Listening To This Radio Scanner Is ILLEGAL!
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1. This is based on the UK, NOT the United States before I get millions of comments saying it’s different in the US… we know.
Do some research, they were just as keen to pass laws banning scanner in the USA by the early 1990’s.
2. We all radio scan.
3. This isn’t to deter people, because I’m always monitoring like you are; it’s purely to educate.
4. I have no other info on the stories provided. Maybe you have more?
5. There hasn’t been any real documented cases of scanner related prosecutions in the last 20 years.
6. Ofcom DO uphold this law in certain cases. I’m aware of a recent investigation into someone…
This has nothing to do with American Radio things & my area of Zimbabwe.. Waste of my viewing...
I'm American. I came to apologize in advance for my yank brethren. Haha but really I think the reason we do this is because we really do like you guys and see you like cousins. And can't help but to compare every little thing we don't have entirely in common.
I've spent time in places like China which are way different than both of our cultures and I didn't feel that need to bring up every thing they did differently I just accepted it because it's China.
But if anyone is reading this from either the UK or the US, or whoever has been to both places I want to know, what is better Funyons or Pickled onion Monster Munch? I was talking to another American woman who is married to a Brit and she insisted Funyons.
@@Charlottesville798 Rhodesians never Die!
😁@@Charlottesville798
This is fairly obvious from the video...if you're paying attention. If you actually cared about people wasting their time because you confused them, you could've put a 20 second bit in the video explaining that these laws vary internationally, and you're only talking about the UK.
Milking the inattentive for clicks is fair play imo, but making fun of them when you're the one who KNEW people would be exactly this confused is just petty.
Unless you open your mouth, they don't know what you're listening to.
IIRC way back then it was a case of if you were pulled over and they saw a scanner in the car if there was an leo frequency programmed in that was all they needed.
@@WX4CBuse a 2 way radio instead with tx disabled
@@timallen5558Mi6 called it Rafter.
Unless you’re at the wrong place at the wrong time like the sods who had their car searched.
@@timallen5558Weren't they doing something similar to monitor traffic levels on major roads, before everyone had cell phones? I remember hearing something about that in the late 90s
In Canada, the Telecommunications Act basically states that, a person can legally listen to ANY radio broadcast as long as you're not using what you hear for any kind of "personal gain", and that you're not decrypting any encrypted communications.. Some provinces have their own laws such as not being legal to listen to a scanner in your vehicle.. But then, having a ham license pretty much negates those provincial laws due to them being federally issued...
Yup. I made a post about it here. Very entertaining times.
Same thing in Italy, everything that must not be intercepted/listened to is now digital and encrypted, a simple licensed AES-256 algorithm that can be implemented on many radios and communication systems is inviolable, now used by fire-conscious law enforcement agencies security services, civil protection and governments and militaries.
I don't know if the law still exists in the U.S. but there used to be a "fourth party" law. A third party (legal term) could legally listen to two parties talking as long as the third party never passed on what they heard to a fourth party. Effectively you could legally listen all you want but using the information you heard in any way would be a crime.
I don't care what the UKGov wants. If it's broadcast, I'll listen.
In the US, some states have laws regarding the use of mobile scanners . Here in NJ,licensed radio amateurs are exempt of all such laws providing the radio is not used in the submission of a crime. I once had an officer ask me if my mobile radio was capable of listening it to them. I quickly said it was.The officer tried to tell me it was illegal. I handed him a copy of the law, which I carry, and bid him a good day! In the US such laws are seldom enforced.
Why are police like that? Are they genuinely ignorant of the law or are they hoping you are and can scare you?
The RTL SDR by amateur programmer was the greatest advance in scanner hobby
So true! I love mine :D
It brings in new people that otherwise could not or would not pay the high price of buying a scanner.
Love my SDRPlay. Awesome piece of equipment!
True but it would have been great if it came 30 years earlier when there were something to listen to.
@@migsvensurfing6310 what are you talking about? There's lots of stuff to listen to 😂
I'm not taking any chances, i don't want to be dead by Friday. I'll get the missus to listen instead.
One of my favourite recordings from the LPWS site. The other guy's response is absolutely hilarious.
Who's gunna make the sandwiches if they cart her away?
You'll have to "Up Date" and get a newer model.
Still kind of weird that there are laws restricting listening. Even if they aren't being applied/enforced.
There are many laws in the US that enforcement is fairly lax on. Until you twist the tail of the tiger. Then it becomes part of the large list of charges against you.
@@Ghauster no doubt, I just mean specifically in the confines of listening/receiving radio communications.
Not that weird, given in the early 90s analogue phones were unencrypted and often a fond target of scanners.
Just like speed limits, for 95% of people speeding will result in no issue, but the 5% is why we have laws against it.
@@lmaoroflcopter even now they are not encrypted, they are simply digital, and listenable
@@winterburanmost modern DECT phones now employ encryption but you're right in that people rarely change their phones, and you don't have to go too far back to find unencrypted DECT phones for sale.
Plus there's the issue that encryption deployed on DECT phones is considered weak.
If it fly's past you in the public space, there is no expectation of privacy.
That's a great way of putting it.
If what flies past you?
yes, but no
@waynelewis5656 the electromagnetic radiation (radio signals)
*harvests your WiFi packets, cracks the psk*
What? You have no expectation of privacy do you?
Such silly legislation.
You have to give credit to Lewis, he has the patience of a saint. The amount of people in the comments asking questions he literally answered in the video… 😂
Tell me about it!!!
@@RingwayManchester"Tell me about it!!!" Well if I must. You see a lot of people who should have paid attention to the video will instead go to the comments section and...
