"Loops I've Known and Loved"

   No self-respecting Phone Phreak can go through life without knowing what a
loop is, how to use one, and the types that are available.  The loop is a great
alternate communication medium that has many potential uses that haven't even
been tapped yet.  In order to explain what a loop is, it would be helpful if you
would visualize two phone numbers (lines) just floating around in the Telco
central office.  Now, if you (and a friend perhaps) were to call these two
numbers at the same time, POOOOFFFF!!!, you are now connected together.  I hear
what you're saying out there ..., "Big deal" or "Why should mother bell collect
two MSU's (message units) for one lousy phone call!?" Well ...  think again.
Haven't you ever wanted someone to call you back, but were reluctant to give out
your home phone number (like the last time you tried to get your friends'
unlisted number from the business office)?  Or how about a collect call to your
friend waiting on a loop, who will gladly accept the charges?  Or better yet,
stumbling a loop that you discover has multi-user capability (for those
late-night conference).  Best of all is finding a non- supervised loop that
doesn't charge any MSU's or tolls to one or both parties.  Example:  many moons
ago, a loop affectionately known as 'The 332 Loop' was non-sup on one 'side'.  I
had my friend in California dial the free (non-sup) side, (212) 332 - 9906 and I
dialed the side that charged, 332-9900.  As you can see, I was charged one MSU,
and my friend was charged zilch, for as long as we wished to talk!!!

   Ahhhh ....  have I perked your intrest yet?If so, here is how to find a
loop of your very own.First, do all of your loop searching at NIGHT!This is
because the loops serve a genuine test function which Telco uses during the day.
(We don't want to run into an irate lineman now, do we?) To find a loop, having
two phone numbers is a definite plus.  If not, get a friend to dial numbers at
his location.  Last resort, try dialing from two adjacent pay phones.  Now, get
your trusty white pages, and turn to the page where it lists Metro NY exchanges
and the number of MSU's from your exchange.  The idea is to get a loop that is
only one MSU from your calling area so you don't go bankrupt trying to find a
working one.  So write down in a list all of these exchanges.  The following are
common loop endings (EXC stands for the exchange):

Manhatten and The Bronx ---------- EXC - 9977 & EXC - 9979
Brooklyn and Queens -------------- EXC - 9900 & EXC - 9906

   Armed with the preceding info, dial the tone side of a loop.  This would be
the 9906 or 9979 side.The best thing that could happen now is that you will be
able to hear yourself, or friend through the loop connection.  Eureka, you've
found a loop!!!  Unfortunately, this doesn't happen too often.  Here are the
more common possibilites:

   1.  You can hear through the loop (not muted) but there is a 1/2 second click
every 10 seconds that interrupts the audio.  Good for backup use, but the
%&%$%%!  click is super annoying.

   2.  One side of the loop is busy; try it again later.

   3.  The tone disappears, but you cannot hear through it (the loop is muted,
try again in a month or so).

   4.  You get "The number you have reached" recording.  No more loop in that
exchange, go on to next.

   Most loops fall into catagory #3, but they do become unmuted from time to
time.  O&c% y%0ŸŸŸŸ$!ƒŸŸŸŸ‘’@˜าศ '6!:ษย8 8?>H#? things about step
switching, you can, on a touch tone(R) phone, dial up a number and listen in
the background for the switch level.  Let's say you're dialing 941-0226.  You
won't hear it rotary dial those numbers, but you will hear another number or
series of numbers in rotary step pulses.  That's the selector we mentioned
earlier.  Let's say that after you dialed 941-0226, you heard a 5 being pulsed
out.  What does that mean?  The selector is the decision-making part of the
phone call.  Different prefixes are stored in different levels in each central
office.  In this particular case, 941 happens to be stored in level 5 in
whatever office you're calling from.  There's no rhyme or reason to it; the
selector level could be anything up to three digits in length.(If it was
three digits, you'd hear each individual digit get pulsed out.)  The toll
center is usually level 1 and the operator is usually level 0.So what can be
done with this information?  If, after dialing 941-0226, you enter your own
rotary five, you'll once again hear the click-click which is your cue for MF
tones.

   While step offices have no special phone phreak trapping capabilities, they
a just as dangerous as any other office as far as being traced.  They have
what's known as trap and trace.  If a certain person (or computer) is begin
harrassed, they'll put a trap plug on a particular line.  If you happen to call
into that number, you won't be able to hang up until the other party does.

       Some More Tricks

   In some step areas, local calls are limited to certain exchanges that have
th same first digits as yours.For example, the 222 exchange can dial 235 and
263 as local calls.  But in order to call the 637 exchange, you must first dial
a 1 which makes the call non-local.  If you dial a 6, you'll get an immediate
reorder.  But somewhere between you and the 637 exchange, is the 231, 233, 235,
and 239 exchanges.  There's no 237.  So you dial 2.  Clunk-clunk.  You dial 3.
Click. And then you dial 7. Ching-clunk. It goes to the 637 exchange!
Similarly, a 281 from he 287 exchange could wind up in 471.  Why?  Because
these numbers are all coming from the same switching center.  That just happens
to be the way step works (and in some cases crossbar).If you could seize the
222 trunk, you'd enter KP+25500+ST to reach 222-5500.  To reach 637-5500, you'd
enter KP+755000+ST.

   Then there's "step crashing"--if the number you're calling is 675-2888, and
it's busy, you can dial 675-2887, and in between the last pulse of your rotary
dial and the time it would start to ring, you can flash you switchhook
extremely fast.  If you time it right, you'll hear an enormous loud click at
your end.  Then, all of the sudden, you'll cut into your party's conversation.
(This works bacause of step's realy system.  One relay has determined that the
line you dialed is open.  Then, before a second relay sends along the ring
pulse, you throw in a 1, which jumps the number you dialed up by one, and fools
the system into conn FOR DARK PRIEST.  THANKING YOU IN
ADVANCE, AND ENJOY YOUR LOOPS.

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