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From: FIREWALKER
Subject: Re: Re Black Boxes and Marble Memorials

 > An acquaintance who is involved with telecommunications recently told me
 > that the spooks have the ability to listen in ("two way interaction" is
 > the way he put it) through some kind of "black box" in our television
 > sets, via the cable hookups we invited into our homes. He went on to say
 > that a friend of his working through television repair school was
 > advised not to question the purpose of the black box in the set he was
 > training on. Furthermore, he said that several former college roomates
 > now specializing in telecommunications of various kinds WILL NOT allow
 > the cable into their homes for just that reason. Obviously, we are way
 > past George Orwell's wildest dreams as far as the spooktech goes, so my
 > question is not so much "can they?" but "do they?" Is the black box
 > already there, in my tv, do you suppose? Is the cable set up to carry
 > reverse signals, and if so, who controls the plug at the other end? I
 > just thought you might know something about these things.

First off, I can confirm this as a non-rumor, but as fact. In fact, this
has been the case for over a dozen years. The 'cable-ready' set has had
this ability since the term 'cable-ready' came to be.

I worked on a joint project, between the power company, the phone company
(Southwestern Bell), and the cable-tv company, over eleven years ago. We
discussed the 'security options' that were available AT THAT TIME. (this
subject had nothing to do with the joint project, but was just something
that we tossed around for the six months that we were together -- I made
sure that the conversation came up from time to time)

The electric company had a small unit that would fit into a standard
two-plug wall box that was basically an FM transmitter. This sent a signal
out over the power lines that could be picked up anywhere that another
power line went. In fact, it was one of the 'renegades' in that effort that
joined with Radio Shack and started what we now call 'nursery monitors' --
you know, the things that you plug into the power line that sends a signal
to 'any other power plug in the house.' Well, mom and dad, it is also
sending that signal to EVERY OTHER power plug on the ENTIRE SYSTEM. They
also had a small fish-eye that replaced the middle screw in the plug, which
could send out a visual signal, but because of it's size and the quality of
the FM signal, it was limited to motion detection. These options were
currently in use in some companies in the US, and was marketed as a
security feature in certain countries, mostly in Europe. It could not be
sold in the US, because if everyone knew the potential of this device, they
would revolt. (this comment came from the power company man, showing me
that they were already aware of this attitude, and so were keeping the
possibility quite on purpose)

They (the power companies main holding company) were, at that time, working
on a small computer-like interface that went in your power-meter, that
would allow them to monitor power usage AND CHANGE POWER CONSUMPTION from a
central point. This was needed in order to allow certain places to be
uneffected by 'brown outs' we were told -- they could reduce the amount of
electricity that homes used in order to keep 'higher priority' places at
full power.

Now for the cable company. This was frightening to us, even at the time.
The cable company person would not speek to us openly about ANYTHING that
he was going to tell us, but eventually even SHOWED US HOW SOME OF IT
WORKED!!! We didn't see all of what he told us, but enough to believe what
he was saying.

First, all 'cable-ready' televisions have at least two components that are
not needed for the television. First is an electronic eye, which we are
told is to adjust the brightness, and second is the 'cable-ready' unit,
most likely the thing that is being refered to as the black box.

What you need to understand right off is that it is not necessary to have
your television be ready to accept the cable signal. My circa-1979
non-cable-ready unit has no problem with cable reception (when we had it).
All you need is that connector that the cable wire plugs into and you screw
onto the back of the unit.

Scary point one: the electronic eye is a two-way unit that is sending back
a fairly high-quality picture of what is going on. The person telling us
about this had actually seen some images from it, and described a level of
clarity (remember, this is 1983-ish, so it is probably better now) that was
frightening. (his rather crude example had something to do with counting
the zits on your butt while 'doing the nasty' on the couch)

Scary point two: the speaker is also two-way. (this is one thing that we
saw -- or should I say heard)

Scary point three: both are active, even if the television is turned off.
Some of them can even remain powered on (with the set unplugged) from the
signal power coming in from the cable itself. The ONLY way to protect
yourself is to remove all cable television from your house. Physically
remove the connection to your house from outside, and remove the cable and
other outside connections to your television. This is because...

