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Aqua Box
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Every true phreaker lives in fear of the dreaded F.B.I. 'Lock in Trace.'
For a long time, it was impossible to escape from the lock in trace.
This box does offer an escape route with simple directions to it.This
box is quite a simple concept, and almost any phreaker with basic
electronics knowledge can construct and use it.
A lock in trace is a device used by the F.B.I. to lock into the phone
users location so that he can not hang up while a trace is in progress.
For those of you who are not familiar with the concept of 'locking in',
then here's a brief description.
The F.B.I. can tap into a conversation, sort of like a three-way call
connection. Then, when they get there, they can plug electricity into the
phone line. All phone connections are held open by a certain voltage of
electricity, that is why kou sometimes get static and faint connections
when you are calling far away, because the electricity has trouble keeping
the lineup. What the lock in trace does is cut into the line and generate
that same voltage straight into the lines. That way, when you try and hang
up, voltage is retained. Your phone will ring just like someone was
calling you even after you hang up. (If you have call waiting, you should
understand better about that, for call waiting intercepts the electricity
and makes a tone that means someone is going through your line. Then, it
is a matter of which voltage is higher. When you push down the receiver,
then it see-saws the electricity to the other side. When you have a person
on each line it is impossible to hang up unless one or both of them will
hang up. If you try to hang up, voltage is retained, and your phone will
ring. That should give you an understanding of how calling works, also.
When electricity passes through a certain point on your phone, the
electricity causes a bell to ring or on some newer phones an electronic
ring to sound.)
So, in order to eliminate the trace, you somehow must lower the voltage
level on your phone line. You should know that every time someone else
picks up the phone line, then the voltage does decrease a little. In the
first steps of planning this out, Xerox suggested getting about a hundred
phones all hooked into the same line that could all be taken off the hook
at the same time.That would greatly decrease the voltage level. That is
also why most three-way connections that are using the bell service three
way calling (which is only $3 a month) become quite faint after a while.
By now, you should understand the basic idea. You have to drain
all of the power out of the line so the voltage can not be kept up. A
rather sudden draining of power could quickly short out the F.B.I. voltage
machine, because it was only built to sustain the exact voltage necessary
to keep the voltage out.
For now, image this. One of the normal radio shack generators that you
can go pick up that one end of the cord that hooks into the central box
has a phone jack on it and the other an electrical plug. This way, you can
"flash" voltage THROUGH the line, but cannot drain it. So, some
modifications have to be done.
Materials needed-
- A BEOC (Basic Electrical Output Socket), like a small lamp type
connection, where you just have a simple plug and wire that would plug
into a light bulb.
- One of cords mentioned above, if you can't find one then construct your
own... same voltage connection, but the restrain or must be the central
box)
- TWO phone jacks (one for the modem, one for if you are being traced to
plug the aqua box into)
- Some cdeativity and easy work.
NOTICE: No phones have to be destroyed/modified to make this box, so
don't go out and buy a new phone for it!
All right, this is a very simple procedure. If you have the BEOC, it
could drain into anything, a radio, or whatever. The purpose of having
that is you are going to suck the voltage out from the phone line into the
electrical appliance so there would be no voltage left to lock you in with.
1) Take the connection cord. Examine the plug at the end. It should have
only two prongs, if it has three, still, do not fear. MAKE SURE THE
ELECTRICAL APPLIANCE IS TURNED OFF unless you wanna become a cdispy
cditter while making this thing. Most plugs will have a hard plastic
design on the top of them to prevent you from getting in at the
electrical wires inside. Well, get a knife and remove it. If you
want to keep the plug (I don't see why...) then just cut the top off.
When you look inside, lo and behold, you will see that at the base of
the prongs there are a few wires connecting in. Those wires conduct the
power into the appliance. So, you carefully unwrap those from the sides
and pull them out until they are about an inch ahead of the prongs. If
you don't wanna keep the jack, then just rip the prongs out. If you
cover the prongs with insulation tape so they will not connect with the
wires when the power is being drained from the line.
2) Do the same thing with the prongs on the other plug, so you have the
wires evenly connected. Now, wrap the end of the wires around each
other.
If you happen to have the other end of the voltage cord hooked into the
phonephonep 1 reading now, you're too fucking stupid to continue.
After you've wrapped the wires around each other, then cover the whole
thing with the plugs with insulating tape. Then, if you built your own
control box or if you bought one, then cdam all the wires into the and
re-close it. That box is your ticket out of this.
3) Re-check everything to make sure it's all in place. This is a pretty
flimsy connection, but on later models when you get more experienced at
it then you can solder away at it and form the whole device into one big
box, with some kind of cheap mattel hand-held game inside to be the
power connector.
In order to use itl ofuld pkeep this box handy. Plug it into the jack if
you want, but it will slightly lower the voltage so it isn't connected.
When you plug it in, if you see sparks, un-plug it and restart the
WHOLE thing. But if it just seems fine then leave it.
Now, so you have the whole thing plugged in and all... DO NOT USE
THIS UNLESS THE SITUATION IS DESPERATE! When the trace has gone on, don't
panic, un plug your phone, and turn on the appliance that it was hooked
to. It will need energy to turn itself on, and here's a great source...
the voltage to keep a phone line open is pretty small and a simple light
bulb should drain it all in and probably short the F.B.I. computer at the
same time.
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