Secret Radio Frequencies, Police Raids & Heavy Fines For Radio Scanning

[@cats_know_everything_about_you]

The idea of plaintext radio traffic being illegal to listen to -- still true, by the way -- is bizarre to me. You wouldn't yell secret information out of the window and then complain that someone heard you.

[@dgurevich1]

It ain't just radio. US car and tractor companies try to ban reverse engineering on cars they manufacture out of 'safety' A kid in Florida got sued by a local municipality for "hacking" their database (which was all available as html pages online, so all he did was change the page number in the URL) governments drunk on power would rather make up a scary and ridiculous law then fix the underlying problem.

[@G-ra-ha-m]

It's only illegal if you agree it is. We are governed by consent, and they can only send illegal demands to our Cestui Que name, which is not us, it's our birth trust. As with all official 'offers to contract', RTS it - 'return to sender'!

[@wlewis6544]

@@G-ra-ha-m nonsense Graham. Sounds like you’ve been listening to too many ‘freemen of the land’. ‘Policed by consent’ does not mean it only counts if you agree 🙄. Imagine murdering someone and your defence is “well I don’t agree that murder is illegal”. Don’t be ridiculous.

[@G-ra-ha-m]

@@wlewis6544 Your example is silly, because murder has a victim, so the Law of the Land applies, so that is unlawful. The Cestui Vie is real, it's on your birth certificate and accessed via your NI number. You attempted smear with 'freeman' also fails, because that was the first awakening to the unlawful maritime law system that we (well, out legal fiction cestui que ID) are slaves for. Look even at your council tax demand. Use the government's Legal Styles Manual: it's blank. look to whom they address it. To your trust! Why would you, as beneficiary, pay that? Why, when even statute says you don't have to pay it, would you pay it? You have a lot to learn, Good Luck.

[@G-ra-ha-m]

@@tjmarx You have to accept the charge and jurisdiction first. You'd have to plead. Pleading is begging, did you not know? There's no victim and no proof of claim, no contract and if you are smart, no joinder. Live in your cage if you like, but don't expect the awakening to also do that!

[@IanDarley]

It would be amazing to go back to the 80's with a modern waterfall spectrum scope receiver, it would have been a smorgasbord eavesdropping goodness.

[@IanDarley]

@@stargazer7644 Wow, what software were you using to capture the frequencies and trigger from the squelch? 👍 I only had an old 8086 XT running DOS from a 5.25" floppy back then (Lotus for spreadsheets and I can't even remember the word processor software!) and wouldn't have the skills to set up anything like that.

[@IanDarley]

@@stargazer7644 Impressive stuff, beyond my skills 👍

[@kkristopher7413]

I had a neat radio scanner when I was a kid and used to be able to hear cordless phones from people in my neighborhood. Crazy spy and eavesdropping time.

[@garynewton1263]

There were some truly great stuff to listen to here in Australia back in the 80s including the 55Mhz VOX operated handheld radio system, 30Mhz cordless phones and the PAMTS mobile phone network (501-505Mhz).

[@DylanFahey]

Yes it was.

[@jhorton1600]

Here in the US you can listen to anything not encrypted, but you're not supposed to talk about it, or use that information in the commission of a crime.

[@natehaby]

You can also listen to anything encrypted.. if you can decrypt it. Perfectly legal. You can talk about it all you want.

[@adcraziness1501]

Unless I am mistaken, in the USA it is legal to receive and listen to any frequency. It is up to the transmitter to properly encode their transmission if they wish any form of privacy. You *MAY* get in trouble for decoding encrypted signals, that I do not know, but it is perfectly legal to sit there and receive whatever static they are transmitting. No transmission of any worth should be sent in the clear, anyway.

[@nospam3001]

There are two exceptions, one legal and one not so much. Congress passed a law making it illegal to receive cable and satellite TV programming if you are not a subscriber. And several states have made it illegal to have police radar detectors. The federal government regulates radio exclusively so technically those states can't ban radar detectors, but in this case the FCC doesn't enforce it's prerogative.

[@adcraziness1501]

@@nospam3001 well, television communications have been "scrambled" aka somewhat encrypted and unusable without buying the cable box. They have been that way for decades, and now it's all digital anyway so is definitely more difficult to intercept. Receiving the raw, undecoded signal should be legal. There is no expectation of privacy on the airwaves. The other thing you mention, several states outlawing police scanners? Well, that is just government overreach.

