Ironically if your old enough (and live in the right location in the UK) back in the day you could listen to the police with a regular FM radio. Where I live (and Lewis lives) the police had several radio channels around 100Mhz. Admittedly their radios and repeater were AM, but you only had to slightly off-tune your FM radio to hear them clearly. This was back in the early 80s, late 70s.
Explains a lot. I had a Matsui radio/ tape player. If you stuck the FM/AM slider between the two settings & tuned around it was possible to get the police on one of those.
same at 100mhz was Narbourgh Police station. I lived under 1 mile away from this place and it used to break through all the time. Could I have been prosecuted? hope not.
@@mm3nrx Apparently, it was not illegal to LISTEN to the police - what’s the point of putting something on a public wavelength, yet not being allowed to listen to it - but it was illegal to act on any information received! I could get it on two frequencies in the 100+ MHz range - one identifying itself as “Tango”, the other as “M2LA” - I lived near Middlesbrough at the time!
In the USA it is illegal to listen to analog cell frequencies (even though analog cell networks have long since been shut down), but not anything else. In Canada, you can listen to anything you want. In both countries, you can get in trouble for *disclosing* what you hear to others, but listening to the cops yourself in private is not a crime. I realize the UK is different.
That was one of the reasons this law made sense in the UK, too. It's stuck around despite encryption taking over the airwaves, technically capturing said encrypted traffic is still illegal, which may still prove useful in some future cases, so I understand why it still exists. As an example (though antiquated in itself now as GSM is dead), A5/1 encryption has been broken for a long time, with this law capturing folks cellular traffic (GSM) is illegal. The counter point being that the act of decrypting that traffic may not be illegal as GSM signals aren't necessarily considered "computer material" but are considered "telephony".
I can confirm that for Germany too. Today you may own and use any type of radio that is able to receive at least one free or amateur radio frequency. You may listen to anything on air. You may never disclose information that is not on a frequency for public or amateur use and you may not disclose that you listen to these "out of public" frequencies. You may never break any encrypted transmission. Even the slightest encryption is by law a declaration that you shall not listen to it, even it is easily breakable. But like all over Europe in earlier times rules were different, as there were no digital modulations that could be encrypted, and scramblers were complicated and expensive. As a result, at those times only amateur radio operators were allowed to own radios and transceivers that could potentially receive more that only HAM bands. Before that the laws were even more restrictive.
@@PatrickOnEngineering You are correct. EU law states that if you put information in to the public domain it is not illegal to read it or listen to it. If you deem the information private you are required to encrypt it to make it illegal to listen to (if you manage to break the encryption). This law is old. I would guess from about 2000 or so as we in that period was recommended to have a printout of a justice department ruling on the matter when having a radio in the car capable of listening to the then open police communication. Now all these frequencies are encrypted.
In the US, back in the late 70’s, I built a 2 GHz microwave receiver to pick up HB0 that was being broadcast locally to subscribers. They spotted my antenna and threatened to prosecute me because they said reception was illegal. After many threatening letters from the company, I took down my antenna. I researched the US laws and found language that stated that it was illegal for anyone to “receive and benefit from…the signal” I felt that it was very situational as to whether or not I was benefiting from the broadcast. The movies were old tired reruns 😂
@ it was pretty easy to spot, a 2-foot dish made from a snow saucer and a coffee can for a feedhorn. The excitement was more about the challenge of microwave reception back then rather than the programming itself.
I had a Grundig portable radio in the late 1970's with mw, lw and vhf broadcast bands. Around 88 MHz were taxi transmissions and around 108 MHz were police transmissions.
I learnt a lot so I’ve summarized the key points in the hope that others may stay safe from the over reaching long arm of the law. 90’s radios were waterproof and could receive and demodulate multiple frequencies at the same time. Purchase two scanners. One for your shack upstairs and one for the kitchen table for when the police visit for tea and biscuits. Do an all reset when purchasing a scanner 2nd hand used. Unless the seller is the son of a retired inspector. In that case back up the memory with Chirp and sell it for double the price. Do not purchase cars whilst in possession of a scanner. Do not drive your car loaded with ‘construction tools’ when scanning mobile. Search the car for ninja artifacts after lending it to your brother prior to scanning mobile. For added entertainment write on a sticker “ello ello ello, what ‘ave we got ‘ear then” and stick it inside the battery compartment lid of the throw away scanner mentioned above. You could be more creative of course. Very odd though. In Japan you can listen but you can’t tell.
Yep it's like getting an app on android to record your phone calls as Chrome keeps blocking them, once again it's perfectly fine for corporations, instututions, companies etc to record our calls but not the other way round!
No, that's the entire point of laws they apply to the public bodies, too. This law is one of the (many) laws why they require a warrant or exemption to intercept or capture your communications, too.
@@Daveyboy1066Companies have a number of exemptions that allow them to record or monitor your communications, but only from their own network or devices. That's primarily for crime prevention and security of the organisation. The Telecommunications (Lawful Business Practice) (Interception of Communications) Regulations 2000 covers the specifics.
With a Radio SDR you can listen into TETRA if its unencrypted. That happened few years ago in Iceland and was published on RUclips. I think everything did go encrypted soon after. They never found who was doing this. Since this does not require a real TETRA radio.
One of the activities that hastened the rollout of encryption was people setting up audio streaming of various services radio traffic, so anyone with a smart phone can now listen in. Made many radio users suddenly aware of how public their comms had become, and worldwide at that.
