Why is UK so restrictive?

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snowmn

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I just read the UK monitoring law and was wondering why your country is so restrictive on monitoring? Almost every country has streaming of aircraft but the only thing UK has is ham radio. I would expect to see these type of regulations in Saudi Arabia not Europe.
 

kmi8dy

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have you not noticed that the united states is heading in the same direction with encryption ? no athorative figure or organization wants any transparency between them and the so called "meddelling civilians ". they want to do what they want to do, when they want to do it, how they want to do it, where they want to do it who they want to do it to, for as long as they want to do it too.
 

Your_account

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Almost every country has streaming of aircraft
What you mean with?
Receiving 1090mhz Data is in the most country not directly illegal but share the Data with other and the Gov tolerate it.
but the only thing UK has is ham radio.
here in austria its the same you could stream only CB Radio/ Amateur Radio and PMR446 and if you get the Permission your own Radio Freq.
I would expect to see these type of regulations in Saudi Arabia not Europe.
lol I see you dont know what also forbidden is. Trust me you get very easy screwed up.
 

autovon

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Why does the FCC put a 155 mile rule on CB transmissions? Why do U.S. scanners have certain portions blocked? Sounds like something out of the Soviet Union.
 

kc4jgc

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Why does the FCC put a 155 mile rule on CB transmissions? .

From its inception, the Citizen's Radio Service has always been intended to be a short range personal and business service. Power output limits (4 watts AM; 12 watts SSB) on an hf band is intended to ensure that in normal conditions.

The distance used to be 150 miles; at some point the FCC wanted to go metric; 250 kilometers is equivalent to 155 miles. Close enough for government work.
 

snowmn

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Why does the FCC put a 155 mile rule on CB transmissions? Why do U.S. scanners have certain portions blocked? Sounds like something out of the Soviet Union.


Not sure what your trying to compare? Limits on CB transmission range in US vs total monitoring ban in UK.
 

snowmn

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What you mean with?
Receiving 1090mhz Data is in the most country not directly illegal but share the Data with other and the Gov tolerate it.
here in austria its the same you could stream only CB Radio/ Amateur Radio and PMR446 and if you get the Permission your own Radio Freq.
lol I see you dont know what also forbidden is. Trust me you get very easy screwed up.

I was referring to streaming ATC audio not ADSB. The only issue we have here in the US is if the department is encrypted then we are out of luck monitoring but if it is not encrypted we are allowed to listen with very few exceptions. I am just asking what is their reason for being so restrictive in the UK?
 

Minus1

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UK mentality comes from the Second World War (walls have ears), and was then made worse by the Cold War. The powers that be haven't noticed we have moved on.
 

RFI-EMI-GUY

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UK mentality comes from the Second World War (walls have ears), and was then made worse by the Cold War. The powers that be haven't noticed we have moved on.
Yet the UK hosts the NSA at Menwith Hill

Sent from my SM-T350 using Tapatalk
 

M0YDC

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People freely listen on scanners at airports to the tower etc... As long as you don't act on information received a blind eye is turned. Best not to admit you listen to all sorts of transmissions in the UK though but people do it and always will.
 

CORN

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I was gonna say, I watch videos of the fighter jets that go thru the “Mach Loop” in Wales I believe it is and you can definitely hear a scanner in the back ground in some of the videos. That is on my bucket list by the way.
 

Bandrunner

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The law about listening in the UK is there to slap you with if the authorities can't get you with something else. Basically, if you're out of order and they want to get you for something, it's just another minor charge to add to a list.
Everybody and their dog have always eavesdropped and the authorities know it damned well, and are powerless to do anything about it.
The blind eye has been turned to it from day one, provided you don't act on, or pass the information on to a third party.
It would be a different story if you were still able to listen to cop frequencies in the clear and feed that information to a bunch of bank robbers, for instance. In that case, you'd deserve the slap.
 

GW7MGW

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As far as I am aware nothing wrong with listening, the crime is to act on information received, or to pass it on, and that includes amateur radio bands. With the exception that you can send QSL cards giving frequency, time, date etc. Or to authorities.

So if for example Joe is riding in a truck with Blogs, and the mic falls and PTT gets pressed, and you hear Joe saying how rotten Fred is, and you tell Fred what Joe said, then you can be done, however if Joe is talking about a bank robbery and you tell Police that's OK.