Scary point four: the signal from these cable-ready units that is sent out
from your cable-ready television goes out through the antaenna (sp?)
connection, so even if you disconnect your cable connection to the house,
the (then ungrounded) wire IN the house is transmitting a signal that can
be picked up from some distance away. (this is another thing that we saw --
we actually went down the alley listening in on conversations going on in
the houses we were passing) I don't know if the visual signal is also being
transmitted, but I  that the audio signal was going out bright and
clear!

There are also places in Europe where these services are (were being)
offered on a commercial basis. The cable person made comments of agreement
when the power-company person talked about people not accepting these
things in the US, but said that nobody there had discussed these issues
that openly.

I'll let others answer the second question...

Lee

From: FIREWALKER
Subject: Re: Re Black Boxes and Marble Memorials

 >> were passing) I don't know if the visual signal is also being
 >> transmitted, bu t I  that the audio signal was going out bright
 >> and clear!

 > Lee:

 > I don't doubt that this is possible, but it would help us verify it if
 > you could provide a frequency. Given that, it would be a simple matter
 > for many of us to independently verify it.

 > Ever the skeptic...

I don't doubt your skepticism, nor do I condemn it in the least. I just
wish that I could provide you with the answer. All I know is that the unit
that he was using was fairly standard issue, at least in that area.

Part of what we were doing, in the joint project, was taking records from
the three different organizations, and verifying their accuracy (part of a
requirement from the Texas Public Utilities Commission (PUC), which had a
person accompany us from time to time). We spent six months riding around
in company trucks going from place to place, checking on the accuracy of
the records for that place. Because of the requirements of the project,
they used people who were 'techies' instead of just installers, repairmen,
etc. Each of us were considered to be the experts in our fields. One week
we'd be in an electric company truck, one week in a cable company truck or
car, another week in my phone company car.

The power company person showed us some of the FM transmitters at one of
the companies while we were there, so I at least saw that piece of
equipment. Now, the power company was not in the business of supplying the
security for this company, they just had the listening devices installed
that interfaces with someone else's unit on-site. The transmitters, he
said, were turned down enough so that the signal didn't just go out over
the entire electrical net.

The cable company guy took us into one of the local cable company central
sites, and programmed in some of the additional options (something that at
the time he said not even the PUC knew about -- remember they were still
not even talking about this much within their own ranks) for both the
central unit and the cable-ready television that was in the break room
there. Almost at once, we started to hear noises coming from the built-in
speaker on the control unit that he was working on. Since nobody was in the
break room at the time, he went in and started talking to us in a whisper.
We couldn't hear everything he said, bue we heard enough to know that it
was really working.

He made darn sure that he disabled everything and removed all of the
options from the menus, etc, that he had added.

Getting back to listening in on the conversations in the houses. We were in
the cable company truck while he was talking about this option. He pointed
out some of the various units and repeaters (something that takes a signal
and boosts it so that it can travel further) when he commented on the
ungrounded cable becoming a radio antenna. I could see how that could work,
but the power company person wanted something more than talk. So we went
behind a rather large apartment complex. The cable person called in for a
listing of registered users and services. These were compared with what was
actually in use (at the central connection for the building), with the
unauthorized services being disconnected (quite a lot of them, I might
add). The cable person then went to the back of the truck and took out a
pole that exteneded quite a ways (perhaps fifteen feet) with a dense
antenna at the end. This got plugged into a box with a speaker. There was a
lot of static and noise and stuff most of the time that the pole was being
passed across the various connections, but every once in a while, there
came through a very clear signal. Noises that were clearly from various
parts of the apartment were being heard -- a baby crying that sounded
fairly far away, like from another room, etc.