[@donaldvincent]

@@adcraziness1501 TV here in the US just started digital broadcast a few years ago (June 12, 2009) You only need an antenna and a newer digital capable TV. You can still use older TV's with a converter box. I still have one older TV using a converter box. The converter boxes were available for free from the FCC via an 800 number or web site. Prior to the change over all you needed was an antenna, and prior to the digital change over you could listen to TV channel 6 at the very bottom of your FM radio dial. Here in Orlando we have a channel 6 (WKMG) and I used to listen to Star Trek everyday at 4pm at work. Now with digital this is no longer an option. But thankfully still no encryption.

[@DFDuck55]

It is only illegal to monitor police radio traffic in the U.S. if you do it "while in the act of committing a crime." I have an SDR that has continuous coverage from 3 kHz to 2.5 gHz. So anything my police scanner doesn't cover (which includes Military Air band which used to be illegal to listen to) I can find on the SDR. It is illegal to decode encrypted police and military radio, and I have software to do it, but cracking the encryption key is near impossible.

[@jonmcentire]

@@nospam3001 actually it's not illegal to receive satellite signals, it's only illegal to descramble them if you are not a subscriber. Also, outside of some very specific licensing and government agencies, it is illegal to transmit encrypted radio signals in the us. There are exceptions like cordless phones, baby monitors etc, but those are od dedicated bands specifically for that. By the way it's only illegal to receive cable signals if your not a subscriber because that would require you to have an physical connection to the cable itself. It has nothing to do with radio laws and regulations since Cable is a physical connection, not an ove the air transmission, I mean it's in the name after all...

[@brockmiller574]

Locating your channel was a happy accident. It's solid content. Thanks for making the effort to put it out there.

[@RingwayManchester]

And thank you for such a kind comment :)

[@UKSCIENCEORG]

My brother was into scanning in the 80s/90s. By accident he picked up the cellphone conversation of Eddy Shah who owned the (then) new national newspaper called 'Today' and one of his managers. He was discussing how to deal with a threat of strike action by the print Union!

[@branchcovidian754]

That was a big motivation for phone systems to go digital.

[@hunter00047]

I used to work for BT and dare not say too much, but never use a land line except wishing someone happy birthday!

[@boilerroombob]

I slept very little in the 80s and 90s due to that magic box of tricks the "realistic scanner" from tandy and had to be pulled away from the scanner to go to the pub on fridays!...and then I wouldn't go on to a club as I wanted to get back home to catch all the.... police.....cordless phone...cellphone....baby alarm action.....arguments, love affairs' divorces, and drug deals, even ladies of the night being ordered over the phone like it was burger joint......and that quite respectable neighbour a few doors down who was so sweet... my jaw hit the floor one night ....even my my mum supposedly asleep in the next room shouted out to me "turn that up I missed that bit"! those were days .....Great article Lewis well done x

[@adrianchapman9755]

Me and my dad used to listed to the analog phones back in the day. I was only 11-12 at the time and the things they talked about used to go right over my head until dad explained it in terms I’d understand. Informative and great times. Also had a satellite receiver with special EPROMs that allowed it to get the red hot Dutch uplink and heaven knows what else. Those were the days !!

[@kkristopher7413]

Thats awesome! Those times were so fun and no one knew

[@barrieshepherd7694]

The transmissions from Euston Tower at Warren Street were many, and some were at considerable power, so much so that 2nd & 3rd harmonics would interfere with other licensed transmissions. At the time I worked for an organisation that had a number of licensed frequencies for national use, and a couple of these suffered interference in the London area. As we were well equipped with test equipment we were able to triangulate the source to Euston Tower and duly advised the DTI at Baldock that we would like the interference identified and 'sorted'. About an hour later we got a call along the lines of "It will be fixed in two days, you did not hear anything, and we will deny the issues ever existed." One of the transmissions was pulsed (apparently no normal modulation) - we estimated it was being broadcast at around 5 kW given the signal strengths we recorded some distance away - what it did 'we do not know'. Another Euston Tower story, told to me by an aerial rigger, is that they would get a job card to install an antenna at'top Euston Tower. They would attend site, a security guard would hand over the antenna and a sheet of paper instructing which pole to mount it on, it's height and direction AND which hole in the lift/equipment room wall to pass the feeder cable through to a waiting hand. That is all they ever knew.

[@full_time_motorhome]

Just checked my 3rd edition of the scanning directory. Page 107, Remmington Minicabs 142.5000. Quality !

[@womble321]

I've been in the Baldock base it was very strange. The gate opened on its own and I was left to wander around trying to find people. Eventually someone literally appeared from underground to sign my ticket! In one room was a long line of monitors with all sorts of foreign TV stations all being recorded. No people though!

