jlangri@relay.nswc.navy.mil (02/21/91)
"Sophisticated Surveillance" must be making a fortune! The fact is that of the cordless phones that I'm familiar with transmit and receive on either 49mhz or 27mhz. I think cellular is somewhere between 460-580 mhz. A child's walkie talkie works in the 49mhz area and can pick up cordless conversations. I haven't seen a 27 mhz phone in quite a while ... but any that are still around can be tuned in on most multiband radios and probably quite a few old "bootleg" CB radios and ham radio receivers. As for cellular phones, a programable scanner sells for as little as $99.95. Just "punch in" the frequencies and scan away. I'm a little rusty on my FCC rules and regs but if I remember correctly, It is perfectly legal to "monitor" all of these freqencies. It is however, illegal to "give out", "divulge" or use the information for "profit". I think the public should be better informed by the manufacturer of course. With technology moving as rapidly as it is today and all of the neat "gadgets" available today, John Q. Public is so anxious to have the gadgets that they don't stop to ask some pretty important questions. Privacy is often taken for granted! Jim Langridge Synetics Corp. jlangri@relay.nswc.navy.mil King George, Va. [Moderator's Note: You are correct that privacy is often taken for granted, but you made a few errors in your article. The older cordless phones were around 1700 khz, or 1.7 mhz. I never saw any in the CB range. The ones at 1700 khz could be picked up on an AM broadcast radio that had the tuner warped upward a little. Cellular service is in the mid-800 mz range -- not around 500 as you mentioned. Most scanners in the $100 range do NOT include 800 megs, but the more expensive ones do, and although Radio Shack got the heat turned up on them to lock out the cellular frequencies, the mods are very easy. But part of the cellular user's protection against invasion of privacy is BOREDOM on the part of the pirate listener. Listening to cellular calls on a scanner is really a non-issue, IMHO. PAT]