# Home phone telephone Easter egg: calling your own phone line? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 15, 2021, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-phone-telephone-easter-egg-calling-your-own-phone-line/940024 "2021-04-15T01:29:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2021, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-phone-telephone-easter-egg-calling-your-own-phone-line/940024/22 "2021-04-15T17:55:59Z")
> [@Mark\_Finn](#): > > About 5 seconds later, the phone would start ringing “Get out NOW. The call is coming from INSIDE THE HOUSE!” ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2021, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-phone-telephone-easter-egg-calling-your-own-phone-line/940024/23 "2021-04-15T20:14:13Z")
I remember back in the 80s my mischievous cousin doing this on pay phones as a prank. We would ride our bikes to the bowling alley, play some arcade games, and on the way out he would get the payphone to ring non-stop by calling that certain number. It wouldn’t stop until an annoyed employee picked it up. ---
**Author:** ![Meltdown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Meltdown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meltdown)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2021, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-phone-telephone-easter-egg-calling-your-own-phone-line/940024/24 "2021-04-15T20:23:00Z")
Back when I was a teenager in the 80s and got my hands on a video camera for the first time, I used that technique to produce a version of this [Monty Python](https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2tmmc2) sketch (well, the beginning of it, at least). ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2021, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-phone-telephone-easter-egg-calling-your-own-phone-line/940024/25 "2021-04-15T20:31:38Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Given the info above, I could see a place set up where the special prefix to get the test call was a backwards version of the normal prefix for calling numbers. That might be enough to be remembered by the OP as “dialing the number backwards.” Or just by coincidence it was close to being his phone number backwards. I remember the call back method, but can’t remember the codes to use. Later I became friends with a phone phreak, he had ‘acquired’ one of those special big orange phones the techs carried around and was in frequent trouble with TPC (The Phone Company). ---
**Author:** ![Rhodes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhodes/32/273_2.png) [@Rhodes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhodes)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2021, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-phone-telephone-easter-egg-calling-your-own-phone-line/940024/26 "2021-04-15T20:35:42Z")
I remember in the '90s I could dial a number, hang up, and then the phone would ring. It was only a few digits, similar to \*69. Someone picks up in another room, and then I pick up and can talk to someone in the house. I used the feature to have Santa call my younger siblings. From [How to Block Incoming Unwanted Calls on Verizon Home Phones | It Still Works](https://itstillworks.com/make-home-phone-using-comcast-8051981.html) : > [@](#): > > Call your phone company and request the ring back number for your phone. Most phone companies, in different areas, have a 2 or 3 digit code they can give you to use to make your own phone ring. ---
**Author:** ![eschrodinger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschrodinger/32/122_2.png) [@eschrodinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschrodinger)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2021, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-phone-telephone-easter-egg-calling-your-own-phone-line/940024/27 "2021-04-15T23:33:42Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > People today have no idea how difficult it was dealing with Ma Bell. In 1980, we moved into a house that had a special box on the wall below the phone that was mounted on that wall. The box was probably 8"x8"x4", and it had a simple switch on top. We were the only people I knew who could turn off our phone’s ringer. It would occasionally get turned off by accident, and we wouldn’t know about it for days, until we ran into someone who’d tried to call. I think ringer switches on the phone itself came into general use with the ability to purchase your own phone and plug it into a jack – just a few years later. Maybe you could rent phones that had them before that, but no one I knew had anything but the basic phone until you could buy your own. ---
**Author:** ![erysichthon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d07c76/32.png) [@erysichthon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erysichthon)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2021, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-phone-telephone-easter-egg-calling-your-own-phone-line/940024/28 "2021-04-15T23:48:04Z")
I remember a high school friend teaching me the make-your-own-phone-ring trick, but I never used it to prank anyone. Failure of imagination, I guess. I also remember another odd phone thing: a number you could call to hear a frequency-sweep sound that repeated as long as you stayed on the line. I don’t know what that was, but I’m guessing it was some kind of test tone. ---
**Author:** ![Thumper\_Stauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thumper_stauss/32/7562_2.png) [@Thumper\_Stauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thumper_Stauss)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2021, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-phone-telephone-easter-egg-calling-your-own-phone-line/940024/29 "2021-04-16T01:41:18Z")
Thank you, everyone, for confirming this was a thing. This is a good example of how much of the world was a mystery, inaccessible to non-experts before the Internet. ---
**Author:** ![Dereknocue67](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/6de8d8/32.png) [@Dereknocue67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dereknocue67)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2021, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-phone-telephone-easter-egg-calling-your-own-phone-line/940024/30 "2021-04-16T07:41:40Z")
I remember that as well. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2021, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-phone-telephone-easter-egg-calling-your-own-phone-line/940024/31 "2021-04-18T01:52:28Z")