@@SansNeural>>> *BA DUM TSSS...😉*
On the upside, that’s engagement in TH-cam world, so algorithm is happy.
So, under the Wireless Telegraphy Act of 2006 it is a crime for anyone to listen to one of the UK's famous pirate radio stations? What a crock!
Crazy isn’t it Charles
@@rovhalgrencparselstedt8343 Any transmission that causes interference is illegal, be it spark, Tesla or Wimshurst machine 🤣. To be honest so it should be - many chunks of the RF spectrum have been made unusable by all the electronic noise that emanates from switch mode power supplies, Ethernet over Power and similar crap that modern electronics throws at us.
It's illegal to handle stolen goods. You didn't steal them, you bought them. Still illegal.
@@RingwayManchester could you say my radio is tuned to the frequency, but as they shouldnt be broadcasting I should be hearing nothing ? (were people generally prosecuted for listening - other than folk involved checking signals ?)
I'm shocked at how restrictive the UK is for a supposed "free" country. If people don't want their transmissions listened to, perhaps they should encrypt it?
You should see what they (the clueless buffoons on both sides of the chamber) want to do to encryption. Simply put; if they don't understand it, they want to make it illegal.
Usually under the guise of "think of the children", despite many despicable cases being committed by the police or public servants. They have no idea that bank transactions rely on encrypted communications being effectively unbreakable, but yet that they want that massive man in the middle option to monitor everything.
Under the 'small state' Tories it's far worse, recent laws passed here are similar to Putin's Russia
@@MrYossarianuk I can confirm! Heяe we can listen to any UK radio. ANY, if we could...
And they have connections with him...@@MrYossarianuk
Exactly, if that same person was yelling on a street it would be deemed as public property and if you didnt want it to be heard, you should have communicated it privately. The same should be applied to radio, especially since most broadcasts go beyond bitish borders and be heard from those outside the UKs laws.
So does this mean ive been breaking the law every time im listen too HAMs transmitting when i my self dont have a license and not the indended recipient.
These regulations give off some strong nanny state vibes...
Thanks for these stories about the hilarious legislation in the UK. Sorry for you that a lot of taxpayers money is going to hunting down ordinary citizens instead of going after real criminals.
Keep up the good video's !!!
Hilarious. Yet extremely reasonable legislation that enables folk who invade the public's privacy to be prosecuted.
Granted these days with encryption being ubiquitous on most consumer RF the impact is lessened, but without such reasonable legislation in place there would be no recourse for such miscreants, and the government could eavesdrop as they wish as opposed to being held to account via RIPA, et al.
This video brings some real questions that the UK Government ought to be held to answer to:
1. Why is the UK Government so afraid of radio technology that they went to all this trouble to essentially make possession and use of radio receivers illegal?
2. These radio laws make it extremely hard for the everyday person to engage in government accountability work. What, exactly, is/was the UK Government trying to keep the public from finding out?
3. What real point was served by referencing a license in the law that was clearly stated to not exist?
4. What made the UK government believe that they have a right or even the authority to essentially say that airwaves can be privacy restricted based on the frequency one is listening to or attempting to listen to, especially when there has always been technology available for radio spectrum users to "scramble" or encrypt their radio transmissions?
Bear in mind that "all land belongs to the Crown" is the starting point for all this thinking. The airwaves are merely an extension of that. Now the Crown delegates to or has been replaced by a constitutional government and methods of parcelling out or licensing Crown or government-owned properties exist, but the base thinking remains. Everything is theirs and anything that isn't is only begrudgingly given up.
Listening to a frequency you're not supposed to, in their mind, is akin to poaching on the King's land. It doesn't matter if you don't catch that rabbit or shoot that deer, you _might_ have and you're not to be granted that opportunity.
As for why they don't (or didn't) encrypt, why put a fence around the King's land? It's the King's. Get off his land. Fences cost money, and no crown or government is going to spend money encrypting/keeping things in or out when it's cheaper to lock up miscreants as and when they see fit.
Point 3.) Standard political double talk. You must have a license but we will never grant you a license unless your need is proven beyond all doubt. Which is impossible in most cases.
Your point 2. Answers your point 1.
@@barrieshepherd7694 BUt the world now deserves and has a right to know what the UK wants/wanted hidden from the public
@@danihensley Maybe but don't hold your breath! TBH The UK Government is no different to any other Government they all keep as much to themselves as possible.
I remember back in the late 1980's to early 1990's we listened to cell phones (800-900 MHz) on the scanner & cordless landline phones also (46-49 MHz) here in the US & Canada.
Yes same, in Canada. I made a post about it here. Very entertaining times.
I was a kid when I was listening to wireless phones. It really was interesting at the time.
As a young teen living on my own with two jobs I bought a cordless phone I’d take the handset get on my bicycle ride around apartment complexes get a dial tone and make a call only if it rang I never answered it lol
I did that at a house party back in about 1997 or so. Someone was in the bedroom on his phone selling/buying puff. He walks through and we all tell him everything he just said. He bought his first GSM phone the next morning.
@@AyrshoreWait - what? He was simply using a wireless phone on a landline and that act made him go get a cellphone (back when handhelds were quite rare and expensive - especially for service)?? 😂
I had one seized back in the late 90s, despite it being blank.
Now, I have a pile of three police radios on my desk that were given to me by the police. How times change.
Tell us more!!
@@RingwayManchester I was heading in the general direction of an urgent assistance call from another cop, and when stopped soon after, had the scanner (blank) on me. At the time I worked in a shop selling them along with CBs and other electronics. That was 25 years ago.
