On-off switch

Good job my circumstances are not like yours then! :-)

What unsavory uses are there?

I have shown you a link which says that your first unjustified allegation which you call "bugging other peoples conversations" is actually legal in the UK and seems to be a misunderstanding of the law on your part.

I have shown you other uses.

Yet other uses include switching a device by tripping only the ringer (and not having to make a paid call) by calling from a mobile.

It seems you slur my integrity by making endless innuendos about an application of which you have no idea.

Others posters here may be a better role model for you. They do not adopt an unnecessary and incorrect moralistic tone and are less controlling in that they readily provide information without requiring unnecessary conditions designed only to satisfy a somewhat paranoid outlook.

You have said you won't help so what is the point of your posting? Perhaps you are trying to dissuade people who clearly do not share your attitude from posting?

In the end the purpose of your posts seem to be either to slur my intention and/or limit the information I may get.

I am the OP. Just to clarify ....

There are several ready-built gadgets available on the high street here in the UK to record a phone conversation. They cost little and provide an audio feed from a jack plug which can go straight into a basic voice-activated recorder. Simple. Cheap.

So if I actually wanted to record a phone line I would use something like that. Perfectly legal too.

However I have asked about something different. I want to switch an electrical device on when the landline is in use. My question is how to attach to the landline. Something non-invasive is better and I suggested a magnetic switch. If it has to be a plug-in device then that's ok although it limits the location of the point of attachment to only where the sockets are.

Nice product. Unfortunately I am in the UK and this is sold in the US.

It is often illegal to attach things to a telephone line but then that is also often ignored.

The indicator circuits should be easily adapted to drive a relay instead of a light. The tricky (for a beginner) part is to detect the drop in line voltage when the line goes OFF Hook.

-- John G.

You sit in the dark waiting for phone calls?

I suspect there are already purpose-built devices that can do the same.

I haven't alleged that you are pursuing any particular application for this, though it may be related to your quest to capture callers numbers as per your other thread.

Are you referring to the post by "Lemmo?" in which case how would I know that Lemmo == Jim? Otherwise, this is the only reply by "Jim" that I've seen.

I'm actually not interested in the law (though I've always understood that all parties should be aware that a recording is being made, unless you belong to the security forces).

Well, you didn't identify yourself as the OP, nor have you said they are the actual application.

Well that was exactly my point. What is it that you are planning to do with this device? I haven't said you are trying to pursue some unsavoury application of the technology, I have just expressed an opinion that such applications exist and I wouldn't assist this quest for information without knowing the actual application.

Quite honestly I can't imagine any of my friends or associates having a need for such a device and I would be concerned about them if they did ask me. I have no doubt that there are legitimate and benevolent uses for such a device, just as there are malevolent uses. It's the first time I've been described as having a paranoid outlook, somewhat ironical perhaps given your quest in another to log peoples phone numbers?

If I were a landlord, I might use such technology to spy on my tenants, If I were an employee I might use such technology to spy on the company If I were a jealous husband I might spy on my wife

Those are three applications I wouldn't wish to help anyone with. As for others who have been helpful, I don't consider that a good role model considering the possible repurcussions to others if this technology were misused.

I still have little idea why you want this technology and again I personally wouldn't help anyone construct such stuff without knowing more about the application (which from your other post may be logging callers numbers)..

You can clearly state your intention, I just hope that people will consider what they are helping someone to do. If you weren't so coy about this I wouldn't have posted.

It may well be that given the exact application you had in mind people might have been able to suggest a more targeted solution.

What is it you are trying to do?

Daniel James wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@nospam.aaisp.org:

Thanks. I saw this thread only in sci.electronics.components, and didn't see the other.

I've wondered about that, but again, I guess the context is what matters. Recording for private personal or business use is probably lawful so long as it's not passed to third parties with or without gain to the person giving up the records, except in individual instances where the owner of the number gives consent. I don't know much detail of the law, but I know all kinds of data gets passed around, probably by people who don't know they shouldn't. I've seen my own details come from major charites which have formal royal backing, details which have unique errors in them made by other firms who had no right to pass those details. Whether those aquiring those illegal databases know they are illegal, I have no idea. As identity theft becomes more serious a problem, it is likely that people will take more care to isolate and protect their databases, because the bigger they are, the more likely it is that such record errors can enable the history of an entire database to be tracked.

Just a small ramble to think about, when collecting this kind of data.

No, but see the other thread by Jim.

There are plenty of legal things I don't think people should do and there are plenty of illegal things people do regardless of the law.

