I have a friend who is suspecting her h is cheating. She wants to tap the phone lines. Does anyone know anything about this? Is it difficult to do? She is very worried about her h catching her. Is it concealed easily?

I'm not an expert on phone taps, but did give the installation of a surreptitious recording device some thought at one time.<P>If I'm not mistaken, it is a felony in every state to record a conversation where at least one of the parties has not consented to it. If she does install a device, your friend might do well to be cautious about how she uses the information gained.<P>Steve<BR>(not a lawyer, just advocating caution)

I agree about being careful ! Your friend can use the information she may get about and where her h & ow are meeting, but she would do well to destroy any tapes after listening to them and never ever use them to confront. <P>Now placng a tape recorder in a room where someone is using the phone is a different story, after all you could reasonably say it was left on by accident. <P>------------------<BR>Deb<P>Hepatitis C, Please educate yourself ! <A HREF="http://www.hepatitis-central.com/<P>In" TARGET=_blank>http://www.hepatitis-central.com/<P>In</A> memory of a very dear friend <A HREF="http://fathom.org/teemingmillions/wally.adp" TARGET=_blank>http://fathom.org/teemingmillions/wally.adp</A>

Mickey, I know a lot about this - my H found out about my A by tapping our phone. He bought a voice activated recording device at Radio Shack and a Caller ID box. It was hooked up to our phone line (although he still hasn't told me where) and recorded every incoming and outgoing call.<P>And yes, it IS illegal and cannot be used for evidence in a divorce hearing.

Mickey,<P>A long as you only use it olny for your knowledge, and destroy the tapes after listening you should have no problems. If you have aspirations for using recordings for any other purpose, the only thing I can say is think of two names Nixon & Lewinski. <P>Mike<BR>

Without going into the legalities of a physical tap, if they're fool enough to use a cordless, they have no reasonable expectation of privacy (meaning it should <I>not</I> be illegal to record them). The old 46-49mhz versions can often be heard on the AM band, but the 900 mhz and 2.4 ghz models are obviously on other bands, and some of them use spread-spectrum or frequency-hopping techniques so you have to scan for the correct frequency each time the phone is in use. Not impossible, but difficult--and you usually need a "scanner" from Radio Shack. <P>If they're on a hard phone, two kinds of taps can be used. Inductance has no physical attachment to the line, but it's typically done at the earpiece by sticking a quite-obvious suction cup to the back of the handset. Alternatively, somewhere in the line you place a concealed attachment point to the actual phone wires (tip and ring), and an automatic switch that connects to a standard tape recorder. The easiest place to do this would be the box where the phone company's wires are hooked up to your house, but that may be impractical due to exposure to weather or obviousness. There may be another point in the house where most if not all of the phone lines are together, and that would be a good spot too. <P>Phone lines are about 65 volts DC, which rarely even provide a noticeable "shock" although you might feel the voltage at times when working with it; but if you have a pacemaker or are standing in water, etc., you could wind up dead from it.<P>There are spy shops in major cities and on the net where books describing how to do these things and the equipment to do it are available. Some of the gear is at Radio Shack, but the spy guys often have more sophisticated equipment available that is more convenient to place or conceal. Good luck. <p>[This message has been edited by Sisyphus (edited March 12, 2001).]

<BR>Since Sisyphus brought up the possible hazards, I thought I'd add a word of caution since there is a bit more to the story.<P>There is normally a DC voltage potential between the tip and ring. I really don't know if 65 volts is correct or not, but it very well could be. When the phone rings, there is an AC signal applied to the line that will be most definitely noticable if you happen to be hanging on to the wires. In the old days, it was this AC voltage that made the little hammer swing back and forth between two bells when the phone rang, so there's a respectable amount of power there. Enough to scare you, but again as Sisyphus says, probably not enough to kill you except in relatively unusual circumstances. Since this is the first time I've noticed anybody mention actually messing with phone wiring, I thought I'd throw that in.<P>It's actually relatively easy to turn a regular phone into a listening device if you know what you're doing. It's only a little more difficult to connect it all up to a recording device. The hard part is concealing it.<P>So I've been told, anyway. <P>--<BR>o2bsane@hotmail.com<BR>

I have heard that placing a voice activated recording device under the dash in a car is a good way of hearing the cel conversations. Mary

Hey Gang,<P>Well, I did it two years ago, the only way I would be able to find the truth. Only needed it one day and I had my proof and she was "asked" to leave immediately. She didn't like that as it was 0230 in the morning.<P>Very easy to do. Two connections to a tape recorder and one to the phone line. I did a great job of hiding it and the wires. We have two phone lines, so I disabled the secondary one so she would have to use the taped line. Yes, I can be sneaky too.<P>WOW, I just looked, it will be two years tomorrow that she left.<P>Wishing us all the Best.<P>Zippy