I was doing so didn't make anything happen. Several people wanted to buy it from me, I kept it for years. Just simple but so cool too.
Thanks for another great video. Made me a bit reminiscent about all the technology that’s come and gone (grew up before touch-tone) Would love it if you could do a video about how to use a scope. I have one at my disposal but I’m a bit scared of how to hook it up without blowing it up. Have you done a review or look at the Owon yet?
I had one like it, but with a lot more fearures. It had a memory for storing upto ten numbers of ten digits. It was a pain to program as there was no screen or any feedback to say what number was stored, apart from a sticker on the back where you could write the persons name next to a number 1-10. As soon as you took the batteries out, it forgot all the stored numbers though. LOL
Back in the day we would use these things, modified of course, to get tones needed to replicate the tones of coins. A lot of free phone calls. You just had to replace the crystal, Don't ask me what frequency as it was long ago and I have forgotten.
Make a "Red Box", a telephone phreaking tool used to make 'free' telephone calls from ACTS controlled payphones You'll need a time machine to see if it works.
I had one of those for when I repaired Fax machines. If the Codaphone did not work on the line I knew I had to set the machine to pulse mode using binary codes. Yes the original Toshiba Fax Machines were programmed in Binary.
In the 60s there existed a device known as a Blue Box which you could make long distance phone calls without paying I seen one used but do not know how it worked. Have you heard of them?
There's a pretty good wikipedia article about them. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_box They generate specific tones that a normal phone wouldn't make in order to trick the telephone system switchgear into allowing redirection of calls in unintended ways.
@@pileofstuff Thank you very much for the link to the article. We had a Blue Box back in High School back in the late 60s, we used it to connect to some students in the UK.
was this device and this technology related to the technology that waas used by the "phone freaks" stuff that was used by people for free phone calls? very interesting cool device
Certified Old Phart here. What a blast from the past. I found a similar unit with the fourth row of buttons at a second hand store in the early eighties and bought it for the sake of, well, what you did. A friend found out that I had it and desperately tried to buy it from me. Something about phreaking. Whatever that is, ahem. I declined, and besides I had already pulled the crystal in hopes of making a decoder for very early over-the-air pay per view. Strictly for research purposes, you understand.
Yep, did a lot of things for "research purposes" back in the day too. They usually ended with mom using all three of my names followed by "what the hell are you doing now? Lol Dad didn't mind too much as long as I filled in the hole that got explosively excavated into the yard.
@@ohmbug10 I feel that “all three names” thing deep in my bones. Worst I ever did was blow a chunk out of the sidewalk using the Gilbert chemistry set my mom bought me. She took it away, but only for a week.
Ah, the fun they don’t let kids have any more.
@@markfergerson2145 Like Beaver Cleaver said; "Just about anything a kid does he's liable to get in trouble for". Lol.
My buddy used to get some"heavy duty" chemicals from the pharmacy. He blew the door off the coal furnace. His dad wasn't very happy.
My Dad bought one of those DTMF encoders from Radio Shack, back when I was a wee lad, and we used it to *dial the phone* during that period between the time we still had a rotary phone but DTMF was supported by the phone company. Not too long after that the phone company updated our phones.
(Yeah it took a long time to switch to DTMF in my neighborhood...heck cable TV didn't arrive until the mid 80s.)
OMG. I bought one of these in the 80's for use with my code-a-phone answering machine. Was also useful for by passing phone system restrictions. I still have it in a box.
I had one of those years ago. Found by a pole. Somebody suggested a lineman dropped it. I played around with it never seemed to make line do anything. Took it apart and yes very simple inside. I don't know if I still have it or not. Thanks for having it on the show.
I hate to have to admit that I remember seeing those devices when I was a kid. Funny how technology changes as quickly...or slowly depending on your perspective
I had one of those (AAA battery powered tho) in the late 80's, exactly for the reason you mentioned: to send beeps to my home answering machine while at my grandparent's house between school semesters. They had a official Bell System dial phone even at that late date.
Brought back memories. I had one from Radio Shack in the 1980s. Then one night a bolt of lightning hit the telephone line and turned my answering machine PCB into charcoal. Didn't need the DTMF box anymore and don't know what I did with it.
I also had the brown Radio Shack version of this. SO much fun with it!
Even though it's a digital wave with visible steps, the speaker provides an effective low-pass filter that removes the sharp transitions.
Thanks for sharing, gotta a few of these to send signals to x10 devices as well, ty for the trip back.😊 even now are still usable!
Rotary phones.....such fond memories!
I used to have one similar to that. Found it by a pole. Actually used it in a dial phone lucky for me didn't know what I was doing so didn't make anything happen. Several people wanted to buy it from me, I kept it for years. Just simple but so cool too.
love the nostalgia, had one for telephone recorder as you mentioned. didn't they use in movies for remote booms?
Thanks for another great video. Made me a bit reminiscent about all the technology that’s come and gone (grew up before touch-tone)
Would love it if you could do a video about how to use a scope. I have one at my disposal but I’m a bit scared of how to hook it up without blowing it up. Have you done a review or look at the Owon yet?
In the UK you could use these to get free phone calls on old public payphones, they soon cottoned on though
I had one like it, but with a lot more fearures. It had a memory for storing upto ten numbers of ten digits. It was a pain to program as there was no screen or any feedback to say what number was stored, apart from a sticker on the back where you could write the persons name next to a number 1-10.
As soon as you took the batteries out, it forgot all the stored numbers though. LOL
Back in the day we would use these things, modified of course, to get tones needed to replicate the tones of coins. A lot of free phone calls. You just had to replace the crystal, Don't ask me what frequency as it was long ago and I have forgotten.
Make a "Red Box", a telephone phreaking tool used to make 'free' telephone calls from ACTS controlled payphones
You'll need a time machine to see if it works.
I had one that stored numbers and would dial the number.
I remember my cousin had a calculator watch that he could dial numbers with in the 80s. Haha too funny
I had one of those for when I repaired Fax machines.
If the Codaphone did not work on the line I knew I had to set the machine to pulse mode using binary codes.
Yes the original Toshiba Fax Machines were programmed in Binary.
I also used it to make phone calls over my Ham Radio 2 Meter handi-talkie
In the 60s there existed a device known as a Blue Box which you could make long distance phone calls without paying I seen one used but do not know how it worked. Have you heard of them?
There's a pretty good wikipedia article about them. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_box
They generate specific tones that a normal phone wouldn't make in order to trick the telephone system switchgear into allowing redirection of calls in unintended ways.
@@pileofstuff Thank you very much for the link to the article. We had a Blue Box back in High School back in the late 60s, we used it to connect to some students in the UK.
did ET phone home with this ?
It would have been easier than hacking a speak-and-spell.
I'd overclock it if I had it lol.
A ham I know would use a different crystal at the encoder and decoder for more "secure" tone control of repeaters.
was this device and this technology related to the technology that waas used by the "phone freaks" stuff that was used by people for free phone calls?
very interesting cool device
They did use modified versions of these to generate other tones