What's it take to put live audio from a scanner online?

[k8tmk]

I hate to burst everybody's bubble, but isn't streaming the audio from a scanner onto the Internet illegal? It seems to me that this would be in violation of the "secrecy" portion of the FCC's Rules and Regs, which states you cannot divulge the content of a transmission not intended for you to another person. It seems to me that this includes rebroadcasting by any means, including the Internet, as well as simply telling another person orally.

If you get caught, just stating "well other people are doing it to" isn't going to get you off the hook. They'll just tell you "well we caught you this time, and we'll catch them next time."

Any professional attorneys out there that can clarify this?

 

[flyingwolf]

No it is not illegal. You are perfectly allowed to broadcast that info in any way you want.

Now if you record it. And use it later to grab SS numbers and whatnot I am sure that is not legal.

However no its not illegal to allow others to listen to your scanner.

 

[k8tmk]

I'm still not convinced. You are essentially "relaying" a transmission without the originator's knowledge, which I don't think is legal. It's much different than someone just overhearing your scanner.

Now, I'll pose the question once again. Are there any Professional attorneys out there?

 

[flyingwolf]

Go ask an attorny. No it is not illegal. How do I know this? Well mainly cause I licensed terestrial radio station Disk Jockey/Production Manager.

I have gone through this before with WCPO when I first suggested they setup a live scanner feed on thier site. (WCP is the local news station)

Well after numerous talks with different legal council it was determined there is no law agaisnt it. Not even in a round about greay area way.

Its just not illegal. Not sure why your worried about it though?

If you are really worried cal lup your local lawyer and ask. I am sure they will have a fast answer for you.

 

[Chris-M]

I'm having problems with the firewall in my router. I can access my online scanner from another computer in my LAN but not over the internet. Been working on this dang thing ALL day. It's getting dark and I haven't even taken a shower yet today! I gotta find something else to do for awhile. Tired of this mess.

 

[Dubbin]

I'm having problems with the firewall in my router. I can access my online scanner from another computer in my LAN but not over the internet. Been working on this dang thing ALL day. It's getting dark and I haven't even taken a shower yet today! I gotta find something else to do for awhile. Tired of this mess.

What are you using to get the scanner online?

 

[flyingwolf]

What are you using to broadcast and what is the address you are using to connect to the feed on your lan? On line?

 

[Tweekerbob]

I'm having problems with the firewall in my router. I can access my online scanner from another computer in my LAN but not over the internet. Been working on this dang thing ALL day. It's getting dark and I haven't even taken a shower yet today! I gotta find something else to do for awhile. Tired of this mess.

Two most common causes for this:

1. You are not forwarding your ports. Log in to your router and forward the appropriate ports for the approriate computer. Reference the user manual of your router and any help files that came with your streaming software. The streaming software will allow you to change the port that other people from the internet are coming in on to access your stream. Unless you have a lot of different ports in use at once, I would just go with the default port setting for the streaming software.

2. Some streaming software titles (i.e. icecast) have a little itsy bitsy line in their config file that is labeled "hostname" or hostserver or something like that. The default value in Icecast is localhost. This needs to be changed to your INTERNET IP address otherwise, only your lan can connect.

hope this helps. Feel free to pm me if you need additional input.

Ryan
http://eldoscanner.servebeer.com

 

[nexus]

I'm using Winamp with shoutcast streaming on mine..

It took about 5 minutes to setup, all you need for hardware is a sound card, an audio cable and that's about it. Plug the ext speaker of the scanner into your LINE IN jack on the scanner, configure the winamp encoder and the shoutcast and there yah go...

Mine is up 24/7 for listening. There is another program which will allow TEXT ID data from your scanner to be displayed as the audio comes across, info on that streaming software is at http://www.scancapecod.net

mine:
http://www.nexusradio.us/

 

[Chris-M]

My online scanner feed was working for several months using Windows Media Encoder 9. When I bought a new 802.11G wireless router (DLINK DI-524, I installed the latest firmware from the DLINK site too) the problems started.
If I hook up my other router the scanner feed works fine. (Not a wireless router; it's a DLINK DI-704).
The settings on the WinXP firewall have no affect on the feed. It's the router. I've even talked to support on the phone to no avail.
Since I've already sent in the UPCs from the boxes for the rebates a few months ago, I can't just take it back and exchange it for a different model or brand! And I'd like to stick with the wireless router which I originally bought so I could get rid of the CAT5 cables on the floor, crossing the room! LOL..

Nexus, thanks for the info. I'm gonna try the WinAmp/ShoutCast method.

 

[Chris-M]

So far I have IceCast2 and Simplecast up and running. The audio is coming thru my network LAN and I can hear it on my laptop with WinAMP. Now to see if I can access it from the outside, and eventually set it up for text so the agency the scanner has stopped on is displayed. Kewl stuff!

I would have this finished hours ago but a few setbacks slowed me down.
My 1.6 year old daughter has the flu and got sick on the carpet, then I messed up my router settings and couldn't get on the internet. That took me and hour to reconfigure. It's a lot of work but when it's all done this will be pretty slick! I'm going to use my BC246T for now to test the text tagging over WinAMP.

This is what I have so far:

Montgomery County TX Scanner Feed

*update*
Well apparently the BC246T doesn't use standard Uniden remote control protocols. When I run Talkgroup Monitor this comes up:

scanner:127.0.0.1, port 5331
encoder:127.0.0.1, port 8181
connecting to 127.0.0.1 on port 5331
connection seccessful, socket=96
connected to scanner
sending 'idn' to scanner
sending 'qun' to scanner
err' from scanner

For now the audio works great but the unregistered version of SimpleCast only runs for 4 hour blocks at a time. Guess I'll configure Media Encoder 9 again now that I think the router port issue has been figured out and save up for a BC796D after the 800mhz rebanding is complete that is, and maybe when it's 700mhz trunking capable...could be awhile!
My trusty PRO2053 will provide the audio for now. Alphatags will have to wait. I learned a lot today and I hope to be able to put it to good use online soon.

 

[Tweekerbob]

The 246 has a totally different command protocol for remote operation. Looking through the protocol, it looks to be fairly hard and or tedious to use monitor.exe with the 246. Here is a link to the protocol http://www.uniden.com/files/BC246T_Protocol.pdf

Here is a list of scanners that are known to work well with monitor http://www.freqofnature.com/software/protocols.html#IC

 

[Chris-M]

Thanks Tweekerbob. Last night I spent a few hours finding that out. I downloaded the protocol pdf file and read thru it. I'm going to check out the local pawn shops for a used Bearcat that is on the compatability list at freqofnature.com but I really want a digital Bearcat desktop scanner. With the upcoming 800mhz rebanding and 700mhz trunking in the future, I am somewhat hesitant to buy another new top-end scanner right away.
I can settle with a used but not abused (or smoker) Bearcat since there is no APCO25 digital in my county..yet. So for now it's audio only with no text tags via WinAMP.