Is the Blocked Cellular Freq range on Scanners still needed?

[bear105]

OK...tell me. Is the blocked cellular freq range on scanners still needed? Does anybody still use an analog cell phone in the 800Mhz range? You can't do CDMA, GSM or iDEN from a police scanner. So does this law still make sense?

Bottom line...I am interested in buying a new scanner and wonder if public safety will move into these blocked freqs after Nextel moves on.

[PJH]

Its really a mute point. There isn't much there anymore anyways. I have/had a scanner that didn't pick that band per se, but it due to the cheap design, it would.

Last time I fired it up, I maybe heard one analog call.

In the metro area's, your not going to hear much, but out the rurual area's you may. Hell, only 2-4 years ago, I was only getting analog cell service in the Raliegh/Durham NC when the northeast already converted to digital.

[mr_hankey]

not only "no", but HELL NO.

total joke, especially when overseas giants like Yaesu and Yupiteru, Icom, continue to mangle the forbidden range...

if you don't believe me, try to scan the 800Mhz public safety range with your VX-5.

oh, and there's nothing on 800Mhz AMPS anymore, Mr. Powell.

[PJH]

Almost forgot to add...

FCC last year (maybe a little earlier than that), came out and said that carriers can start to convert most of their analog channels to digtial, but in most areas, they still had to support the legacy phones...although with only a couple of channels.

[mr_hankey]

let's not forget that cellphone monitoring didn't become "bad" until Newt Gingrich got caught bragging about his ethics over the air in Florida.

THEN it was a huge concern...HUGE.

[N_Jay]

Originally Posted by bear105

OK...tell me. Is the blocked cellular freq range on scanners still needed? Does anybody still use an analog cell phone in the 800Mhz range? You can't do CDMA, GSM or iDEN from a police scanner. So does this law still make sense?

Bottom line...I am interested in buying a new scanner and wonder if public safety will move into these blocked freqs after Nextel moves on.

1) Even with the change to digital, I doubt they will bother to go back and re-write the law. (and for what purpose).

2) Yes, analog phones are still in use, and I would hate to try to guess the date that the last one will come out of service.

3) Nextel is not in the cellular bands, and to the best of my knowlege are not blocked frequencies.

[garys]

Originally Posted by mr_hankey

let's not forget that cellphone monitoring didn't become "bad" until Newt Gingrich got caught bragging about his ethics over the air in Florida.

THEN it was a huge concern...HUGE.

The ECPA was passed well before that and the people convicted in that incident were convicted because of the ECPA.

[bear105]

Originally Posted by N_Jay

3) Nextel is not in the cellular bands, and to the best of my knowlege are not blocked frequencies.

Hmmm....I thought Nextel was in part of the blocked freq range (Thanks for the heads up N_Jay)...but they are apparently in the following 800Mhz ranges...(806-821 MHz Tx & 851-866 MHz Rx).

The blocked ranges are the following:
824.000 - 849.000Mhz & 869.000 - 894.000Mhz

But the question of public safety being allowed to move into all these ranges is what I am worried about. Especially on a scanner I own, which is blocked.

[PJH]

Nextel operates on all the old SMR frequency ranges, which are next to the PS ranges. As cell carriers abandoned their old 800 freq's, Nextel also gobbled them up.

Not having seen the law in awhile, I think that it the law reads "Cellular phone ranges" but doesn't spell out the actually frequencies. Hence, once PS gets into the ranges, there wouldn't be any problem for the companies to unblock those ranges.

Again, we would have see the specific wording of the law.

[KT4HX]

Actually I didn't vote cause my choice isn't there. I would have to say though I am in favor of open airways, I've honestly never found anything worth listening to in the cell range. I used to have a couple that I modified, but soon lost interest due to boredom. Perhaps others have had better luck at hearing something interesting. There are still some analog phones most everywhere I think, but definitely not as many.

[fmon]

Originally Posted by garys

The ECPA was passed well before that and the people convicted in that incident were convicted because of the ECPA.

http://www.consumerprivacyguide.com/law/ecpa.shtml

[AEMTKieran]

The whole thing behind the ECPA was that money talks and bullshit walks, period. The cellular industry has more money to piss away on lawyers and bullshit promises to cell phone users than all of us combined will make in our lifetimes. Radio Shack was the first company to cave in, and also actively lobbied for this to pass into law. We should have seen back then what direction Radio Shack was going in when they went up there with the cell companies and cried for the privacy act.

Bottom line...your phone is a radio. Don't expect privacy on a radio.

Sorry if I sound hot, but I'm pretty much fed up with the cellular and Nextel industry.

[N_Jay]

Originally Posted by bear105

The blocked ranges are the following:
824.000 - 849.000Mhz & 869.000 - 894.000Mhz

But the question of public safety being allowed to move into all these ranges is what I am worried about. Especially on a scanner I own, which is blocked.

The frequencies that are blocked are assigned to teh Cellular service.
Nextel was never on them.
Public Safety never will be.

[kingpin]

I can tell you here with a quick scan across the "forbidden range" I ran across 8 calls. A far cry from 10 years ago when I first got a cell capable scanner.

[N_Jay]

Originally Posted by PJH

Nextel operates on all the old SMR frequency ranges, which are next to the PS ranges. As cell carriers abandoned their old 800 freq's, Nextel also gobbled them up.

Nextel operats in the SAME band as many 800 MHz public safety users (and adjacent the Public Safety exclusive NPSPAC channels)

Cell carriers have not abandoned their 800 MHz block, and Nextel does not use those frequencies!

Originally Posted by PJH

Not having seen the law in awhile, I think that it the law reads "Cellular phone ranges" but doesn't spell out the actually frequencies.

Originally Posted by PJH

Hence, once PS gets into the ranges, there wouldn't be any problem for the companies to unblock those ranges.

Once again, Public safety is NOT going on Cellular Channels. Nextel was NEVER on Cellular Channels.

[PJH]

Funny...when I put my Nextel into test mode and shows me current frequenices...its outside the that range..

[N_Jay]

Originally Posted by PJH

Funny...when I put my Nextel into test mode and shows me current frequenices...its outside the that range..

Outside what range?

Outside the Cellular range?
Outside the LMR Range?
Outside the NPSPAC Range?
Outside the Blocked Range? (Same as Cellular)

[STiMULi]

They are still out there...

1000s and 1000s of scanners that are unblocked. If we need an unblocked scanner to monitor something other than cellular we can do it.

Don't forget about OnStar!

Lots and lots of vehicles still out there using the older 800 mhz networks.

A phone call is a phone call?

Is half-duplex a phone call? Then a patch is a call. We can still hear those....

[milf]

That is a question I have already asked and YET to get answered-

Since it IS ILLEGAL to monitor any phone conversation, is listening to a unencrypted phone patch illegal? And if so.. what will happen to the hobby if the FCC decides to really crack down on it, especially now that the FCC is suddenly wanting to crack down on laws again,.. at least the decency crap.... (Funny that, they bust Howard Stern, and the networks for showing a tit,.. but has anyone mentioned the Soaps with almost nudity and more profanity and violence than anything else on a daily basis?)

[N_Jay]

Originally Posted by STiMULi

They are still out there...
1000s and 1000s of scanners that are unblocked. If we need an unblocked scanner to monitor something other than cellular we can do it.

Since only cellular is blocked, what other than cellular do you need them for?

Originally Posted by STiMULi

Don't forget about OnStar! .

OnStar is Cellular, mostly 800 MHz, mostly analog.

Originally Posted by STiMULi

Lots and lots of vehicles still out there using the older 800 mhz networks..

Yep!

Originally Posted by STiMULi

A phone call is a phone call?

Is half-duplex a phone call? Then a patch is a call. We can still hear those....

That is NOT cellular service. It is the Cellular service that is protected.
I think it was expanded to cover cordless phones also.
(Silly Lawers!)