Now, I'm a mechanic and provide vehicles, particularly preserved police vehicles, for film work. Hence the decommisioned police kit now - we have some of everything from 1960s to present day.
@@AyrshoreThat sounds fascinating.
Could you please tell us more?
@@AyrshoreFor example, do you loan out Police Rover SD1'S.
My parents bought me a model of one when I was about six.
The car looks fantastic, but I recall that adjusting valve clearances required shims.
@@freedomvigilant1234 none of us in our group have one. Only one in Scotland is in the Grampian Transport Museum (although it runs and drives, been out on track beside it). There are some around.
I worked at a ham store in the 80 and we couldn't sell scanners fast enough literally ran waiting lists...used to demo them on a Saturday with a small crowd around me...great video as always Lewis thank you....
This is the equivalent of the police saying "We're going to shout out sensitive information at the middle of the town square and you're not allowed to listen to it"
I always thought the law was drafted so that criminals (such as those nicking stuff from Lloyds bank deposit boxes) could hear when the rozers were on their way - or had fallen for any red herring leads the criminals may have laid
I miss the days in Canada from the mid 90’s of listening to cell phones on 800 to 900 MHz. I heard so much wild crazy shit. It was so entertaining. By around 2014 there was basically nothing.
Nowadays, absolutely nothing, obviously. I had a portable icom and a realistic brand scanner. Both “unlocked” (because they were imported from the USA and the Canadian radio shop unlocked them) for the 800-900 MHz bands. Allot of calls were on 850 to around 890.
Portable phones were in the 900 range, so I could even hear my family talk shit about me at my house 😂. With the portable I could walk around with an earpiece and the radio in my pocket and if I saw someone on a phone, I could find them and listen in, provided I could get close enough to hear the voice to help me find it. Anyway, very entertaining, much more than any other band imo. In Canada it was legal to listen to anything, but illegal to TALK about what you heard.
RE: RIMINGTON MINICABS - There's a village in Cheshire called Rimington but, with a population of
An awful lot of high power transmissions emanated from Euston Tower. The third harmonic of one in particular jammed the lawful use of a frequency, used by an organisation I worked for, London wide. It took us some discussion with the Home Office Investigation service before we were told that the matter would be solved but no data would be supplied. I heard many stories about signals and powers from the antenna installation companies we used. They would be told to attend the roof at xx hours, be handed an antenna and told which mast, direction and height it was to be installed at and to pass a feeder cable through a numbered hole in the 'lift room' wall. All antennas, they told me, had markings removed.
And, yes, IIRC, the Capital programming back then went out from one of the big masts in London, probably Crystal Palace. You wouldn't have got a MW broadcast antenna on the roof of Euston Tower. Just sayin'
They had 168 mhz singles and repeaters as well there
@@alastairbarkley6572 Capital came from the IBA tower, Upper Norwood (next to the BBC TV mast) MW was Elstree. Cap had no access to 'the top of the Euston Tower' as they claimed. They only had the bottom two floors. Roof was MI5 'Watcher' (read spy catcher. Originally on 100mHZ, then moved closer to 142.
When Cap tried to take on BBC Radio 1 with 'The Network Chart Show' which was syndicated to all the commercial radio stations, the uplink was satellite, but they were not allowed to put it on Euston Tower, so it had to go on a building opposite.
Great video, Lewis! I do remember stories about what people were hearing on scanners, even back when I didn't know what a scanner was. When I got to the US, I couldn't believe how common they were here. It seemed everyone had one. Cheers!
Thank You for all your great content Sir. Because of your channel sparking my old interests in radio I found a great shortwave station I really enjoy! Keep up the great work you do. Happy New Year!
Back in ~1998 or 1999 I could listen to cordless phones and mobile phones quite easily .
I know it wasn't a "scanner" but my Realistic 0-30mhz receiver was brill at around 27mhz ish? heard my next door neighbour talking about other neighbours and got to know what they really thought of people .
I also heard another neighbour who lived a good 10 doors down on her cordless phone , signal was slightly hazy . Unfortunately , she was having an affair and OH BOY! I could hear all the antics who said and did what to whom ...
Someone giving their American Express card details in full over the phone for a deposit on a Ford Escort .. The mind boggles !
Even back then I knew that was dodgy .
Slowly but surely , they got less and less to listen to to a point of zero .
My Realistic VHF UHF scanner was good on a Friday and Saturday night listening to the Police talking to control about Burglaries , drunks etc. Best ones were the car chases , even went out a couple of times with scanner in pocket and headphone in listening to the commentary and to see it happen on a main road where I used to live .
There was a mod done on my last Realistic handheld (Not by me ) . Someone had repurposed the headphone socket and it had a 3.5mm jack off a headphone with a blob of solder on the end shorting it out . If you took this out it would clear the stored channels .
The guy I bought it off was a ham and he told me to "pull the pin" if I ever got stopped with it or if plod /DTi came knocking . I never had to take it out and it never bothered me apart from when I was turning that instead of the squelch !
It got boring by 2002 /2004 as there was virtually nothing on there so I sold it .
creeper
@@tonyb8660 get a life ...
Another well researched, informative, accurate and entertaining video Lewis.
Nice job Lewis, cheerz.
Bit surprised you didn't mention the TV and Wireless Detector Vans.
Here in Australia, we had the TV and Radio Licenses, similar legislation etc.
Here in Sweden, I had to sign a NDA as to radio traffic that is not directed at me outside broadcast bands as part of getting my ham radio license. So yeah, we can listen, but can't disclose....
It's interesting to find that, in spite of ~90% international agreement on Amateur frequencies and modes, that there is so much variation in how the use of airwaves is regulated locally.
