The following issue has been updated and put into it's own series of pages, so instead of reading this, go to http://www.phonelosers.org/redboxmain.htm. You'll be able to find all the information below and alot more.
You will need:
Be sure to get Radio Shack's newest type of tone dialer. The old ones were
gold and brown and looked pretty ugly. The new ones are black and the corners
are rounded off a little more. They also seem to be more water-resistant and
it seems to be easier to fit the new crystal into these models.
You can either order the crystal through Radio Shack or buy it from an
electronic's store. Buying it through Radio Shack is a real bitch because you
have to wait two weeks for them to order it and most employees don't know
what you're talking about when you ask for it. I've had them INSIST that they
can't order that crystal for me because they don't carry it. If you live in
the St. Louis area as I do, I suggest GateWay Electronics on Page Av in
Missouri. They have a knowledgable staff and their crystals are only about
three bucks a piece. (Compared to Radio Shack's $4.99 each!)
Place the dialer on the table keypad side down and speaker side up. Remove
the battery cover and all batteries. Use the phillips screwdriver to remove
all four screws on the back of the dialer. Now slide the flathead screw-
driver along the side to separate the two halves of the dialer. Slide the
speaker half underneath the keypad so you don't break off the wires.
On the left hand side down near the battery compartment, you'll see a silver
cylinder looking component. This is the crystal you want to remove. Pull it
up with your fingers and break away all the glue that's holding it down. Use
your soldering iron and un-solder it from the circuit board. You can throw
this crystal away as it has no real use in life.
Now the hard part. The new crystal you're putting in is twice as big as the
old one so it's kinda hard to get it in there. There's a few capacitors that
you can bend over to make some more room. You'll also have to bend the leads
to your new crystal inward a little. Solder the new crystal in place of the
old one and you're all set. Snap the two casing halves back together being
careful not to pinch any wires. Put the screws back in and insert your three
AAA batteries.
A good idea is to wrap the crystal with scotch tape or electrical tape. This
will prevent contact with other components since the crystal is so big. You
could also simply put a piece of paper under the crystal.
One additional thing you can do it totally remove the LED light. The only
thing this light is good for is running down your batteries really quick. If
you use the unit without the light connected, you NEVER have to turn the
unit's power off and the batteries will last for a few years before you need
to replace them.
Try pushing the priority buttons now. Each one will emit a different high-
pitched chirping noise. This is what the phone hears when you deposit money
into a pay phone. If you've ever red boxed with a taperecorder or heard the
actual pay phone tones before, you'll notice that these tones are slightly
slower than the real ones. Don't worry, the pay phone can't ever tell the
difference and you rarely find an operator that can.
If you want to program in $1.00, it's best to use this programming string:
MEMORY, *, *, *, *, *, 0, *, *, *, *, *, 0, *, *, *, *, *, 0, *, *, *, *, *,
MEMORY, P1.
This will make $1.00 go in a lot faster than if you'd used the PAUSE feature
because "0" is being used as a substitute for PAUSE. (The phone just ignores
the 0.) Don't use this string on a live operator, though! Thanks to Even in
California for giving me that idea.
To fix that, open the unit and bend the contact in the switches out a little.
Not too much or they'll break when you use the switch. If you've removed the
light in your unit, there's really no reason to ever turn it off so you could
glue the power switch into the "ON" position.
Now you can switch between red box and tone dialer. You can store your stolen
calling card numbers in the other memory locations or use the touch tones to
get free calls on those damn privately owned pay phones.
You know, a disturbing bit of information I heard from Zak recently is that
Radio Shack won't be selling these tone dialers anymore. I don't know if this
is true or not but I plan on stocking up on tone dialers here in the near
future. The reason, supposedly is that the only people that buy these things
are phreaks.
Another way is to find two pay phones that are next to each other. You'll need
a portable tape recorder and a suction cup telephone pick-up. (The phone pick-
ups can be purchased at Radio Shack for about $3.00.) Pick up the first pay
phone (Phone A) and call the other one (Phone B). Put the suction recorder on
Phone A and deposit about three dollars in Phone B. Hang up both phones and
hopefully your money will come back.
A third way is to record the tones directly from someone else who owns a red
box. Pretty easy to figure out.
To play the tones back into the phone when you need them, use either a
portable tape recorder or a walkman with some headphones. Hold the speaker
from the recorder (or the headphones) to the mouthpiece of the phone and press
"play" when asked for money. Make sure not to have the volume up too loud or
the distortion will make a real operator come on the line. You can also use a
big bulky tape recorder or a boom box but you'll look a little silly when you
try to play your tones into the pay phone.
