Analog Telephony, Party Lines, and Childhood Eavesdropping
A discussion of vintage analog telephony focuses on the mechanics of party lines, where multiple households shared a single circuit. An anecdote describes a childhood method of eavesdropping by unscrewing the carbon microphone from a handset to listen to neighbors without being detected. The conversation notes the distinct sounds of busy signals and crossed lines that have vanished in the digital era.
party lines· analog phones· carbon microphone· 12ax7 tubes· eavesdropping
00:00 Star date 1414. Tonight a star will be in the sky just above Venus. Adam Curry, John C. Dvorak It's Thursday July 16th 2015 time for your Gitmo Nation media assassination episode 739-er This is no agenda On the front lines of the Troika Triumph and once again broadcasting live from the central storage of all Russian gas and oil, Rotterdam in the Netherlands. In the morning everybody I'm Adam Curry And for Northern Silicon Valley where i am waiting for the 12 AX7's to warm up...I'm John C. Dvorak What were those? The 12AX7 was the fundamental tube from... The tube, yeah right! And what was it used for? Amps? Yeah. Used for everything. We were just talking just before we started this show about remember how it was when you'd be on the phone with somebody and then the lines would get crossed back in the analog days? Hello? Hello? Hey who's this? How did you get on? I don't know. What?! Well when I was a kid
01:12 We still had party lines. Yeah, of course! And most people don't even know what a party line is anymore I think you need to explain At one point, I guess even before my time, I guess party lines would consist of maybe five or six houses The party line was, the way they had the circuit set up They had to go through two or three houses Right. I remember that And so it was the same line but somehow...I don't know how they multiplexed out of it It would have one ring for house 1 and 2 rings for house 2? No That was all somehow done some private channeling or something So your number would only ring when your number was called Yeah It wasn't like you rang all the numbers because then you'd have everyone listening in on everything
01:58 Right. You would run into a situation where you'd pick up the phone and the party line was yacking away. And then you have to hang up. I remember this! Do you remember what a busy signal sounds like? I remember what a bit sure do So the party lines, so you'd have this year when I was a kid we had one other Line that was the pride. I don't know where these people were and I don't think anyone ever exchanged this information Where are you? I'm over here And it was just like they were annoying so he never talked to her You couldn't sex people up back in the day on the party line
02:38 You could if you don't mind people listening in. So I did, being a sneaky little kid...I was just a little kid....I figured that if you unscrew the carbon mic which was at the base of the phone and then take the microphone out, usually lift up the thing and listen in. And no one would know you'd lifted it up? Well, you know that's up to that remains to be seen because there was this girl and her boyfriend they were always yakking and talking About you know lovey-dovey stuff. And so I'd listen into this if I could care if I caught it first I'd you know You'd want to make a call and you lift the phone then you hear them then you hang up and It made it clear that you hung up in unity when you're making calls you hear these people hanging up all the time
03:28 But if you took the little thing off, you might be able to minimize this problem if you were careful. Apparently there's a girl who could always hear it when I was doing this and she would say...I remember her saying, hang up the phone ya little bastard! Yeah that's it exactly nice yeah well anyway get ready to head on back Oh, yes. And what's your final report there from the big E? Final report...well from the big E. Hold on my Big E folder for a second let me see what I've got going on here. Well everybody has of course been you know all over the Greece thing and now it seems so obvious
