- Better Homes and Pitting -
- Written by Bad Sector -
Ok, well Frac has probably filled you in on some pitting already, but I'm
fortunate enough to have a nice pit just a few minutes drive from my home
which I had a good play around with. I'll describe how to open a pit, to
hooking up your beige box. This phile is dedicated to the two original
blueboxers who went on to found Apple, Steve Jobs and Stephen Wozniak
who were caught and asked to stop doing it. :-) Oh for the good old dayz!
Any ASCII artwork is designed for 80x50 and if you aren't using or can't use
80x50 then you're fucking lame and should upgrade to VGA and join the fuckin
'90s.
A typical pit:
Ok, there are many kinds of pit, both in the city, suburbs and country areas.
I'll describe the ones I've seen and looked in. The two most common types
are steel pits, which are of course a fucker to open and close, and the
cute concrete type.
STEEL PITS
Equipment, both steel or concrete:
1 - Pit Lifter
2 - Side Cutters
3 - Flat Screwdriver (For terminals)
4 - Wire Stripper
5 - Multimeter
6 - Terminals, plastic type
7 - Beige box/handset, modular plug is best
8 - Modular plug and flat cable with alligator clips (Silver Satin is ok)
Note: Cable length can be pretty much any length ..well...
Ok, steel covered pits have a big rusty brown plate over them with a grid
pattern on them and slots to lift them, they measure roughly 80x80cm but
can vary in size. Now they can be also be arranged in 2's or 4's making a
large pit. You can use a good old plant hanger to open these things and
the concrete types. A good pit lifter should look something like this.
__
|
___________________________________________________|
|
|
|
|_____
It should be made of galvanized steel with a 0.5cm diameter at least. Use
the small end to lift the pit as a large end will no doubt become stuck in
the pit's slot. Mine measures about 32cm long which I find is great for
concrete lids, but a bit of a struggle with steel plate. Remember you can
make a longer lever which allows you to stand up and haul on it if necessary,
but don't actually try to lever a pit open as you will bend the fuck outta
your pit opener.
Rather than lift the lid open, simply drag it off the pit and drag it back
on when finished. All pits are lined with concrete, dirt, bugs and grit, and
are always about 5 degrees hotter than the surface air temp, here is an
example of one pit we came across on a NeuroCactus expedition.
<---About 2 metres-->
____________________
/ - - / - - /| ^
/_________/_________/ | |
/ / / | |About 1.5 metres deep
/ - - / - - / | |
/_________/_________/ | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | V
| | /
| | /
| | /
| | /
|___________________|/
Ok, this was a metal grated deal and was primarily for fibre optic cable. f/o
is easy to spot as it will generally have warning labels plastered around, as
lasers are cool for eye surgery, and will be in a tube fastened securely to
one wall of the pit. If you can't phreak over fibre then fuckin leave it alone
as damaging it is a fucker for hackers too and you may well do a retina in
while smashing it up :)
You see plenty of steel plated ones in the city no doubt they carry a lot of
fibre and of course the old copper subscriber lines now.
CONCRETE PITS
These are little rectangular things with rounded corners which are made up
of two parts, the lid and the concrete pit itself. The lid measures about
80cmx20cm and are about 3cm thick. They weigh a fair bit, not as much as
steel of course, and are best dragged off. The pit is one moulded bit of
concrete that is dropped in, the lid forms a very neat fit with the top of
it, it's about 90cmx24cm and about 70cm deep or so.
Pit (Side View)
______________________
Lid (Top View) | |
\ /
.-----------------. | |
/ \ | |
| _ _ | | |
| | | |
\ / | |
`-----------------' |__________________|
Now of course the obvious question is that surely water collects in the pit
and will fuck up the lines? Well no not really, it drains out the bottom and
all connected subscriber lines are insulated properly. Most pits also have
a plastic thing that people aren't sure about. I'll describe it.
Moisture Cover Telco plant hanger
旼컴컴커<----- Tab to screw up by hand 컴컴컴 Telco style
旼좔컴컴컨커 \ 컴 / pit-opener.