After you've shoplifted a few of these cards and taken one apart, you'll see
that that electronics inside are pretty small. You can record your red box
tones on this chip and then conceal the whole mess anywhere you want and
you'll have a tiny red box to use.
For years, though, I've played with the original design in order to improve
it. My favorate variation of the original plans is what I call the Stealth-
Combo box. It is based on the original design, but makes use of mercury
switches to allow the use of both DTMF's and ACTS tones. In other words it
combines the functions of the red and white boxes.
The reason its called 'stealth' is the fact that when the dialer is held in
its normal position, it will produce touchtones as if it were un-modded.
When held 'upside-down' it is capable of producing tones similar to the
Bell ACTS tones that emulate a quarter being dropped into a payphone. This
design not only gives you both features, but leaves the box looking and
seemingly acting 'normal'.
Following are the complete steps to building the Stealth-Combo box that I
demonstrated at the Denver 2600 meetings. These instructions assume that
you have some experience working with electronics. If you don't, pracitice
a bit before you go cutting up your $30 tone dialer.
2. Gently pry off the back being careful not to break the four wires that
connect the speaker to the circuit board. Lay the back cover to the side
of the dialer. You should now be looking onto the back of the dialer's
circuit board.
3. Locate the original crystal (silver cylinder) on left side of the circuit
board. Carefully cut the crystal off the circuit board as close to board as
possible. Use needle nose pliers to pull the crystal loose as it is held in
place with rubber cement. Be careful not to crush the crystal!
4. Measure out 2 pieces of wire that are long enough to go from the
original crystal solder points, around the edge of the dialer, to a point
on the lower right side of the circuit board. Solder one end of the wire
to the lower original crystal solder point and the other end to a lead on
the original crystal (keep the leads on the crystals as short as possible).
Solder the other wire to the other lead on the crystal but _not_ to the
circuit board. Leave it hanging for now. Use tape to insulate the crystal's
leads.
5. Route the wires around the edge of the circuit board on the _underside_ of
the circuit board. You may have to remove the circuit board to route this
sucessfully. The circuit board is held in place by 6 philips screws down the
middle of the board. Glue or tape the crystal into place on the lower right
side of the circuit board on the underneath side (the keypad side). This
will leave us more room on the circuit board for the swithches.
6. Locate four green capacitors on left edge of the circuit board. Cut off
the second one from the bottom as close to the circuit board as possible.
Important! Make note of which lead on the capacitor went to which solder
point. Unlike crystals, capacitors are directional and if you reverse the
current, it will fry.
7. Glue or tape the capacitor to the empty spot on the upper right side of
the circuit board next to the LED.
8. Solder wires from the leads on the capacitor to the original solder points
of the capacitor. Run the wires along the edge of the circuit board and
insulate the capcitor's leads with tape. You have now moved the capacitor and
made room for the first switch.
9. Glue or tape the first switch on the left side of the circuit board
where the capacitor used to be. Carefully push the upper two green
capacitors to the right to help make room for the first switch. Orientate
the switch's leads down.
10. Solder the free end of the wire that runs to the original crystal
to one of the leads on the mercury switch. Solder a wire from the other lead
of the mercury switch to the upper solder point of the original crystal. The
circuit should now go from the upper solder point through the switch to
the original crystal and back to the lower solder point.
11. Test your work by putting the batteries in the dialer holding the slide
switch which turns on the dialer in the on posistion. The LED should come
on. If it doesn't, check your work. Make sure that the circuit is complete
and the leads aren't grounding on anything. Hold the dialer in an upright
position while holding the switch on and press some buttons. You should
hear touchtones. If not, make sure you haven't broken any of the wires to
the speakers.
12. Locate the yellow capacitor on the lower right side of the circuit board.
Gently pry the capacitor loose with needle nose pliers and flip the capacitor
over. Insulate the leads of the capacitor with tape so that it doesn't come
in contact with the resistors which it is now partially laying on. This will
leave a nice open spot on the circuit board for the rest of our mods.
13. Look at the back cover of the dialer. You will notice that on the lower
left side of the back cover is some space about the size of a crystal. How
convenient! Remove the small screen on the lower left side that covers a
small opening in the cover.
14. Glue the new crystal into the spot where the screen was with the leads
facing out. The crystal will stick out the hole a little bit, but that won't
hurt anything.
