8 minutes of No. 1 Crossbar

[@robertleifeld225]

Used to love these old switches, an aquaintance had a little box she could call a toll free number, beep out a little 2600 Cycles/Sec (Hertz hadn't been invented yet) and then redirect the crossbar switches to do anything she wanted; there was always an inward operator to connect to that would put her up on some verification trunks, you just had to know the technical language for what to ask for. She once beeped her way into Canada, then London, and then got into Moscow but since she came in through Canada, they expected her to speak French. Another good thing to do was to switch into London then 2600 again (tricky) in London and switch back to the US and call the pay phone in the next booth. We could talk on the pay phones to each other but the overseas delay was horrible. Some good Samaritans would connect overseas soldiers to their families here in the US. The soldier would go to a certain pay phone at an arranged time and the Samaritan would connect them. Truckers on the road could keep in touch with their families for zero cost. Too bad the telco had to get picky and shut all that down. Nothing like standing out in a freezing phone booth in the middle of the night "boxing" away. Thank you Captain Crunch and Kevin M.

[@DandyDon1]

Are you sure the term Hz had not yet been adapted? The hertz is named after the German physicist Heinrich Hertz (1857-1894), who made important scientific contributions to the study of electromagnetism. The name was established by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) in 1930.[7] It was adopted by the General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) (Conférence générale des poids et mesures) in 1960, replacing the previous name for the unit, cycles per second (cps), along with its related multiples, primarily kilocycles per second (kc/s) and megacycles per second (Mc/s), and occasionally kilomegacycles per second (kMc/s). The term cycles per second was largely replaced by hertz by the 1970s. One hobby magazine, Electronics Illustrated, declared their intention to stick with the traditional kc., Mc., etc. units. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hertz

[@MaxSolar-dd5wq]

The technique you mentioned is known as blue-box phreaking

[@cat-lw6kq]

Never worked on these but spent lots of time in Co's listening to these switches. It always seemed strange to me after they tore them out, and the room was so quiet after that.

[@cat-lw6kq]

I remember the old days you didn't dare touch those switches or the techs would yell at you, the old timers took care of them and if they owned them.

[@SuburbanDon]

What a racket !