[@zgelrevol9682]

Super interesting and well presented - first time here for me. Staying forever. Dude is clear on concise raising awareness.

[@RingwayManchester]

Thanks so much!

[@erikmutthersbough6508]

I didn't realize the scope of how restrictive the radio world is in England.

[@kenstevens5065]

Yes indeed. As a teenager in the 1960's it was not until 1967 that the BBC opened radio one dedicated to popular music. Prior to that it was radio Luxemburg, poor fading signal or later pirate radio from ships offshore, generally poor signal as well. Commercial popular radio came even later in the 1970's. Now we have almost limitless choice in home entertainment but we can still say, there is nothing of interest to me on the TV or radio tonight.

[@tcct01]

Your amount of research is amazing!

[@stuartvaughan8599]

Another great video Lewis. I remember spotting ‘Rimington Mini Cabs’ in an early edition of the scanning directory and soon realised what it actually was!

[@peterstean2138]

Interesting photos of the Redoubt and the Old Admiralty Building you've got there - I can neither confirm nor deny whether you can see my office window in those shots ;)

[@andyhowlett2231]

Another great video, Lewis. I've got one of those R&S receivers here in my shack (actually it's the EB150 with fewer interfaces round the back) and it's a cracker!

[@jamesrindley6215]

This was when the erosion of our freedoms actually started, when the government started to have utter contempt for the common people. Amazingly, ordinary people kept voting for such governments and they still do.

[@newforestpixie5297]

And back then even domestic radio stations were interesting. ILR Radio Victory had real authentic presenters with their individual characters and the music they played was determined by what the station owner felt like and the chart was decided by what was being bought in 4 of Portsmouths’ record shops which meant songs that daytime Radio 1 wouldn’t touch such as White Punks on Dope by The Tubes 🏴❤️😃

[@MadScientist267]

@@newforestpixie5297 Thankfully macbook and spotify saved us... 🙄

[@benjiunofficial]

You can vote for the other guys but it doesn't matter, they all know each other and have the same policies. They don't actually want your input on anything.

[@unbearifiedbear1885]

Bread and circuses... if there's water in the tap, food in the fridge and heat in the pipes, people will just carry on

[@paulbaker654]

The 80's and 90's were a golden age for scanning. My AOR 1000 covered 100khz to 1ghz with no gaps. Spent hours listening to emergency services and loads of other things on VHF and UHF. It was also the advent of analogue cell phones which made for interesting listening, I always kept everything to myself. They were a bit naïve in discussing it and, although there were many detailed frequency lists available, it was best not to tell too many people what you were doing.

[@HyperMario64]

Yeah just don't self snitch you know it's illegal, why would you brag about it? If I was you I would refrain as well.

[@hdofu]

I remember listening to analog cell phones in college... you definitely could hear some people talking for 15 minutes about a lost set of car keys.

[@paulbaker654]

@@hdofu You occasionally came across something interesting. I once heard a well-known Premier League football manager discussing a possible transfer. His language would make a sailor blush.

[@winstonchurchill6506]

Yeah and all those cordless house phones and listening to what those naughty housewives were up to.lol

[@electronixTech]

I bought a Uniden BC-200XLT scanner back in 1991 which was factory unlocked for cell phone frequencies and listened to all the local cellular telephone calls up until 2004 when here in Canada analog cell sites were changed to all digital and I couldn't use it for that purpose anymore. At the time I also was able to scan cordless phone calls nearby me as well but they ended up going to digital too.

[@tomgosy]

The fact that all of this sensitive information wasn't encrypted, masked or even coded, and just waiting to be listened to... it blows my mind. If you're a covert gov unit, you can't just rely on a law saying 'you can't listen to this specific information even though you heard it without too much trouble'

[@mindblast3901]

Great Video Lewis 90,s was a Blast for scanning and Pirate Radio Glad to be alive then👍

[@atlanticx100]

Your commentary always is always interesting. Oh, the good old days. I can remember hearing I believe a Radar transmitter on my FM radio also various services that were on just a domestic radio. I loved your mention of false security as if the various embassy's around the country were not doing the same.

[@RobR386]

they broke the 1st rule of scanner club... they talked about it, or more specific what they received 🙂

[@bugler75]

Another great, well researched and interesting topic! Rimington Taxis, brilliant!

