[Scan-DC] Cell Phones/Cordless Phones

Wed, 31 Jul 2002 09:08:18 -0400

Hello all on the DC-Scan group.

Listening to cellular telephone calls and cordless ARE illegal and if HR
3482 passes the Senate this session and becomes law it will be a felony to
do so and you can go to jail for 5 years. Our Monitoring Times magazine
legal beagle -- Jorge Rodriguez, Esp -- has just finished writing an article
for MT on all this. As a service to the radio hobby and due to all of the
misinformation we see being posted on the net the last couple of weeks,
Jorge has allowed us to post it to the MT website prior to publication in
the Sep issue of MT. You can see the entire article and the whole legal
impact and analysis of HR 3482 from this hobby's finest legal monitoring
expert on the MT Chatboard at www.grove-ent.com. But to answer William's
specific question, here is an extract from Jorge's article on what is legal
and illegal to monitor:

==========================================
FIG. 1a: Examples of Legal Listening According to ECPA:

- an electronic communication made through an electronic communication
system that is configured so that such electronic communication is readily
accessible to the general public;

-any radio communication which is transmitted by any station for the use of
the general public, or that relates to ships, aircraft, vehicles, or persons
in distress; by any governmental, law enforcement, civil defense, private
land mobile, or public safety communications system, including police and
fire, readily accessible to the general public; by a station operating on an
authorized frequency within the bands allocated to the amateur, citizens
band, or general mobile radio services; or by any marine or aeronautical
communications system

-listening to intercept any wire or electronic communication the
transmission of which is causing harmful interference to any lawfully
operating station or consumer electronic equipment, to the extent necessary
to identify the source of such interference;

-listening for other users of the same frequency to intercept any radio
communication made through a system that utilizes frequencies monitored by
individuals engaged in the provision or the use of such system, if such
communication is not scrambled or encrypted.

==========================================
FIG 1 b: Examples of Illegal Listening According to ECPA

-scrambled or encrypted communications;

-communications transmitted using modulation techniques whose essential
parameters have been withheld from the public with the intention of
preserving the privacy of such communication (ie. Spread Spectrum);

-communications carried on a subcarrier or other signal subsidiary to a
radio transmission (eg. FM Subcarrier Audio (SCA);

-communications transmitted over a communication system provided by a common
carrier, unless the communication is a tone only paging system communication
(eg. Cell phones and audio and digital pagers);

-communications transmitted on frequencies allocated under part 25, subpart
D, E, or F of part 74, or part 94 of the Rules of the Federal Communications
Commission, unless, in the case of a communication transmitted on a
frequency allocated under part 74 that is not exclusively allocated to
broadcast auxiliary services, the  communication is a two-way voice
communication by radio; (eg. other types of electronic communications such
as satellite, microwave point-to-point, broadcast remote, and paging)

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73 all and good hunting,

Larry Van Horn, N5FPW
Grove Enterprises Technical Support Department
Monitoring Times Assist Editor, Fed File/Milcom Columnist
Telephone: V-828-837-9200/F-828-837-2216/800-438-8155

> -----Original Message-----
> From: [email protected]
> [mailto:[email protected]]On Behalf Of William D. Rossiter
> III
> Sent: Monday, July 29, 2002 5:06 PM
> To: Scan-DC (E-mail)
> Subject: [Scan-DC] Cell Phones/Cordless Phones
>
>
> According to my understanding, any person can listen in on cordless phone
> conversations by themselves as long as they (1) do not record the
> conversation, and (2) do not divulge the contents of any phone
> conversation
> to anyone who does not own the scanner.
>
> Also according to my understanding, listening to any cell phone
> frequencies,
> or even owning a scanner that is capable of doing so, is ILLEGAL.
>
> Please correct me if I am wrong on any of these laws.
>
> My question is, why does the FCC care so much about cell phone privacy
> rather than cordless phone privacy.  If one is capable of
> listening to cell
> phones, they will hear random calls of people they dont even know
> (some will
> be hundreds of miles away).  And now a days, if your scanner is capable of
> listening to cells, one will only hear a few conversations because most
> people use digital trunked cells.
>
> All I am saying is, if a criminal really wanted to get personal
> information
> such as credit cards, passwords, bank accounts, etc., it would be a whole
> lot easier to get the info from cordless rather than cell.
>
> I know that this is a touchy subject, and it could possibly offend some of
> the SCAN-DC members, but I'd really like to know what people
> think about all
> of this nonsense.
>
> Also, is the FCC planing on making any further rules on cells/cordless
> phones in the future?
>
> Reminder:  I don't want to start any flame wars, I just want to know what
> people think.
>
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