Trip to London

[W4KRR]

I am travelling to England (London area) in June. I do have a few questions.

What is the legality of scanners in England? I have read in the past that possession of a scanner is considered a serious crime there, but apparently the law is largely overlooked, because scanning is pretty common. I understand that air band scanning is very poipular there. Do people openly scan there? Or do they mostly do it indoors, low profile and out of sight?

Acording to the RR database, London uses a Motorola type II trunked system in the 450/451MHz range. But most other trunked systems there seem to be the MPT-1327 type. I was going to take my Icom IC-R20, since it tunes a very wide frequency range.

Other than the police, what is common to monitor there? Police, fire, rescue, railroads, aircraft, etc.? Any feedback is welcomed.

 

[citylink_uk]

Hi,

Scanners arn't illegal to posess like they are in some countries. The crime is to listen to a freqency thats not authorised ie. just about all! Amateur radio and CB Radio is perfectly legal.

Best to use a bit of discrection to avoid any allegations, ie not having it blasting out as your walking around the streets.

Just about all Police in the UK are on the secure Airwave service now so they arnt scannable. The Motorola Type II system that the Met Police used still has a few Police users on but like I said, most are on Airwave.

Fire can be heard around the 70MHZ area and is AM modulation. Ambulance is around 166MHZ.

I can send you a list if you like?

Rich
UK

 

[W4KRR]

I can send you a list if you like?

Rich
UK

Rich, Thanks for your response! Yes, a list would be nice, if you have one, I won't turn it down!

You can reach me by using my ham callsign, which also is my user ID here, @yahoo.com.

Thanks again!

 

[morfis]

I am travelling to England (London area) in June. I do have a few questions.

What is the legality of scanners in England? I have read in the past that possession of a scanner is considered a serious crime there, but apparently the law is largely overlooked, because scanning is pretty common. I understand that air band scanning is very poipular there. Do people openly scan there? Or do they mostly do it indoors, low profile and out of sight?

Don't know where you've read that. It is not illegal to buy, own or use a scanner in the UK.
Check: For a basic guide to the law regarding usage of "scanners" in the UK see: http://www.ofcom.org.uk/radiocomms/i...cement/ofw156x

That tells you what you are permitted to monitor - in short not a lot!

Acording to the RR database, London uses a Motorola type II trunked system in the 450/451MHz range. But most other trunked systems there seem to be the MPT-1327 type. I was going to take my Icom IC-R20, since it tunes a very wide frequency range.

There are very few areas of the Metropolitan Police still using the Motorola system now. Almost all police in the Uk use Airwave TETRA and cannot be monitored. There are many sorts of trunked radio systems in the UK but MPT1327 is by far the most common. Most MPT1327 systems can be mnitored fairly easily with your R-20 (as can what's left of the Met Motorola system).

Other than the police, what is common to monitor there? Police, fire, rescue, railroads, aircraft, etc.? Any feedback is welcomed.

There are people monitoring pretty much everything that can be monitored. Airband is particularly popular and is generally accepted so unlikley to cause the Police to confiscate your radio. Pager decoding, taxi data decoding etc. are all popular here.

For up to date frequency information see the links in the sticky post in this section of the RR bulletin board system.

 

[morfis]

Hi,

I can send you a list if you like?

Rich
UK

Better to go direct to the scanproma yahoo group for the London freqs rather than your extracts of that?

On the other hand if W4KRR is travelling up to North Midlands then I guess Rich's local knowledge would be useful

 

[W4KRR]

Actually we will be attending a wedding that will take place at Leeds Castle in Maidstone, Kent, England. The rest of the time we will stay in a hotel in London. I have no idea where Leeds Castle is in relation to London, but it shouldn't be too difficult for me to find out!

 

[morfis]

Leeds castle is about 40 miles South East of Central London