[@LatitudeSky]

The Rimington Minicabs listing reminds me of a tactic I've seen used in the US, where different frequency list authors will include false and unique info in their lists to see if someone else will just blindly copy the inaccurate or misleading info and republish it as their own.

[@ShaunieDale]

This is sometimes known as a “canary trap” I believe “. Each publication of the list has a different error in it. Thus by looking for the deliberate error it was possible to determine which listing had leaked.

[@davebrookbank4831]

Been a US ham for 50 years, I started at around 14 years old. This is a great site with plenty of info. I am sorry the UK is so controlling. If the folks in the US don't get their ducks in a row we will be next. So far we are still trying to figure out what a woman is ... well they are,,,,, I have known for 64 years. Some here learn VERY slowly. Thanks again for this channel, I joined.

[@ddegn]

I hate things that are illegal only because the government decides they're illegal. Whenever a "victim" of a crime can't be found, people should seriously consider not classifying the activity as a crime. Thanks for another interesting video.

[@oldblueshirtguy]

Indeed. Real criminals would have been listening undetected. All these guys did was expose how incompetent the DTI were using unencrypted radios.

[@wclifton968gameplaystutorials]

@@stargazer7644 Well English Common Law was not decided on by Parliament and that puts several rules on the government and society and so there are some things the government did not directly define as "illegal", for example, my "home is my castle" and if the government breaches idea and the rest of the Magna Carta, then the government is acting illegally but of course the government violates common law and the magna carta all the time (unfortunately)...

[@oldblueshirtguy]

@@stargazer7644 The point is that it's ok for the poster to hate the fact that the government made something illegal, that has no reason to be illegal. Of course governments make all laws, but to be juste those laws must also have a moral basis. Given that we do need laws, then hating the immoral and/or illogical ones is understandable. QED.

[@oldblueshirtguy]

@@wclifton968gameplaystutorials English "common law" has never been law (that was the entire reason it was jokingly called "common law") and the Magna Carta only ever applied to wealthy land owners when dealing with royal taxes 1000 years ago.

[@wclifton968gameplaystutorials]

@@oldblueshirtguy from what I've heard, the Magna Carta has been used as a defense/weapon in high court trials in recent years but I don't really know much about this. I may also add that common law is comparable to the Canadian charter of rights or the US Constitution...

[@barrybark3995]

i remember back in the 80s using a hi powered CB radio this bled onto the police radio network.i cant remember how i found out but i remember broadcasting inane chatter such as "hello ron, yah yah head ing on over now be 20 minutes ,,,wait for me blah blah " and then hearing the fallout at police hq on my scanner,they defo had someone tracking me down but id pop up randomly days later sometimes left the key open for an hour . i only did it for a few months

[@Willy_Tepes]

Encrypted signals are still useful to track, specially if you have a directional antenna. Just the fact that someone is using encrypted communication in your vicinity could be all you need to know.

[@Theoobovril]

The Enigma2000 Group do a lot of, outside the Licence frequencies, monitoring of radio communications. Their work involves the monitoring and searching of "clandestine" transmissions. They issue a monthly log of all their findings, and lets say, they are a very useful service to our Secret Services, hence tolerated and have been so for over 40 years now. Enigma2000 has members throughout the world, and not just here in the UK.

[@huwkelvinmorgan3575]

wow incredible detail. keep up the good work.

[@bob23301]

I remember my father tuning into the police radios transmittions on his pye music center in the late 70s to listen to the radio chatter.

[@suzannehartmann946]

GEE I wonder how much difference there was between the price of that ONE surveillance and raid operation and the scrambling/de-scrambling equipment instead.

[@piggo64]

Excellent stuff!

[@arthurtwoshedsjackson6266]

Great video Lewis, again !

[@russellnixon9981]

I like the idea that Steller Remington was running a side business of miny cabs. Excellent production as always.

[@baronedipiemonte3990]

Your reports are never dull. And another reminder of freedoms we still have in the States that you guys don't (presuming one can afford it). As I've said before, over here we can listen to damn near anything so long as the information heard is not divulged or used for commercial purposes, i.e. Ambulance, Tow, and Taxi service jumping calls. Or in the furtherance of crimes. In my county we used to be able to listen to EVERYTHING, analog, unencrypted. Now you can't even listen to Fire tone out dispatch... unless you have a scanner/receiver that covers 700-890mhz P-25 and Motorola LTR trunking, WITH decrypt. Where I live, You can still hear land operations of Mosquito Control, Hospital, Dog Catcher, and surprisingly the JAIL. In the New Orleans area you can still monitor a few University Police Depts, the Zoo, Security for most hotels, a few museums, and the Lake Ponchartrain Causeway Police (at one time the world's longest bridge at 24 miles) It is amusing to listen to the pursuit of toll runners - they catch about half. $5 one way for a regular car, to $35 for a heavy 18 wheeler. UHF AM MilAir is listenable IF you have the proper receiver. It just depends on where in the States you are. In some areas you can still hear police and fire, analog unencrypted on VHF and UHF. After 9/11 the Government was giving away free money for everyone who was public safety to upgrade to P-25. Some departments used the cash for cars, guns, and badges 😶

