THe TaP aLeRT As taken from 2600 Vol. 13 Num. 1 By No comment and Crash Test Idiot. "Who's the Operator?", an anonymous conference voice says. "I am," booms Joe Hacker with confidence. Suddenly, Joe notices his phone goes dead and the tap-alert light has gone off! Joe, startled only momentarily, pushes the red override button on his phone, announces, "Gotta go," pulls the phone cord swiftly from the terminal box and is off safely to his next clandestine operaton of the night. Fiction scenario? Yes. Probable? Yes again... with the help of a tap-alert device as described in this article. The tap-alert device is useful in many ways. How about those times when a parent or roommate dropped onto the line and listened while you were having some salatious conversation not ment for their ears. Wouldn't it have been nice to have known the moment they dropped in? Or perhaps you are wary that your phone line is tapped, but how can you tell for sure? The tap-alert device will detect lower grade taps (not the non- parasitic or the electronic taps at the switch). Assembly No project board is required for the following assembly and the final product will be small enough to fit on the average thumb-nail. First, cut the cathode (the short lead) on the LED as short as you can handle soldering to. Next, cut the cathode (the side with the black band) on the zener diode approximately the same length as the lead you just cut on the LED. Now, solder the LED to the zener diode by soldering the cut lead on the zener to the cut lead on the LED. Next, locate the plus and minus side of the bridge rectifier, this is the side that your zener/ LED unit will be soldered to. Solder the zener lead to the minus pin on the bridge rectifier, and the remaining lead of the LED to the plus pin. On the opposite side of the bridge rectifier that you just soldered to are the two pins that you must solder the pushbutton switch to. Pick one switch lead and solder it to one of the two remaining rectifier pins, then solder the other switch lead to the other remaining rectifier pin. You have now completed assembly of the tap-blocking device... we recommend that you now go drink some Hacker Pschorr Oktoberfest or, if your real manly, a bottle of Cisco. Installation If you don't already have a phone to work with, it is strongly suggested that you purchase the Model 2-9220 GE telephone from K-Mart. It goes for $18.99 and comes in many colors (we prefer black). Unlike many phones on the market, the 2-9220 contains all of it's electronics in the handset (with two alligator clips it makes a very nice beige box). Internally a lithium battery keeps stored numbers active in memory and there is plenty of space to add switches, boxes, devices, etc. Open your phone and locate the red (ring) and green (tip) wires. (If you are opening the 2-9220, the trick is to pull out the Hi-Low-Off and Pulse-Tone slide switches first... they'll pull straight out. Then remove the small plastic plate which was underneath the two buttons by prying it up. Underneath this plate is the well hidden Japanese screw, which, if you haven't read this yet, you are extremely pissed off at. The ring and tip wires will be going into the jack on the mouthpiece end.) Cut the ring wire in two. Solder one ring wire to one of the pins on the push button side of the tap alert and the other ring wire to the other pin on the push button side. If you have a special location in mind inside the phone, jumper wires may be necessary. Plug the phone in and see if the LED lights. If it dosn't light, one of two things has happened: 1: Your phone line is already tapped. 2: You fucked up! Case 2: GOTO liquor store, get more beer, start over. Case 1: Disconnect all of your phones, and connect your phone line to an electric power cord (from an old blender or something) and plug it into the 120v outlet... this should do the trick. If (NO__DIALTONE) laugh (EXTREMELY__HARD). To test the circut, pick up your new phone, make sure the LED is lit, then pick up a second phone on the same line. If the LED goes out, it is working properly, and you will hear nothing on your special phone. Override the tap-alert by pressing the push-button; your phone will now work as a normal phone allowing you to once again hear and speak on the line. If everything is working OK at this point, you should find a way to mount the tap-alert device inside the phone. Our people have found that drilling two small holes in the bottom of 2-9220 allows the switch and LED to be pushed through and then screwed down in place with the locking nut from the switch. This method is not only simple, but looks good, and the place- ment of the LED works out great for an illumination source in those dark alleys (writing is often important in wierd places). Final Notes If tap-alert devices are in parallel they will not work on each other. In other words, they will not detect when another phone with the device is present on the line. If two or more devices are in series, you will not be able to use your phone at all. You may find that you can sell these special phones to your friends at school for a nice price. Your friends will appreciate it and so will you, because any calls to your friends will be safe from prying ears! Many thanks to the little purple guys with yellow spots for their help with the tuning forks. We wouldn't have hit 2600 hertz without them. Parts List (Radio Shack, of cource) CAT# PRICE DESCRIPTION 276-564 $0.99 15v Zener Diode 275-1571 $2.39 SPST Momentary Pushbutton Switch 276-041A $0.99 Light Emitting Diode 276-1161A $0.99 Bridge Rectifier