I’ve not thought about scanner directories in decades. Got gifted one along with a scanner eons ago now.
The WT act is nuts when you start actually looking at the details. In other countries you can TX up to 1W in the FM broadcast band without a licence. Until surprisingly recently, in car FM transmitters were illegal to operate. Never mind running a hobby station.
It’s up there with copyright. Everyone that ripped a CD without a licence has technically broken the law as well.
Publishing freqs except in late 70s early 80s generally been ignored both uksd and proma scanning group and database never had legal, trouble and today still very accurate military and civil airband guides like ukafg 2024, and there website has online searchable database with map of ofcom frequency database, even there though old freqs incorrect or updated by newer licence
So a mix of what people share and using ofcom database is best, of course close call capable scanners with dmr, and nexedge etc even better
Great DAYS remember them so well. But just a bit young. But my friend DAD was all over it. And to this day listening to the scanner was great and we thought we were big bad lads. Not that we could touch it. Still great fun. Thanks for bringing back those memories. Love your channel ALAN from LUTON 🇬🇧💯🍻👍👍
Ah the good old days of scanning - was great back in the 90s. I fondly remember buying a couple of UK Scanning Directories (yellow one and a blue one) and loading the frequencies of interest (took a while back then). I even did a talk at school at the time about what could be eavesdropped on and got a lot of interest by the class ;) how times have changed
There really is a war against hobbies, isn't there?
Love the history and info in this video, great job Lewis!
Hi Lewis.
RW3 Andy.
Takes me right back to the days of the illegal rave scene.
I purchased a scanner on the 1st day it arrive in the UK from a CB shop in Lowton, a Jupiter 2 scanner… which was actually a Ypiteru with a sticker over that name.
Only those first editions were called Jupiter 2.
It was the first handheld scanner to go 25-1300 MHz without a break.
I also was heavy into cb and had a Stalker 9fdx that I had expanded to S Low.
The year was around 89/90 and the buzz was the illegal rave scene.
Each weekend we would frequent the hotspots to try and find out which disused barn we would be going to try to find.
Oh my days, how funny it was that the police didn’t have clue, when I ‘may not’ have been listening in on a certain frequency.
Anyways, I had a DX27 for my Stalker on the car…
I was sat a the MOBILE petrol station on the A49 Winwick road by the college, waiting for the details of where the masses of car convoys were heading…courtesy of the very people who were trying to stop ravers from finding!
A policeman approached me, so the scanner went under my seat, quick.
He saw my cb and said…. “Is that a scanner?”
“No, it’s a cb”
“Ok, key the mic then”
So I did, he obviously didn’t have a clue…
Ok he said and left me.
That was my close call, but the policeman was far too green, probably a special.
Any ways, thanks to them in blue giving out details of raver convoys, we were off down the M62 towards Birch service for the word of the secret rave.
We found it btw. about 3/4 mile from the services. There were 3 of us, and the guy on the barn gate said 15 quid each…wow. That wasn’t cheap in 89/90.
So my pal said, “we’ve got £11 between us, can you let us all in for that?”
The biggest lock and chain I’d ever seen was unlocked…”Give us your money then!”
lol. We were in…
Single strobe and banging rave…we eventually got busted and hundreds off officers in riot gear and full body shields, forced us all out.
What a buzz. lol. Making raved legal eventually killed that scene.
Absolutely brilliant!!
Back in 1960’s as a teenager I used to go plane spotting at Gatwick and Heathrow airports, and always listening in with my air band radio brought for me as a birthday present by my parents. Several plane spotters had their air band radio tuned and listening to aircraft communications with the police nearby watching, and to my knowledge no one was arrested for listening in on air band radios. Also I used to listen to Pirate radio on MW (medium wave) until the UK Government with GPO telecommunications started transmitting on same frequency to jam the Pirate radio transmissions coming outside UK territorial waters in the North Sea. Which just left Radio Luxembourg 208mw which would fade in and out evening times only.
Wow, I remember as a kid that my grandparents' VHF FM radio could receive the Police at the top end of the scale!
I remember that too. Obviously the radio would be set to wide fm so the audio would be faint but you could still hear what was being said
LOL, video released at a truly hilarious time based on what I was doing before I broke off to watch it. Very apt! :)
Glad you enjoyed it!
Australian here, in the early/mid 1980's during the CB Radio craze we used to gather at a local food van, some would be running a scanner across the Police channels (unencrypted then), the local Police would also be in attendance grabbing a bite, and would leave their radios in the car knowing full well there was a scanner to which they could hear themselves being called.
In the good ol' USA -
The FCC has declared that all radio frequencies are in the public domain except for cellular frequencies and
certain restricted frequencies.
NOTE "restricted frequencies" are very limited.
Anyone wondering about receiving laws needs to remember it was (still is?) illegal in the US to receive anything between 800-900MHz. Not that you couldn't act on it, it was illegal to receive it, and many radios had markings like "US Cellular restricted" on them to indicate it. Of course, this was often a software block since the radios were generally worldwide usage, so there often was a jumper or hack that disabled it. Of course, this happened because some senator became aware of it and didn't want their phone calls listened to...
I never bothered with a radio or CB licence ,used to listen to allsorts on an old Murphy prewar radio which i still have .
Probably didn't want us to know how deeply! Deeply! They were getting roasted, or how much bribe money they were taking..... /hsarc
Aren't mobile comms encrypted?
A longer video!!! Finally!!! Thanks bud!!!
Huh. I remember going to a Tandy store in the early 90s and bought my first scanner in London. The sales person was more than happy to sell me that scanner and it was freely advertised for sale. Of course, it was a vacation trip so it was promptly exported. But who knew at the time it was so illegal to use it?