[@DFDuck55]

In the late 1970s the Sheriff department in my area started encrypting their radios during drug raids. I had a descrambler and would listen in to them.

[@flagmichael]

@Pete Testube Law enforcement now mostly uses encrypted trunked radios. No descramblers; a receiver can decode it if it has the matching code plug (data). Otherwise, no. In addition, long pauses in the conversation release the channel for other users in the system and the conversation will pop up again on a different channel while scanners listen to whoever picked up the old channel. Was an IT Field Services communications networks tech for a Fortune 100 electric company before I retired. More experience than I could stand getting our radios to interoperate with other entities.

[@waynenrich]

Still have my old scanner somewhere not a lot on there now just digital noise

[@moralboundaries1]

Fascinating content, thanks for sharing this knowledge!

[@ianbillmorris]

Bizarrely back in the 90s I had a set of PC speakers that picked up police band transmissions whenever they were near the house. I wasn't intentionally listening in, my pc speakers would suddenly start talking!

[@PeterEdin]

That would often happen with early record players with external speakers plugged in.

[@ocsrc]

1987 there were at least 1 very cool. Very expensive ICOM scanner and a Japanese model that I didn't know existed until a few years ago when I saw it on auction for $500 which was way overpriced being that it was only an analog scanner Back in 87 there were some direct entry keypad scanners but most of them were very limited in they got 25 to 54 MHz 136 to 174 MHz and 420 to 480 megahertz But the icom that I saw covered from 100 khz to 1 ghz And it did all mode and I think it had five decimal places and it could do very fine tuning So 869.9875 was no problem for it to receive but it could also do even stranger frequencies that government agencies used like 330.00907 Where I lived there were several military bases and facilities and I had a list of frequencies that supposedly they used but they were in the middle of the normal spacing of channels and I had no way to get onto those frequencies until someone showed me this icom and we set one night and had it sitting on one of the frequencies and sure enough it was being used by the military facility To think about how easy it is nowadays for anybody to get onto any frequency compared to what we had to work with back in the 80s people don't know how good they've got it

[@alunroberts1439]

I did hear some strange stuff in the 80s playing with a TV tuner module feeding the IF out into the back of a manual tune satellite receiver.

[@TheNapalmFTW]

When I lived in the UK me and my friend just used AES encrypted P25 to talk about juicy stuff.

[@peterh9238]

Ahh the good old EB200, made redundant by the filed fox and the PR100 (now thats a nice bit of kit 🙂)

[@Mike-H_UK]

Another well researched and interesting video, Lewis.

[@michaelstapelberg7751]

gosh.. as an 8 year old kid I used to slowly scan through radio waves to find stuff.., on all frequencies... weird stuff . but nothing that ever made sense..I was lookling for aliens LOL

[@1697djh]

The UK Scanning directory was just like a phonebook, sadly the police and other types went digital. Mobile phone conversations were great fun to listen to.

[@robj3857]

Nice shot of the Admiralty Citadel, would like to hear more about what’s coming in and out of there.

[@paulbaker654]

Royal Navy comms site

[@mandh14]

Cracking video Lewis - those were the days!

[@wigglepig115]

Interesting installation at 2:50...what do you know about it?

[@RingwayManchester]

I’m not sure and it’s annoying because I can’t remember where I was when I took the photo

[@wigglepig115]

@@RingwayManchester Drop me an email and I can tell you where you were and when you were there (+/- a bit.)

[@bobbysenterprises3220]

As someone in the US it blows my mind to be illegal to listen. I've always been told listening here is ok. It's what you do with the info. Example you can't use your neighbors phone call to go rob them when they plan to be away. Or to interfere with investigations or to evade officials

[@cosmicinsane516]

As an American I find this totally nuts that you have these restrictions on scanning/listening. Lol that said we have plenty of our own insane laws I guess.

[@cosmicinsane516]

@@thewhitefalcon8539 Actually they only restrict gun ownership. It’s still perfectly legal to get shot in the UK, as was proven last week.

