Digital Scanners
Listening to the transmissions of emergency service providers continues to be a practice of criminals, reporters, along with the inquisitive for years. The digital scanners which most use to listen in are merely radio receivers that are designed for following hundreds or even thousands of frequencies. While most of these frequencies were never available to the general public, that’s changed in recent years. You can visit places like Radio Shack and purchase frequency guides, or you can even find scanner frequencies for your local area online. I’ve used several Radio Shack units over the past 30 years and have found listening in quite enjoyable. Not only do I know what’s going on around the area in terms of police and emergency services, I also know what’s happening with local road conditions and town government happenings as well.
Even though individuals who just want some enjoyment on a lonesome Sunday night may like to tune in for the hottest cops-and-robbers situations from the safety and health of their living rooms, there are many individuals with alot more menacing motives making use of radio scanners in order to keep an eye on exactly what law enforcement is doing. In my case, the scanner runs 24 hours a day in my office.
But it’s not only law enforcement agencies are relying on private radio communications; various other emergency providers as well as companies utilize high frequency communication to help keep private information confidential. Companies such as McDonald’s use digital communications to communicate with customers who use their Drive Thru. In order to combat ever rising number of people with radio scanners who wish to intrude upon their communication, they started to look at digital transmissions. This specific solution reduced their challenges for a while, but eventually the scanner manufacturers such as Bearcat and Radio Shack realized that brand new market had come into existence, and began producing a digital radio scanner.
Following 9/11, the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials announced APCO Project 25, an attempt to reserve a spectrum on digital frequencies for law enforcement in addition to emergency use. They’re purposely chosen to be available to first responders in emergencies for sending sensitive details. But the digital radio scanner makes them as readily available for the listening public as the outdated scanners made the high frequency broadcasts. A digital radio scanner can be found for purchase on the internet or at several local electronics stores.
Within the post 9/11 world, the us government is becoming ever more interested in preserving its security, and the digital radio scanner is under overview in government sectors. Sure, there are civil liberty advocates out there who continue to defend the public’s right to the airwaves – including digital – in various regions of america law enforcement agencies have merely decided to avoid being scanned simply by encrypting their broadcasts.
While more than one digital radio scanners are capable of demodulating some digital signals like those of APCO Project 25, any digital radio scanners created for signal decryption are actually legally banned. Violations are punishable by jail time, fines, or both. And many US states have passed laws which makes it unlawful for any one convicted of a crime to have either a digital radio scanner or the conventional variety.