Thankyou for your well researched and informative video.
I remember in the 80s you could pick up police transmissions on an old tv if you tuned in manually
Did that with a TV to receive analog mobile phones in the NMT network here in Denmark.
Back before they changed to the new system in the uk I had my scanner on and listening to the local cops, as we were listening to a report of a vehicle accident in the area we were horrified to recognise the car and number plate put over the scanner was a friends car who had slid out and slammed a tree side on and he broke his neck and passed, it was horrific as the cops were saying he was still warm and they tried to do what they could but it was to late, we ran to his mums house and told them what we had heard whilst the cops were getin Colin’s info and subsequently turned up in the street to tell his parents whilst his parents kept getting told off the 999 operator that it wasn’t him and it was
Love those crazy comms included, I thought that sort of stuff was only on the Australian chook (CB) band, nice to hear the same 'intelligence' exists in the UK.
“A statutory instrument is a regulation and not a law” I love you Mr Ringway Manchester!!💪
As a teenager I use to listen to plod in the mid 90s until I left my home , fantastic days I even listened in on the ZH channels at the same time as PR when I was able to purchase another second scanner , my mum said my bedroom sounded like police control
I used to clip my little Icom ICR-2 onto the grab handle on my cam-corder so you got the chit chat on my aviation videos back in the day 😬
I remember working at Radio Shack in 1992 and RS was phasing out certain scanners because they were scanning the 800MHZ range here in the US (Which I found out was the range of frequencies that cell phone carriers started using back then!)
This is insane. You're always receiving the broadcasts whether you want to or not, they blast it out there, but because you hook some coils magnets and batteries together in that same air, it's illegal 😂
That Robert Rolands snippet was great. Super interesting!
Terrific piece, many thanks.
That moment when you're just sitting back watching an educational video and your place of work pops up on a scanner in the video. Now I actually want to buy one of those scanners just to hear what's available (or just how available).
That hole in the back of a radio to pop the memory chip is crazy. Uf that doesn't show you the fear was real then nothing will. Radios and scanners were not as cheap as they are today. Popping that chip must have been painful lol
Tbf, if you were already known to the police then it wouldn’t surprise me if they would try to accuse you of destroying evidence.
@@gtjack9 no doubt. It may not hold up in the long run in court but that could still ruin a good year or two of your life. Also a hard hit to the bank account for legal fees.
I remember buying a Yupiteru MVT-8000 from Maplin. Cost a fair chunk of my apprentice wages and I loved every minute of listening to it. Nothing was sacred.
I remember when I was a lot younger, I had a radio scanner that picked up aircraft and I used to go to Birmingham Airport virtually every weekend to watch the planes and listen to the scanner. Nobody ever stopped me and also they encouraged it by having a lounge where people could go inand watch the plane flying and just have a good time there and listen to the aircraft was one of my highlights of my weekend as a blind person I enjoyed it. Immensely I do have some site though
Birmingham Airport as with rnas Yeovilton both had a scanner up and running on speaker official so guess that is authority in a way but only on what they have set up, they could still not like what your listening to
On your scanner that is but therss with just a few in ok
I remember back in the day walking around Tandys all the scanners were blaring out all sorts of stuff
Story from Germany. In the 90s we used to listen to police and fire department radio with a scanner. they were free to buy. I acutally don't know if it was legal/illegal but over time less and less came over radio. Back in the 90s every truck that responded would give a call when starting and when arriving but this was replaced by a status giver. radio communication in general became less and when it was changed to digital radio you couldnt scan anymore (so far i know)
Denmark here. Germany had the strange laws allowing to sell any receiver but illegal to switch it on if it could receive anything but broadcast or shortwave.
There are scanners that can listen to the digital trunk systems, As long as they are not also encrypted. Naturally the legality varies by jurisdiction.
Back in the mid 70s my dad had a Sharp FM radio with 'Air band ' which let him listen to aircraft comms at air shows or airports.
Would this have been illegal ?, I can remember not being allowed to use it once when I was inside Manchester Airport !
(Makes me shocked to discover that my dad was a Criminal !)
Great video 😳 wish I was around back when scanning had more to listen too, never got a scanner until 2004
You and me both!
Brilliant, really interesting little documentary. Cheers!
This story hit home. Happen to own the same model Uniden scanner shown throughout the video. I never thought much of it at all. A piece of junk, honestly. But perhaps it isn't so bad. Also at one time owned the ham version of the Alinco scanner shown in a newspaper clip. The ham version was the DJ-G5 if I remember right. There was an identical wideband receive only scanner in the same shell. I think that is what the photo shows. It DID have excellent receive ability. Used to be a scanner addict of sorts but everybody went P25 around me and most of them are encrypted.
Forgot yes had that alinco dj2000 at the time of the story as said great on inversion scrambling as well Al fayed bodyguards on 169.3875 was probably only one using it I had anyway
Another brilliant video Lewis. Rimington Minicabs 🤣
Even more worrying, is business' and organisations, using PMR446 channels, like they used to use CB back in the '80s and '90s. Again, I'll often have my PMR radio on when at work, as I've a few friends who use it, rather than going for their amateur licence. When working at a particular customer site, there is a secondary school, whose radios operate on PMR446 ch8, although their CTCSS is set (I've not tried going through my settings to find it), so if I call on CH8, I don't open their squelch, but as I don't have CTCSS set on my PMR radio, I hear everything they broadcast. During lockdown, this was particularly noticeable and I was able to hear a lot of personal information regarding pupils, I did approach the school to advise they're failing in their safeguarding commitments and their response was I shouldn't be listening to their radio ... pretty difficult not to do when they're on the PMR 446 calling channel! To date, nothing has changed, I've pointed it out (without stating which channels/frequencies they're using), on local community groups, but guess I really should report to Ofcom, as they've either just bought PMR radios and set them up with the CTCSS and don't have a licence, have done this, but with a licence, but not understanding the frequencies they're supposed to be using, or possibly worse, renting from a company under their licence, who knows they shouldn't be on PMR446 ch8, but doesn't care.