15. Glue or tape the mercury switch in the space to the right of it with
the leads oriented up.
16. Solder wire from the new crystal to one of the leads of the mercury
switch. Solder a wire from the other lead of the new crystal to the lower
solder point of the original crystal. Make the wire to the solder point
as short as possible with the case open. Insulate the leads with tape.
17. Solder a wire from the remaining lead on the second mercury switch to
the upper solder point of the original crystal.
18. Test your dialer once more. This time hold the switch in the on position
while the dialer is upside down and press the keys. You should here the
touch-tones in a much higher key now.
19. If everything has tested out, then close up the box. This is probably
the most difficult step of all. You must have the mercury switches located
just right, or it won't close. Also you must place the wires which run from
the back cover away from the the components in order to optimize space.
Carefully close the box, but be warned, it takes quite a bit of pressure to
get the box closed. You may want to have a friend help you hold it closed
while you screw the screws back in. You may break a switch or two before
you get it right. Be very careful with any spilled mercury since as Karb0n
once told me, "Dude! That shit will make you go insane!" You must get the
case closed all the way, or the on switch will not make contact. This step
can be very frustrating, but once you get it closed _and_ working, don't
ever open it again!
(C)opywrong 1994, DeadKat Inc. All wrongs denied.
1. Disconnect your PC, monitor, sound blaster, speakers, modem (if you're red
boxing to a data line), and red boxing program and carry it all over to the
nearest 7-Eleven.
2. At most of the 7-Eleven's I've been at, there's an AC outlet somewhere out-
side of the store. Plug all of your equipment in and turn it on. If there's
no outside outlet, then ask the cashier if you can borrow their orange
extension cord for a little while, explaining the you're from the Pay Phone
Repair Department. To make it more believable, wear a shirt that says, "Pay
Phone Repair Department."
3. After you have all of your equipment set up and Blue Beep running, pick up
the phone and dial 1+AREA CODE+NUMBER. When it asks you to deposit your
money, hit the 25 cents key on your program and hold the speakers up to the
pay phone's mouthpiece. Continue this until you've put in enough money.
4. If it's a data transmission, quickly attach your accoustic coupler and run
your Q-Modem program and try and connect before it hangs up. Note that you
will have to call back this system every 1 minute as the pay phone mutes
your sound while the "money" you put in registers.
Hope that helps. You probably won't get past step one because once you set up
all that equipment on the sidewalk, one of the pan handlers, winos or drug
dealers that always hang out in front of the store will stab you so they can
pawn your computer and come back to buy some MD 20/20. But at least you felt
like Kevin Mitnick there for awhile, eh?
Privately Owned pay phones are those ugly phones with some kind of generic
logo on them that means some old fat local guy owns it and convinces innocent
store owners to install his phone instead of a Bell phone, promising him
bigger profits. Not a hard promise to keep, considering a local call sometimes
costs 75 cents, they sometimes won't let you dial toll free numbers and long
distance rates are twice as high (or more) than AT&T which is pretty bad. The
best thing to do when you find a Private pay phone is to squirt a lot of
ketchup or mustard into the coin slot and find a Bell/GTE phone somewhere.
You'll hear a click, then a computer voice will say, "Please deposit $2.85."
(The exact amount differs with the location and time of day.) Mutter, "Fuck
you, AT&T..." to yourself, switch on your red box, hold the speaker of the red
box flush with the mouthpiece of the pay phone and press P1 for your quarters.
Pause for a split second in between each quarter because if you go too fast,
you'll get a live operator wanting to know what the problem is. You are able
to go 20 cents over the amount requested and that will be credited to your
call.
After you've put in enough "money", the computerized voice will say in a
cheerful, unsuspecting voice, "Thank you for using AT&T!" and your call is put
through. Every few minutes the voice will come back and ask for more money.
Dial 011-COUNTRY CODE-CITY CODE-PHONE NUMBER. An operator will ask you how you
want to bill your call. Tell her you'll be using the spare change you make as
a waiter and MoogooGuawkcaMeemay's Chineese restaurant to pay for your call.
For best results, don't do this:
OPERATOR: "Okay, sir, please deposit your money now..."
YOU: "Okay, ma'am, I'm going to use nickels...(beep)...That was one nickel.
Did you get that alright? Okay, here's my second nickel...(beep)...okay,
there's two nickels, that makes 10 cents. How much more to go? $9.10?