It seems in most countries the encryption is there to make it harder to listen in but if you did manage to decrypt it there would be no offence provided you didn't commit an offence in obtaining the description key. A lot of forces use P25, DMR or Tetra. So that's already in GNU Radio. Just need a crypto key. It's possible there is a weakness in the implementations of the crypto which could reduce the brute force requirements.
I would cross that Police line for the EB200 Miniport! And to think I had my PRO33 confiscated when I took it to school and had a small crowd gathered to listen to the Police at lunchtime. I'm sure it got well used in the staffroom because I got it back with flat batteries! *Not in the UK so no arrests were made as it is not illegal to listen here (although P25 with encryption has been in use since 2006 where I am)
There are two relevant laws in the UK: A/ You cannot listen to any transmission ( other than a broadcast transmission) without the relevant licence. B/ You cannot pass on any information that you have gained by listening to such a transmission to a third party. Owning, buying, or selling a receiving apparatus is perfectly legal. The answer is simple... Have a bit of common sense (and don't boast about what you are doing, and don't get caught) If you do get caught you are what I would call a 'plonker'.
Does having a machine do voice to text transcription count as listening in? It is absolutely insane to me that they can broadcast unencrypted and just make it illegal to listen to it.
@@rnash999It's called security theatre: "We're doing something to make you feel safe while doing the minimum possible amount of work." The alternative is to equip emergency services with encrypted radios, but that costs money. Passing a law is much cheaper.
And don't store frequencies in the scanner. In nearly all those cases they were convicted on the evidence of the stored frequencies. Store a load of broadcast and ham repeater frequencies.
Back in the day they were popular with reporters. There was a story that the police in Wales put out a report of a plane crash or ufo accident, in an isolated area. Then they waited for who turned up to see. Quite a lot were alleged to have been caught. Don't know if it went further or they gave put warnings.
Most versions of TETRA have now been hacked thanks to modern computer GPUs and AI. Messages are not able to be decoded in real time but i beleive it takes around 10 minutes at present but i am sure it wont be long until its fairly instant.
Set up an FM pirate station and run it remotely. Broadcast scanner chat to the masses. What are they going to do arrest the masses? Never stop scanning.
I have a letter directly from the FCC the states clearly but unless an entity takes steps to keep the public from monitoring their communications, such as encryption, it is not unlawful to monitor public Communications over the airwaves.
It must just have been in the UK to be illegal to listen to police? Because in 1990 in Darwin, north Australia. i was listening to my recently acquired realistic PRO 2011 20 channel scanner, when i heard my next door's neighbour home address mentioned on our local police frequency. so, i went outside and sat on our front fence, waiting for the police to turn up. About 15 minutes later, they did. They got out of the car and approached me and ask what i was doing there? i said to them, that i heard the call on my scanner and came out to see how long it would take you to get here? The older of the 2 coppers was a little annoyed, but the younger one was intrigued, saying that he wished he had the time to listen to such calls, rather than having to respond to them. but at no time did they care that i even had a scanner. 🙂 thanks for the video!
They do. This law covers encrypted comms as much as it would cover unencrypted comms. Don't want pesky folk storing our encrypted comms for cracking later.
Scanners being sold at shops and the rate of frequency of arrests might point to the idea of the devices being bugged and the stores telling police who bought what.
Actually, like. some us discussed on the Scanner School site, that with most law frequencies encrypted today, most of us have given up on pure scanners, such as the Uniden SDS-100, hand, held which came out in 2018, for a basic price of $650.00 US, plus more for acccessories. I now have an APR DV-10, which is more of a receiver, like the older ICOM R1 receiver which even received the old analog NTSC TV we had in the US until 2009. I do have a Uniden Beartracker 885, digital scanner, which I mostly receive Fire, EMS, and DOT, and some analog law frequencies, plus AM CB, and NOAA US Weather channels, for about $400.00 US. 😅
Article one. Snagger Turner was a prolific remover of vehicle identity. No new transit or mk4 escort were safe around here back then. Guessing the scanner was an early warning system for him
I believe, in the state of Minnesota, you can have one in your car if you have an amateur radio license and have not been charged with a felony. Most of the time, police radios are encrypted anyway so the issue is moot.
Is the UK part of stalinist Russia in a world war or something? How on earth can it be a crime just to listen to others communicating in a supposedly free and transparent country!!! i know in the US many homes have radio scanners (or used to) usually right next to the stereo and they would really be shocked to find they are illegal somewhere like the UK. All they generally use them for is to keep abreast of any local emergency.
In Romania it is still illegal to listen as probably in many other places. When you get your ham license the exam has questions from that legislation. Obviously no-one is doing it because it is illegal. And they have digital encryption to help us stay legal. Have you heard about the Tetra issues? That gives me some ideas.... :)
Great memories of listening to the police scanner on summer nights with my godfather here in the States. Just to be clear, the police knew that these radios are legal to purchase, and they were still using them without any sort of encryption, relying solely on the expectation that people (including criminals) shouldn’t be listening because it’s illegal?
The UK Laws seem to be a bit over reaching, when it comes to radio scanners. Open Scanning in the States, albeit with a few exceptions, hasn't been so overbearing. Why sell the product in the UK, if its use it illegal?
I am registered blind so scanner listening and radio listening was my favourite hobby in the late 70s until now I remember in the 80s picking it up a radio signal telephone from the Hyatt hotel to a prostitute which was quite interesting on what he was asking her or them to do and his requirementswhich was a bit bizarre to be fair. I was just one of my many little stories that I heard whilst scanning.