With the emergency services having gone encrypted digital, I think some of the appeal for scanners has reduced, as most business' and organisations that use business licence probably aren't worth listening to, with the exception of motorsport sites etc as you've mentioned, but then that is by enthusiasts to enhance their experience. I think the same is with those who listen to airband radio, they're more often than not aircraft enthusiasts, who will listen in to the airport they're visiting.
I know a few anglers who don't hold a maritime radio licence, but do have radios for when they're on the beach or water, due to the fact their mobiles won't be waterproof, but the radios are and a lot of very good fishing marks have a poor mobile signal, some have used their radios in emergencies, to report kayaks or SIBs in difficulties, where they've not had sufficient mobile signal to call 999.
I think most people, who have scanners and even licenced amateur radio operators will have listened to frequencies they're not supposed to, but 99% of them won't act upon anything they hear, which is the important thing, it's only those who rebroadcast or act upon what they've heard that will ever fall foul of the laws.
I used to have a 20 channel table top scanner. I used to get the local police, fire, and ambulance channels. The weather band and taxi bands were easiest to get and they were the channels that lasted longer before the authorities used digital frequencies. I tried to hack a Motorola pager report system. The software and cables were proprietary. I can stream the conversations between radios with a scanner app.. I'm not sure how the new digital scanner radios work. I see a few on line.. I just haven't worked up the patience and nerve to try one out. I am curious about them though.
If you ever decide to buy a radio scanner be aware that most government communications now use a trunked digital radio system. The transmissions are digital, with a computer using whatever frequency is available in the system. It is very complex. The only scanners that you can use to listen to the radio systems without being a technical radio expert, are the Uniden Bearcat digital scanners models SDS 100 and SDS 200. They are rather expensive, but work great. Be aware that no scanner can decrypt encrypted transmissions. A lot of police departments & Federal agencies are now encrypted, so you can't listen to them. But in my area, fire departments and some other government agencies don't use encryption. Some counties around me aren't encrypted & some are. As of today, the State Police are not encrypted.
Aircraft are not encrypted & probably never will be. The railroads in this area are not encrypted but might be someday. RadioReference.com is a good info source. I have 2 Uniden Bearcat digital scanners next to me all the time. They are expensive, but worth it, since I'm retired.
we had to pay for a radio licence to listen to any broadcast radio stations in the UK until about 1971. For a car radio you had to have a licence for that as well, there were a lot of car radios that you could remove from the car which had built in batteries and it's own aerial so was classed as a portable radio and not a car radio so came under your home radio licence.
I will have to check the pile of car radios I have, ever time we scrapped a car the radio was taken out. got 6 now never worked them
Oh gosh no! This is illegal and I didn't know it - thanks for letting me know. What a scandal, etc, etc...
Not really related to the video but back in the 90s we had a cordless phone that would always hear other conversations if the power button was pushed halfway on instead of all the way. It was particularly strong on one womands phone conversation.i could only hear her talk and not the person she was talking to. I assume we had the same phone.
"wireless telegraphy" back in days when police have used CW 🤣
Good work man reminds me of good old days
Thank you. i asked that question a few month ago in the comments and this answers it.
In 1986 I bought my first scanner in a shop on Tottenham courtroad in London for 90£ used and smugled it in a sack with dirty cloth back to Denmark where you could not buy them. Back then many scanners was illegally brought in from Sweden where scanning was never prohibited.
Before that purchase I used to realign FM receivers since police was on 83-84 MHz in Denmark and German police on 86MHz 😀.
The general public beleive was that police couldt not be listened to....wherever they got that idea from.
1st of june 1996 reception restrictions were removed as long as no attempts were made to deccrypt crypted comms. After that the number of scanners increased in my home...😄
I have since 1996 thought it was the EU that made radio listening free with new laws and that might then include GB because you guys were in the EU but I could understand on some things that it was not the case... Thank you for sorting out my doubt.
Ask electronic was the big seller Tottenham court road, was good had a good rapport with owner but they sold grey imports as well had to be careful
There was another way of circumventing the laws in my country... it was legal to have measuring instruments for repairs/antenna work etc. wich contained a broadband receiver. Heavily used by some people.
Great episode! I didn't know the U.K. was so strict about listening. It brings up my anarchistic feelings. I think it should come down to what is actually done with the info, such as malicious intent.
My mom was a cop in the 70s in Tennessee and had her own scanner. Now that anyone can listen online hardly anyone cares. She had a C.B. too, I wish those were still popular, they were fun and a great help.
Around 2000 Art Bell used to advertise a C.Crane product that allowed us to listen to forbidden airplane and military channels, but those models had to be be dicontinued due to the law, I wanted one so badly but it was $$$ and seemed like it was about to be obsolete. I wish I could remember more about it, I wonder if it was possible to pick up Area 51 on that thing, doubt it but I would have tried anyway. I'm just a curious layperson , but I love this stuff, thanks!
Art Bell was a genius at late night radio. He had a gift for it.
@@billsimpson604 For real! I was addicted to C2C and Dreamland since 93 or so. It was highly entertaining whether it was fact or fiction, I couldn't go to sleep without it.
