DTMF And SelCall Signal Generator

[Rogal] wrote a cell phone application called ToneTool that generates audio tone sequences. It can be used to output DTMF and SelCall sequences which are used by telephone systems and radio-telecommunication hardware. The software is written in J2ME so if you have a cell phone that can run Java apps it will probably work for you. This is like a digital-age Blue-box in everyone’s pocket. But we don’t think there’s too much opportunity for the mayhem seen with the original phone phreaking.

See him generating and sending DTMF commands over an Echolink network in the video after the break.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3hI2Dwk6sY]

25 thoughts on “DTMF And SelCall Signal Generator

  1. I guess all phones already have DTMF since it’s used for voicemail and other touch tone stuff. No disrespect, because he did add functionality, but it seems sortof like a funny/ironic hack.

  2. Interesting a UHF capable rig that doesn’t have a mic DTMF key pad. Somewhere around here I have a stand alone DTMF generator. The pharmacist I used to work for used one to place orders over the telephone, back before the local office was modernized and Bell provided phones with dtmf keypads. RS had the one I have on close out real cheap, so I picked it up to use with old rigs that don’t have a dtmf keypad.

    1. Because they are conservative anal types who haven’t worked out that you can polish out minor scratches with metal polish. It would be nice if manufacturers would make them out of glass in the first place though.

  3. Why but the optional mic, if you have a phone that can run this software? Not a matter of being cheap, just frugal :), though many hams are just plain cheap, that’s for sure.

  4. I remember 15 years ago I wrote a program on my Amiga 500 to do selcall on my ancient (even for the time) Uniden UH005 handheld.

    It was fun to send out a group call that calls up everyone elses radio tuned into the repeater i often loitered on :) Those were the days…

  5. DTMF is a lot of fun to play with.

    Back in the day (and against the rules) I used a set of FRS radios and an old Radio Schmack portable auto dialer unit along with a DTMF controller to operate a camera switcher and a zoom/focus/iris lens controller on board a wheeled ROV that I built.

    I was worried about the limited audio bandwidth sending the tones through clearly but it worked really well.

    -and yeah, time to cowboy up and remove the plastic from the display.
    And self respecting ham operator has a little use dirt on hos gear.

    73 DE N2NLQ!

  6. Congratulations. I can do the same thing on my Droid in about 5 minutes.

    If I could think of a single reason I’d need to use DTMF outside of dialing the phone, I might actually bother.

  7. Jesus people, pay some attention to what was written – one thing is DMTF, another supported system is SelCall. Using SelCall in some countries you can trigger emergency procedures using radio and a bunch of tones – i.e stop all trains within 20km, enable national fire alert system, etc. I suppose you don’t think I would show it on youtube? :D

  8. @ M4CGYV3R

    Thank you for telling us about your lack of imagination and insight into engineering problems.

    As for DTMF, there are a large number of reasons you might want to play with it. For example dialing into and controlling some of the many satellites that amateurs have put into orbit [amsat.org], experimenting with echolink and other repeaters, talking to high altitude balloons (which seem to be all the rage at the moment), or infact anywhere where you need a robust, simple, low bandwidth communication system, especially where there’s no existing infrastructure already.

  9. Good for him! If he wants any old DOS programs that do the exact same thing feel free to message me and I’ll hit up my dusty spindle down in the basement. Even though they are DOS, they actually have quite a few more features and parameters you can monkey with. How useful they are anymore is anyone’s guess. I read conflicting reports as to what works on ma bell anymore, but they sound useful in his case. Anyhoo, best of luck to him and his adventures on HAM. I kind of dropped both my HAM and fone hobbies a few years ago trying to cull the piles of wires for the woman that was to become my wife lol. I was using cool edit pro by the end of everything and just making .wav files (pre mp3) which is another option. Good luck and watch out for those Serb hams: they are usually up to something…

  10. @slipster: because people are dorks. And yeah, buying a $600.00 rig and not buying the DTMF mic. What the heck is that? How about you can buy a DTMF keypad almost anywhere for very little, hell go to a hamfest and buy a used one for almost nothing

    1. So which is cheaper and which is of more utility ? A $80 DTMF mic or a free Java app which you can carry everywhere and which will work with any rig and do Selcall, 1750Hz and even CTCSS encoding. Do I take it you’ve never even actually tried the app?

  11. @strider_mt2k: I once met a ham that had an old-for-the-time Yaesu FT470 that he had superglued the screen protector to. I would’ve tried to point out the damage the glue vapor did to the surrounding plastic, but I didn’t want to harsh his buzz.

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