The Party Box

Created by Greyhawke of TDK

Ever wanted three-way calling without having to pay for it? Wanted to connect two phone conversations at once, without any static or excess wiring, or even having two phone lines? Ever gone beige boxing and wanted to connect two operators (or anyone!) but didn't have the necessary stuff with you? The party box fixes them all!

First off, go to your local Radio Shack and pick up the following parts:

(1) DPDT slide switch (all you need is DPST, but DPDTs are easy to get)
(2) Modular phone jacks
(4) Alligator clips
Some wire (doesn't matter what kind)

For the modular jacks, if you get the kind that look like a box with the back open, it makes a nice looking party box when you stick them together.

Assembly:

Take four lengths of wire, and strip the ends about 1/4" on both ends of the wire. Connect two wires to the red and green terminals on one phone jack, and two wires to the red and green terminals on the other phone jack (so you've used all four pieces of wire). Connect to the other ends of each wire a red or green alligator clip (down at Radio Shack they sell some nice ones with color coded insulator sleeves. Get these, it's REAL important that you know the red ends from the green). If you do this right, you'll have a red and green aligator clip on each of the two phone jacks, connected to the wires. By this time, you should not have any wire end loose; they should all be connected to SOMETHING.

Now, if you've been paying attention and you know your boxes, you'll recognize the two pieces of equipment you've just assembled as beige boxes. That's all they are, really, is beige boxes.

Here's what makes those two beige boxes into a single party box. Take four more short (like 1.5") lengths of wire, and strip all the ends to about 1/4". First connect one side of each wire to a contact on the DPDT or DPST switch. Just make sure it's the right switch. For DPST, you won't have a problem, but for DPDT, make sure the switch looks like this when the wires are connected:

                       *-**-* -
                       *-**-* -

It's doesn't really matter which side you connect the wires to, just make sure that at least two of them are in the middle. The wires are connected to the terminals surrounded by asteriks (*). Solder each connection carefully to make sure it's a good one that won't fall off, and make sure none of the wires are touching each other!! If they do you've got a short circuit and the box won't work!

Here's the tricky part. Take the bottom two wires (looking at the DPDT switch from the bottom, so it looks like the above picture) and connect each one to the red terminal on the phone jacks. One wire to each jack. Then, take the top two wires and connect one to the green terminal on each phone jack. Again, one wire to each jack. Screw down all the terminals good and tight. If you've done this correctly, there should be two wires leading to each red and green terminal on the two phone jacks. Set the switch so it's in the off position. It's off when only the middle terminals of the switch are covered, or so that the switch is on the side where there aren't any wires coming to the terminals there. Just make sure it's in the beige mode. Your box is now built.

(This is if you used the jacks I suggested at the top of the file.) To make it look pretty, you can cut away a portion of the plastic surrounding one of the jacks so that the switch will fit nicely in the place you cut away. Also cut away a small half-circle on the bottom of the surrounding plastic to feed the wires out of (the ones with the alligator clips, not the ones leading to the switch). Once these two things are done, and the switch is screwed down securely, tape it all up, super-glue, who cares. It doesn't matter; just so it stays together.

Once all this is done, here's a few things I like to do to make things easy. Put a small dot of white paint in the lower part of the switch, so that when it's on the paint shows. This is easy to do. Also you might want to know which line you're using for each box. Just put a glob of a different colored paint on each side of the party box, and put the same color paint on the wires leading out of that side of the box.

Use:

When used in beige box mode (so that the switch is off), the party box will operate just like two beige boxes. There are totally, 100% separate from each other, and the conversations don't get crossed.

However, when used in the party box mode, the party box connects both lines to each other, essentially connecting all four people to the same line. Everyone can hear each other, and there is little or no static created by doing this. It's works great for connecting anyone together, and all that's needed is each beige box connected to an output device ("Bell Can"), and the switch in the party mode position. See a file on beige boxing for detained info on what to do while boxing, etc, or how to connect to a Bell Can.

Schematic:

This is a really easy box, but someone might want a schematic, so here's one:

      <--- JACK --- ONE OTHER TO PHONE THE>

       ---------------------------    __/   -----------------------------
       (red [ring] wire)         - __/!     -           (red [ring] wire)
       ------------------------- O/   !_/   O ---------------------------
       (green [tip] wire)      -   __/        -        (green [tip] wire)
                               - O/         O -
                               - -          - -
                               ---          ---

It's a really bad schematic, but the little things in the middle are supposed to represent the switch in the off posistion, and the exclamation points just mean it's a DPST switch that doesn't connect the top and the bottom termials. The (-) and the (-) are supposed to be the wire.

Disclaimer:

This file is, of course, only meant for informational purposes, and is in no way meant to be used. Any tapping of telephone lines is a federal offense, so don't come crying to me if you get busted, because I'm telling you not to do it. I'm not responsible for you; you're responsible for you.