New Jersey is on 1680 and is the strongest x-band station for Connecticut listeners. Has there ever been an x-band station in New England (CT, RI, MA, ME, NH, VT)?
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The Expanded AM Band
- Thread starter Cordelia Chase
- Start date
And then they moved both devices (cordless phones and baby monitors) up to 49 mhz where they got out just as far, only with much clearer, FM audio. The first analog cell phones were audible even on scanners with those frequencies blocked, too.
What a country!
Have you tried picking up WWRU Jersey City? Its signal on 1660 is closer to Connecticut than that of WTTM.
When baby monitors and cordless phones were on 49/46 megahertz I used to listen there quite a bit.. It was amazing what you could find out about your neighbors lol.. especially the one neighbor in Dallas living in the apartment complex that was running a massage parlor!
While working for a power company that are two-way radio system was on 48 megahertz, I programmed up some 49 megahertz channels in my GE Delta SX.. driving through a neighborhood one day I heard a baby monitor and could hear someone washing dishes off in the distance. I keyed up with the hundred watt transmitter and screamed Ma ma!! As I unkeyed, I heard dishes crashing to the floor and feet running and evidently the mother screaming "baby baby you talked!" Had a good laugh out of that one
Listening to people's baby monitors?? Dude, that's beyond creepy.
When mobile and cell phones first came out, it was legal to listen.
One late radio Disk Jockey, PD, and General Manager wrote in an autobiography, which contained a chapter about listening to and recording some non radio executives in their cars and discussing many things, and using offensive language. They called the PR director of one company and told him what they heard. The PR director raced to the radio station and confronted the then PD about it, and tried to get him canned by his General Manager. Supposedly that's as far as is it went, and the recording was destroyed. Nothing apparently happened as a result, and the people involved have all passed away.
The FCC soon removed the cell frequencies used at the time from all radios and scanners sold in the US, and made it illegal to listen to cell phone conversations. Soon the transmissions were scrambled, and soon digital transmission was used, which made it nearly impossible, except for extreme hackers and/or international espionage agents. I believe it is also now illegal to listen in to mobile home phone conversations. But for the very few still using unscrambled analog 46/49 MHz phones, it is virtually unenforceable. But consider the government, and international espionage agents with diplomatic immunity, who ARE still legally able to listen, or with impunity.
One late radio Disk Jockey, PD, and General Manager wrote in an autobiography, which contained a chapter about listening to and recording some non radio executives in their cars and discussing many things, and using offensive language. They called the PR director of one company and told him what they heard. The PR director raced to the radio station and confronted the then PD about it, and tried to get him canned by his General Manager. Supposedly that's as far as is it went, and the recording was destroyed. Nothing apparently happened as a result, and the people involved have all passed away.
The FCC soon removed the cell frequencies used at the time from all radios and scanners sold in the US, and made it illegal to listen to cell phone conversations. Soon the transmissions were scrambled, and soon digital transmission was used, which made it nearly impossible, except for extreme hackers and/or international espionage agents. I believe it is also now illegal to listen in to mobile home phone conversations. But for the very few still using unscrambled analog 46/49 MHz phones, it is virtually unenforceable. But consider the government, and international espionage agents with diplomatic immunity, who ARE still legally able to listen, or with impunity.
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Myrtle Beach SC was supposed to get an expanded band station but someone realized 1450 AM, which was 1000 watts, had gone off the air, so the 5000-watt daytime AM at 1520 moved there. Now it has a translator and is reasonably successful.
Sylva NC in the mountains was supposed to get an expanded band station to replace a station in 680 which had a very limited signal at night. Somehow they ended up changing that to 540 AM.
I can't imagine wanting an expanded band channel instead of 540, even daytime only, especially there.
It's 24 hours. The 540 frequency does better at night than 680 did.
ICF-P26 - link just to indicate when Sony made another pocket radio - their ICF-S10MK2 was sold through 2011 even though it never tuned in the expanded AM band.
I bought 2 MK2s ~25 years ago, I thought that Sony had better quality than the off brand radios that did tune in the expanded band.
Kirk Bayne
I bought 2 MK2s ~25 years ago, I thought that Sony had better quality than the off brand radios that did tune in the expanded band.
