Communal living and 49MHz

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Golay

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I didn't know any of those devices were still around. The 49mhz band used to provide hours of entertainment.

Seems like there is always one or two 49 MHz baby monitors on in my neighborhood.
One neighbor told me that another neighbor monitors his garage with one. So that may be one I hear.
 

kc4jgc

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Hearing those early cordless phones was fun sometimes. So much so that when my xyl wanted a cordless my only stipulation was that it had encryption. A few years later we bought one with 900MHz spread spectrum.

When cell phones were new everything was in the clear. That was even more fun. I remember one conversation from someone outside a bar calling a friend in the USVI about this new phone. The person on the other end thought he was BSing. Those of us that remember know the ECPA was passed because a senator or congressman was heard and recorded in DC and made the news.
 

stingray327

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Hearing those early cordless phones was fun sometimes. So much so that when my xyl wanted a cordless my only stipulation was that it had encryption. A few years later we bought one with 900MHz spread spectrum.

When cell phones were new everything was in the clear. That was even more fun. I remember one conversation from someone outside a bar calling a friend in the USVI about this new phone. The person on the other end thought he was BSing. Those of us that remember know the ECPA was passed because a senator or congressman was heard and recorded in DC and made the news.
So is it all dead now? No alternative entertainment?
 

krokus

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So is it all dead now? No alternative entertainment?

Is what dead? Cellular is all digital, and effectively not able to be monitored. (Which is illegal in the IS, anyway.)

Cordless phones have mostly gone to shorter range bands, and digital. (Once again, illegal to monitor in the US.)

Baby monitors are a mixture of old and new, with many of the newer ones still sharing tech from cordless phones, so some are digital. (These are legal to monitor, in the US, if you have a way to decode the signal. So always check for baby monitors, not cordless phones.)

There might be stuff hear, and only one way to find out, if it interests you.
 

NC1

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So is it all dead now? No alternative entertainment?

Forget about the cell phones, those have been done a long time ago. There are still a few people using the older cordless phones, intercoms, and baby monitors, but those will be very few (if any at all within range) even in a city.

For fun I search GMRS, FRS, and MURS and hear quite a bit.
But, I also programmed a search bank with all the Business Itinerant frequencies and find a lot of things that I believe do not belong. Just yesterday I overheard a conversation on one of the itinerant frequencies between a nearby neighbor and his son discussing where to park their vehicles so they are out of the way for when relatives come over for Christmas. It seems a lot of people (much more than most people realize) are using the business frequencies for personal use. The "Dot" and "Star" frequencies are mostly heard, but I have heard a number of locals using the other ones as well. Program all of them in if you can.
Here is a list of those frequencies to scan: Common Itinerant and Business - The RadioReference Wiki
 

thevig

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Forget about the cell phones, those have been done a long time ago. There are still a few people using the older cordless phones, intercoms, and baby monitors, but those will be very few (if any at all within range) even in a city.

For fun I search GMRS, FRS, and MURS and hear quite a bit.
But, I also programmed a search bank with all the Business Itinerant frequencies and find a lot of things that I believe do not belong. Just yesterday I overheard a conversation on one of the itinerant frequencies between a nearby neighbor and his son discussing where to park their vehicles so they are out of the way for when relatives come over for Christmas. It seems a lot of people (much more than most people realize) are using the business frequencies for personal use. The "Dot" and "Star" frequencies are mostly heard, but I have heard a number of locals using the other ones as well. Program all of them in if you can.
Here is a list of those frequencies to scan: Common Itinerant and Business - The RadioReference Wiki

Yep. Program all of those business frequencies.
 

stingray327

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Forget about the cell phones, those have been done a long time ago. There are still a few people using the older cordless phones, intercoms, and baby monitors, but those will be very few (if any at all within range) even in a city.

For fun I search GMRS, FRS, and MURS and hear quite a bit.
But, I also programmed a search bank with all the Business Itinerant frequencies and find a lot of things that I believe do not belong. Just yesterday I overheard a conversation on one of the itinerant frequencies between a nearby neighbor and his son discussing where to park their vehicles so they are out of the way for when relatives come over for Christmas. It seems a lot of people (much more than most people realize) are using the business frequencies for personal use. The "Dot" and "Star" frequencies are mostly heard, but I have heard a number of locals using the other ones as well. Program all of them in if you can.
Here is a list of those frequencies to scan: Common Itinerant and Business - The RadioReference Wiki
This is true I hear lots of private people talking on the "Dot and Star freqs. (not stores) which sound just like FRS conversations. When I hear GMRS that appears to be business calls/conversations. Not sure what MURS is.
 

ratboy

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The good ol' days of scanning. So much entertainment, both at home and in the car. A friend of mine and I would go to his shop, where he would work on stuff while I kept pressing the up/down key, hunting for gold. Nothing better than to hear someone you know (and don't like) saying things he doesn't want anyone to hear. Oh my.
 

ratboy

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There was a neighbor family who had a baby monitor back like 34 years ago that was super powerful and it would wipe out the next door neighbor's on the same freq. to the point I couldn't hear it. The couple was having problems to put it mildly, and the weirdest thing about it was that while mom wailed and whined about how her life is ruined, the baby would be singing away, like everything was great and he was just such a happy little kid. While his parents were at war, his older sisters would beg their parents to stop fighting, he would just sing to himself.

Fast forward to 1999, the kid is now about to be a father, the dad was long gone, and I would get involved with the mom in a funny way when their dog jumped the fence into my back yard, and King "got it on". I took her home and told her that I would be happy to pay for the "morning after" shot to prevent a pregnancy. She told me not to worry about it, so I didn't And the living room was loaded with pizza boxes from every place in the area.

About 4 months later, I was taking my mom to the doctor and passed the house, and there were 8 pups, 7 black and white, and one black and tan one. They kept the black and tan one, and it turned out King and his boy didn't get along. Oh, the baby monitor stayed plugged in and bugged the kid's bedroom until the day they packed up to move when they lost the house due to mom not showing up for work because she was too busy harassing women who were going to Planned Parenthood and the local abortion places. I haven't seen her on TV for a while, but her weirdo friend who dresses as some priest still pops up once in a while. He's huge and his giant cross hanging around his neck is hard to miss.
 

a417

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Ha ha ha. That brings back memories. That is one of the reasons I would take my handset with me. It was amazing that I could make a call from almost anywhere. If I drove along a strip mall, repeatedly pressing the Talk button (or On/Off, I forget), it was inevitable that I would get a dial tone before reaching the end - usually quite a few. The fun part was trying to figure out which store it was.
what was that MCI ANAC #? All 4s? 1800 444 4444?
 
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