A much easier way to
red box is to buy a voice memo minder, or something similar from pretty much anywhere that sells electronics (
Radio Shack,
Sharpher Image, etc)
Find the tones online (or find someone else with a tone dialer), play them out of your speakers and record them into the device. Voila, your very own red box. It's probably not worth it to find anything but the quarter tone (Why have exact change when quarters are free?)
This sort of device is also handy in that you can record over the tone easily should someone of authority question your actions.
Purchasing a tone dialer and the crystal to match is pretty suspect anyway, especially if you can go about things in another fashion. I suddenly realized that I didn't really have anybody to call, and I never really liked talking on the phone. I would call Alaskan area codes, and just basically ask what Alaska was like, but with the advent of internet popularity, the fun in this is mostly gone. Some enterprising young individual saw me do this, and began mass purchasing these things and selling them to poor saps who wanted to call 'internet ladies' over the phone in real life, and it seemed to work pretty well for them.
I would have just given the information away, but that's just how much of a dork I am.