In UK you are permitted to break the law if by doing so you are stopping a greater crime, so if you see a bank being robbed you can block the road to stop them getting away, without being done of obstructing the road. Classic case was in a nuclear sub, where they destroyed the computers needed to launch the missiles as they said having them was against international law.

However the reverse is also true, when a stupid taxi firm thought they could save money on radios and use CB's and the thieves listened in and targeted empty houses where taxi's had taken occupants for night out, the thieves also got done for acting on information received.

Jodrell bank couldn't work if you could not listen to radio, although the dish is not really used for terrestrial transmissions.
 

hardsuit

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autovon - 155 mile rule on CB is to prevent RFI interference with AM-FM broadcast and other frequency, its why 1K Linear Amps are banned, for this reason, Its completely legal to DX CB but not Transmit. screws with other Homes in your Area, Part 15 Radios, Broadcast Radio , and VHF Air / Marine.

The ONLY portions Blocked in scanners are the Analog Cellular portions 800/900 MHz. everything else is FAIR game, but Scanner makers use CHEAP receivers that have Missing gaps in Coverage to save money. Professional Scanners like the ICOM R30 and AOR DV-10 don't have ANY missing gaps in coverage , except for the Cellular Portion, per FCC Mandate. and Scanners also have Narrow Coverage compared to the ICOM, 100 Khz - 3304 Mhz. scanners cover only Above 26 MHz - 1300 MHz , but with GAPS in coverage. which makes them barely useable for HAMS and People waning SW and HF reception.

Pre Ban , I bought a AOR 1000 scanner, it can scan Analog Cellular as well as Cordless Telephone, CAR Phones, Wireless Intercom, Baby Monitors and Wireless Doorbells, garage openers.
 

SteveSimpkin

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As far as I am aware nothing wrong with listening, the crime is to act on information received, or to pass it on, and that includes amateur radio bands.

I think OFcom and section 48 of the Wireless Telegraphy Act 2006 disagree with you.

"This means that it is illegal to listen to anything other than general reception transmissions unless you are either a licensed user of the frequencies in question or have been specifically authorised to do so by a designated person."

"Question: Isn't this all a bit heavy?
Answer: No. No-one likes their private or business conversations to be listened to. Parliament has passed these laws to protect the privacy of radio users."

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/ass...7/Guidance-on-Receive-Only-Radio-Scanners.pdf
 

Bandrunner

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I think OFcom and section 48 of the Wireless Telegraphy Act 2006 disagree with you.

"This means that it is illegal to listen to anything other than general reception transmissions unless you are either a licensed user of the frequencies in question or have been specifically authorised to do so by a designated person."

"Question: Isn't this all a bit heavy?
Answer: No. No-one likes their private or business conversations to be listened to. Parliament has passed these laws to protect the privacy of radio users."

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/ass...7/Guidance-on-Receive-Only-Radio-Scanners.pdf

And they know it's unenforceable. If they tried to enforce it, it would be a police state. As I said above, if's just another little piece of legislation that's held in reserve to hit you with if they've got nothing else.
It's been long settled that you can listen to what you like, if you don't pass any information to a third party. The 'third party' bit is not enshrined in law, but several times that's been asked and answered over the years. Keeping it slightly vague is fairly normal in the UK canon of law - hey, it also gives work to legal sharks.
Now, if the country was in time of war, it would be enforced more readily, of that I have no doubt. However, recall the last war, when hundreds of thousand of Brits listened to Lord Haw-Haw, not to drink in his Nazi propaganda, but to poke fun at him. Technically, they were listening to an enemy broadcast - which was probably illegal at the time, but I stand to be corrected.
Anyone know for sure?
 

Hans13

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And they know it's unenforceable. If they tried to enforce it, it would be a police state. As I said above, if's just another little piece of legislation that's held in reserve to hit you with if they've got nothing else.

"Show me the man and I will show you the crime." - Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria, NKVD Chief under Stalin

So-called unenforceable laws are but one tool in tyranny's tool shed.
 

Hans13

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Technically, they were listening to an enemy broadcast - which was probably illegal at the time, but I stand to be corrected.
Anyone know for sure?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Joyce
Although listening to his broadcasts was officially discouraged (but not illegal), many Britons heard the broadcasts. At the height of his influence, in 1940, Joyce had an estimated six million regular and 18 million occasional listeners in the United Kingdom.
 
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