Who remembers cordless telephone convos on your scanner?

rf_patriot200

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I'm really surprised how well the batteries have held up over the years, in some of the 902-928 cordless phones ! I heard 2 in my building last night ! Of course they could have bought new batteries if they knew where to get them.
 

krokus

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In the early 2000s, I stumbled into a phone call, with someone ordering stuff. Had the caller's name, address, card info, etc. I remember thinking that I hope no one else was catching all that.

In the mid 90s, I came home on leave, and my aunt was not amused at me being able to pick up her phone calls on my Pro-39.
 

Dude111

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I remember listening to 800Mhz cell calls... Its amazing the stuff you heard there! (People swore alot,etc)

I dont think anything is in 800 anymore is there??
 

mmckenna

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I remember listening to 800Mhz cell calls... Its amazing the stuff you heard there! (People swore alot,etc)

I dont think anything is in 800 anymore is there??

800MHz cellular band is still used. That spectrum is assigned by the FCC and it is extremely valuable. The cell carriers are not going to give it up.

What is there is all wide band emissions (often 10MHz uplink and downlink), digital, fully encrypted. If you have a radio that covers this spectrum, all you'll hear is an annoying buzz.
 

kc2asb

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I remember cramming for exams in college (early-mid 90's) and having the scanner searching 46mhz for cordless phones. It was great background noise and no shortage of signals!

I did clip the diode in my PRO-2006 to restore the cellphone coverage. Those were interesting to listen to, but often handed off quickly to the next cell site.
 

Hit_Factor

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I had a scanner in my patrol car that would pick up wireless phones. It wasn't setup (with crystals) for that purpose, but we frequently heard the phone conversations when very close, like in the driveway.

Sometimes, I heard very useful conversations in regards to law enforcement.

I remember getting an animal at large complaint. I pulled into the driveway and heard all about how they shot, but didn't kill the cat. What to do before the cops (me) arrive. Of course they denied shooting the cat, but that didn't stop me from taking enforcement action.
 

kc2asb

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Great story @Hit_Factor ! Back in my college days, a buddy picked up a tuneable business band txcvr that covered the 46/49mhz cordless phone. Some nights. just a group cruising around, he would stop when it picked up a conversation and talk to the bewildered cordless phone owner. Never anything malicious - just stupid prank behavior.

Still have my 2006 also, @GadgetGeek
 
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rf_patriot200

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I'm sure most here also remember the old 49mhz baby monitors. Consumers were never quite aware that they were in effect bugging their own homes and the signal traveled a lot further than they imagined.
The old 5 channel 49 mhz. talkies that radio shack marketed were fun to experiment with too. I can't remember the model number. (y)
 

kc2asb

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The old 5 channel 49 mhz. talkies that radio shack marketed were fun to experiment with too. I can't remember the model number. (y)
I agree! I still have one kicking around here somewhere. When I first got it, all it ever seemed to pick up was baby monitors.
 

ChZeman

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The old cordless phones were the best.

I came across this collection of prank calls quite some time ago that is mostly these guys breaking in on cordless phone calls. I hadn't laughed so hard in a long time.

 

N6JPA

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The old cordless phones were the best.

I came across this collection of prank calls quite some time ago that is mostly these guys breaking in on cordless phone calls. I hadn't laughed so hard in a long time.

35 years ago I lived in a valley with a 62 & over mobile home park with hundreds of mobile homes in it up the hill side. A lot of the residents had cordless phones from 1.6 MHz and 46/49 MHz. Most of it was just simple calling the pharmacy or chit chatting with a neighbor. I caught one where a woman having an affair with a guy told him it was over and he threatened to kill her. Of course, I couldn't be a witness in CA due to the laws about monitoring phone calls as a third party. There never was a news report about a murder in that mobile home park. Interesting...
 

trentbob

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I'm pretty sure I've contributed to this thread, I didn't even bother to look but, those were the days.. the mods to the GRE / RS 2004 5 and 6, baby monitors, and the personal phone calls of everyone around you.

My favorite was the cops and the government officials, they would see me, newspaper guy, and say on the radio system, we've got company, call me on the cell. Blahahaha.
 
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