The Alinco DJ-X3 scaner must be from the same designer as the tesla cybercar. Nowadays as a ham you still own an analog scanner as a tool, but the scanning hobby is pretty much migrated to decoding stuff on the PC by different sorts of plugins for SDR software. Although, after the trunk-tracking stuff, scanners for digital modes do exist, it seems that the protocols are short-lived and investing in hardware and upgrades is rather a loss of money.
I think if like me you operate portable a lot it's worth having your license to hand ready to slap in the hand of any police officer not educated in the hobby of amateur radio. I have some rather eye catching antennas up at times which would attract the attention of the police, I'm surprised this hasn't happened yet.
I can understand having the law (even if it seems a bit absurd to me as an American where it's totally legal to simply listen to police transmissions) but enforcing the law for people who didn't commit any other crimes seems silly. At least the penalties were not extreme.
WTF happened to the UK? Sounds like you all need a rebellion or something. Jailed for listening, jailed for posting memes, jailed for yelling f the queen...
The laws are so backwards there. TV licences, receiving unencrypted transmissions from some sources is a crime. US doesn't have anything like that. Anything unencrypted over airwaves is open access, even police radio.
@-The-Darkside the difference between radio laws has nothing to do in regards to that. I don't need reminding of that. I am a survivor of one. It's insensitive to bring up unrelated traumatic information when you don't know who may have been involved in such instances. It only makes you out to be an asshole. Would you make a comment like that about say Jews that survived holocaust if someone mentions some law that is unrelated happens to be different in Germany?
I think there may be a flaw in the utilisation of the law here... it has been, and still is illegal to listen to certain broadcasts (as pointed out: including aircraft transmissions, funnily enough) but the historic flaw was in finding the evidence as these were often received via relatively standard domestic equipment... so the original wording can only have been "listening to" not just possesion. If the apparatus was visibly tuned into these frequencies there may be an issue: if the authorities find the equipment, seize and check it this may be questionable without a warrant... but be aware there are one, or two, quirks that give them powers that many don't know about ie. investigating a suspect on another matter, relevant, or not!
The real dumb bit is programming frequencies into memory - the plod only have to turn the unit on to see what it's being used for - BTW I think the Wireless telegraphy Act covers allows for the seizure and inspection of suspected equipment - some Lawyer may comment.
@barrieshepherd7694 : yes, and no and there have been operational changes: My father was an old fashioned Bobby; but he'd also spent 7 years as RAF Aircrew AG/Sigs during Hitler's little excercise in world domination. I think there used to be aspects under the WT Act ie. TV licencing where property could be entered, and equipment seized, without warrant; this no longer seems to be true with TV Licensing, this may be because the job has been subcontracted, and are no longer Warranted Officers. Radio equipment, per se, may be different, as I don't belief Ofcom have flogged of the doorstepping part of the procedure... but their officers are not that many, and mainly responsive to complaints, or chasing up expired licences. I'll also mention something like Prevention of Terrorism Act, as it seems a bit of a coverall now. At least some of the examples quoted here, are incidental to the original offence... turns out (and I didn't know this until a few months ago) this appears to turn a whole new legality into some actions. Now it's more than conceivable that some forces are overstepping their jurisdiction, and there's been absolutely no shortage of knee jerk, populist laws, apparently written by 12 year old politicians clueless as to how they are policed: the most famous of these being the Dangerous Dogs Act - a genetic scientist with a DNA lab can't ID a banned breed, but an ordinary Constable can, and has, frequently! PS one of my teachers, a licensed Ham Operator was visited by MI5/6 why? They were interested in the Soviet Russian postcards he was receiving LOL 😆 In the 80's I've was checked by MI6, why? Because I was elected as a Senior Trade Union Officer (we can blame a certain Prime Minister for that) but... as far as I know that ruling still exists, funny thing about governments bending laws... they seem to stick!
In Italy don't hear things about this if you such scanners chances getting caught by Italian coppers for such offense is very rare no means to do controls
The device isn't illegal. Using it to listen to transmissions not intended for you or general broadcast is. Encryption does indeed protect the police comms now, but it's still illegal to capture it... I suppose they may be concerned that one may be able to break it given sufficient time.
Its stupid. Its like 2 people shouting at each other, and you walk passed but your not aloud to listen. I feel everything is free to everyone. That includes free banding. Sounds, vision, etc belongs to no one.
Well, isn't that historic? Today BOS is digital and encrypted (at least in Austria). Sorry for all the "journalists", who got their stories with police radios...
I gather the Act has telepgraphy in the name from what was said in the video. I also but the charges are for possessing a radio telepgraphy device. Yet all these cases are for radio telephony. Does the law use such a specific term but have s broader interpretation? I'd expect there wasn't a lot of radio telegraphy to receive with a scanner in the 80s and 90s.
The US also has its foibles. Some years ago, when I was travelling through the US on my way to Australia for work, they wanted to confiscate my (profesional) radio receiver at customs because it could tune cellular radio frequencies. Then, and now I think, receivers have to have the mobile phone bands blocked in the US. I was only allowed to keep the unit (about £5k's worth) because I was effectively in transit and would only be in the airport for 6 hours. (For those wondering you have to go through customs and immigration in the US at your first point of landing irrespective if you are just in transit to another flight)
They need to be spending a bit more effort and attention on people who purchase penetration testing equipment like flipper zero IMHO than people who purchase 1 meter band radio receivers.
Your understanding was wrong - if you accidentally overheard a transmission - say by some technical fault with a conventional broadcast or ham receiver that would be true - but actively seeking to listen has always been illegal.
