ENERGY TIPS

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Inside a four-lead cable, + and - leads will be differentiated by presence or absence of colored thread-lines molded into the insulation. A white or yellow thread indicates - and a red one indicates +. Some cables have nothing but a ridge molded into one of each pair; it usually indicates the - lead.

Soldered Connection

Your two-lead secret circuit can transmit mono only, so you should carefully strip all four leads (difficult with tiny mini-plugs) and twist the two inner leads and two outer leads into single conductors that combine the signals into one. Then solder the leads to an RJ-11 or form into solid wires you can solder to hookup wires or hardwire direct to a wiring block.

Or, Use a Socket

Easier is to buy a loose female socket that fits the plug. Get a short connector with male plugs at both ends. Plug one end into the stereo and the other into the loose socket. Then solder the phone line extension to the little soldering tabs on the rear of the socket.

Coax

Some plugs are connected to coaxial cable, a better-transmitting form of cable. It has + and - leads, but one is solid or twisted wire held inside a core of plastic insulation, and the other is a wire-mesh sleeve that is woven around the inner core. To connect coax to the secret circuit:

1. Cut the coax several inches back of the plug, split two inches of the outer sheath of black plastic insulation and peel back to reveal the mesh surrounding the tube of clear or white plastic insulation that encapsulates the inner lead.

2. Unweave mesh and twist together to give a good inch to solder to.

3. Carefully strip insulation off an inch of inner wire.

4. Solder the Y/B pair in a length of phone wire to the coax ...one to the inner wire and one to the mesh.

5. Keeping the two leads separate—so that not even a single hair-like piece of fine mesh bridges the two connections—tape the joints securely.

6. Plug in and turn on.

If transmission is poor, you may not have made good joints. But before redoing them all, try switching + and - wires at the most convenient end of the hookup. Especially with hi-fi music, getting poles crossed can destroy fidelity.

Getting Fancy

A current initiated at any point in the secret circuit will activate all devices in the circuit that respond to the current you are sending.

Do not try to power more than one high-output speaker on the lines or you will get distorted sound and can overheat the wire. You can power several small speakers at once—little squawkers for a multiple-location enunciator for example, or multiple pager/intercoms, or several of the little self-powered speakers made to amplify the hi-quality, but low-powered, output of portable CD players, tape decks, radios and computers. These small but good-quality speakers use outside power from batteries or line current to amplify the high-quality, but weak, audio signal.

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