How Evan Doorbell became a Phone Phreak

How Evan Doorbell became a Phone Phreak is an introductory 10-part series of narrated telephone recordings by former phone phreak Evan Doorbell, recounting the early years of his interest in the telephone system. This series of recordings is part of Evan Doorbell's collection of telephone recordings. This series is presented as a narrative by Evan, frequently interspersed with recordings from the time. Songs from the 1970s are also often used as background music.

Part 1

In the late 1960s, Evan is a young teenager growing up on Long Island, not yet interested in the telephone. In 1969 and 1970, societal norms relaxed and became less formal; Evan recalls that dress codes were relaxed, military-style inspections were discontinued at summer camp during the Vietnam War, and even the Bell System's telephone intercept recordings became more conversational. Evan recalls several telephone intercept recordings from 1969 and 1970 that demonstrate this change in style, and tries to get several interesting telephone recordings on the phone. He hears multifrequency (MF) tones on certain calls and becomes fascinated by them, varying the numbers dialed to hear the tones.

In July 1970, Evan finds a "party line" conference in his neighborhood accessible by dialing 3-1-1. He learns that when dialed from his friend's house, a different 3-1-1 conference is reached. His friend also demonstrates the 6-6-0 dial and ring test circuit; Evan is fascinated by the unusual quadruple ring, likening it to the "phone doing a new trick", but is disappointed that 6-6-0 is invalid on his home phone. He dials 6-6-0 from all the phones he encounters, including his parents' friend Harriett's house, who is freaked out by the unusual ring. He eventually finds though that he is able to predict is 6-6-0 will work from a particular phone by checking if there is a burst of dial tone at the end of the first digit.

Evan continues his exploration of MF tones by trying to match the digits he hears to keys on a piano and decipher the meaning of the digits. Evan notes the sequence of digits announced at the end of telephone recordings (e.g. 313-2) and is curious what they mean. He gradually deduces that the recordings are local intercepts from each area code, and Evan dials all 120 area codes, listening to the varying accents and wordings. At the end of July 1970, however, Evan is off to summer camp where he will be without phone access.