@@manchegocheese997 has to be more to it than that. There has to be more evidence, even if circumstantial, otherwise what’s stopping the UK police from accusing anyone of any crime no matter how unlikely?
They went around to some chaps house on another matter - "Oi this buglary fits your MO" and found the scanner. You just need to watch old episodes of the Sweeney to see how they worked back then.
Depends on circumstances my last arrest 2009 at Wimbledon tennis was under terrorism act but by time we got to the police custody that had been withdrawn, on talking to specialist department prob special branch, and royalty protection etc as was listening to protection freqs at Wimbledon for royal movements I was well known and those departments had no interest in taking my listening further, so I ended up wit w t act 1949 and I think a later 2000 of similar communact 3 months later with my care either we went to Wimbledon and all charges dropped and a nice bag if radios given back
In the US, listening is legal in Most states and jurisdictions unless the transmissions are encrypted. Having an amateur radio license exempts a user from SOME legal liabilities. It is vital to check the laws, rules, and regulations for scanning in any area before you use a radio there.
Ironically if your old enough (and live in the right location in the UK) back in the day you could listen to the police with a regular FM radio. Where I live (and Lewis lives) the police had several radio channels around 100Mhz. Admittedly their radios and repeater were AM, but you only had to slightly off-tune your FM radio to hear them clearly. This was back in the early 80s, late 70s.
Ah, those were the good old days!
Explains a lot. I had a Matsui radio/ tape player. If you stuck the FM/AM slider between the two settings & tuned around it was possible to get the police on one of those.
@@runlarryrun77 , i had it on my old tv, if one played about with the tuner, as a kid, but only audio lol
same at 100mhz was Narbourgh Police station. I lived under 1 mile away from this place and it used to break through all the time. Could I have been prosecuted? hope not.
@@mm3nrx Apparently, it was not illegal to LISTEN to the police - what’s the point of putting something on a public wavelength, yet not being allowed to listen to it - but it was illegal to act on any information received!
I could get it on two frequencies in the 100+ MHz range - one identifying itself as “Tango”, the other as “M2LA” - I lived near Middlesbrough at the time!
Its only illegal if you get caught
Gee, I wonder why the police don't agree with you?
It’s like your predisposition to concoct an alibi gained sentience and is commenting through you
@@solvated_photon lmao
Acting like your name
I smell bacon
I love watching this channel as a Florida Man. It's just education with a shopping list!
In the USA it is illegal to listen to analog cell frequencies (even though analog cell networks have long since been shut down), but not anything else. In Canada, you can listen to anything you want. In both countries, you can get in trouble for *disclosing* what you hear to others, but listening to the cops yourself in private is not a crime. I realize the UK is different.
I can confirm that in Canada there's nothing to listen to on any of those frequencies anyways
That was one of the reasons this law made sense in the UK, too. It's stuck around despite encryption taking over the airwaves, technically capturing said encrypted traffic is still illegal, which may still prove useful in some future cases, so I understand why it still exists.
As an example (though antiquated in itself now as GSM is dead), A5/1 encryption has been broken for a long time, with this law capturing folks cellular traffic (GSM) is illegal. The counter point being that the act of decrypting that traffic may not be illegal as GSM signals aren't necessarily considered "computer material" but are considered "telephony".
I can confirm that for Germany too. Today you may own and use any type of radio that is able to receive at least one free or amateur radio frequency. You may listen to anything on air. You may never disclose information that is not on a frequency for public or amateur use and you may not disclose that you listen to these "out of public" frequencies. You may never break any encrypted transmission. Even the slightest encryption is by law a declaration that you shall not listen to it, even it is easily breakable. But like all over Europe in earlier times rules were different, as there were no digital modulations that could be encrypted, and scramblers were complicated and expensive. As a result, at those times only amateur radio operators were allowed to own radios and transceivers that could potentially receive more that only HAM bands. Before that the laws were even more restrictive.
@@uki352I believe it’s EU law, same is in Poland.
@@PatrickOnEngineering You are correct. EU law states that if you put information in to the public domain it is not illegal to read it or listen to it. If you deem the information private you are required to encrypt it to make it illegal to listen to (if you manage to break the encryption). This law is old. I would guess from about 2000 or so as we in that period was recommended to have a printout of a justice department ruling on the matter when having a radio in the car capable of listening to the then open police communication. Now all these frequencies are encrypted.
In the US, back in the late 70’s, I built a 2 GHz microwave receiver to pick up HB0 that was being broadcast locally to subscribers. They spotted my antenna and threatened to prosecute me because they said reception was illegal. After many threatening letters from the company, I took down my antenna. I researched the US laws and found language that stated that it was illegal for anyone to “receive and benefit from…the signal” I felt that it was very situational as to whether or not I was benefiting from the broadcast. The movies were old tired reruns 😂
That was some eagle eyes that seen that 😂
@ it was pretty easy to spot, a 2-foot dish made from a snow saucer and a coffee can for a feedhorn. The excitement was more about the challenge of microwave reception back then rather than the programming itself.
So it's illegal to watch the watchers? How Orwellian.
I think if you gave anyone one of these back in the day, the first thing they would do is try to scan into a police channel.
It makes a mockery of airshows where scanners are often sold and frequencies published. As Rumpold of the Bailey says "the law is an Ass"
She who must be obeyed!
I had a Grundig portable radio in the late 1970's with mw, lw and vhf broadcast bands. Around 88 MHz were taxi transmissions and around 108 MHz were police transmissions.
So bizarre, it's like having binoculars and only allowed to see things intended for you.
I learnt a lot so I’ve summarized the key points in the hope that others may stay safe from the over reaching long arm of the law.