We were then told that if the units were truly programmed properly, like
was done at the central office, then each signal  be heard a little
better. Also, that if the unit was programmed properly, that there was some
sort of way that they would be (in future tense) able to put them on
separate frequencies, but at that time, it was not possible. This future
time was awaiting the advent of fiber-optic cabling (then still mostly a
theory).

This person, knowing that we were both as technically knowledgable as
he/she was, WOULD NOT give out more details than that (notice that I have
been trying to keep my descriptions as generic as possible), so I don't
know anything more.

I  try to contact a cable company in one of the towns in Germany that
I had lived in to see if they were aware of these things and could give me
more details, but was never able to really make them understand what I was
wanting (I don't speak German well enough, and they either did not
understand English enough, or faked that they did not understand what I
wanted).

That's all that I can provide for now. I've called around here, and none of
the cable people will give me an answer, and no matter who I call (service,
cust reps, etc), I am transfered to some glibb, slick-tonged, public
relations type who tells me that I'm not even in the same solar system as
reality. Not even when I tried to fake it by saying that I was living here
on a temp visa, and wanted the same security features that I had in
Ramstein...

Lee

Subject: Re: Privacy and Cable TV

 <> Bill wrote:

 <> I spotted this on another list and thought y'all might be interested. I
 <> do not vouch for the accuracy of this info, but as a Ham and an EE, it
 <> all seems technically feasable to me. Comments are invited.

 <> > An acquaintance who is involved with telecommunications recently told
 <> > me that the spooks have the ability to listen in ("two way
 <> > interaction" is the way he put it) through some kind of "black box"
 <> > in our television

[ snip ]

 <> First off, I can confirm this as a non-rumor, but as fact. In fact,
 <> this has been the case for over a dozen years. The 'cable-ready' set
 <> has had this ability since the term 'cable-ready' came to be.

I can confirm a similar practice within satellite communications products.
I have not been involved with this for several years. But, I used to work
for a company (which no longer exists) that pioneered the development of
commercial use of mobile hand-held 2-way satcom transceivers. At the time,
the hand-held models were prototype and (at least during the company's
official existence) were never completed. The system prior to the hand-held
devices were somewhat larger devices which were typically used on big rig
trucks for tracking and 2-way communications between driver and company HQ.
Anyway, to the point, I was for about 3 years within the heart of this
entire system. As it was all a big prototype it was quite open
(internally). I was involved to the link-level of this protocol and
discovered that the manufacturer of one of the transceivers we used had
built-in "master" codes that could be used to activate or deactivate any
function of the transceiver from the manufacturers HQ, since of course, not
only the customer and us, the manufacturers had full access within our
system "for diagnostic and testing purposes".

The bottom line is, the transceiver manufacturer had absolute control of
all these devices any time they wanted to use it (of course, so did I, but
I digress). Some of these devices were being used as unmanned
communications devices monitoring and controlling offshore oil rigs,
refrigeration units on trucks, whatever. In one experiment that I was part
of, we even used these devices to download and execute new software for
various computing devices that were connected at the other end. Meaning
computers that controlled whatever, in an unmanned remote location
(wherever) could be reprogrammed and executed via this satcom transceiver.
This was 1991. I'm sure if "they" wanted to fully develop all of there
capabilities it would be done by now.

The transceiver manufacturer in this case was a Japanese company. The
stated intended use of this technology was to vastly improve air traffic
control (too much control if you ask me). When I presented the complete
proof of this capability within the protocol and demonstrated it, I was
simply told "who cares."

Just another example of what goes on behind and within the scenes. I have
been intentionally vague about the details.

Bob

------------------------------------------------

(This file was found elsewhere on the Internet and uploaded to the Patriot
FTP site by S.P.I.R.A.L., the Society for the Protection of Individual
Rights and Liberties. E-mail alex@spiral.org)