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The Home PhoneNetwork

Before you access the hidden wires in your phone lines, be sure they are not connected to the Phone Co. Otherwise, you could find that you are transmitting private intercom conversations or your secret stash of Lenny Bruce tapes all around town. This could be embarrassing for you and inconvenient for the neighbors. It would also be a serious violation of TelCo tariffs (utility company regulations carrying the force of law) and federal telecommunications law.

In any detached house where new service has been installed since the early'80s, it's easy to locate the network interface—a small, gray, plastic box with a phone company tag, logo, or name molded in. It is normally located on the outside wall of the house under the drop line leading from the telephone pole, or in a utility closet or cellar outlet box where underground cables emerge.

The waterproof door of the interface box opens with a screwdriver or small hex-socket wrench. Inside you'll find that the big drop line terminates, and is stripped of insulation to reveal a pair of thick, black, insulated copper wires called A and B in the trade. The bare ends of these wires poke through two discreet screw-terminals. Also attached to the terminals will be a pair of smaller wires, one covered in red insulation and the other in green. They will run into a sheath of grey or ivory insulation—the station wire—which will exit the box and run through the wall and into the house.

You may or may not see the black and yellow pair that is also contained in the station wire sheath. Some wiremen cut them off. Or, they may be stripped out of the station wire sheath along with the R/G pair, but rather than being attached to terminal posts may be coiled up out of the way in the interface box. If this is the case, be sure the bare copper ends are not touching one another or any other piece of metal; it is best to secure the ends with plastic insulating electrician's tape.) Most likely, the Y/B pair will be attached to the second pair of screw terminals inside the interface box-even though there are no live phone lines coming in from the pole to attach them to. In all these situations, you can be sure that the Y/B pair is not connected to the phone net. (You will also find the Y/B pair hooked up to wiring blocks and modular jacks serving phones all through the house—readywiring your secret circuit for you—a service of dear, departed MaBell.)

If there is a second pair of wires (Lines C and D) coming out of the drop line or connecting to a second pair of terminals in the interface box—to which the Y/B pair is also connected—you are prerigged for two phone numbers. Follow the next procedure to see if the second number is hooked up to the hi-lines out at the telephone pole. It is remotely possible that the Y/B pair is connected to the phone net whether you know it or not and whether or not you are being billed for a second number.

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