90’s radios were waterproof and could receive and demodulate multiple frequencies at the same time.
Purchase two scanners. One for your shack upstairs and one for the kitchen table for when the police visit for tea and biscuits.
Do an all reset when purchasing a scanner 2nd hand used. Unless the seller is the son of a retired inspector. In that case back up the memory with Chirp and sell it for double the price.
Do not purchase cars whilst in possession of a scanner.
Do not drive your car loaded with ‘construction tools’ when scanning mobile.
Search the car for ninja artifacts after lending it to your brother prior to scanning mobile.
For added entertainment write on a sticker “ello ello ello, what ‘ave we got ‘ear then” and stick it inside the battery compartment lid of the throw away scanner mentioned above.
You could be more creative of course.
Very odd though.
In Japan you can listen but you can’t tell.
Oh well.
I guess you know when they are on their way to get the scanner,probably smash the door even if it's open.
Absolutely pathetic, but they can listen on us for any reason they see fit
Yep it's like getting an app on android to record your phone calls as Chrome keeps blocking them, once again it's perfectly fine for corporations, instututions, companies etc to record our calls but not the other way round!
Rules for thee but not for me!
@@Daveyboy1066lol
No, that's the entire point of laws they apply to the public bodies, too.
This law is one of the (many) laws why they require a warrant or exemption to intercept or capture your communications, too.
@@Daveyboy1066Companies have a number of exemptions that allow them to record or monitor your communications, but only from their own network or devices. That's primarily for crime prevention and security of the organisation.
The Telecommunications (Lawful Business Practice) (Interception of Communications) Regulations 2000 covers the specifics.
If you were listening in your own house and not repeating what you hear then you have little chance of being caught. Just keep under the radar. 😂😂😂
And don't programme frequencies into your scanner
With a Radio SDR you can listen into TETRA if its unencrypted. That happened few years ago in Iceland and was published on RUclips. I think everything did go encrypted soon after. They never found who was doing this. Since this does not require a real TETRA radio.
One of the activities that hastened the rollout of encryption was people setting up audio streaming of various services radio traffic, so anyone with a smart phone can now listen in.
Made many radio users suddenly aware of how public their comms had become, and worldwide at that.
It seems in most countries the encryption is there to make it harder to listen in but if you did manage to decrypt it there would be no offence provided you didn't commit an offence in obtaining the description key. A lot of forces use P25, DMR or Tetra. So that's already in GNU Radio. Just need a crypto key. It's possible there is a weakness in the implementations of the crypto which could reduce the brute force requirements.
As a new Baofeng owner this is invaluable
In the 60's you could also get into trouble for listening to Radio Caroline.
If I don’t want anyone to listen to my conversations, I’ll use an encrypted frequency!
There is no such thing as a encrypted "frequency". The radio itself must be capable of encryption.
Exactly any frequency can be encrypted, it's kinda like 700mhz used to be for TV but now is largely repurposed for LTE & 5G
@@AidanMacgregor-Personal The frequency has nothing to do with encryption. The radio must be designed to use a particular type of encryption.
I have checked the Logs...You have nothing worth saying that needs to be encrypted. What an uneducated person!
An encrypted frequency? Pray tell wtf is an encrypted frequency?
The Uniden BC 245XLT which was introduced to the U.K. around 2000 was very useful for following trunked frequencies
I would cross that Police line for the EB200 Miniport!
And to think I had my PRO33 confiscated when I took it to school and had a small crowd gathered to listen to the Police at lunchtime.
I'm sure it got well used in the staffroom because I got it back with flat batteries!
*Not in the UK so no arrests were made as it is not illegal to listen here (although P25 with encryption has been in use since 2006 where I am)
Still an absurd law.
There are two relevant laws in the UK:
A/ You cannot listen to any transmission ( other than a broadcast transmission) without the relevant licence.
B/ You cannot pass on any information that you have gained by listening to such a transmission to a third party.
Owning, buying, or selling a receiving apparatus is perfectly legal. The answer is simple... Have a bit of common sense (and don't boast about what you are doing, and don't get caught)
If you do get caught you are what I would call a 'plonker'.
Does having a machine do voice to text transcription count as listening in? It is absolutely insane to me that they can broadcast unencrypted and just make it illegal to listen to it.
@@rnash999It's called security theatre: "We're doing something to make you feel safe while doing the minimum possible amount of work." The alternative is to equip emergency services with encrypted radios, but that costs money. Passing a law is much cheaper.
Do you even need a license to merely listen to HAM radio in UK?
@@stl-xx5rq No
And don't store frequencies in the scanner. In nearly all those cases they were convicted on the evidence of the stored frequencies. Store a load of broadcast and ham repeater frequencies.
You can't stop the signal.
A man of culture I see 🤌
I guess you've never heard of a signal jammer.
@@KeystoneInvestigations LOL using a signal jammer will get you into even more doo doo
Dude killed me with a sword, Mal, how weird is that?
@@RCAvhstape I don't get the Serenity connection.
I wonder what happened to all these confiscated scanners?
Back in the day they were popular with reporters.
There was a story that the police in Wales put out a report of a plane crash or ufo accident, in an isolated area.
Then they waited for who turned up to see.
Quite a lot were alleged to have been caught.
Don't know if it went further or they gave put warnings.
Most versions of TETRA have now been hacked thanks to modern computer GPUs and AI.
Messages are not able to be decoded in real time but i beleive it takes around 10 minutes at present but i am sure it wont be long until its fairly instant.
