900 Mhz band question

[myrtle_tickner]

okay... i know it's illegal to listen to private telephone
conversations but i assure you my question about it is purely of a
technical nature.

i recently bought a used PRO-2040 off ebay and while scanning through
the lower 900 mhz band came across a phone conversation on 907.3795. i
have to admit i was a bit curious so i listened for a bit until i felt
too uncomfortable and moved on. however, based on the experience, i had
several questions come to mind.

first, was i hearing analog cell calls or cordless calls? i thought 900
mhz was for cordless, but i heard at least 2 or 3 different
conversations by obviously different parties (meaning not the same
household) on this single freq. is this the frequency of a tower
perhaps?

my other question is why was i only able to hear one side of a
conversation on one call, but both sides on another? i know this has
something to do with the concept of duplexing, but it's still rather
complex for me to grasp.

again, i'm only curious about the technical aspects of this. the nature
of the phone calls were all quite boring and i felt kind of creepy
eavesdropping so i don't plan on doing it again. this experience just
posed some new questions for me in the hobby and science of scanning (and obviously telecommunications).

 

[nd5y]

You were probably hearing a cordless phone. If you were hearing only one side,
it probably means you were picking up the handset frequency and not the base frequency.
The handset only transmits mic audio to the base but the base will transmit both sides
back to the handset.

 

[twolf816]

...and theres a list of channels for 900mhz phones. not sure how many, never tried. hopefully you didnt hear 2 diff conversations at the same time on the same channel.

 

[kb2vxa]

It's not at all unusual for a scanner with a good antenna to hear several cordless phones on the same frequency. Remember yours is a far better receiving system than the phone's, each is out of range of the others but all within yours. I used to live in an urban area and the band segment sounded like CB with several on each frequency all at the same time during peak periods. With the advent of cheap cell phones the congestion has shifted down the spectrum a bit. Many people don't have hard wired phones anymore, cell service is cheaper.