Cracking content again Lewis, i thought you would be the man to ask... am after a radio, mobile like my trust ubc125 but with the ability to record audio? just want snippets for low level flying videos, any ideas would be much apricated
When I lived in a town in central Wales, My Stereo music centre would pick the police up :) Even when I was listening to records. It would come blasting out the speakers.
Now, that's an interesting one. From an interference point of view, your 'apparatus' is at fault because it's neither designed nor approved to pick up radio communications. So, you couldn't complain to the police about them interfering with your enjoyment of vinyl. But, AFAIK, it's not against the law to own a 'faulty' record player and if, as a result of the fault, you received a transmission you were not authorised to receive, it'd be hard to argue that you intended to break the law. Hmm...
You must have been close to where the transmitter was. The amplifier in your turntable was rectifying the signal.
I had quite a few old Dixon Alba type stereos that would do it :) My mate had a posh Sony stereo. He did a tape recording of a few albums one night, When we played the tape back 50% was the Police talking as they drove around :) My dads old TV would pick up the Taxi company as well :) @@alastairbarkley6572
I recall a Class B ham from Norwich being prosecuted for installing an HF transceiver. He was well known for being a bit of an idiot and transmitting on frequencies that he was not authorised, HF, VHF and UHF. The consensus at the time amongst local hams was that the police just wanted to nick him for something radio related and the HF radio was the low hanging fruit, as the other offences were difficult or impossible to prove. But it did concern all of us who had HF radios and a B class call.
Nice video Lewis! The best from LB1NH 🙂
In comparison, some emergency service departments in the US live rebroadcast some of their comms specifically so scanner listeners can hear them. Of course they have encrypted channels they don't rebroadcast, but their main ones are available for everyone to listen to.
It's interesting to note that our current TV Licence in the UK shares it's roots with this legislation - early on in the development of radio the UK government introduced a licence for both transmission and reception - a radio license was required for all reception and having radio equipment installed was itself an offence ifyou didn't have the licence. This is still the case today with television equipment. When television was introduced a new type of license was created covering television reception (which gave coverage for radio reception too). Up until the 90s (or could be 80s) a licence for radio was required although the radio only licenced had been abolished in 1971. The black and white TV license stated that it covered radio reception too. In reality if you didn't have a TV then you weren't prosecuted for not having a radio licence once the radio only licence was itself abolished.
Yes but u can legally have a tv no licence it's what u use it or any device for ie live TV and bbc iPlayer now has been a few years
So now u can have 50 tvs and still don't need a licence for having them
(Stella) Rimington - Didn't she used to run MI5? maybe she had her own cabs ;)
It is well known that spies use cabs to move around London to conduct their questionable activities 🤣 Cabs don't look out of place anywhere whereas an Aston Martin with 007 number plates is a bit of a give away!
Remember my dad constantly listening to aviation on his trusty hand held Sharp airband radio back in the 70s early 80s . Could never afford the jump to scanners though
Strange law. Strange antenna as well. Nice one Lewis
The UK police seem to have been able to show the Gestapo a thing or two ...
I worked for a large UK based retailer of radio equipment back in the early 1990's. I'm not aware of any rules that said we needed to keep details of anyone who bought scanners (and we sold thousands of them!) I was also interviewed by New At Ten about the Squidgygate tapes!
Paul could you drop me an email? I’d love to chat to you re the above. It’s in the video description:)
There was no such requirement to log scanner owner details, tandy asked for details but purely for there own magazines and marketing
@@mpol701ratshack was famous demanding personal info when buying things just part of the reason they went out of business. Anybody remember the qcat and the hissyfit they thru when people lobotomized them and used them as normal bar code scanners lol.
Yes they asked details so they coukd send u there magazines etc
Three words come to mind. God bless America!!
Here's a pair of binoculars, but dont watch that bird unless you've been given permission by it. Also, dont look at that cloud floating above. Meanwhile government agencies are watching every cloud and bird go by 😅
Poor comparison. There's lots of examples of things that we can't do but the government agencies can
@@waynelewis5656 wayner I was not aiming for a comparison, just a light bit of humour. Thank you for your input
Some of those aren't birds. They are bird shaped drones watching, waiting to report in on your movements.
@@ifell3 thankyou for your ridiculous comment, showing quite clearly you have no idea about intercepting communications not intended for you
@@waynelewis5656 Wayner stop being easily offended and leave the conversation. It was NOT meant seriously, as pointed out in my previous post to you. Which was communication intended to you 🤣🤣
I am SO glad I live where scanning is legal.
Are the old "cat call devices" legal in the UK, They used to transmit I think a DTMF signal to activate another CB unit like a "phone call"?
My Dad worked for the ambulance service for many years.
I remember when the “airwaves” system was introduced for the 3 services.
Lots of hoo-hah + claims that the system was “uncrackable” even by GCHQ, the NSA etc...
It took 3 days approx before an amateur did so + published all the details on a forum called “blue light” (mainly used for discussion of drugs etc...
Remember the old hacker/pirate phrase ???
“YOU CANT STOP THE SIGNAL !!!...” 😉
Lewis, it is indeed strange how liberally laws were interpreted where "installation" or "available for use" were in some cases deemed enough to secure a prosecution. Nearly all of the scanner instances should have been thrown out of court, the contents of the memories are pretty weak evidence for an offence. Of course in many of the cases there is more to it than reported.
Must catch up soon!
