Until Radio Reference came along, Bob Grove was the "go to" source for technical advance relating to monitoring, scanners and antennas. He would always answer his phone during business hours.
Has anyone heard from Bob Grove in a while?
- Thread starter rvacs
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I remember calling with a technical question and ended up speaking with Bob himself. Took the time to answer my question and then we chatted for a while. Great guy.
Please don’t forget Strong Signals either!
Xray
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I remember that one from Icom what was it, the R-9000 or something like that, I lusted over that thing for years, I'd read the stats and stare at the picture like it was a Hustler centerfold
Xray, are you thinking of the Kenwood R-5000? I still have mine. And there was the JRC NRD-515 which I had for years until it died as a result of a burst water pipe in our house. The NRD had 90-100 memory slots which I kept filled with the current SAM 'Foxtrot' frequencies.
Two other members of the Monitoring Times family are Larry Van Horn and the late Bill Godbey, aka Havanna Moon.
Roger
Two other members of the Monitoring Times family are Larry Van Horn and the late Bill Godbey, aka Havanna Moon.
Roger
dvendt
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I miss his magazine alot.
CrabbyMilton
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Bob Grove had a great magazine and I was a longtime subscriber to MT as well as POPULAR COMMUNICATIONS. Print magazines have sharply declined over the last several years since there is more than enough info on the internet. I'm glad to hear that Bob Grove is still well.
I wrote a couple of articles and sent them to Grove Enterprises and they published them. I'd have to find the issues around here somewhere to tell you which ones, but they were during the last few years that they were still publishing Monitoring Times.
I remember when Congress had an issue with him selling cellular capable scanners and had him come to the Congressional bldg and tried to show him how easy it was to monitor cell phone signals. Congress even had a sign outside of the auditorium telling people to turn off their cell phones; to make it easier to find the callers freq on a scanner to show Bob how easy it was. Little did our "smartass" Congressmen know that you should scan through the input channels to find the call quicker; then add the MHz for the input. When the call was made the Congressman searched through the output freqs instead of the input freqs and couldn't find the call because he was picking up tons of other calls.
Rich
Rich
a29zuk
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I subscribed to Monitoring Times, too. I also purchased scanners from Grove Enterprises.
I remember getting a new BCT780XLT from Grove and it was giving me a problem. When I called about my problem, to my surprise, I got to speak to Bob himself about it. He was most sincere and told me to ship the scanner back and he would send me a new one. Great customer service!
Jim
I remember getting a new BCT780XLT from Grove and it was giving me a problem. When I called about my problem, to my surprise, I got to speak to Bob himself about it. He was most sincere and told me to ship the scanner back and he would send me a new one. Great customer service!
Jim
Does anyone remember the Grove BBS? The good old days! The BBS had the coolest opening screen with a carton guy reciting the pledge of allegiance (I think that was it) it was super colorful ASCII art and the cartoon guys mouth was moving (no sound of course).
Back in the early 80's I would connect with my 300 Baud modem! Then my hotdog 2400 Baud modem after awhile!! That is using a land line and doing "dial up" for you young guys scratching your heads! ;-)
Back in the early 80's I would connect with my 300 Baud modem! Then my hotdog 2400 Baud modem after awhile!! That is using a land line and doing "dial up" for you young guys scratching your heads! ;-)
I recall trying to use it. Quite computer illiterate back in the day but it was fun to try .
The Electronics Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) was passed in 1986 and made it illegal to listen to any part of a telephone conversation that was carried over radio waves (i.e. cordless and cellular telephones). But, it was still fairly easy to do so with most scanners, often after a simple hardware modification. Congress followed up with the Telephone Disclosure and Dispute Resolution (TDDRA) in 1992. Bob Grove wanted to testify before the U.S. House of Representatives committee that was handling the TDDRA to explain that the TDDRA didn't go far enough to protect cellphone users. Grove did prepare a statement which can be found online with some digging. The purpose of Grove's statement was to show how easy it was to monitor cellular phone calls and to put the responsibility on the cellular phone companies to make it harder to monitor their systems rather than restrict the ability of scanner listeners to listen to signals. In the end, the TDDRA was was revised in 1994 to ban the manufacture, importation, or sale of scanners or receivers that could be readily altered to receive cellular telephone frequencies. This is one of the reasons why just about any frequency agile VHF-UHF receiver made today has to be FCC Part 15 certified, even amateur radio equipment.
I also remember seeing Bob Grove in a national TV news story about scanners. It may have been around the time the TDDRA was being hashed out. There was video in the story of Grove sitting in his car near a fast-food restaurant listening to the drive-up order system. I'm sure that Mr. Grove wanted to expose just how easy it is to monitor various signals, but the news story made him look like a snoop and a voyeur, which, of course, was the narrative coming from the cellular telephone industry regarding scanners. Grove basically got duped into making scanner listeners look bad.
I remember those days as well.
Who was it that got in hot water over building and selling voice inversion de-scramblers, Bob Grove or Bill Cheek? I always forget which it was.
ScubaJungle
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Its so amazing how the media criticizes people for being unethical or doing whatever "wrong," "bad," etc, yet they will take a 5-second snippet out of audio/video to fit their narrative when it literally portrays the exact opposite meaning of the full clip.
It probably went along the lines of:
"Its disturbing how people's privacy can be intruded upon so easily, and it should be on cell companies to protect the consumers. While I dont, if I can sit here and listen to my neighbors' private phone calls, then so can someone with the wrong intentions.."
Next thing you know, the headline on the news is "Voyeur brags about listening to his neighbors' private phone calls: quote "I can sit here and listen to my neighbors' private phone calls"
That's why you never speak to big media.. I know, there are good ones out there, but just like with anything else, the bad apples ruin the bunch
I know that Bill Cheek provided instructions for connecting data slicers to various scanners. I don't know if he actually built and sold de-scramblers. At least, not officially.
I think you are correct about it being a data slicer circuit. That's the most common Google search results anyway.I know that Bill Cheek provided instructions for connecting data slicers to various scanners. I don't know if he actually built and sold de-scramblers. At least, not officially.
Bob Grove is indeed alive and enjoying retirement. . . I most recently had email comms with him in early April-2020.
Airboss
Silent Key
Well, I worked for Bob Grove for 20 years and yes, I am his nearest neighbor. In fact, we had a delightful chat at our mailboxes yesterday afternoon about the latest crop of scanners and local PS radio frequencies. So yes, Bob is very much alive and well and we both are still enjoying the radio hobby in the big beautiful Brasstown NC.
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