Calgary, CAN Tweeting police scanner news 'risky,' say police

[gaburbano]

That call you are speaking about had to do with ethical issues surrounding his bid for the presidency, what triggered the 1994 ammendment to include cell phones was the original problem newt had with cell phone conversations regarding one of his many affairs. He wasnt the only one. There were several other congressmen. It was the panick over those calls that caused the amendment of the ECPA in 1994. The ethical problem closed his bid to run for president but never amounted to anything more.

2 different calls,


george

 

[Jay911]

email me direct and I'll tell you.

I'm not interested, I just know that it's not that "easy" in Canada (which has a capital C btw) to get any scanner, much less an unblocked one. Most retailers in Canada have ridiculously high prices - on the order of 25% or more over and above the price for the same radio in the USA. In most parts of the country, you're restricted to either mail-order from these overpriced outlets or buying from an American mail-order place, or making do with the crappy leftovers that are collecting dust on the shelves of "The Source by Circuit City" (née Radio Shack, before RS got out of Canuckland).

In any case, this is three or four branches off topic from the original post of tweeting info heard on the scanner, so I'm going to walk away..

 

[gaburbano]

yeah but you have to admit, that the "putting cops in danger by listening to feeds 1000 miles away was sort of ridiculous..." Although Ill admit the gingrich thing was equally ridiculous, but even though I dont post often just wanted to ad to why certain paranoia affected a scanner hobby years ago and now the paranoia over live feeds potentially hurting emergency personnel will just further restrict a harmless hobby for most.

take care,

george

 

[DaveNF2G]

The 1994 amendment added cordless phones to the prohibited monitoring list.

 

[DaveNF2G]

The call took place on December 21,1996.

AllPolitics - The Tale Of The Tape - Jan. 13, 1997

People are getting the whole history of ECPA totally mixed up.

ECPA passed in 1986 because CTIA wanted it. Then they could claim that cellphones were "private" without having to invest in the technology that would have prevented interception. Industry reps promised Congress that encryption would eventually become standard, which never happened. Other industry groups wanted in, too, so for convenience Congress also threw in prohibitions against intercepting STA frequencies, commercial paging, and direct satellite downlinks, as well as anything encrypted.

In 1994, TDDRA amended ECPA by adding cordless phones to the prohibited monitoring list. This happened because of an intercepted cordless phone call in Florida that was probably hunted down and then publicized for partisan reasons (the people who claimed the "accidental" interception on their kid's police scanner - the Martins - were members of the local Democrat Party organization and Gingrich wanted to run for President as a Republican). The scandal went nuclear when politicians realized, not that an ethical problem might be discovered, which they had procedural ways of burying, but that their "private" affairs of other kinds might be revealed.

 

[MTS2000des]

People are getting the whole history of ECPA totally mixed up.

ECPA passed in 1986 because CTIA wanted it. Then they could claim that cellphones were "private" without having to invest in the technology that would have prevented interception. Industry reps promised Congress that encryption would eventually become standard, which never happened. Other industry groups wanted in, too, so for convenience Congress also threw in prohibitions against intercepting STA frequencies, commercial paging, and direct satellite downlinks, as well as anything encrypted.

In 1994, TDDRA amended ECPA by adding cordless phones to the prohibited monitoring list. This happened because of an intercepted cordless phone call in Florida that was probably hunted down and then publicized for partisan reasons (the people who claimed the "accidental" interception on their kid's police scanner - the Martins - were members of the local Democrat Party organization and Gingrich wanted to run for President as a Republican). The scandal went nuclear when politicians realized, not that an ethical problem might be discovered, which they had procedural ways of burying, but that their "private" affairs of other kinds might be revealed.

Ironic, isn't it? Now cordless phones have gone "encrypted" for the most part, using spread spectrum- so a scanner is about as useful as well, a scanner is in a place like Jacksonville FLA for listening to the po-po is today.