@@RingwayManchester oh yes
Some get thrown out I've had that as mentioned befire and radio had special branch and royal protection, Whitehall mod police, London army barracks, command freqs us embassy comms and more, don't think they ever had them checked
But judge threw it out got my radios back and officer was told off
Wimbledon 2009 under terrorism act, even though they knew me but then downgraded to wt act, 6 months later and with my social worker all dropped radios given back
Another time my dad contacted cps over a case and again cps dropped the case
But other times I've stood at Buckingham Palace while police officer tricked me, he said men in lack want to speak to me, as seen on cctv, as said well known and was on special branch watcher lists
I stood there ages he hadn't held me but I judt stood there, and said when are they coming, he said my name and said only joking
Another time Wimbledon I'd found ticket touts using 168 mhz single freq, went to police and official to tell them, as they didn't know themselves, kept them. Informed of what was happening, and spoke to police about there vhf storno radios, of course I had the full storno set up channels all in thee so when she said we're using 48 49 I said yes i know that lol
If someone is not supposed to receive the information. It should be encrypted. No problems.
You seem to have missed out about it being illegal to listed to parts of band 2,88-108 MHz in the 60's the lower part of the band was broadcast stations,mostly BBC.The higher frequencies were used by the police and could be received on any VHF FM radio,doing so was illegal and if caught could end you up in court.The air-band started at 108MHz AM and various mobile 2 way radio was used by many private firms and utilities up to the 2 Meter band at 144MHz amateur radio.Mobile and car phones also used part of the band.The police moved from Band 2 and with commercial radio being allowed they filled up using the full band.With the police using digital transmissions it put a stop to a lot of illegal listeners.Scanners were not really legal and it was Tandy (Radio Shack)who sold a few models in their shops and later the Yaesue scanners.
I spent about 3 hours in a police cell when I was about 13 for walking round the streets of Blackpool with a basic Realistic scanner. The took it off me and kept it for months before returning it. I was tuned to the police frequencies and they thought I was involved in burglary.
I was gutted because I wanted to take it on holiday to Ireland with me that same week.
Nice one Lewis great video enjoyed it great start to 2024 73
I remember as a teen being able to listen to the "new car phones"
Hi Lewis that name of the guy from Disley sounds familiar the photographer for the autotrader back in the day for our area had the same name a possibility ?
Great 👍🏻 video as usual 😎
Wot? I've been listening to scanners for over 30 years without a second thought. Now granted, I'm in the U.S., not the U.K., and I'm not a radio enthusiast at all, just a casual listener, but I've never feared legal problems for just tuning in. I don't have or use moble units (except a very basic CB, that's rarely on.) I just on rare ocation turn a very basic scanner/reciever on at home. Like okay so to give you an idea of what I mean by rare occasion, like how often do I actually use it... well last time I used it there was during "The 2020 Oregon Wildfires" to quote the title of the Wikipedia page on it... I was in one of the effected areas, so I turned the radio on to get additional info. Yeah it's occations like that that are the only time I really use it, but still, I've never even thought there was even a remote possibility that I might get in trouble for using it. Technically we have laws regulations and restrictions regarding radio equipment in the U.S. as well, and honestly I'm mostly clueless about those but if I can buy it off the shelf at radio shack (yes my gear is that old) without a license, and use it un-moded, than I'm likely fine and for what few things that doesn't cover, just keeping to myself about my radio usage seems to keep me out of trouble. I'm also not transmitting, nor tinkering with equiptment, and definately not robbing banks or anything crazy like that, soooo... that also helps me fly under the radar, so to speak. But all of this is incidental to me, it's not like I took intentional steps to go unnoticed, it's just that my use case just happends to be very low-key, and so I never really had to think much about it. But while we do have some laws and regs on it here, after watching this, I'm certain it's much looser here than in the UK.
In the US radio shack used to publish a scanner book every year with the latest information. Holding a ham license made it ok to carry a scanner on my person and later in my car
There was loads here too, they still make for interesting nostalgic reading
Then you get into the difference between states. Some required a ham license if you owned any equipment and others allowed you to use scanners with no license. Others didn't require a license to use a scanner but use is prohibited in a motor vehicle. Our 50 states are a collection of dumb laws. For instant. Maine only fairly recently did away with the law requiring a person to disassemble your car and hide it in the bushes to not scare the oncoming horse.
@@Ghauster As the ARRL and FCC tells us its a federal license that over rides any state and local law But their will always be some cop that wants to be a ass about things
I remebre a case where an individual was taken to Court for operationg an FM Pirate station and listenineg to Police Comms on a domestic transitsor radio. However he got away with it because the Police, Fire and Ambulance Service were broadcasting on the VHF Broadcast Band which under the Treaty Of Rome was illegal. I believ the Court was ajourned so that the Prosecution could look into these and seek legal Gidance on the matter. And the case was sent to Crown Court Court. It was established that as Britain was a Signatury to the Treaty Of Rome, they were indeed Guilty of breaking the Law which prohibits what was termed Utility stations from using a domestic broadcast band for transmissions. Therefore they dropped the case against the individual and he walked from Court a free man. That was why the Emergency Services moved from that VHF band to 156 Mhz, 165 Mhz and 450 Mhz. I'm not sure when this happend or where the Court cases took place, but it was interesting to note that the Governmnet were themselves guilty of illegal transmissions. I used to regularly listen into the local Police, and they knew it, but turned a blind eye to it. Some Police Officers attitude was if you didn't act on information received they wouldn't arrest you. And if you commited a crime going equipped with a Scanner God help you.
I remember when the FCC tried to prevent people from listening in to AMPS cell calls in the 1980's by prohibiting the sale of scanners & receivers that could cover those frequencies. Of course it just led to a thriving black market for modified Radio Shack scanners. Pretty silly law for sure.
Even more silly is that the law is still in effect.
Cordless phones no longer use the old frequencies and cell calls are digital.