394 DEAR HACKER

394 DEAR HACKER

data received to the computer. The Pd102.exe or Hamcomm interfaces available on the Internet are perfect for use in experimentation and easy to build. The cost is about $10 in Radio Shack parts.

Your receiver will have to cover the appropriate frequency ranges, al- though I prefer using commercial radio equipment by Motorola. The Motorola 800 Spectra and MaxTrac will cover the 800MHz frequency RFIDs without modification for transmit or receive. There is a pinout on the accessory jack in the back for transmit and receive data. For transmit, you’ll have to build an appropriate interface to take data out of the computer and transmit it. Data received via these radios will work with the above mentioned interfaces.

The 900MHz Motorola Spectra and MaxTrac radios will receive fre- quencies 928MHz and above without modification. The Pd102.exe or

4 level decoders work very well for decoding pagers. Below 928MHz, these radios need modification to the VCO circuit to work. The modifi- cations are available on www.batlabs.com. In the 902-925MHz band, there are cordless phones, RFID, video links, wireless mics, and other FCC Part 15 devices, as well as ham radio communications.

Motorola does have some data modems that connect to the Spectra or MaxTrac radios that will do most FSK data modes and transmit and receive up to 19.2kbps. The RDM-600 will do many modes as far as encoding if you set up the programming software right.

Hopefully, some of this information will be useful to someone. I’d like to correspond with some people “in the know,” and newbies to radio tinkering as well. I do respond to all people.

Stormbringer Cumberland, MD

Dear 2600: Hello my brothers and sisters of the digital underground. I am writing

BEHIND THE WALLS

issue, but unfortunately that issue is floating around my personal li- brary somewhere and cannot be found. The article I’m referring to actually talked about using 711 or relay calling to make collect calls from prison. I thought this was interesting because it’s kind of crazy what they charge the families and friends of the incarcerated. I hear that prisoners sometimes have access to computers that have active Internet connections. If this is true, they could easily create an AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) screen name and add the screen name MYIPRELAY to their buddy list and use the relay service to make calls to whomever they needed to. This not only allows you to make calls at times you might not normally be able to, but it avoids incurring any collect call fees. After adding the MYIPRELAY to your list you can type in the following: dial xxxxxxxxxx. Replace the x’s with the telephone number you’re calling and the operator on the other end will make the call for you to the desired party. Now if the facility the prisoner is in blocks the AIM Express website, it’s time to use an old workaround, a proxy server such as www.proxify.com or www.thecloak.com . Because these prison systems may not allow users to install .exe files, I would suggest using the AIM Express website to login. Plus, there is a hack to add AIM contacts to your Gmail Gtalk list since they both use Jabber logins. This is just a random thought from someone who works tech support for a living and is unhappy with the current political condi- tion and hopes that it will save some people some money from the very greedy phone companies. The Gtalk hack can be found in a book entitled Googlepedia: The Ultimate Google Resource. Enjoy and happy relaying!

soursoles While we think it’s a great idea, we know of no prison that actually allows its inmates

this kind of access on the Net. It would certainly make the Internet a much more interesting place if they did. Regardless, something needs to be done about the hor- rible rip-offs prisoners’ friends and families must endure at the hands of those phone companies that charge exorbitant collect call surcharges. Communications costs have gone way down across the board. It’s unconscionable that rates many times higher are being charged to those who have very little choice in the matter.