That's right, some of those numbers were used for "loop-around" transmission testing of trunk circuits. Having been in the telecommunications industry for 30+ years, I remember many times hearing kid's conversations when we tried to use them for their intended purpose. After listening to them for a little while, one of my co-workers would sometimes plug in and say "this is the police and we have your phone numbers!" That usually scared them off - hi hi.
Don K2FY -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Robert M. Bratcher Jr. Sent: Saturday, November 13, 2004 9:31 PM To: Discussion of AM Radio Subject: Re: [AMRadio] Numbers Stations - NPRs slant At 10:54 AM 11/13/2004, you wrote: >I was never in on the busy signal thing, but I did do something >similar. Telephone numbers that had the suffix beginning with 99 were >designated as "official" numbers for internal phone company use. As I >recall, you could dial xxx-9929 and have a friend dial xxx-9930, and the >two of you could hold a conversation. Thats known as a loop. Lots of them out there but most are muted so you can't talk on them. Other prefix exchanges worked too. The other fun thing is to find a bridge which is a bunch of numbers toed together so several people could be on at once. I used to be a phone phreak in my younger days back when the blue box (for free long distance called) used to work. >Alan >WA2DZL The coin sounds in a payphone is called a red box. Doesn't work on COCOT (customer owned) payphones because the dialtone you hear is not from Ma Bell's line but generated by the phone. ______________________________________________________________ AMRadio mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/amradio Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.html Post: mailto:AMRadio@mailman.qth.net
