Originally posted by lukster
Turn it on and it works. Modifications to allow monitoring of cell phones could get you a vacation in the slammer.
Scanners/radios manufactured before the law was enacted (very early 90's ?) are not illegal.
Technically, LISTENING to cellular phone calls is not purely illegal. Divuldging the contents of those calls to third parties, or recording the conversations is.
While most ship-to-shore phone calls have gone digitally satallite, some of the smaller cruise lines still use the old ship-to-shore networks (radio). Monitoring those calls is not illegal, provided they are not recorded without consent or the contents divuldged to third parties.
That said, it's not easy to find a receiver anymore that was purchased/modified BEFORE the law was enacted...folks tend to hang on to those rigs. (Kinda-sorta except Ebay, which unfortunately, is loaded with illegal rigs.)
Trunking Networks, which many police departments went to in the late 80's and early 90's (875-925 mHz area) was done in an effort (similar to spread spectrum) to help give law enforcement more comminications options, and set aside one or more of their assigned frequences for data (ASCII, AMTOR, etc.) A monitor might hear one part of the conversation on one frequency, but by the time the squelch dropped, they might miss the other party on a different trunking frequency...or just hear encripted data.
Trunking was intended to allow "full duplex" (you can talk to someone at the same time they talk to you, not available on old fashioned in/out repeaters) and to go to a higher UHF spectrum--lessing the number of "dead zones" in any given coverage area (VHF).
The sideline advantage was making it harder for crooks to monitor law enforcement.
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**PigStompers**
