At one time, before the "Do Not Call" list was introduced companies like Radio Shack in the US, sold a small tone generator that you could put between your phone and the wall jack. This little box generated a couple of tones whenever you picked up the handset just like the tones that precede the recording, "The number you have dialed . . . ", tones that the computer actually doing the dialing would understand to mean, "There's no one living at this number right now", and delete your number from its files. This worked fairly well for me, but with the No Call List it ceased to be a big help. As time has passed, more people are calling me to buy their various services, lso it may be time to hook this out-of-service tone box back to my phone again.

    Dave