Telephone archiver tapping device

As I had a nice 9v battery plug attached to my chat-cord I took one more battery plug to attach the circuit when used in tap mode. To find the resistor, diodes and the capacitor I slaughtered an old phone to find the right components. The benefit especially lays in taking the capacitor from the phone as this has to be rated for high voltage. The one I found in my phone was rated 250v and that should be on the safe side. The diodes are usually cylindrical and black with a stripe on one side indicating the direction. Then you need to find a suitable resistor, which is where most people fail. The resistors are the funny small components with a lot of colours on them. Look at this colour scheme and try to find something that matches 3-4kohm. Or, duh, you can just desolder a lot of them and measure them until you find a good one.

Attaching the diodes speaks for itself. In my case I just put one in each direction at the end of the board where the cables go to my computer.

The adapter is also a no-brainer. I know, I could’ve done it a lot neater with a bit of shrinking hose or something but I just didn’t feel like it. After all - I’m not planning on tapping my own phone line permanently…

12 Responses to “Telephone archiver tapping device”

1. MAKE: Blog Says:
   October 26th, 2005 at 10:22

   HOW TO - Build a telephone archiver tapping device

   By using an old laptop, a home made chat-cord and some parts from an old telephone you can build a telephone tapping device. Add Atropos to the mix and you have yourself an telephone call archiving system that will save all incoming and outgoing calls….

2. Ben Says:
   October 26th, 2005 at 19:22

   I know in at least some states (in the US), as long as one party is aware the phone conversation is being recorded (i.e. you), it is perfectly legal.

3. Eric Clark Says:
   November 11th, 2005 at 16:37

   Very nice site. Please keep updating it.

4. Sal Says:
   November 18th, 2005 at 11:19

   This is a great idea, your a total genius. I cant wait to try it.

5. Jacob Wilson Says:
   November 18th, 2005 at 17:00

   Your site is exactly the kind of sites which make the net surfing so fun.

6. Sporis Says:
   December 21st, 2005 at 9:44

   I have been able to build the project.
   He seems to work but when I try to he use with a softphone on the telephone from the other departs hear a very annoying rustle above all when he are not spoken.
   is it normal? how could he resolve?
   I have found un transformator in a old telephone.

7. Sporis Says:
   December 21st, 2005 at 22:04

   is it normal that does my taking work is it like microphone that speaker?
   The signal input and output in the same jack.

8. Robin Lightfoot Says:
   March 7th, 2006 at 8:53

   If you plug a tapping device on your phone and the light is red, does that mean it is being tapped, or does green? Isn’t it against the law, so could the police or sherrif’s dept. tap it without your knowledge?

9. MS Says:
   August 7th, 2006 at 15:20

   I am in Mexico (anything goes) and would like to use the phone tap device on some ill-mannered family.
   Can you please help me with how to go about this?

   Thanks,
   MS

10. TJG Says:
    September 2nd, 2006 at 18:08

    With this setup would hitting record on any sound program that is pointed at the line in work?
    Thanks

11. dhiraj Says:
    December 3rd, 2006 at 0:50

    crap

12. stump Says:
    March 5th, 2007 at 12:19

    kool,that’s it!!! this is crap isnt dhiraj…..

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