Kirk Bayne
It was legal to listen, but illegal to divulge the contents of the communications. That was (probably still is) true of all transmissions, other than Part 15, broadcast, and ham radio. The only service that was declared illegal to listen (not sure if it was Congress or the FCC that acted) to was the old 800 MHz analog cellphones
Those are Part 15 unlicensed devices, which I believe are still fair game.
And yet plenty of those pre-edict 800 MHz scanners remained in use afterward. I had one and it was a source of much interest and merriment around the newspaper newsroom in which I was working at the time. I can't say whether any of the reporters actually used any of the info that may have been disclosed in those phone calls -- I was just a cynical, sarcastic copy editor -- but I vividly remember the stir that a conversation between the police chief and a city council member regarding a police detective caused.
Maybe from a FCC-rules aspect, but you have to admit, covertly listening to what goes on in someone's home, whether that's through a unlicensed radio device, or more recently, hacking someone's smartphone mic or camera, is totally inappropriate and could be considered in violation of 18 U.S.C 2511. Technically, it's called 'eavesdropping':
From the Criminal Lawyer Group:
"The Wiretap Act, codified by 18 U.S.C. § 2511 and amended by the Electronic Communications Privacy Act in 1986, is a federal law that makes it illegal to secretly record any face-to-face conversation, telephone call, email, text, or “electronic communication” that is “reasonably expected to be private.”
"So, for example, recording someone where they have a “reasonable expectation of privacy”—like their bedroom—without them knowing, you may be found liable under federal wiretap laws".
H
Harvey_Dogg
Guest
Some off those baby monitors had up to a watt of power around 49 MHz and no harmonic filter, So they were also heard right in the middle of the FM broadcast band for a block around. Kind of creepy to think you're having a private conversation in your home only to discover you are a radio star on your block.
They transmit on open frequencies at any scanner can pick up. What's so creepy about that?
Seriously? You listening into someone's home is by definition eavesdropping on their privacy. Let alone listening to what's going on in a child's bedroom. If you were the parent of that kid, I'll bet you would be really pissed.
Just the fact you don't see anything wrong with it, speaks volumes. Goes to character.
From a legal perspective; see my replay above showing how you would be violating The Wiretap Act.
Time to stop this pissing contest. It's not illegal to listen to these devices. It MAY be illegal to record the audio but I doubt it. They are, after all, Part 15 devices.
But you have no qualms about listening into someone's home for entertainment purposes?
It's a Part 15 device. There is NO expectation of privacy. Stop this argument.
S'sposedly, the GE Superadio 2 could tune past 1630 if you took half the radio apart and fiddled with something in its intestines using a screwdriver. But I figured that would throw off your frequency determination on the rest of the dial. And besides, I was too chicken to try.
The GE SR 3 tuned the X Band. But they said that 997 out of 1000 mde were absolute garbage not even having anything to do with GE. (They were right. I bought one.)
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The Lafayette 600a I used for a long while had wonderful sensitivity. Both KDIA's came in here a few months apart -- the 1630 and the 1650. And yup, I remember those Dallas Airport stations as well.
How naby here heard that purportedly FCC approved test from 'KA2XAU' on 1620 back in 1994? It was from downstate PA, before the X-Band licenses, and I never heard anything about how far it got out. (I *do* have a full cassette of it, though, hi).)
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Long ago on another forum I'd asked if any X-Band stations ever made ratings, because WEUP from Alabama -- originally 1600 -- showed up in one survey. But that might've been during the probation period when they were on both 1600 and 1700 for a while.
The GE SR 3 tuned the X Band. But they said that 997 out of 1000 mde were absolute garbage not even having anything to do with GE. (They were right. I bought one.)
* * * * *
The Lafayette 600a I used for a long while had wonderful sensitivity. Both KDIA's came in here a few months apart -- the 1630 and the 1650. And yup, I remember those Dallas Airport stations as well.
How naby here heard that purportedly FCC approved test from 'KA2XAU' on 1620 back in 1994? It was from downstate PA, before the X-Band licenses, and I never heard anything about how far it got out. (I *do* have a full cassette of it, though, hi).)
* * * * * * *
Long ago on another forum I'd asked if any X-Band stations ever made ratings, because WEUP from Alabama -- originally 1600 -- showed up in one survey. But that might've been during the probation period when they were on both 1600 and 1700 for a while.
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