Adventures in scanning.

[Moab]

My first scanner back in the day was a radio shack version. Or maybe Uniden? I used to love radio shack. Back then cordless phones were in the open. Cellphones were in the open - if you imported the right scanner from overseas. With the correct freqs.


I played with scanners alot. And practiced PI type theory in the process. I demonstrated to a colleague. Where i could videotape a person in public talking on their cellphone while simultaneously recording the audio of said cellphone call. So youd end up with a videotape of me standing on a street corner but the audio would be me talking on my phone. Both parties actually. Illegal in most states. But a fascinating proof of concept.


I even built a mobile unit made up of a scanner, a car battery and a recording device. That could listen in on cordless phones for days at a time. You could check it every so many days. Retrieve the recording and replace the battery.


But then trunking came along and scrambled cordless phones and i lost interest. But while on surveillance i would occupy my time running my various scanners. Listening to whatever i could pick up. Police, emergency, railroads, cordless phones, cellphones, etc etc. And ham.


Ham in socal is actually very salty and very funny. Some of the best retorts i have ever heard came from ham radio. The real ham nuts spend hours a day simply talking to one another.  Gossiping and generally doing it for the simple love of radio comms.


I also used (i cant remember the actual name of the device.  But i think they are built right in to current day scanners.) that were basically near field receivers. Coupled with a high end scanner. It would pick up the strongest closest transmission.


I would leave it running in my surveillance vehicle and every so often id pick up any nearby police units as they approached. It was helpful if someone called the cops on you. Youd have a bit of a jump on them. If say the neighbors reported a suspicious vehicle in their area.


Not that i was doing anything illegal. But if it was a sensitive case i would often have time to exit the area. Prior to the cops making a big scene down the street from my subject.


It was legal in some instances to record people at work. Like those handheld,earbud units they use at like target or the gap or what have you


Then i got into vehicle trackers. For use on subjects of an investigation or later for tracking my employees. This was way before smartphones. I would use cheap disposable garmin gps units. So if they got lost or stolen it wasnt any big deal. A garmin 12 coupled with a motorcycle battery would run for some time. I spent countless hours just developing the means to quickly and securely attaching to a given vehicle. My go to was foam insulation tape sandwiched between layers of carpet tape. Man that carpet tape will stick hard to anything. And stay.


Now things are very different. Many police departments you cant even listen too. LAPD still has their major units broadcasting in the open. But most are not. And listening to alot of transmissions these days takes more programming and research than i care to undertake. Its mind numbing except for those few weird mathematician/engineer types.