Phone Trips
by bookofjoe on 4/11/2026, 4:43:40 PM
http://www.wideweb.com/phonetrips/
Comments
by: tehryanx
I first mirrored these in the early 2000s because I was worried it would eventually vanish. my mirror has been gone for decades, and the original survives. :)
4/11/2026, 6:22:25 PM
by: bookofjoe
>OK, so what are these recordings all about? Why are they here?<p>>Greetings fellow web trippers, my phone phreak handle is Mark Bernay and 35 years ago I used to go on phone trips. Yes, it's true: just like the people in the picture at the top, I would drive around to small towns primarily for the purpose of playing with their payphones. I often brought along my trusty Craig 212 portable 3-inch reel-to-reel tape recorder (this was before cassettes were popular) to record the phone noises and narrate information about them for my friends. I don't go on phone trips anymore and you are probably thinking that this is because I grew up, but no, I never did. The reason I stopped phone tripping is that all phones are about the same all over the country nowadays and they are really boring.<p>>This picture shows my recording equipment around 1968, which I used to edit these tapes and prepare them for playing on a public phone number. My current desk is just as messy, but with PC's instead of reel-to-reel tape recorders.<p>>There have been 1237108 accesses to this page.<p>.........................<p>>Secrets of the Little Blue Box (1971)<p><a href="https://www.ckts.info/downloads/articles/Esquire%20Magazine%20October%201971%20-%20Secrets%20Of%20The%20Little%20Blue%20Box.pdf" rel="nofollow">https://www.ckts.info/downloads/articles/Esquire%20Magazine%...</a>
4/11/2026, 5:58:20 PM
by: ChrisArchitect
Related in some ways, the new documentary on the fascinating life of blind phone phreak <i>Joybubbles</i>.<p><a href="https://www.joybubblesthemovie.com/" rel="nofollow">https://www.joybubblesthemovie.com/</a><p><a href="https://www.inverse.com/entertainment/joybubbles-documentary-rachael-morrison-interview" rel="nofollow">https://www.inverse.com/entertainment/joybubbles-documentary...</a>
4/11/2026, 9:29:00 PM
by: plapsley
This is such a great site. Any of Evan Doorbell's "How I Became a Phone Phreak" or "Sounds of Long Distance" are especially great.
4/11/2026, 6:55:37 PM
by: zx8080
Great site! Some external links are dead (404) though:<p>> Phone Tripper Frank Wilsey visited the Vintage Telephone Equipment Museum in Seattle, WA and the New England Museum of Telephony in North Ellsworth, Maine.
4/12/2026, 12:45:15 AM