An old thread on the ringback number. > [@Phoning Yourself](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phoning-yourself/29351): > > Once, many moons ago, I read somewhere that there is a certain number you can dial on your home phone that will cause your phone to ring if you hang up immediately after dialing it. I believe it can be used to test the ringer on the phone. I tried it, and it does work, but I can’t for the life of me remember what it is. Anyone know? ---
**Author:** ![si\_blakely](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@si\_blakely](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/si_blakely)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2021, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-phone-telephone-easter-egg-calling-your-own-phone-line/940024/32 "2021-04-20T02:16:50Z")
So back in the days of rotary dials, another trick for exchanges using Strowger switches was dialing a number by flashing the hangup button - the number of “flashes” for digit **n** was **10 - n**. This mimicked the pulse train generated by the rotary dial. ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2021, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-phone-telephone-easter-egg-calling-your-own-phone-line/940024/33 "2021-04-20T04:11:32Z")
> [@si\_blakely](#): > > So back in the days of rotary dials, another trick for exchanges using Strowger switches was dialing a number by flashing the hangup button - the number of “flashes” for digit **n** was **10 - n**. This mimicked the pulse train generated by the rotary dial. If you’re talking about the US Bell system, then no. The number of flashes for digit n was n except there were 10 for 0. That’s why the zero was at the end of the dial. As the dial rotated back, it mechanically made those flashes and 0 had to be after 9 to get its full 10. ---
**Author:** ![si\_blakely](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@si\_blakely](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/si_blakely)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2021, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-phone-telephone-easter-egg-calling-your-own-phone-line/940024/34 "2021-04-20T04:24:33Z")
> [@OldGuy](#): > > f you’re talking about the US Bell system, then no. Nah - this was in New Zealand, where **0** was before **1** , and the emergency number was (and still is) _111_. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2021, 8:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-phone-telephone-easter-egg-calling-your-own-phone-line/940024/35 "2021-04-20T08:57:06Z")
> [@si\_blakely](#): > > Nah - this was in New Zealand, where **0** was before **1** , and the emergency number was (and still is) _111_ . When I looked at rotary phone web sites, there were American phones, and the other less common pulse sequence, and NZ phones. I don’t know if that misrepresented the case, but it looked like NZ was, if not unique, then nearly so. ---
**Author:** ![Happytree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happytree/32/3555_2.png) [@Happytree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happytree)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2021, 9:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-phone-telephone-easter-egg-calling-your-own-phone-line/940024/36 "2021-04-20T09:19:43Z")
I remember doing this as a prank when i was a kid. We would dial 1984 or 1987 (both worked) then the last 4 digits of the phone number. Judging by other posts, i guess we didn’t need the first 1 there. After dialing, we would hang up a few times until we got a tone, then hang up again, then it would ring. I don’t think i could pass a payphone without setting it off when i was a kid. So much fun! ---
**Author:** ![si\_blakely](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@si\_blakely](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/si_blakely)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2021, 9:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-phone-telephone-easter-egg-calling-your-own-phone-line/940024/37 "2021-04-20T09:30:50Z")
I assumed that we would use the same system as **British Telecom** , but it seems that this is not the case. Very odd, but we did get into telephones very early on … ---
**Author:** ![mrtoner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrtoner/32/19249_2.png) [@mrtoner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrtoner)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2025, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-phone-telephone-easter-egg-calling-your-own-phone-line/940024/38 "2025-05-29T01:50:46Z")
Ah, my favorite (only?) telephone prank! Would have been 1981, used it regularly in the college cafeteria where I worked nights, to irritate (and snicker at) the cook, Claude. (Who taught me the whole “L I B, M R ducks” joke.) ---
**Author:** ![pjd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pjd/32/3009_2.png) [@pjd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pjd)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2025, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-phone-telephone-easter-egg-calling-your-own-phone-line/940024/39 "2025-05-29T10:10:51Z")
> [@mrtoner](#): > > “L I B, M R ducks” joke. What’s that ?! ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2025, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-phone-telephone-easter-egg-calling-your-own-phone-line/940024/40 "2025-05-29T11:47:16Z")
It’s a joke that makes fun of some regional US accents associated with rural uneducated folks. Easy enough to demonstrate out loud, darn near impossible to describe in text. As an example, the letters “L I B” can be pronounced something like a drawling slurring “Hell, I’ll be!”, which is an exclamation of surprise and/or consternation in some US dialects. It goes downhill from there. But is a timeless classic. Maybe YouTube can help, but I won’t be arsed to look. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-phone-telephone-easter-egg-calling-your-own-phone-line/940024.md?page=1)