[TheList] Scanning in the US...

Mon Dec 31 14:33:47 AEDT 2018

Ref the article in the NZ Herald about scanning in the US and how 
there's more trunking and encryption to prevent the casual scanner user 
from hearing the transmissions from the emergency and utility services.

To my mind, the scanner users have themselves to blame by connecting the 
audio from their scanners onto the internet so that anyone can listen - 
they call it feeding and anyone can listen to them. When trunking became 
the next hurdle, trunking scanners soon came out and succesfully tracked 
the signals and again broadcast the audio on the net. Of course the 
crims listened too - you'd be silly not to. The emergency services 
responded with encryption so that all that was heard was garbled audio 
or digital noise - but sooner later somebody will find a way of cracking 
it. Some states ban the use of scanners in vehicles unless they have the 
right licences - this is to stop the 'ambulance chasers' being 
rubber-neckers at incident sites.

Now if Joe scanner had not 're-broadcast' the audio, then he/she could 
have carried on listening to plain old AM of NFM with no need for more 
expensive equipment.

Fortunately here in NZ we have laws about 'the secrecy of 
correspondence' - so if you should even by accident intercept some form 
of communication, including ordinary snail-mail or anything not intended 
for you personally, then you must not tell anyone about the contents of 
the message or even the existence of the message and definitely not use 
the knowledge you have gleaned to obtain an advantage. Anyone who has 
been in the services in a communications field has already signed 
documents concerning high levels of secrecy and although you have now 
returned to being a civilian you are still bound by the military law.

There - I've done my rant. Cheers and all the best for 2019!
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