Communal living and 49MHz

[K9DAK]

I never really paid much attention to 46/49 MHz 'till I put up my six-meter dipole back in 2000-ish. The evening I put it up, I wanted to check it out but hadn't had the chance to borrow my buddy's antenna analyser, so I took a spin through 46-49 MHz. OMG, Real Housewives of Beverly Hills has nothing on what I heard that (and subsequent) evening from housewives in our subdivision. One (married) gal was talking to her boyfriend... later another (married) gal was talking to the first gal about both of their boyfriends... second gal's husband was heard hitting on the first gal. At one point heard first gal's boyfriend say "I sure am glad no one knows that I park at ****** and then walk to *** ***** **!" If he only knew. Few years later, we moved a couple blocks down the street, deeper into the subdivision... right in between the two gals! Mind=blown!

 

[TailGator911]

The Pro-2006 was one of my most favorite scanners at that time. I had two of those among others.

My 2006 will never go away. I still use it today for conventional analog scanning. I used it for searching until I got an SDR/RTL thingamabob. It is still a great scanner for anything analog and the AM band (aviation). Long live the 2006!

 

[danesgs]

That SafeTfirst unit looks like the Baby monitor in the movie "Signs" with the kid using it to hear the comms of aliens in the cornfield. I had a old ratshack 49 HT and let it run from my high-rise apartment in the day to test how far it would transmit (couple blocks at 100 mw) Forgot it was on and in scanning 149 MHz heard a loud carrier and my TV going, thought I was being bugged. Yes third harmonic and I bugged myself.

 

[stingray327]

My 2006 will never go away. I still use it today for conventional analog scanning. I used it for searching until I got an SDR/RTL thingamabob. It is still a great scanner for anything analog and the AM band (aviation). Long live the 2006!

Yes it's definitely a great scanner. Another one is the Pro-43 handheld.

 

[MrColad]

It was once reported that the Pro2006 wasn't as sensitive as less expensive scanners with hot front ends but that became a moot point once the 800 MHz cellular sub band diode snip was discovered.

This Pro2006 has the infamous Bill Cheek mod.

 

[trentbob]

I'm sorry I missed this thread from the beginning and I'm going to go back and read the whole thing now

I had two of the 2004 units made by GRE and they were wonderful radios and yes of course I listen to the 49 megahertz baby monitor range. Pretty much knew who was talking because I knew my neighbors and of course they weren't always talking hahaha.

Best thing about that radio was you could just simply cut a diode and listen to all of the 800 megahertz cell phone calls going on in your area and there weren't very many at that time. Because there were so few calls it didn't matter that they were trunked.

Used to love the booty call, first call was to the wife, I'm going to be late for work, second call was... On my way over baby.

 

[MrColad]

WOW!!!!! The Pro-43 was definitely a sleeper. And here I thought the BR330T was the wideband cats meow. If Uniden only made a base equivalent of the 330T. Closest base unit I can think of is the 15X.

 

[MTS2000des]

The Fisher Price units from the early 80s had quite a bit of punch, and the AGC was so powerful it could pick up a whisper in a quiet room. Using a good receiver like an MT1000 low band (46-50 split), I enjoyed honing my fox hunting skills back in the mid 1990s when many were in use. I regularly heard them over a mile away on that radio.

 

[stingray327]

I'm sorry I missed this thread from the beginning and I'm going to go back and read the whole thing now

I had two of the 2004 units made by GRE and they were wonderful radios and yes of course I listen to the 49 megahertz baby monitor range. Pretty much knew who was talking because I knew my neighbors and of course they weren't always talking hahaha.

Best thing about that radio was you could just simply cut a diode and listen to all of the 800 megahertz cell phone calls going on in your area and there weren't very many at that time. Because there were so few calls it didn't matter that they were trunked.

Used to love the booty call, first call was to the wife, I'm going to be late for work, second call was... On my way over baby.

I also had two other units 2022? 2023? looked very similiar to 2006. The all of these radios are currently in storage.

These Radio Shack scanners are great.
Cell phone monitoring was fun. The Pro-43 could also monitor cell freqs. at the time.

 

[trentbob]

I also had two other units 2022? 2023? looked very similiar to 2006. The all of these radios are currently in storage.

These Radio Shack scanners are great.
Cell phone monitoring was fun. The Pro-43 could also monitor cell freqs. at the time.

Yes I had the first in that series the 2004 which was a sloped front and on that one you did have to do the modification by cutting a diode to get the cell phone frequencies. They were trunked but it didn't matter you could hear both sides in the conversation just by scanning.

All those Radio Shack radios at that time were terrific, GRE was a great scanner company.

I always enjoyed monitoring portable phones and the baby monitors not to mention cell phone calls LOL. As I had mentioned in post 27 I enjoyed the booty calls. Very funny and more frequent than you would think.

 

[stingray327]

Yes I had the first in that series the 2004 which was a sloped front and on that one you did have to do the modification by cutting a diode to get the cell phone frequencies. They were trunked but it didn't matter you could hear both sides in the conversation just by scanning.

All those Radio Shack radios at that time were terrific, GRE was a great scanner company.

I always enjoyed monitoring portable phones and the baby monitors not to mention cell phone calls LOL. As I had mentioned in post 27 I enjoyed the booty calls. Very funny and more frequent than you would think.

