I think he must have channelled Abby or McGee from NCIS to help do that one!
A lot of things like that will never be explained I daresay, makes for perfectly good 'forum discussion' fodder and 'Moftiss' is smart with this show. They make sure there are plenty of 'discussion points' to keep interest at a peak because they understand the modern way of communications etc.

Oh it wouldn't be hard for Sherlock, he's a hero after all!
lol.

I'd actually imagine he would seek out someone who could do it for him, as he did with the graffiti artist. In this day & age there are probably techs & geeks among the homeless network. Lost their high flying careers, etc etc.

In general I have noticed that people forget that he will ask others for help when he needs it. He's good at outsourcing.

Another thought is that he probably 'borrowed' a list of the numbers from Mycroft. He'd have connections to all teh press people's names & numbers.

Thanks Nutek, see I wouldn't have the foggiest idea about those things. I still remember dialling numbers, even remember turning a crank & speaking to an operator.

SoundOfBaskerville wrote:

"I pickpocket him when he's annoying." 

Get the contacts straight off Lestrade's phone, in some instance previous to A Study in Pink.

Yes, that's entirely possible. It's not really a trick at all...he just has everyone's number and sends out a mass text message. He probably has some device or thing that can disguise his number and make it come up as "unknown" or "withheld".

Beat journalists (in this case reporters whose focus is criminal reports) maintain regular contacts within police departments--a regular source with official authority, thus credibility as a citation. This may not account for as many reporters as were present, though additionally Lestrade might have some extra numbers saved if he wants to ignore specific reporters and know when they're trying to contact him.  And who's to say Sherlock didn't pickpocket other police and get their reporter contacts, and just compile everyone's over time to maximize the theatrics.

Or perhaps enough journalists' numbers are listed on their websites/listed on the paper's websites (possibly within individual Bios, which he could've collected manually or whipped up a program to do it for him).

Or a little of everything.

We sometimes work with newspapers. Most reporters carry their newspaper mobiles for work, and once you worked with them, you have got their number. Sometimes the phone is passed on but it usually stays in the division. In other words, a mobile number in the Sports section will most likely stay in the Sports section etc. These numbers are not listed in White Pages though, that's mostly just the editor's land line or Classifieds etc.

And, of course, Sherlock would have worked with most of the newspapers or at least observed Lestrade and Co working with them in the past.. it would probably be likely to assume that he would have also texted 1 or 2 phones/people, who actually didn't make it to the press room. etc etc

lol, it's really no big secret. Every phone sends out its unique ID code every time it is used, and government officials like police and ambulance services trace these codes and thus the associated phone number actively.
Thanks to cell phone transmitting towers we can also pinpoint your location rather accurately - that is, if you d not already have a smart phone that transmits its GPS location anyway. So that's why baddie soften use phones for a short period and then discard them, so even if you trace them it is no use.

More intreresting is that the normal text is delivered within a minute, but next to never instantanously. It normally takes 10-30 secs for a text to arrive.


SPOILER



They use that delay to great effect twice in A scandal in Belgravia where Irene texts to Sherlock, has a quick conversation with John, and then hear Sherlock phone beeping (moaning). Its also used at the end where she texts him, preperes to be beheaded, and then 10 secs after you hear Sherlock s phone.

veecee wrote:

How does Sherlock know what's being said in the conference on a real-time basis so that his "Wrong!" comes at precisely at the right time? If it's a broadcast conference, isn't there a slight delay? Would he have some sort of remote tap in the room -- on a microphone or something?

Could be a broadcast or could be he has a bug in the room. Send the text a bit predictively, and timing could get close. I mean, he is certain they'll be wrong, whatever they say!  It's not going to be absolutely perfect, though - that's movie (TV) magic.