Airwave TETRA encryption has been hardened over the years - I don't think it can be decrypted so easily.
@@barrieshepherd7694 it has been for the most in some countries. It just takes alot of post processing time which makes the messages useless.
@barrieshepherd7694 Last year there was a bit of a breakthrough iirc. I believe some key material was leaked or something.
I own a cheap QuanShang, but it's only ever been tuned to NOAA and METEOR satellite frequencies.
ok ;)
Set up an FM pirate station and run it remotely. Broadcast scanner chat to the masses. What are they going to do arrest the masses? Never stop scanning.
I have a letter directly from the FCC the states clearly but unless an entity takes steps to keep the public from monitoring their communications, such as encryption, it is not unlawful to monitor public Communications over the airwaves.
This video is aimed at the UK, so anything the FCC says is irrelevant.
FCC has no sway in the UK.
Illegal to listen to mobile phone frequencies - illegal to import equipment capable of listening to them.
The L and W are silent in Alnwick.
I remember listening to Cobra on FM Broadcast Radio back in the days of the SAS embassy attack...
I was on the balcony
It must just have been in the UK to be illegal to listen to police? Because in 1990 in Darwin, north Australia. i was listening to my recently acquired realistic PRO 2011 20 channel scanner, when i heard my next door's neighbour home address mentioned on our local police frequency. so, i went outside and sat on our front fence, waiting for the police to turn up. About 15 minutes later, they did. They got out of the car and approached me and ask what i was doing there? i said to them, that i heard the call on my scanner and came out to see how long it would take you to get here? The older of the 2 coppers was a little annoyed, but the younger one was intrigued, saying that he wished he had the time to listen to such calls, rather than having to respond to them. but at no time did they care that i even had a scanner. 🙂 thanks for the video!
realistic pro 70 was my choice , still remember scarborough frequency 452.425 🤣🤣 ahh that was the days
If they have such a big problem with people eavesdropping, why don't they, you know, use encryption?
They mainly do these days - these cases were in the pre-digital transmission days.
They do. This law covers encrypted comms as much as it would cover unencrypted comms.
Don't want pesky folk storing our encrypted comms for cracking later.
Scanners being sold at shops and the rate of frequency of arrests might point to the idea of the devices being bugged and the stores telling police who bought what.
Actually, like. some us discussed on the Scanner
School site, that with most
law frequencies encrypted
today, most of us have given up on pure scanners, such
as the Uniden SDS-100, hand, held which came out in 2018,
for a basic price of $650.00
US, plus more for acccessories.
I now have an APR DV-10, which is more of a receiver,
like the older ICOM R1 receiver
which even received the old
analog NTSC TV we had in
the US until 2009.
I do have a Uniden Beartracker
885, digital scanner, which I
mostly receive Fire, EMS, and
DOT, and some analog law
frequencies, plus AM CB, and
NOAA US Weather channels,
for about $400.00 US. 😅
Article one. Snagger Turner was a prolific remover of vehicle identity. No new transit or mk4 escort were safe around here back then. Guessing the scanner was an early warning system for him
I believe, in the state of Minnesota, you can have one in your car if you have an amateur radio license and have not been charged with a felony. Most of the time, police radios are encrypted anyway so the issue is moot.
Most of these DMR Chinese imports, originally aimed at
business use, can enable
encryption. 😅
Thanks RM. Thank God I Live in the United States**** Scan On my Friend ****
In the UK we can't even listen to police responding to school shootings. I wonder why that is...
Is the UK part of stalinist Russia in a world war or something? How on earth can it be a crime just to listen to others communicating in a supposedly free and transparent country!!! i know in the US many homes have radio scanners (or used to) usually right next to the stereo and they would really be shocked to find they are illegal somewhere like the UK. All they generally use them for is to keep abreast of any local emergency.
They're not illegal to own in the UK. I'm sure millions of us have them.
In the exact same way in the US it's illegal to listen to the analogue cellular bands.
Where did you get the idea this was a free country? Didn't you lot leave because it wasn't free enough for you?
you could listen to police motorway patrol on AM years ago on a normal simple radio what you had at home.. it was called CK PATROL
Huh, had no idea that scanning was illegal over there.
Please keep these coming!! I love these!!
In Romania it is still illegal to listen as probably in many other places. When you get your ham license the exam has questions from that legislation. Obviously no-one is doing it because it is illegal. And they have digital encryption to help us stay legal. Have you heard about the Tetra issues? That gives me some ideas.... :)
The comments on here are wild.
Misconfigured seppo scanner somewhere.
They'll all be rounded up soon or asked to solve a captcha and get stuck.
Miss my realistic pro 26 scanner! 200 ch , 25mhz -1.3 GHz! Crazy money on eBay for secondhand! Wow!
Another excellent and interesting video Lewis.
I used to hear the police all the time with my toy walkie talkies when I was 10. At least in Argentina, you could.
Great memories of listening to the police scanner on summer nights with my godfather here in the States. Just to be clear, the police knew that these radios are legal to purchase, and they were still using them without any sort of encryption, relying solely on the expectation that people (including criminals) shouldn’t be listening because it’s illegal?
The UK Laws seem to be a bit over reaching, when it comes to radio scanners. Open Scanning in the States, albeit with a few exceptions, hasn't been so overbearing. Why sell the product in the UK, if its use it illegal?
I can’t remember- what’s the small loop antenna you recommended for receiving HF?
I wonder if SDR is illegal to use in the UK according to these laws....