[@daviddavid5880]

Someone doesn't want their department axed.

[@aetch77]

I've never had a scanner but I have occasionally listened in to my local police radio using nothing more than my AM/FM radio. This was some 30 years ago. I never knew such a community existed.

[@theodoreroberts3407]

Do not ever set your radio(s) to transmit on emergency frequencies, unless you have written permission from the FCC. Well, unless you like federal prison. I remember a case that someone did in Ohio.

[@MadScientist267]

@@theodoreroberts3407 Do you NOT know what a scanner is and does? 🤣🤣🤣🤦‍♂️ Siddown. 🙄

[@theodoreroberts3407]

@@MadScientist267 yes I do! I own two and four transceivers for different services beyond the scanners. How many do you own?

[@MadScientist267]

@@theodoreroberts3407 Scanners by definition don't transmit, dumbass.

[@DRNEGOLICIS]

Crazy 80-108mhz is brodcast for music etc. So that means you can hear it with a standard radio!

[@flagmichael]

88.1-107.9 MHz to be precise. 108.0 MHZ is in the civilian aeronautical navigation band.

[@newtronix]

Haha Rimington Minicabs. Love it!

[@richintalent]

So glad I live in the US, we listen to what we want and talk about it freely

[@davebrookbank4831]

So far that is

[@Capitanvolume]

Im in canada. Its perfectly legal to listen to any radio transmissions. Decryption of encrypted messages is illegal, but lots of police use unencrypted systems

[@ramjet4025]

Back in Australia in the 70's there was a similar mindset of the PMG , called the Pigs Meat and Gravey. or the Post Master Generals office who had almost identical crazy ideas of security of radio transmissions going back to the beginning of radio reception regulations. To this day, you can find these rules that prohibit passing on radio communications that you receive. The problem is anyone can go to the local rubbish dump, and turn it into a receiver . Now with Software defined Radio, you can get these USB sticks to do amazing feats that previously cost a fortune.

[@davidcovington901]

I am currently receiving all frequencies of the electromagnetic spectrum, being that I am essentially a conductive bag of saltwater. I am not plucking the modulations out of their carrier waves, but I am, as I say, receiving all. Is this illegal, and how is the law written?

[@RingwayManchester]

I dunno David but that was poetic. Love it

[@captaincodpiece3263]

The capital radio building reference reminded me of the late 1970s when a punk band, think it was the Clash, had one of their record sleeves that had a photo of the Capital Radio building withdrawn (the single went out but without the offending sleeve). This seemed odd as usual reasons for banning record covers at the time was on grounds of obscenity. Indeed if you had one of the EPs with the original sleeve, bought before they were withdrawn, it was something of a rarity and somewhat collectible. In the absence of any official explanation The rumour was that the sleeve contravened the official secrets as the Capital Radio building also housed a secret government facility. I thought this somewhat dubious at the time but this video makes me think that the rumour was true.

[@ethzero]

Surprised that the guy didn't just label the frequency as, "Universal Exports". 😉

[@skeggjoldgunnr3167]

FCC regs on receiving RF signals in the US have remained mostly the wild west - open, free. They don't want you creating interference to any signal or device, though. They don't really have the funding to enforce much in the way of a perceived infraction. Used to be: it took a complaint. Or HAM radio operators would visit you and help you iron out your radio interference issues before anyone knew to complain. SDR hobby allows for 800MHz - 900MHz monitoring - in spite of an archaic law on the books that could effect only scanners, receivers sold in the US.

[@trollingwoodtaproombrewery3670]

Oi, ya got loiscence fur dat scanna?

[@RoamingAdhocrat]

Is it usual to pronounce frequencies as "seventy-three decimal six five"? I've just done an aviation radio course which was explicit that digits should be pronouced separately i.e. "seven three decimal six five". or is it just the CAA/ICAO being stricter than CB?

[@RingwayManchester]

It doesn’t matter in the hobbyist community. I can imagine it’s important in aviation

[@martdedub]

I did some work in Huston Tower over 20 years ago. The was a bad leak from a plant room which was over the Tax office. They were panicking trying to figure out how to stop it and one older guy said "it could destroy all the tax records" our guys laughed as they wouldn't have had any problem with that. Our guys went down and got onto the Plant room floor to find MOD signage KEEP OUT... the tax guy was freaking out so they busted the lock on the chain link gate and tried to plug the leak (cooling pump case had cracked wide open, lots of water) within 3 minute our guys were stopped by SO19 (Metropolitan Police Armed Response) with guns drawn.... best part, one of our guys (Phil) from Northern Ireland with a strong accent. Our foreman, who along with everyone else had hands in the air looked at Phil and said "do not say a f-ing word, you get us all shot" it took some explanation and the tax guy was still loosing his mind. Always wondered what that room was but remember saying at the time, all the stuff on the roof... Jame bond sh1t!

