# Making the phone ring.... **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 14, 2001, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-the-phone-ring/65366 "2001-05-14T02:15:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Kyomara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8edcca/32.png) [@Kyomara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyomara)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2001, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-the-phone-ring/65366/21 "2001-05-18T04:10:32Z")
I don’t know about making the phone ring, but I remember when I was a kid in Richmond VA there was this woman called the Chicken Lady whose phone number was the stuff of legends for all the school children. Whenever you called it, the Chicken Lady would pick up and treat you a great schizophrenic rant that more often than not included interesting recipes substituting the usual ingredients with various bodily fluids. She was always hopping mad (in both senses of the word) and we kept her plenty busy. I swear every time she picked up the phone she was already in mid-rant, and I strongly suspected at the time that she had installed a switchboard to handle all her hundreds of calls, and that she was switiching between calls in mid-sentence. Ah…salad days… ---
**Author:** ![danvanf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/13edae/32.png) [@danvanf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/danvanf)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2001, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-the-phone-ring/65366/22 "2001-06-22T14:49:27Z")
I just tried 811 in the 937 area code, and got the 911 operator. My heart skipped a beat! Oddly my information (phone number address etc…) didn’t come up for the operator. So she had me call her back to make sure it came up. It did, thankfully they didn’t send out a car to check on us… Phone Co = Ameritech ---
**Author:** ![AETBOND417](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/47e85d/32.png) [@AETBOND417](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AETBOND417)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2001, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-the-phone-ring/65366/23 "2001-06-22T21:21:34Z")
You mean you don’t do what I do? I pick up the phone, **dial the number for the phone I have just picked up** , get a message telling me that the line is in use, hang up, wait two seconds, and the phone rings. What’s with all these 958-xxxx’s and other such prefixes? ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2001, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-the-phone-ring/65366/24 "2001-06-22T21:25:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ModernRonin2 \* > \*\* > “War-dialing” is setting up an automated dialer (usually a computer with a modem) to rapidly dial a range of numbers and see if anything answers. It can be used to find voice mail systems, dial-in modems, fax machines, etc, etc… > \*\* The name derives from the movie [WarGames](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0086567) where Matthew Broderick does this to find the modem number of a computer games company. He gets the number for W.O.P.R. instead. “Would you like to play a game?” ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2001, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-the-phone-ring/65366/25 "2001-06-23T05:43:17Z")
In Los Angeles in the 1970’s you would get a ring back by dialing 119911. Haj ---
**Author:** ![Ottoerotic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/6de8d8/32.png) [@Ottoerotic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ottoerotic)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2001, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-the-phone-ring/65366/26 "2001-06-23T13:59:34Z")
In wisconsin all you have to do is dial your own phone number wait for a message and hang up ---
**Author:** ![Mort\_Furd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Mort\_Furd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mort_Furd)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2003, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-the-phone-ring/65366/27 "2003-09-11T19:11:31Z")
[Here’s one way.](http://wandel.ca/homepage/phonering.html) You might do better using a WAV editor to create the audio signal, rather than using the custom programs. [Here’s the biggest part of another.](http://www.geocities.com/chamindag/Telephone.html) You’ll need to make a 20Hz oscillator to drive the relay on the output of this one. Here’s yet a third. You’ll have to wind a transformer for this one. You might combine the 20Hz oscillator from the third one with the second one to do the job. [Here’s some more info.](http://www.hut.fi/Misc/Electronics/circuits/telephone_ringer.html) Somewhere in there you ought to find what you need. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-the-phone-ring/65366.md?page=1)