@@johnblanchard8601 SDR is software to do with modulation and demodulation. It is legal to use in the UK so long as it complies with the UK laws
I am registered blind so scanner listening and radio listening was my favourite hobby in the late 70s until now I remember in the 80s picking it up a radio signal telephone from the Hyatt hotel to a prostitute which was quite interesting on what he was asking her or them to do and his requirementswhich was a bit bizarre to be fair. I was just one of my many little stories that I heard whilst scanning.
The Alinco DJ-X3 scaner must be from the same designer as the tesla cybercar. Nowadays as a ham you still own an analog scanner as a tool, but the scanning hobby is pretty much migrated to decoding stuff on the PC by different sorts of plugins for SDR software. Although, after the trunk-tracking stuff, scanners for digital modes do exist, it seems that the protocols are short-lived and investing in hardware and upgrades is rather a loss of money.
I think if like me you operate portable a lot it's worth having your license to hand ready to slap in the hand of any police officer not educated in the hobby of amateur radio. I have some rather eye catching antennas up at times which would attract the attention of the police, I'm surprised this hasn't happened yet.
I can understand having the law (even if it seems a bit absurd to me as an American where it's totally legal to simply listen to police transmissions) but enforcing the law for people who didn't commit any other crimes seems silly. At least the penalties were not extreme.
WTF happened to the UK?
Sounds like you all need a rebellion or something. Jailed for listening, jailed for posting memes, jailed for yelling f the queen...
I can't possibly comment. I could get jailed 😂
But we can have a beer at 16
@@jca111 I believe there’s no age limit on alcohol consumption in the home for example
@@JeffsWig The limit is 5 years old.
They even threatened to extradite people commenting on what’s happening right now. Pretty wild!
The laws are so backwards there. TV licences, receiving unencrypted transmissions from some sources is a crime. US doesn't have anything like that. Anything unencrypted over airwaves is open access, even police radio.
We don't have school shootings so there's that.
At least we can drink at 18 or even 16 in a pub
@-The-Darkside the difference between radio laws has nothing to do in regards to that. I don't need reminding of that. I am a survivor of one. It's insensitive to bring up unrelated traumatic information when you don't know who may have been involved in such instances. It only makes you out to be an asshole. Would you make a comment like that about say Jews that survived holocaust if someone mentions some law that is unrelated happens to be different in Germany?
@jca111 congrats, you can kill your brain cells at a younger age. Has nothing to do with this topic.
@@jca111 Wow.....that's something to brag about!
I think there may be a flaw in the utilisation of the law here... it has been, and still is illegal to listen to certain broadcasts (as pointed out: including aircraft transmissions, funnily enough) but the historic flaw was in finding the evidence as these were often received via relatively standard domestic equipment... so the original wording can only have been "listening to" not just possesion.
If the apparatus was visibly tuned into these frequencies there may be an issue: if the authorities find the equipment, seize and check it this may be questionable without a warrant... but be aware there are one, or two, quirks that give them powers that many don't know about ie. investigating a suspect on another matter, relevant, or not!
The real dumb bit is programming frequencies into memory - the plod only have to turn the unit on to see what it's being used for - BTW I think the Wireless telegraphy Act covers allows for the seizure and inspection of suspected equipment - some Lawyer may comment.
@barrieshepherd7694 : yes, and no and there have been operational changes:
My father was an old fashioned Bobby; but he'd also spent 7 years as RAF Aircrew AG/Sigs during Hitler's little excercise in world domination. I think there used to be aspects under the WT Act ie. TV licencing where property could be entered, and equipment seized, without warrant; this no longer seems to be true with TV Licensing, this may be because the job has been subcontracted, and are no longer Warranted Officers.
Radio equipment, per se, may be different, as I don't belief Ofcom have flogged of the doorstepping part of the procedure... but their officers are not that many, and mainly responsive to complaints, or chasing up expired licences. I'll also mention something like Prevention of Terrorism Act, as it seems a bit of a coverall now.
At least some of the examples quoted here, are incidental to the original offence... turns out (and I didn't know this until a few months ago) this appears to turn a whole new legality into some actions.
Now it's more than conceivable that some forces are overstepping their jurisdiction, and there's been absolutely no shortage of knee jerk, populist laws, apparently written by 12 year old politicians clueless as to how they are policed: the most famous of these being the Dangerous Dogs Act - a genetic scientist with a DNA lab can't ID a banned breed, but an ordinary Constable can, and has, frequently!
PS one of my teachers, a licensed Ham Operator was visited by MI5/6 why? They were interested in the Soviet Russian postcards he was receiving LOL 😆
In the 80's I've was checked by MI6, why? Because I was elected as a Senior Trade Union Officer (we can blame a certain Prime Minister for that) but... as far as I know that ruling still exists, funny thing about governments bending laws... they seem to stick!
I knew it was illegal to listen in to police frequencies but I'd never heard of anyone being prosecuted until now.
Have you ever covered the UK's Semaphore Towers?
Thank God we separated from the UK that's crazy no guns no knives no radios damn
In Italy don't hear things about this if you such scanners chances getting caught by Italian coppers for such offense is very rare no means to do controls
What a joke, for every scanner they got off the street, there are probably 99 people listening and not getting caught.
‘Free’ world?
The UK hasnt been free for a couple decades, and even before that their freedom was tenuous.
Not in the UK
It is free as long as Big Brother gives you permission!
@@KeystoneInvestigations yeah, the big brother none of us signed up to.
As a ham in the US, how do the police deal with hams visiting the UK that may use handy talkies that have wide band receiving capability?
Everything is encrypted now.
The device isn't illegal. Using it to listen to transmissions not intended for you or general broadcast is.