[@NicholasAndre1]

In the US those with a ham radio license are exempt from any scanning restrictions across the entire country.

[@jonmcentire]

You don't need a license at all to scan/receive in the US. Only to transmit.

[@NicholasAndre1]

@@jonmcentire I believe there are some state laws around using a scanner eg in a vehicle.

[@jonmcentire]

@@NicholasAndre1 yes but those are particular to scanners capable of picking up police/emergency service frequencies.

[@NicholasAndre1]

@@jonmcentire my point is amateur radio licensees in the US are federally exempt from such laws.

[@flagmichael]

@@NicholasAndre1 Maybe the laws have changes since my day (late 60s) but the laws only concerned transmitting.

[@carlashby6174]

Another class video Lewis.

[@benhawke7231]

I still find it crazy, but interesting how crazy the British government is about their own citizens listening in on government operations and charging citizens for a crime when it was the governments own fault for not encrypting the transmissions in the first place. Here in the US if you hear something that you're not supposed to hear and the government finds out, they send some suits to your door and let you know that what you heard was classified information and part of national security. They tell you we know we can't tell you not to talk about it, but we strongly urge that you don't because it could get people killed or ruin any operation that communication was a part of. It's kind of nice living in a country where the government is of the people and for the people. Kind of sucks that you have your own government spying on you. Now granted I do understand we have the NSA here in the United States that spies on everyone in the world even our own citizens, but there is nothing the NSA can do with the information they collect on the citizens here in the United States because then they'd have to admit that they're spying on us. They can't admit that they're spying on us because it's illegal.

[@paulmorrey733]

Thanks Lewis

[@zzzztj]

I think I actually knew the London 5. They were friends of the late Bob T, who was known on LBC and BBC doing tech talk as a contributor. They also got busted for running an LW radio station. Bob had his license suspended but I can't for the life of me remember what his call was. But he was instrumental in getting me involved in radio and gave me my first 2m transciever, an FT208. Happy days.

[@gman1010]

AOR was the nuts back in the day

[@mobilephil244]

When I was young (1960's) The GPO (later became Telecom) was absolutely ruthless about people installing their own phone extensions or doing anything at all with their phone line. They employed people to go up the street poles with meters and check for illegal extensions in houses. They too used to turn up mob handed and ransack your entire house, confiscating every single thing that ran on electricity and handing out vast fines and prison sentences for utterly trivial things. Thing is, the GPO was still in the world-war-2 mind state as well as the British Empire crush-the-peasants mind-set. Right up until the nineties, any radio offences resulted in horrific and grossly disproportionate responses by the Police and Spooks.

[@darylcheshire1618]

was like that in Australia where Radio Inspectors worked for Radio Branch of the Postmaster-General’s department. (PMG) Their responses were heavy handed. The enabling legislation was the Wireless Telegraphy Act 1905.

[@bwc1976]

Reminds me of the movie "Brazil", probably helped inspire it.

[@seymourpro6097]

Rimmington mini cabs, a Stella example of hiding in plain sight.

[@RingwayManchester]

It’s brilliant isn’t it

[@meanderingbird286]

So the 'Soviet Russians' most probably listened in from a 'fishing trawler', but ordinary citizens were not permitted to do so 😂

[@jesusisking3974]

I picked up a pilot calling a 09090999 before cutting off. Do you or anyone know what this number code means ? Thanks ! 👍

[@ChoppingtonOtter]

How ridiculous that nuclear weapon movements were not encrypted or at least in code.

[@baronedipiemonte3990]

Here in the States, the transportation of civil (power plant) and military nuclear stuff gets more protection than the President of the United States ! I'm quite sure their comms are Super encrypted. Occasionally one is lucky enough to see an actual convoy - an armored transport truck/van, with 6 to 20 vehicle escort (all black) of highly armed protective personnel who are authorized to shoot first. They haven't yet...

[@wclifton968gameplaystutorials]

@@baronedipiemonte3990 Here in the UK the government provides it's own freight rail service for transporting nuclear waste, cargo and weaponry which is heavily armoured with police carrying massive guns and receiving railway network priority, no doubt that if the US railway network was not falling apart the US Government would be shipping nuclear via rail instead of road since it's generally much safer...