You have the intended context wrong. I was thinking in terms of jury rigging equipment - adapting/customising it if you wish, certainly not a use of the word jury in a legal sense.

Well clearly I can't police people morality, neither do I or anyone else have to aid people either.

The commercial availability of things has no bearing on their final application.

"On Web" wrote in news:Kntdi.1163$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfe6-gui.ntli.net:

You can record for your own private use, without giving notice. This is equivalent to having an excellent memory or taking detailed private notes, which also is not a crime.

Anything involving third parties is usually a matter of consent by both people in conversation, or of officially warranted interception.

Consent can be tacit, in that if an employer records phone calls for business purposes, they cannot be found guilty if an employee decides to complain at the recording of a private call they decided to make out of their employer's phone system, unless they can demonstrate that they had no grounds to beleive a recording was being made.

This is based on what I know of UK law. Beyond that it gets too subtle for me. :)

No, but see the other thread by Jim.

There are plenty of legal things I don't think people should do and there are plenty of illegal things people do regardless of the law.

You have the intended context wrong. I was thinking in terms of jury rigging equipment - adapting/customising it if you wish, certainly not a use of the word jury in a legal sense.

Well clearly I can't police people morality, neither do I or anyone else have to aid people either.

The commercial availability of things has no bearing on their final application.

"On Web" wrote in news:VAtdi.1168$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfe6-gui.ntli.net:

Sure. I was just pointing out what appeared to be a kind of moralising Freudian slip. You still keep to that line of morality, but the fact is if you were talking that line to policemen, they'd tell you that they don't care, and if you persisted they'd remind you that you'd be wasting police time. Their concern is the law.

You could just refrain from posting. :) That's by far the easiest way. By opening up the issue of why you don't want to help, you've made statements that people can challenge. Probably a good thing actually.

Yes it does. There is a legal point of intended purpose. Sure, there is sucgh a thing as ABuse, but we're talking about use.

"John G" wrote in news:467661de$0$22441$ snipped-for-privacy@per-qv1-newsreader-01.iinet.net.au:

In the UK it is legal, if it is done on the user's side of the master socket. Terminals are often provided for the user to do exactly this. There are guidelines to follow though, and the phone company has the last word. If they take issue with something, it must be removed or changed to a form they accept.

same can be done with a single DIAC

you are bizarre

Maybe. Good luck with the french batteries.

I am the OP. I haven't encountered Mr On Web before but not only are is remarks bizarre but they contain enough innuendo to make them offensive.

This seems far more likely than the bizarre things you suggest.

-- snip --

-- snip --

I have corrected your misunderstanding once already and given you a link (above) to check up the details. It seems that a sneerer like you prefer to carry on with the sneering and false innueundos than read the facts.

Then do not feel you have to help. As I pointed out, you do not even have to post if you havenothing of value to add to this thread.

Even the most innocuous thing can be misused. My bread knife can be used to kill. Someone can drown in a bathful of water. An electric bar fire can be used to burn someone. An electric drill can be used to maim someone. A car tyre & petrol can be used to burn someone to death.

Despite these horros, we stillmanage to live with these appliances. I don't get asked stupid questions when I buy a car tyre or run a bath and it would be better if you didn't ask them either.

There are any number of things which one might want to switch on when a phone call is being made. It's probably best if you stop being coy and accustory through adopting that false facade of innocence. "I only pointed out that it was possible that the OP could electrocute the cat and also activate the microwave in which his puppy was placed and then destroy the building by a timed fuse on some explosives and do all this by remotely calling his phone line and having the call trip his deadly switch". Get real.

I am setting something up to ensure safety for someone in the household who is suffering trauma and I do not feel I need to go into the details.

lots of snips..

Then I wish you luck with it, whatever it is. I can't help but feel that for whatever your trying to accomplish there's a more direct route to the solution, and no I don't want to know any more, I'm done with this.

So after saying that you, oooooh, couldn't possibly help unless you were able to know more and more of situation (to the point of almost prying into a third party's distress) you now say you have nothing to offer?

So why waste everybody's time while you kept needling away at what is obviously an uncomfortable situation for someone I know. And then you declare that, "oh well if that's the case, it is too serious or too delicate" for people like youself to be involved.

Are you some sort of master time waster? Or someone who tries to create distress?

Perhaps you didn't know anything helpful in the first place? Maybe you just pretended to gave something to say and just wanted to take on a very loud and overlbearing moral tone in the hope that people like myself who have a genuine need to seek info will be intimidated by your sniping?

Would it be asking too much to either contribute something as asked in the original post or not to make any further remarks about how innocent and correct you are.