Rotary phone recording.

[Smooth765]

Hey, I am new to the fourm.
I was just wondering if you guys new of a way to record the phone calls with some soert of recorder that would hook up to a rotary phone?
The reason I ask this is because, not to post them on the internet, it's just to see what the quality would b like.
Thanks for any replys/help you guys might have.

[bingster]

They used to make little suction devices that stuck to the back of the transmitter portion of a handset, and which could be plugged into any tape recorder.  Not sure if they make them anymore or not.

Recording telephone conversations is a really dicey thing, though.  The moment the other person picks up the phone, you have to tell them they're being recorded.  There's a serious Federal charge if you don't.  You used to have to transmit a clearly audible beeping tone every so many seconds throughout the call, but I don't think that's required anymore. Not sure, though.

[Smooth765]

I was thinking of this,
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2123175
But would you need a recorder with a remote jack?
Or could you just start the recorder yourself, then pick up the phone?
Thanks.

[gpo706]

I picked one of these sucker things from Maplins (kinda like Radio Shake), for £4.95 hooked it to my 500 and a Sony 1/4" reel to reel just for dramatic effect, any how results were inconclusive, but the sucker is SO handy for removing stubborn GPO 706/746 dial lable covers!

[Phonesrfun]

The device Bingster is talking about is a little electromagnet that Radio Shack used to sell by the truckload.  I think it was simply called a pickup coil.  No wires to hook into the phone.  Just lick it and suction it on to the receiver. 

Bingster... It went on the receiver end of the handset, not the transmitter.  It used induction to pick up the electomagnetic field from the receiver.

There was only a single wire with a standard plug to plug into the mic input jack of any cassette recorder, or any other electronic device that used a microphone, for that matter.

I don't know if they still sell them but someone must.  It would be a $1 or $2 item, I would think.

It would not work going the other direction.  That is, you would not be able to hear through the phone something off the recorder by playing it into the pickup coil.  For that, you would have to just hold the telephone transmitter up to the recorder's speaker.

-Bill

[Phonesrfun]

Here is what I am talking about...

http://www.mcmelectronics.com/product/36-010


-Bill

[Dan/Panther]

Bill;
I have one exactly like the one you posted, but I could only get the part of the conversation where the pickup was closest to.
D/P

[jsowers]

Sometime in the 1970s I was able to hook two wires of shielded mike cable to the transmitter terminals (I think) of an AE 50 (my grandmother's actual phone). I then replaced the transmitter, but didn't screw on the cap, and recorded the entire conversation with someone listening in at my house next door on the party line too. I think it was plugged into the AUX jack on my tape recorder, but it could have been the MIC jack. That was one good thing about those old AE phones. The transmitters would stay in even when the caps were off. And they were plenty LOUD.