� �<--- Screw-up cover that screws into \\// A serious
� � black ring. 납 sized tool
( 旼컴컴커 ) 납 this. Fully
� � o �<----- Opaque white cover, like an 납 galvanized.
� 쿽 / o� � inverted plastic cup. PVC. 납 Goes in slot
( �\ � /� ) 납 vertically.
( � 납 � � )<--- Bulbous gripping bits 납 About 3cm
� 쿽�\/ � � 납 thick and
� �\\납./<------ Unused subscriber lines 납 around 40cm
� __납납__ � 납 tall. Not
납________|�<--- Black plastic bottom 캑쳐 quite sure
납 납 about shape.
납<-------- Main trunk
Ok, the main subscriber line cover can be screwed on and off the black plastic
portion, and has "Vertical insulation is important" or something to that
effect printed on it in black block letters, basically meaning, keep water
off the unused subscriber lines or you'll have a rusty mess to deal with <g>.
Ok, now as a pitter you shouldn't be interested in unused subscriber lines
as they are useless unless connected back at the exchange. You might find one
thats active but the odds are heavily against it. You need to do something
nasty and cut a subscriber line and strip it back, a subscriber line is about
8mm thick and black with Telecom and specs written somewhere along it. They
will probably join up with a larger feeder cable somewhere in the pit. I
provide both a permanent sortof setup and a description of a one-off hookup.
A good permanent pitting compromise is a screw terminal that looks like this:
Top View
旼컴컴컴�
-----�(0) (0)�---- <---Lines Black/Red/White/Blue (whatever)
쳐컴컴컴�
-----�(0) (0)�----
쳐컴컴컴�
-----�(0) (0)�----
쳐컴컴컴�
-----�(0) (0)�----
읕컴컴컴�
Ok, use a black one and hide it in an unobtrusive part of the pit, screw
each line in after stripping each line back about 0.5cm. Cut plastic off
around the screws if you have that type of connector so that you can hook up
the alligator clips easily. Simply match each colour on one side of the
terminal to the other.
Otherwise just chop it, and strip back each wire, the white and blue are your
best bet. Check with a multimeter like I do, should be 50volts, and polarity
counts Frac says :) Remember to try and use the correct end of the line as
one goes to the phone, and the other to the main trunk! If you are near
homes you will kill someone's phone and they may well come out to check or
call Telco.
� �
� � <--- Subscriber Cable
�_�
/�\ 旼컴컴커
납납 <--- Lines � �
납납 � (..) �
Ally Clip /납 \ � .. �
| / � \ \ � �
| / / � �[][][]�
V � � �[][][]�<-Handset/Phone or a true
旼([[[[]) (]]]]])컴� �[][][]� beige box!
� � � � �[][][]�
� White � � � 旼커 �
� Blue � � �..� �
� � � 읕켸 �
� � 읕�[]컴�
� � 납<----Modular Plug
� � 납
� 읕컴컴켸�
읕컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴�
Ok, if you know you have the right line, 50volts remember or Frac's
'tongue-test' <chuckle> and nothings happening then press the hook a few
times or reverse the clips and press hook a few times for dial tone. If you
don't have tone yet then you have fucked up or killed your beige box somehow,
and I can't help you.
Now another way of pitting is to hook this up and have a few hundred feet
of cable out to your vehicle or location. Then hook up your laptop and trade
warez all night (lame I know). Or hack .milnet sites, fuck it's not your line
is it? Death threats to the PM.. whatever..
My suggestion is to do this at night at secluded locations with good cover.
Please remember that this is highly illegal and Frac states the correct charge
is "Interfering with a public carrier" or something to that effect, that
may involve a goal term or huge fines. Never think it can't happen to you
because it is just a matter of time, so use your fuckin scone to avoid the
nasty, obnoxious guys in blue.
Ok, as we're on the subject of pitting, then 'canning' is of course the next
subject to progress too. Similar in some ways and much nicer/risker in others,
can opening has advantages, an easy tap being one of them.
TUCoPS is optimized to look best in Firefox® on a widescreen monitor (1440x900 or better).
Site design & layout copyright © 1986-2025 AOH
