[Scan-DC] Apps, encryption and SDR radios

[Greg Danes]

First I must say that over the years I have always been of the mind that if
a signal was OTA (over the air) it was always fair game. Even in the dim
past ppl were listening to 800 Mhz cell phones on old TV tuners that could
pick up analog signals on UHF. Now with all the internet feeds I can
somewhat understand if not agree with ALL the noise about encryption of
local LE channels. But then you have the SDR folks. These intrepid souls,
mostly HAMS and computer gurus have come up with a reliable and cheap
method of OTA receivers. Yes the 500.00 Home patrol does the same things
and easier. But does not have the fun and flash of signal processing a RF
signal, cleaning it up even recording those hits. HAMS have done a great
service to the monitoring field with this new bit of radio, I am sure if
those folks of the "old School" took a little nudge and dropped a big 20.00
dollars on a SDR dongle "just to see what's what, they might find uses for
it in the toolbox of radio gear. Just my 1 cents worth. BTW in the 1990's
when things got interesting with cell phones, long before "apps" I spent a
Christmas holiday working at radio shack selling the heck out of the "new"
GSM/CDMA cell phones at radio shack on the premise that these were less
likely to be overheard on scanners :)


KJ4DGE

-- 
"I seek not to know all the answers, but to understand the questions"