Okay...(beep)...I'm up to 15 cents now, right? Okay, good...(beep)...
alright, there's another one...Hey, here's a penny on the ground! Can I
use a penny? No? Okay, here goes lucky nickel number five...(beep)...did
you get that? Okay....etc, etc, etc."
The call will be completed like this: The operator will tell you that the call
will cost (for example) $7.35. She'll tell you to deposit $3.00, you red box
three dollars to her and she connects the call. When the overseas person
answers the phone she'll say, "This is the United States AT&T operator, I have
an international call for you, could you please hold while billing is
completed?" Then the operator will ask you for another $3.00 and then the
remaining $1.35. After all that you'll be connected only to be inturrupted
every three minutes by an operator asking for more money.
If you don't want the person you are calling to know you're calling with
coins, you can ask the operator if you can deposit all your money right now
and then be connected overseas. They don't like to do this (because you could
lose all your "money" if they're not home) but they will do it if you ask.
Make sure after your call connects that you hear the operator click off. Some
operators are nosey and will just sit there listening to your conversation.
Once I was explaining to a friend how I placed my call and suddenly the
operator starts lecturing me and telling me she's going to call security on
me. (And this was about three minutes into the conversation!)
In some cities I've noticed you can trick pay phones into thinking that a
local call is actually a long distance call by dialing 10288 before you dial
the local number. So try dialing 10288 or 102881 before you make your local
call and maybe you won't have to deal with that pesky operator. The only
downside of doing this is that the call will "cost" more and you'll be
inturrupted every five minutes to deposit more money.
The "tone" is 1700 hz and 2200 hz mixed together.
If you're really desperate for money, you can sell phone calls to people. Hang
around a phone and tell someone who's about to make a call that you'll give
them a free call if they'll give you a quarter. This usually impresses the
hell out of any ordinary person. If you live in a big city, you can go to the
tourist section of town and sell long distance discount calls to out of state
tourists. Consider yourselves warned, though, I've read a LOT of articles on
people getting busted for doing this. One article even had a picture of a guy
in an airport selling calls to people comming off the plane.
If an operator confronts you and says, "Hey, you're not really putting in
coins, that's a recording!" don't get all nervous and run from the pay phone.
She'll lie and tell you that security is on the way to the pay phone to put
you in jail but she's full of it. Instead, piss her off by explaining to her
in detail exactly what you're doing and how you're doing it. If she gets an
attitude with you, ask to speak with her supervisor or Service Asisstant. This
pisses her off to no end. When connected with the supervisor, tell her exactly
what you think of her and the company she works for. The worse thing they can
really do is shut off the pay phone.
1."Well, son, your toy doesn't seem to be working today. Why don't you try
paying for your call instead?" -Hollywood, CA
2."What'd you do, record those tones on the train tracks?" - my friend got
this response when trying to use a very poor quality cassette of red box
tones in Wood River, IL
3."(sigh) Well, I'll put your call through, but next time I want you to pay
real money for your call, okay?" -Galveston, TX
4."That's it! I'm sick of you kids, I'm calling security right now!"
-Cincinnati, OH
5."You know you'll go to hell for stealing..." -Portland, OR
6."I wish I could go over there right now and strangle that kid."
-I overheard an operator in Seattle say this to her supervisor after they
thought I had hung up the phone.
7."Okay, hold on while I turn you in to security." - Indianapolis, Indiana
(What are they going to do, arrest me over the phone??)
If you have any questions about your wonderful, new hobby, you're having any
kind of troubles or you have an operator quote to add to the above list, feel
free to contact me, RedBoxChiliPepper, at
bac@bright.net.
Converting A Tone Dialer Into A Red Box:
Programming Your Red Box:
Troubleshooting:
Try Our New Combo Platter!:
The Low-Income Red Box (A Walkman):
Hallmark Cards:
The Stealth-Combo Box:
Ever since the original Rat Shack Red Box mod was printed in 2600 Magazine,
there has been an explosion in red box use. Red boxing is still one of the
primary topics of discussion on alt.2600 years later. The Radio Shack Tone
Dialer mod was one of the first boxes I ever built and has proven to be the
most useful of all the boxes I've experimented with.
Parts List
Recommended Tools
Steps
1. Remove the 6 screws securing the back of the Tone Dialer to the front.
Four of the screws are underneath the battery cover.
Voice Memo Minders:
The PC Sound Blaster Red Box:
Finding A Phone That Will Work:
Making A Long Distance Call:
International Calling:
Local Calls:
Red Box Frequencies:
Miscellaneous Notes:
Operator Quotes: