You Know You are Old Scanner Listener When.....

[mortoma61]

Channel YJ was the Company Station in Nassau.
Ate in Mall food courts to use my OPTO Scout and ICOM R10 Reaction Tune.
Carried my Police Call book & Latest issue of MONITORING TIMES everywhere.
Watched ADAM 12 and Emergency for the Emergency Calls.
Trunked systems were EASY to Listen to, Broadcast in the Clear with no Encryption.
A AOR 1000 could hear Everything from DC - Daylight, even Cellphones and Cordless Phones.
Could listen to Broadcast TV Audio with my Scanner on the BUS.
Scrambled was just TONE Inversion and could be hacked.
used my OPTO Scout & ICOM R10 Reaction Tune at Police Stations.
went to Radio Shack to check the Latest Scanners and buy GREAT Scanner accessory's .
Wore my AOR 1000 in a Shoulder Harness and a Lapel Mic because it looked cool.

they actually outlawed listening to cell phones on scanners I think in the mid to late 80s. GRE was making Radio Shack scanners.

Because it was illegal in the United States but lawful elsewhere all you had to do was take the case off of certain scanners and cut a diode with a Wirecutter and you could hear analog 800 megahertz cell phones but they weren't trunked. There were so few cell phones around then you could still follow conversations doing a limit search. Memories.

It was actually the late nineties when they made listening to cellphones illegal. Happened under the Bill Clinton regime. My AOR1500 could receive cellphone freqs because it was a pre-ban model. But then they started going to digital cellular, analog is no longer used in cellphone systems. So in the later days I could no longer hear the chit-chat since the AOR1500 was analog only.

 

[mortoma61]

I remember when Bearcat scanners were made in my home state of Indiana, long before Uniden bought them out. But I never had an early crystal model, my first one was the amazing Bearcat 250!! It was extremely sophisticated for the day as they made it a frequency synthesized rig with a PLL circuit. Only had 50 channels and overlooked aircraft band since they would have had to put in an AM de-modulator in it. That would have brought the price up. It had superb sensitivity and an excellent S/N ratio plus interference rejection that would make the Uniden of today blush.. 50 channels was about enough in those days but I would have taken 100 if they could have pulled it off.

 

[DJ11DLN]

I worked at Camp Koch For The Handicapped for the summer, back in 1984, which was up on top of a high hill. My scanner would hardly ever move off off of our police dispatch channel as there were numerous other counties operating on the same frequency. Back then Indiana only had a few frequencies that were used statewide for law enforcement. We were on the 155.130/154.890 pair back then. Evansville was the worst offender in keeping it from going back into scan.

Good ol' "Plan A," I remember it well. It ultimately moved a lot of agencies onto their own frequencies due to interference from others in busy times. Here in little Clay County we had our own allocation for the SD before bigger/richer neighbor Vigo County, who often made it impossible to get any traffic through on Plan A in busy times. I swear some of their cars sounded like they were running PA's in them. Our first move was just to our own channel, no repeater...but it made a huge difference for us. I was still an RDS back then.

 

[trentbob]

It was actually the late nineties when they made listening to cellphones illegal. Happened under the Bill Clinton regime. My AOR1500 could receive cellphone freqs because it was a pre-ban model. But then they started going to digital cellular, analog is no longer used in cellphone systems. So in the later days I could no longer hear the chit-chat since the AOR1500 was analog only.

The model I was referring to that was made by GRE for RadioShack was the pro 2004 introduced in 1987. It must have been controversial as RadioShack was not allowing it's scanners to pick up cell phone transmissions at that time, of course it was analog and there weren't very many of them, I know I had to use a bag phone in 1988 for my job.

The pro 2004 was capable of picking up the 800 megahertz range for phone calls but you had to take the case off and cut a diode to enable it. I had been monitoring about 20 years at that point and was comfortable doing that. If you made that modification it was understood you were breaking the law, I know wiretapping was illegal then. Maybe they didn't consider it wiretapping and that's why they had to make a law banning it from scanners, RadioShack had already made that decision.

It didn't trunk of course but by doing a limit search within that range you could hear both sides of the conversation. It was pretty cool.

By the mid-90s we were using the Gray Motorola flip phone with large black leather cases. Because of the way they looked with the black leather case we used to call them... "shoe phones" LOL.

PS...I just saw your other post, I thought the Electra bearcat radios made in Cumberland Indiana were excellent radios and had one of the first Bearcat 101's I'm guessing in 1974. Excellent programmable scanner.

 

[KevinC]

It was actually the late nineties when they made listening to cellphones illegal. Happened under the Bill Clinton regime. My AOR1500 could receive cellphone freqs because it was a pre-ban model. But then they started going to digital cellular, analog is no longer used in cellphone systems. So in the later days I could no longer hear the chit-chat since the AOR1500 was analog only.

I thought the ECPA of 1986 made it illegal?

 

[frankdrebbin]

I don't remember when or why I got into scanning but probably to listen to the Illinois Central Gulf RR thru where I lived. Old Radio Shack scanner that had 10 programmable channels and just showed the digit # when receiving so you had to remember what freq. was there. I had a RS handheld, can't remember the number, and was 800MHz blocked, but cell phones showed up on another set of frequencies. I could hear them until they jumped towers. I heard a guy once talking to his friend's girlfriend. He pulled into his driveway so I got the entire conversation. Very interesting to say the least.

 

[Jim41]

You know you are an old scanner listener when:
- Scanners had not yet been invented.
- Your first two radios used vacuum tubes and crystals. My first was a frequency converter which converted VHF FM to broadcast band AM car radio. Lots of ignition static. My second was a Regency Monitoradio, single channel receiver.
- Commercial Motorola two-way radios used vacuum tubes.
- There were no portable/handheld radios used by police officers.
- The FBI did not use encryption and could be monitored easily.
- Sensitive information was communicated by directing an officer to go to a dedicated callbox which directly connected to the police station or to a payphone and radio the phone number to the dispatcher who would then call the officer.

Jim41

 

[mule1075]

The model I was referring to that was made by GRE for RadioShack was the pro 2004 introduced in 1987. It must have been controversial as RadioShack was not allowing it's scanners to pick up cell phone transmissions at that time, of course it was analog and there weren't very many of them, I know I had to use a bag phone in 1988 for my job.

The pro 2004 was capable of picking up the 800 megahertz range for phone calls but you had to take the case off and cut a diode to enable it. I had been monitoring about 20 years at that point and was comfortable doing that. If you made that modification it was understood you were breaking the law, I know wiretapping was illegal then. Maybe they didn't consider it wiretapping and that's why they had to make a law banning it from scanners, RadioShack had already made that decision.

It didn't trunk of course but by doing a limit search within that range you could hear both sides of the conversation. It was pretty cool.

By the mid-90s we were using the Gray Motorola flip phone with large black leather cases. Because of the way they looked with the black leather case we used to call them... "shoe phones" LOL.

PS...I just saw your other post, I thought the Electra bearcat radios made in Cumberland Indiana were excellent radios and had one of the first Bearcat 101's I'm guessing in 1974. Excellent programmable scanner.

I am almost sure the 2004 and 2005 were capable out of the box. You had to modify the 2006 for cell phones.

 

[doctordialtone]

I am almost sure the 2004 and 2005 were capable out of the box. You had to modify the 2006 for cell phones.

I have the 2004. It needed to be modified.

 

[mule1075]

I have the 2004. It needed to be modified.

Like I said I was almost sure not 100%

 

[6079smithw]

You know you are an old scanner listener when: <snip>
- Sensitive information was communicated by directing an officer to go to a dedicated callbox which directly connected to the police station or to a payphone and radio the phone number to the dispatcher who would then call the officer.
Jim41

Word. I remember the 70s and early 80s when the Reno PD dispatcher would tell a field unit "10-21 or give a number". Some of the supervisors and brass had Motorola VHF mobile phones. I don't remember Reno having any callboxes unless there were some in the downtown area.
Those were the days you could monitor the entire system on a Bearcat 210!

 

[trentbob]

Like I said I was almost sure not 100%

You know that you are an old scanner listener when you start to lose your cognitive abilities LOL, however, I remember the day I took the case off and cut the diode and it was on a 2004. I still have two of them today in the scanner Cemetery in the garage.

 

[doctordialtone]

I remember the day I took the case off and cut the diode and it was on a 2004.

Here's the primitive modification:
http://www.oocities.org/thetweek/2004/

 

[JamesPrine]

All you youngsters are kids. In the good old days, I used my slide-tune receiver to tune in to the busy Urban Cohorts and the Legionaries performing their rituals out on the Campus Martius...and monitoring the occasional Imperial assassination cover ups...and the routine nonsense wafting up out of the Flavian, especially before the big holiday spectacles. Oh yes...lying back with a steady supply of Falernian, life was good...

 

[trentbob]

All you youngsters are kids. In the good old days, I used my slide-tune receiver to tune in to the busy Urban Cohorts and the Legionaries performing their rituals out on the Campus Martius...and monitoring the occasional Imperial assassination cover ups...and the routine nonsense wafting up out of the Flavian, especially before the big holiday spectacles. Oh yes...lying back with a steady supply of Falernian, life was good...

You are too funny, I would say we're about the same age but the Roman Empire was around for a long time, I didn't start using a tunable monitor for a long time because we could pick up the police on our AM Chariot radios. I personally enjoyed Ripple myself.

 

[n1das]

It was actually the late nineties when they made listening to cellphones illegal. Happened under the Bill Clinton regime. My AOR1500 could receive cellphone freqs because it was a pre-ban model. But then they started going to digital cellular, analog is no longer used in cellphone systems. So in the later days I could no longer hear the chit-chat since the AOR1500 was analog only.

Uh..NO.

Listening to cell phones was made illegal by the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 (ECPA '86). The law took effect on January 19, 1987. The law set a dangerous precedent of regulating people may listen to on the public airwaves, based solely on content. It was done under the illusion of privacy protection as part of a marketing ploy to make cell phones appear more attractive to uninformed users. A big red herring.

The cell block in scanners was enacted in a last minute tack-on to the Telephone Dispute and Disclosure Resolution Act of 1992, a bill that was sure to pass. Beginning on April 26, 1993, the FCC was required to deny Part 15 type acceptance to scanning receivers capable of receiving or "capable of being readily altered by the user" to receive cell phone transmissions. After April 26, 1994, "no receiver having the capabilities described above shall be manufactured or imported into the United States." This set a dangerous precedent of radio frequency censorship by Congress abusing the FCC's Equipment Authorization process to ban radio receivers having certain capabilities.

The Newt Gingrich cell phone incident in 1997 resulted in scanners being hardened up against modifications. Congress also introduced legislation (H.R.2369) that would have made ALL radio reception illegal if not the intended recipient and it would have become illegal to have a receiver capable of receiving prohibited transmissions. Modifying a receiver to receive prohibited transmissions would also be specificaly illegal. It would have also amended Section 705(a) of the Communications Act of 1934 by changing "intercept AND divulge" to "intercept OR divulge", making radio reception outright illegal and illegal to divulge even if you weren't the person who received it. Penalties would have included a $500k fine and imprisonment for up to 5 years for listening to the "wrong" radio transmissions. This was a knee jerk reaction by Congress to the Newt Gingrich cell phone incident. Thankfully this legislation did not become law.

ECPA '86 and the cell phone censorship set dangerous and grave legal precedents that say banning radio receivers and regulating what people may listen to is OK in a free society and based solely on content. This is NOT OK in my book.

You know you are an old time scanner listener when you were scanner listening when these events took place. LOL don't listen to anything I wouldn't listen to.


Sent from my XP8800 using Tapatalk

 

[mikepdx]

You Know You are Old Scanner Listener When.....

- You remember the night your PD went from 12 hour time to 24 hour time.
Yeah, they used to give the time in AM or PM.

- You were excited to get a new crystal in the mail.

 

[FPOWLD]

I've been listening to scanners for 60+ years with my 1st. radio was a analog "tune able'. I have a lot of stuff I need to get rid of if anyone is interested. Good old simple programming vs today. At least at my age.

 

[TailGator911]

I am in the market for replacing my old 8-channel Regency Monitoradio/Executive Scanner with one that has working lights on it. Feel free to PM me a list of what you have available? Thanks much!

JD
kf4anc

 

[mitbr]

..... when you could listen to Los Angeles County Sheriff's Office (LASO) on their old 39 MHz VHF-Lo band channels. They used the busy tone beeps on the repeaters like they still do today.

I enjoyed listening to 39 MHz LASO on my Electra Bearcat 210 scanner in Hanover NH via skip during the 1979 sunspot maximum. I occasionally could hear units directly on the repeater inputs, also on 39 MHz. The best time to listen was from about 2PM to 7PM. They quickly faded away after that. I recall LASO made the switch to UHF T-band in the mid 1980s.

Another favorite to listen to during the same hours was trans-equatorial skip from a repeater in Brazil on 36.9 MHz with the input on 33.9 MHz using CSQ (no PL tone required). This repeater was constantly jammed with fire department traffic from fire departments across the USA on 33.9 MHz. At the time I didn't know where the repeater was located but enough people heard it over the years and confirmed it to be in Brazil. There's a remote chance I might still have a cassette tape recording of some of the traffic on that repeater.

All of this listening was done using the built in whip antenna on the Bearcat 210 scanner.


Sent from my XP8800 using Tapatalk

Yep I remember those days!! I could hear the LASO on 39 mhz when I lived in Toronto on my portable multiband Panasonic radio then later on in the 80s on my Bearcat bcd 300.
Tim