phone line detector?

[sjmikenet]

just a quick question.. basically i have a phone in my room that shares the same phone line as the rest of the house. is there any device i can get to tell me when someone in the house picks up the phone when im on the phone in my room? basically to see if anyone is on the line or to see if there is another phone active on the line when im using it.

The most basic type of device just detects the slight voltage drop on the line when an extention phone is picked up somewhere else in your house. They are something similar to this:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=9733961365

Of course, there are more sensitive devices, but they are usually a waste of money like this:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=180026847933

And, contrary to what many believe, there is nothing you can do or device you can buy to detect if someone is listening in outside your house. This type of monitoring is done at the central office using the phone companies own hardware, so you will never know you are being "tapped".