[@jack12494]

I love your video so much

[@tomweickmann6414]

"Containers of illegal CB radios being shipped from Ireland" That is something I can't get my head around. Hilarious. Considering what could have been smuggled, I don't feel too threatened by a load of radios.😊

[@josephdurnal]

Is this a re-release? I feel like I've seen this video before.

[@josephdurnal]

ok, maybe it wasn't quite the same as the other one

[@g7vak]

What about the VIM ?

[@RingwayManchester]

What’s that mate

[@karlament6939]

147.5 in United States and Canada is the amateur radio frequencies we cover from one 44.0 MHz FM upper lower Side Band am to 147.995 would be the VHF and 430 to a four yeah 450 would be the high side of amateur radio Advance up here in United States and Canada that's weird 147.5 the guy gets arrested for listening the amateur radio

[@branchcovidian754]

Here's the catch. Long ago the SCOTUS (Supreme Court of the United States) ruled _listening_ to transmitted radio waves is not illegal provided the listener does not record, retransmit or decode for the purpose of evading any subscription fees. US military personnel, specifically communication specialists, could listen and sometimes decode while in UK but not be prosecuted.

[@mfx1]

The EB200 receiver you posted a picture of didn't exist in 1987 I hadn't even joined then and we only got EB200's a few years before I left.

[@RingwayManchester]

No you’re right they came out in 1997…

[@chreinisch]

Back then when spending some time in a Million Pound radio laboratory we listened to all kinds of sh... That was real fun 😁

[@MXstar189]

heck I remember when I was a kid we had a scanner and could hear the neighbors talking on there wireless phones LOL. oh and it didn't help me much because when we got in trouble and the police got involved my dad would hear it on the police band and I would get in trouble while my friends went home with there parents none the wiser. oh and later on when in my teenage years I set up a base station in the basement with I think antron 99 on the roof and a blue thunder linear and you could hear my broadcast resonate through the neighbor's aluminum gutters LOL boy those where the days. thanks for the videos .... over-and-out

[@ve2zzz]

None of this is required today... Strong encryption does all the job !!

[@RingwayManchester]

Yep. Said exactly that in the video

[@flagmichael]

You would be amazed at the number of smaller agencies that do not use encryption or trunking, with its codeplugs.

[@aquariussoda007]

They are all going crazy.

[@davidCYVR]

Nice one Lewis mate, "over n out"

[@DJMICA-bz3qz]

Love this channel

[@HifiCentret]

That is exactly why more countries use digital encrypted radios. You can never stop someone from listening. In many countries it's not illegal to receive whatever radio signals passes by you - the only sensible option is encryption. I listened a lot to police radios years ago. Now they're digitally encrypted and no one has cracked the system yet. And I believe it's a simple firmware update if they should be cracked but on top of that I believe it's made such that only specific devices you want to receive messages can decrypt it - so no global encryption key.

[@TuiCatNZ]

Why were the authorities so reluctant to just employ scrambling/encryption to their communications? Real spy's are well known for obeying the law in their host countries /sarcasm.

[@waynenrich]

Good work Lewis

[@cat1stevens]

I was visited by the "frekvenskontrollen" / CIA back in 1987/1988 in Norway as a HAM-Radioamateur .....: back then i did not know anything about Khazarian mafia, or the City of London, or the Fed-reserve, or the Vatican, or the Wash-DC. or the Octagon-Group, or the Bilderberg, or the Parle ment (french-english:speak lies) : Thanks !

[@daviddavid5880]

Making it illegal to listen is truly laughable. Like making it illegal to look at a squad car. ("Are you looking at me? Oh and now you're listening to me? Smelling me too, eh? That's it. We're heading down to the station. And now you've made me touch you. You sir are in violation of the Sensory Exception Act. STOP LOOKING AT ME! CLOSE THOSE EYES AND STOP LISTENING RIGHT NOW!")

[@ruggugglan]

Here in sweden nowadays police most use mobilephones...they also have RAKEL but it is encrypted. So no police or fire alarm to listen to here

[@theodoreroberts3407]

I do know I am not allowed to repeat what I hear on any radio (FCC) on most services, including scanners. I don't know about 'home' radio. Now, no one has said anything about emergency information to me (allowed or not). Radiograms are allowed. Are you confused? You're not alone.

[@BillyNoMates1974]

Rimington Mini Cabs = Uber of the 80's

[@Chiavaccio]

👏👏👍 nice video!