Underground Anarchy
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An Extensive Guide to Bell System Man Holes
(c) 1992 Vonnegut [PHLiGHT]
First Edit : May 25th, 1992
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Underground telephone networking done by Bell is fascinating stuff and fairly
easy to gain access to. If you know what you're doing, you can accomplish
alot, learn alot, and take home some stuff to play with.
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Getting Underground
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First, you will need to find one of those Bell manholes. They are VERY heavy
and say "Bell System" on them. In the country, they are harder to find than
in cities and suburbs. Look on the paved main roads and you will probably
find some. They have a little square hole in the middle which is how you
will getting inside. Stick the hook side of a crowbar in the hole and push
down. When the lid lifts, grab it and roll it onto the street or sidewalk.
It is best to do this at night because it is obviously *very* easy to get
caught doing this. Before you stick your feet in, look for the ladder rungs!
The drop is 6-10 feet if you fall, and it can get very damp and slippery down
there! If you're new at this, leave the lid half-open (never completely!)
and also bring a friend: if one of you gets hurt, they can always run home
and get help. Also, bring a flash light so you can see what the hell you're
doing until you find the light. If you can get one of those mining helmets
with the light on it, use it.
What You Should See
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There will be a small room at the bottom which sometimes has tunnels. There
will be all kinds of telephone equipment down there, and sometimes even a
computer which is connected to a humungous network. There will also be
pipes on the walls that have cables running through them. Each one will say
what's going through it, or be color coded. There is often a chart on the
wall.
Dull Green Boxes: Opening
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These things are called bridging heads and each one has as many as 1200 cable
pairs inside! There are many different varieties of these with different
levels of function in the network, but most are made by Western Electric or
GTE, and these are the ones I will be discussing. The larger Western
Electric ones with the WE logo on the bottom feed the whole area. The normal
bridging heads, which are smaller and often made by GTE, are usually bridging
for homes and individual buildings.
These things are tons of fun to play with. If it's locked, stick your crow-
bar in the slot above the top hinge on the right door. If you pull nice and
hard, the door will rip right off. If it isn't locked, take a 7/16th inch
hex socket and turn the bolt s-l-o-w-l-y to the left until you hear like a
little pop. Hold onto the bolt and turn the handle all the way top the right
and pull it out (toward you).
Bridging Heads: Getting Behind the Panel
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Once you've opened a bridging head, look around for the test set. This is
like the handset to your phone, except it doesn't have a phone attached to
it. You will see a whole panel of shit (all of the little cable pairs and
lots of little metal screws) which you should push back about an inch. Then
rotate the latch on the top (which is round with a little shaved-off flat
section) downward. Then let go of the panel and it will fall forward. If
you didn't see a test set before, there is probably more than one here!
There will also be lots of extra wire and metal screws (like the ones on the
panel).
What to Take from the Bridging Head
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Here is what to take from inside the bridging head. Some of it will be
needed later, and some of it is just good to have around.