
Draper later commented that he was bemused by the fact that many of his "pupils" were barely literate, yet they could watch one demonstration and then construct their own radio receivers. Is it possible to set up a phone network in my house which emulates old school phone systems so that I can use the Captain Crunch whistle to make calls between different phones I set up in my house Id also like to set up a BBS and call it from some vintage computers using real modems. Once his reputation quietly spread, he gained a level of cachet among his fellow inmates by giving informal classes in phreaking. He also knew the various internal "loop" numbers of the telephone company so that he didn't have to rely on collect calls when using his allotted pay phone time. In Draper's case, he quickly converted the radio that he was allowed to keep in his cell into a receiver that monitored the walkie-talkie calls of prison guards.

In most prison cultures, an inmate is destined to become someone's "b****" unless he has something valuable to offer. He served his sentence in California's Lompoc Federal Prison, where he used his phreaking skills to survive. Draper first came to prominence as a proficient phone phreaker, earning his Captain Crunch moniker from his use of a Capn Crunch Bosun whistle to fool the. John Draper (aka Captain Crunch) was arrested in 1974 and convicted of wire fraud.
#Capt crunch whistle phone free#
Instead, they used it to disrupt businesses, harass government offices, and otherwise make mischief. The FBI decided to go after the supposed leader of the Phreak movement and make an example of him. A phone phreaker called Captain Crunch (John Draper) discovered that this whistle could be used to get free phone calls (one of many components in the. The further the technology spread, the more it was utilized by "newbies" or folks who were unaware of the original gentlemanly culture of phreaking. Blue Boxing led to Black Boxing, Beige Boxing and other permutations of phone trickery gadgets. How A Toy Whistle Found In A Cap'n Crunch Box Was Used To Hack Into AT&T's Phone Lines Crime Histories Technology Video Half as Interesting 2 years ago A toy whistle packaged in boxes of Cap'n Crunch cereal allowed hackers access into AT&T's analog system and gave them unlimited long-distance phone calls. THINKING INSIDE THE BOXĭraper and his good pal Steve Wozniak (who would later co-found a little company called Apple) used this technology to build Blue Boxes, which could generate a variety of tones that would further manipulate Ma Bell's intricate web of phone lines. However, when using the Crunch whistle, the other end of the trunk was kept open, and the person on that end of the line was now considered by the equipment to be an official telephone company operator, meaning they could call anywhere free of charge. When Bell's equipment "heard" the 2600Hz sound, it was the signal that the call had been terminated, and one end of the trunk line was closed. Once a long-distance call had been initiated, the meter was running. just deposting any coin (a nickel) would then un-mute the microphone enabling the redbox to then be used.Not long after Engressia shared this information with the other phreakers, John Draper discovered that a toy boatswain's whistle that was included in boxes of Cap'n Crunch cereal in the late 1960s could blow a perfect 2600Hz tone.
#Capt crunch whistle phone how to#
However, an easy way was found around even that. He had a kid's red plastic whistle that he got from a Cap'n Crunch box, and he showed her how to blow pitch tones. In the late 80's early 90's payphones were catching on to this and would mute the handpeice in order to not allow any audio to pass through the phone line. 5 short bursts of the * key would then reproduce the sound of a quarter going in.


A standard tone dialer from radio shak that is slighty modified with a 6.55360 mhz crystal would let the asterisk key on the keypad have the same tone generation a nickel would have going into the payphone. To simulate a coin going into a payphone, a redbox would be used.

The whistle made a 2600mhz tone that when whistled onto a phone line at any time would drop the phone call, and you could then use a blue box and basically do anything an operator could do. the cap'n crunch whistle was discovered in the early 70's I believe, and was used to gain direct access to Ma Bell's switching equipment.