Yes as I recall those were made by GRE. The cordless freqs. really gave me a good idea of what the neighborhood was like. All the gossip among the neighbors that you knew and didn't know. It was a great reflection of the kind of neighborhood one lived in.
On the cell freqs. Alot of people were calling the single services line to meet up with one another. The 90's were fun during this time period.
They would give descriptions of what they looked like and what they were looking for. Both men and women equally as I noticed were calling this one service. It was fun and very humorous monitoring. The baby monitor really didn't hear much. Nowadays I don't think we have anything near the above freqs. to monitor that was so humorous and interesting. We lost all of this fun to technology.

I will have to get my 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2022 (I remember now) out of storage and see what is on if anything now on the 800 formerly cell freqs. Will try the 46 to 49 freqs. too perhaps I may pick up some old baby monitors if there are any left out there.

 

[trentbob]

Yes as I recall those were made by GRE. The cordless freqs. really gave me a good idea of what the neighborhood was like. All the gossip among the neighbors that you knew and didn't know. It was a great reflection of the kind of neighborhood one lived in.
On the cell freqs. Alot of people were calling the single services line to meet up with one another. The 90's were fun during this time period.
They would give descriptions of what they looked like and what they were looking for. Both men and women equally as I noticed were calling this one service. It was fun and very humorous monitoring. The baby monitor really didn't hear much. Nowadays I don't think we have anything near the above freqs. to monitor that was so humorous and interesting. We lost all of this fun to technology.

I will have to get my 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2022 (I remember now) out of storage and see what is on if anything now on the 800 formerly cell freqs. Will try the 46 to 49 freqs. too perhaps I may pick up some old baby monitors if there are any left out there.

I got my 2004 out a few months ago. It's flatter and sloped compared to the 2006 and does take up a lot of Real Estate. Reception is very good but of course a big problem that all scanners had then, they were not protected with a PL tone so using rooftops you're picking up a lot of distant things since you're listening to a single conventional frequency. Very good for marine.

Sounds like fun getting your radios out and playing with them. Unfortunately you will not pick up cell phones on that 800 megahertz range that was used in the late eighties for analog cell phones.

I don't know the exact technology but somebody here will, cell phones are all encrypted and sophisticated so that we can't hear them no matter what. Oh well.

 

[MrColad]

FM broadcast, VHF/UHF aviation, VHF marine, VHF NOAA weather, MURS, FRS/GMRS and CB will always monitorable, well at least for the foreseeable future. IMHO it appears that VHF analog railroad monitoring is fast approaching it's end of shelf life.

 

[stingray327]

I got my 2004 out a few months ago. It's flatter and sloped compared to the 2006 and does take up a lot of Real Estate. Reception is very good but of course a big problem that all scanners had then, they were not protected with a PL tone so using rooftops you're picking up a lot of distant things since you're listening to a single conventional frequency. Very good for marine.

Sounds like fun getting your radios out and playing with them. Unfortunately you will not pick up cell phones on that 800 megahertz range that was used in the late eighties for analog cell phones.

I don't know the exact technology but somebody here will, cell phones are all encrypted and sophisticated so that we can't hear them no matter what. Oh well.

Do you know if there is anything now on the 800 MZ? I still have to get my radios out of storage.

 

[MrColad]

I got my 2004 out a few months ago. It's flatter and sloped compared to the 2006 and does take up a lot of Real Estate. Reception is very good but of course a big problem that all scanners had then, they were not protected with a PL tone so using rooftops you're picking up a lot of distant things since you're listening to a single conventional frequency. Very good for marine.

Sounds like fun getting your radios out and playing with them. Unfortunately you will not pick up cell phones on that 800 megahertz range that was used in the late eighties for analog cell phones.

I don't know the exact technology but somebody here will, cell phones are all encrypted and sophisticated so that we can't hear them no matter what. Oh well.

I never had one. It looks like a membrane keyboard.

 

[doctordialtone]

It looks like a membrane keyboard.

It is.

Mine still works fine except the backlight.

It has the mods.

 

[trentbob]

Mine works like new but this particular unit which was the first one and I'm just guessing now but I think I bought it in 88 or 89 takes up a lot of Real Estate. It's very flat and large. It would make a good platform for other scanners and radios but I just don't have a need for it in my shack with all of the newer equipment I have now. I really love that radio for a long time. It's a shame that Whistler couldn't draw on some of this GRE technology that was so Superior to what is out today by far.

 

[doctordialtone]

It would make a good platform for other scanners and radios

Yes - as a matter of fact it's at the base of my "stack".

I used to take it with me on the road and enjoyed literally thousands of hours of enjoyment and most nights fell asleep with it running.

I use to have the Air Force 1 frequencies in it and could monitor unsecure phone calls when Bush flew overhead on his way to home in Maine.

They had a steady carrier (Either 306 or 366Mhz) that lit up whenever AF1 was in the air and it got stronger the closer they were.

I had a friend in VT who was a radio tech and we'd call each other when we heard the beacon.

Great scanner. It was worth every penny!

 

[MrColad]

 

[stingray327]

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Wow! That's great. These are all great scanners for home. I have all of the above scanners in storage.