Since I've been hearing all of that, I thought I'd share the info that has worked well for me over the years.
This especially works if you're a kid, but works well at any age. If you see a lineman working on something, go up to him and ask him what he's doing. Most times, they are more than happy to tell you. Be warned though you will encounter some assholes that will try to threaten you if you dont leave him alone. Just leave it alone and walk away. For the majority though, you'll get some good info.
Walking through the neighborhood, you'll find lots of telco boxes, ranging from the huge neighborhood junctions to the small boxes that you see in almost every alleyway or street corner (and even a few inside apartment complexes) If you're walking by and see a lineman working on stuff, go on over and ask him politely what he's doing. Usually they'll be semi-apprehensive and give you a short answer. But generally if you persist and let him know that you're just interested in the phone system in general, then you usually have him hooked.
I've gone up to linemen working on the huge junctions where they have the big umbrella and lots of computer and testing equipment jacked into the open box and simply asked what he was doing. We ended up by talking for the entire 3 hours he was there. The whole time, he was showing me what equipment he was using, what it was testing. He also explained how it was testing. And a lot of the time we just b.s'ed about the phone network in general and the telco.
Another time, after being a phreak for the entirety of my high school years I wanted to work as a lineman or in the C.O. From trashing excursions, we found the C.O. so I went down there to see about filling out an application and whatnot. Well, I found out the hardway that C.O.'s are closed, locked down to the public. But that didn't stop me from knocking on the door untill someone came out to see what I wanted. I told him I was there for a job and he told me that I needed to go down to the corporate offices downtown. After that I prodded him and asked him how he liked his job and normal small talk. He ended up by stepping out and talking with me for almost an hour before someone else came out to get him. We talked about the switching equipment inside, what exchanges this C.O. served and what kind of knowledge/training is required to get a job - he even tutored me on the basics of what he did in his position as a switch technician.
All in all, I've gotten some of my most valuable phreaking info from just talking with linemen. Remember, linemen tend to like thier jobs, but they're underappreciated and overworked. Generally, it's linemen that get bitched at because someone's phone in the neighborhood isnt working, or they accidentally knocked out service. To them it's actually refreshing to hear someone is interested and appreciates what they're doing. So if you get that far, they'll be more than happy to teach you about thier jobs. After all, if you follow through and actually become a lineman, it means they dont have to do as much work
Just thought I'd share that tidbit, just in case noone thought of it before. I mostly wanted to share this because I've never seen this suggested in any phreak text.
happy learning
-Holy_Handgrenade
Sorry about the type-o on title. I guess I cant edit that
