Finding store frequencies (Walmart, Baby Monitors, Malls, Drive Thru, ect.)

[gewecke]

There's a difference between wanting to know how to use a scanner, and wanted to know how to scan the local baby monitors. How ot avoid scanning them, sure. But how to scan them? That comes across like saying you want to know how to bug telephones, so you can make sure you don't accidentally do it.

But by all means, you tell me. What conceivable legal, moral, ethical, or laudable purpose do you have in listening in to local baby scanners, overhearing either wailing babies or private and perhaps intimate personal conversations? Maybe I'm just not seeing it, sure. Or maybe you're a PhD candidate doing some field research in the child-rearing habits of the local primates?

And of course, maybe you just hadn't heard, but unless you're really close to them, meaning, in the neighboring apartment or "patrolling" the streets, baby monitors are normally very low power transmitters. So you're not going to receive many of them--unless you're really trying to.

. There ARE other uses for them, and they transmit farther than you might think. :wink: 73, n9zas

 

[oldradioguy2010]

Look guys, scanning is a hobby. No matter what you monitor, its a hobby. Enjoy what you do. With no creeps. Nobody knows who or where you are. Keep to your self and YOU will not be molested or bothered,

PEACE form oldradioguy

 

[gewecke]

Look guys, scanning is a hobby. No matter what you monitor, its a hobby. Enjoy what you do. With no creeps. Nobody knows who or where you are. Keep to your self and YOU will not be molested or bothered,

PEACE form oldradioguy

. Exactly. Good advice. :wink: 73, n9zas

 

[wtp]

baby monitors

the last time I tried to hear any was when my kids were small.
they are in their mid twenties now
unless someone still has an old one they are up with the new phones 2.5G and 5G
so good luck.

 

[gewecke]

the last time I tried to hear any was when my kids were small.
they are in their mid twenties now
unless someone still has an old one they are up with the new phones 2.5G and 5G
so good luck.

. Very true. One use I have for the 49mhz monitors, as a way to repeat scanner traffic from my shack where all the antennas are connected out to the garage where I'm tinkering. Bluetooth speakers work well for this too. 73, n9zas

 

[Rred]

Actually, unless you have a very old baby monitor, it may be on the 49 MHz, 902 MHz or 2.4 GHz frequencies. The 49MHz group are the old analog wireless phones, the 2.4GHz are the new "DECT" phones. So the range and performance may be all over the place as well. Supposedly the DECT phones can be heard 1/2 mile away across open ground, although a house made of concrete block over steel frame, or a house with aluminum siding, will trap the signal ignores pretty completely.

 

[NDRADIONUT]

http://www.freqofnature.com/frequencies/common/business.html

http://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/Common_Itinerant_and_Business

 

[gewecke]

http://www.freqofnature.com/frequencies/common/business.html

Common Itinerant and Business - The RadioReference Wiki

. Yep, but the freak site is a little bit outdated, although still interesting to reminisce lol. 73, n9zas

 

[pb_lonny]

It sounds like you need to make use of "close call" and some search ranges. I spend a lot of time "searching" the bands, more so than I spend "scanning"...

 

[Voyager]

If Wally World is using low power HTs, you will need to be within about 25 feet of them to get a hit.

As opposed to using SEARCH which will pick them up anywhere on-site.

 

[gewecke]

It sounds like you need to make use of "close call" and some search ranges. I spend a lot of time "searching" the bands, more so than I spend "scanning"...

. I don't use close call, instead I set up prearranged search limits between a lower and upper range frequency. I have more control by using search limits. :wink: 73, n9zas

 

[gewecke]

If Wally World is using low power HTs, you will need to be within about 25 feet of them to get a hit.

As opposed to using SEARCH which will pick them up anywhere on-site.

Exactly, also those talkies have a 2 watt output. I can hear them well over a mile away. 73, n9zas

 

[JRUNCK]

Your intentions may be completely honorable but it still creeps me out.

Good

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Tapatalk

 

[bill4long]

Actually baby monitors use the same frequencies as cordless phones and listening to them is illegal.

Please cite source for the claim that picking up a baby monitor with a scanner is illegal.

 

[bill4long]

There's a difference between wanting to know how to use a scanner, and wanted to know how to scan the local baby monitors.. . What conceivable legal, moral, ethical, or laudable purpose do you have in listening in to local baby scanners, overhearing either wailing babies or private and perhaps intimate personal conversations?

Uh, entertainment value. The cries of a baby are probably not be interesting to any sane person, but sometimes adult conversations can be quite entertaining.

If you want privacy, use an encrypted system.

 

[mikewazowski]

Gentlemen, let's try and keep this somewhat on-topic.

Gun rights and the NSA are off-topic.

Thanks.

 

[KK4JUG]

It's not really a matter of whether it's the law. Rather, it's morals and ethics. Just because you can do it does mean you should. You can run a stop sign but you shouldn't. You can run around on your wife but you shouldn't. You can take the money from a found wallet but you shouldn't.

There's a philosophy that's apparently not held in high esteem anymore. It called "Do The Right Thing." People say it's not wrong if you don't get caught. Of course it wrong. You just don't get punished. Nothing here is going to change anyone's morals. If they're hell-bent on listening to portable phones, baby monitors or whatever, they're going to find a way to do it.

Everyone has what the courts call an "expectation of privacy" in certain areas. Your phone conversations, the inside of your house, etc., come under that doctrine. Police have to get search warrants or court orders to invade that privacy. (There are exceptions but they're based on certain consensual factors of the principals involved.)

I'm 70+ and don't have any baby monitors (I'm not sure they were even invented when my kids were young.) and I only get telemarketing calls on my home phone so it's no skin of my nose either way. But, rest assured, listening to my neighbor's private conversations is not on my bucket list.

 

[bill4long]

Yawn

 

[Voyager]

Please cite source for the claim that picking up a baby monitor with a scanner is illegal.

ECPA last revised 1994. That revision added cordless phone frequencies, STLs, RPUs, and more to the previous Cellular frequencies. As was stated, since many (older) baby monitors use those cordless phone frequencies, they are included in the ECPA prohibitions.

 

[bill4long]

ECPA last revised 1994. That revision added cordless phone frequencies, STLs, RPUs, and more to the previous Cellular frequencies. As was stated, since many (older) baby monitors use those cordless phone frequencies, they are included in the ECPA prohibitions.

That's debatable with regards to baby monitors or anything on one of those frequencies, if the communications in not encrypted, given 18 USC § 2511(2)(g)(v). "It shall not be unlawful under this chapter or chapter 121 of this title for any person—(ii) to intercept any radio communication which is transmitted—(v) for other users of the same frequency to intercept any radio communication made through a system that utilizes frequencies monitored by individuals engaged in the provision or the use of such system, if such communication is not scrambled or encrypted."

More generally:

(g) It shall not be unlawful under this chapter or chapter 121 of this title for any person—(ii) to intercept or access an electronic communication made through an electronic communication system that is configured so that such electronic communication is readily accessible to the general public;

Unencrypted baby monitors are as readily accessible to the general public using a scanner just as much as police and fire...

The statute uses similar language with respect to accessible police and fire:

(g) It shall not be unlawful under this chapter or chapter 121 of this title for any person—(II) by any governmental, law enforcement, civil defense, private land mobile, or public safety communications system, including police and fire, readily accessible to the general public;

So you can find any case law where someone was prosecuted for listening to an unencrypted baby monitor?