Electronic Circuits And Secrets Of An Old-Fashioned Spy [Illustrated] [Paperback]

Sheldon Charrett (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1999 | ISBN-10: 1581600275 | ISBN-13: 978-1581600278 | Edition: illustrated edition

Learn to build bugs or take advantage of those already in place; assemble a DFMF decoder or decode phone tones without one; construct a red box for free pay phone calls; crack answering machine passwords; defeat digital and spread-spectrum cordless phones with an FM phone tap; and much more! For academic study only.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Sheldon Charrett is the author of many books on Identity Change, Privacy, and Personal Freedom. His only contact with Paladin is through electronic means, as he likes to keep a low profile, and who knows what new ID he may be using currently? You too can contact Sheldon by accessing his Web site: /www.phreak.co.uk/sxc

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Paladin Press; illustrated edition edition (May 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1581600275
• ISBN-13: 978-1581600278
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.4 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,326,540 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Oh, yeah!, July 7, 2000

By 

Huntress Reviews (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Electronic Circuits And Secrets Of An Old-Fashioned Spy (Paperback)

WOW. Let me say right up front that this book is "No-holds-barred". It's obviously written for people who already know electronics at least at a hobby level. I'm almost afraid to put this one online, so let me say that it IS ONLY for Academic Study! While not as detailed and comprehensive as some other books I have reviewed, what it does cover is "In your face", down and dirty, and from my experience as an Electrical Engineer, VERY workable. How to crack answering machines and make free calls are among the listed topics, Paladin makes it clear that this is for Academic Study only. Brother, if you are caught doing anything this book shows, you WILL go to jail!

Don't let the name fool you, this book is as modern and up-to-date as it can be. The "Old Fashioned" refers to the type of person who gets out and does the spying himself. I spent a few hours tracing the schematics of a few of the circuits shown, and I have to say, he's got some clever ways to get around modern problems... Can't find the device you need? No problem, he shows you several ways to build one. I consider it a book to get before any books are banned in this country, cause this one will be on the list!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars great, October 8, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Electronic Circuits And Secrets Of An Old-Fashioned Spy (Paperback)

I'm only 12 and I saw this book and wanted this bad. When it got here me and my friend went straight to Radio Shack and bought almost part to build a room bug for my sisters room after ordering the rest of the parts off the net we finished it. It works great. there are many other prodjects to build too.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Eavesdropping for Drongoes, October 20, 2003

By 

John A. Faulkner "signalsnatcher" (Sydney, NSW, Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Electronic Circuits And Secrets Of An Old-Fashioned Spy (Paperback)

In the introductory chapter, the author writes "This book explores some important tools for gathering firsthand information on spouses, CEOs, politicians and the girl next door." There aren't too many techniques for eavesdropping on CEOs or politicians in this book, so we assume the average reader would be concentrating on the other targets. The author describes himself as a semi-retired private investigator. Like most authors within this genre he tells a few war stories, but his clients mostly seem to be suspicious husbands or wives and a couple of insurance or workers compensation cases. So this is a book on how to eavesdrop on soft targets.

The book is not technically demanding and relies heavily on converting consumer products readily available at Radio Shack in North America but mostly unknown elsewhere. There is almost nothing here for foreign readers. He spends about six pages explaining how to convert a "Mr Microphone" toy into a room bug, and how to modify its frequency to outside the FM broadcast band, as wells as using it as a phone tap. He has a circuit diagram of a home brew bug (nothing original here). He spends thirteen pages on the design of a DTMF tone decoder, a product there is little difficulty in buying these days. He also takes ten pages to describe how to defraud North American telephone companies with a "red box" a well known circuit, but useless in the rest of the world and rapidly becoming useless in the USA.

As an investigator he relies heavily on monitoring older style analogue cordless phones and baby monitors with a scanner. There are eighteen pages describing how to eavesdrop on the North American analogue mobile phone network (the rest of the world has moved on to secure digital phones). There are also several pages on how to hack into answering machines, a topic better covered in numerous Internet sites.

The bibliography is of little practical use and seems chosen at random. The author lists two web sites (and he has a third recently set up) where you will find corrections and a bulletin board but whose main purpose seems to be to market his other books and to sell his DTMF decoder.

There is little here for the electronics professional and nothing to justify the price for a reader outside the US and Canada

A word of caution here. Most governments have made illegal the construction, possession, distribution (by sale or otherwise), use or use of material obtained from eavesdropping devices except in special circumstances so you are advised to check your local laws if you want to do more than read this book.

On the other hand, successful prosecutions are rare and similar devices are openly advertised for sale. Detection of these devices is difficult. Any competent hobbyist could produce this equipment from readily available components or by disassembly of consumer items.

But before you go into business consider This advice. Whether your clients are cops, spies or gangsters, they are eavesdroppers and conspirators - they are inherently untrustworthy. They don't regard you as an electronic genius - you're just the hired help, some geek who is useful but expendable. Look after number one! The smartest player is often the one who does not join the game.