From: whs70@dancer.uucp (22501-sohl)
Subject: Monitoring cellular, cordless, etc.
Organization: Bellcore, Livingston, NJ
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 92 00:49:15 GMT


Here's a post I made to comp.dcom.telecom that I though would
be of interest to this newsgroup also.

In article <telecom12.666.3@eecs.nwu.edu> lchiu@animal.gcs.co.nz
(Laurence Chiu) writes:

> In article <telecom12.661.12@eecs.nwu.edu> voorhis@aecom.yu.edu
> (Adrienne Voorhis) writes:

>> What if a reporter, for instance, was listening to a police band
>> radio and heard a newsworthy event?  Could he or she legitimately be
>> punished for reporting this information?

Reporters do this all the time, although they probably do not rely on
only what they heard to generate the story.  Our local town weekly
newspaper office has a scanner on all the time.  They use it to learn
what is happening and then often follow up with a story on the
incident.

I personally don't ever want to see any more restrictions on listening
to what is being freely broadcast into the airways.  I especially
don't ever want to see any restrictions on the manufacture, sale
and/or possession of any type of radio receiving equipment.  This
country does NOT need the "electronics police" to be looking over
anyone's shoulder to be sure their radio equipment doesn't receive
certain frequency bands, etc.

Laurence Chiu writes: 

> Then I wonder if those laws apply in England. For those who are not
> royal watchers the current scandal is the publication of recording of
> intimate phone conversations between Princess Diana and some
> unidentified "friend" in which the subject matter is embarrassing to
> say the least. The tapes were made by someone who was apparently just
> idly scanning the airwaves with his scanner and happened to pick up
> the cell-phone frequencies.  The last news report I saw indicated that
> the UK authorities had decided not to take any action against him.

While I'm no authority, I have heard that many other countries place
severe restrictions on listening to certain types of broadcasts (eg.
police, government, etc.) and some have restrictions on ownership of
certain types of radio receiving equipment also.

The bottom line in my opinion is that anyone that is concerned about
other people listening to any radio communication they may be involved
in had better resort to encryption to insure the security of their
radio communications.  After many years of effort here in New Jersey
we finally got a 50 year old law changed that made it illegal to
possess a radio (ie. scanner) in an automobile that could receive
police, fire, etc.  Because the law was so broad in scope and the
current scanner frequency coverage so vast the law effectly made it
illegal to have any type of scanner in a car since the police
frequencies are all over the spectrum.  We even had some ham radio
operators prosecuted because their ham radio transciever included a
receive capability that included police frequencies.  The new state
law does not make possession or use of a radio illegal, the law
prohibits misuse of any information heard.

Last night on New York TV channel 5 (Fox network) there was a brief
news item (10pm news) where they showed how easy it is to listen to
cordless (as well as cellular) telephones with a typical inexpensive
(under $200) scanner.  They did have an FBI person indicate it is
illegal to listen to cellular, but they also pointed out that there is
no prohibition against listening to cordless phones.  From my
perspective, they, at least, did not try to make any case against the
manufacture, sale or possession of scanners in the news report.  The
news item seemed to be targeted as an informative piece to caution
folks that their communications over cordless (as well as cellular)
phones may be overheard by evesdropers.


Standard Disclaimer- Any opinions, etc. are mine and NOT my employer's.

Bill Sohl (K2UNK) BELLCORE (Bell Communications Research, Inc.)
Morristown, NJ             email via UUCP      bcr!dancer!whs70
201-829-2879 Weekdays      email via Internet  whs70@dancer.cc.bellcore.com