Encryption does indeed protect the police comms now, but it's still illegal to capture it... I suppose they may be concerned that one may be able to break it given sufficient time.
Here in the US, police scanners are perfectly legal to use and listen on. Not legal to transmit on! (I learned that lesson the very hard way)!!
Its stupid. Its like 2 people shouting at each other, and you walk passed but your not aloud to listen. I feel everything is free to everyone. That includes free banding. Sounds, vision, etc belongs to no one.
Well, isn't that historic? Today BOS is digital and encrypted (at least in Austria).
Sorry for all the "journalists", who got their stories with police radios...
Ok, let’s get back to number stations…
What about the United States? I grew up around a scanner. Many people around here use them. Is it illegal here as well?
I gather the Act has telepgraphy in the name from what was said in the video. I also but the charges are for possessing a radio telepgraphy device. Yet all these cases are for radio telephony. Does the law use such a specific term but have s broader interpretation? I'd expect there wasn't a lot of radio telegraphy to receive with a scanner in the 80s and 90s.
Radio telegraph is just radio transmitter ie any freq be it police, air marine, commercial two way radio etc
Would love to see you make a trip to the US so you can do all the radio things you aren’t allowed to do in the UK. You would have so much fun!
The US also has its foibles. Some years ago, when I was travelling through the US on my way to Australia for work, they wanted to confiscate my (profesional) radio receiver at customs because it could tune cellular radio frequencies. Then, and now I think, receivers have to have the mobile phone bands blocked in the US. I was only allowed to keep the unit (about £5k's worth) because I was effectively in transit and would only be in the airport for 6 hours.
(For those wondering you have to go through customs and immigration in the US at your first point of landing irrespective if you are just in transit to another flight)
@@barrieshepherd7694There is a US customs post in Shannon Ireland. You can enter the US there before getting on the flight.
@@Hiram8866not very practical if you are flying to/from LHR
As the most recent of these was 29 years ago, and police traffic is now no doubt all encrypted, sounds like there isn't much risk!
Me and my Dad had scanners. Happy times. All innocent listening to Police and others doing their job.
So what unit can be purchased at a reasonable price to emmm not listen to the police transmissions?
Get an rtlsdr. Plug it into your laptop. Monitor the airwave frequencies.
Uptick in airwave activity in your area? Probably police nearby.
In us u can listen as long as ur not committing crimes.
Legal in the US, that's to bad.
In America a solicitor is a lawer.
And a boot is a trunk, what's your point?
Laywer
@@arthurtwoshedsjackson6266 Ya know the yanks can't spell !
Well done Lewis but I'm curious as to what happens to all the scanners the police confiscate?
Assuming they’re destroyed!
No sold at auction
Long been TETRA!
That 1949 British Law certainly is a worthless one. Usually British have a better take on stuff than The U.S.. Not in this case though !
i only listen to my local flying club so i suppose i breaking the law
Love how radio waves are illegal
Radio waves are not illegal but reception of certain radio transmissions are.
This apply to the states?
Wow, the UK is reason a police state
I’m buying one 😏😏😏😏
Unjust laws should be broken.
This is all historical. Tetra can't be listened to. Even if a tetra radio is stolen the system will quickly turn it off remotely.
What was the clue that it’s historical? The fact that I gave you the historic dates for each story?
Or did you work it out yourself genius?
@RingwayManchester you wouldn't speak to me like that to my face so don't do it here
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
This is all old news.
Any recent court cases for airband listened.
The idea you will be taken to court over what thousands do is non sense.
What gave you the clue? The dates I included for each story???
They need to be spending a bit more effort and attention on people who purchase penetration testing equipment like flipper zero IMHO than people who purchase 1 meter band radio receivers.
Rules for thee not for me. Bunch of crooks.
My understanding was that it was legal to listen, but illegal to act on the information received.
Your understanding was wrong - if you accidentally overheard a transmission - say by some technical fault with a conventional broadcast or ham receiver that would be true - but actively seeking to listen has always been illegal.
Maybe i should use and buy it just for what i get matched my name 💀
Something I am not understanding, how do the police know you are listening if you are not transmitting? How are they tracking these people down?
Purely by chance.
@@manchegocheese997 has to be more to it than that. There has to be more evidence, even if circumstantial, otherwise what’s stopping the UK police from accusing anyone of any crime no matter how unlikely?
They went around to some chaps house on another matter - "Oi this buglary fits your MO" and found the scanner. You just need to watch old episodes of the Sweeney to see how they worked back then.
Lewis a question please. Granted it’s a police issue, but is there a component of nefarious foreign actors hostile to GB also at stake?
Depends on circumstances my last arrest 2009 at Wimbledon tennis was under terrorism act but by time we got to the police custody that had been withdrawn, on talking to specialist department prob special branch, and royalty protection etc as was listening to protection freqs at Wimbledon for royal movements
I was well known and those departments had no interest in taking my listening further, so I ended up wit w t act 1949 and I think a later 2000 of similar communact
3 months later with my care either we went to Wimbledon and all charges dropped and a nice bag if radios given back
👏👏👏👍
Sadly, some of the comments here are made by idiots, which spoils the whole reason for the video.
Unfortunately a few clearly have issues
Big brother spy on us they can do that
Illegal in the US as well. But how tf do you get caught lol?
In the US, listening is legal in Most states and jurisdictions unless the transmissions are encrypted.
Having an amateur radio license exempts a user from SOME legal liabilities.
It is vital to check the laws, rules, and regulations for scanning in any area before you use a radio there.