home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
-
- _
- | \
- | \
- | | \
- __ | |\ \ __
- _____________ _/_/ | | \ \ _/_/ _____________
- | ___________ _/_/ | | \ \ _/_/ ___________ |
- | | _/_/_____ | | > > _/_/_____ | |
- | | /________/ | | / / /________/ | |
- | | | | / / | |
- | | | |/ / | |
- | | | | / | |
- | | | / | |
- | | |_/ | |
- | | | |
- | | c o m m u n i c a t i o n s | |
- | |________________________________________________________________| |
- |____________________________________________________________________|
-
- ...presents... Interesting Things to Do With a Scanner
- by The Mad Hatter
-
- >>> a cDc publication.......1991 <<<
- -cDc- CULT OF THE DEAD COW -cDc-
- ______________________________________________________________________________
-
-
- So last Christmas your anally-retentive father (Who by the way is a big-
- time ham radio buff, complete with his call sign on his jacket, hat, license
- plates, and a "I'd rather be hamming" bumper sticker. Blech!) gave you a
- frequency scanner and you're still wondering what the hell to do with it.
- Let's see if I can enlighten you.
-
- Unless your scanner's a complete pile of shit, it should at least cover
- 29-54 MHz, 108-136 MHz, and 406-512 MHz. My Bearcat 800xlt, for instance,
- covers 29-54, 118-174, 406-512, and 806-912 MHz. If your scanner covers the
- 800 MHz-and-up band you're in luck. I'm not going to go into the theory of
- radio waves, etc. because it'd take way too long and not even give the subject
- adequate coverage. Buy a book. Also, if your scanner came with one of those
- telescopic antennas, while being adequate, I would suggest running down to your
- local Radio Shack and picking up one of their $20 outside antennas and putting
- it up as high as you can get it (outside of course).
-
- The first thing I would suggest is picking up the latest copy of
- _Police Call_. This fine book comes in nine volumes, one volume for each
- region of the country. Therein are loads of frequencies that the editors have
- leeched from the FCC. Most of your local police, fire, ambulance, etc.
- frequencies can be found in there. There are other guides, but _Police Call_
- can be found at your local Rat Shack and everybody has one of those piece of
- shit stores in their town.
-
- Now, while I have all the ho-hum fire, police, ambulance, etc. frequencies
- plugged into my scanner, they are by far the least interesting. (At the end of
- this file is a list of what I have programmed into my scanner.) Following are
- some of the more interesting things to listen to:
-
-
- WIRELESS MICROPHONES: These little beauties are usually broadcasting in the
- 72-76 Mhz range. These can be anything from the little spy devices to the
- microphone a concert singer uses on stage. If your scanner has a search
- function, plug the 72-76 range in and see what you come up with. (This
- information is from a fellow I know at work, my cheap-ass scanner doesn't
- cover it.) Also, the FCC has allocated 169.45, 169.505, 170.245, 170.305,
- 171.405, 171.105, 171.845, and 171.905 for use with wireless mikes. I
- actually found a local delivery service running between 169.5 and 170.0
- MHz. I have yet to hear anything interesting but I live in a boring town.
-
- FEDERAL GOVERNMENT STUFF: Here are some areas the feds hang out on (all in
- MHz): 29.90-30.55, 32.01-32.99, 34.01-34.99, 36.01-36.99, 38.27-38.99,
- 40.01-41.99, and anywhere between 100 and 400 MHz. The best thing to do is set
- your scanner up to search those pairs awhile every day and see what comes up.
- For instance, 165.375 Mhz is supposedly the nationwide command post frequency
- for the Secret Service. The FBI is supposed to run between 163 and 168 MHz.
-
- CORDLESS PHONES: This is why I own a scanner. A common misconception which
- some people make is that why they ratchet-jaw on their phone all day from the
- backyard on their cordless, the conversation is as secure as if they were
- talking on a regular phone. Nada! The Electronic Communications Privacy Act
- of 1986 prohibits the listening of cellular conversations. It does not,
- however, cover cordless phones. Who cares. Set your scanner on Search and
- plug in the frequency range of 46.61 and 46.97 MHz. Sooner or later one of
- your neighbors is going to start flapping her mouth and you're going to hear
- it. Write that frequency down and when the conversation is done, start again.
- Pretty soon you'll have the frequencies for all your neighbors. An example
- is this little fifteen-year-old bitch that lives next to me. She's on the
- phone all the time gabbing with her boyfriend. For a fifteen-year-old some of
- the shit gets juicy. Who knows, someday it might be good blackmail material.
- The exact cordless frequencies are 46.61, 46.63, 46.67, 46.71, 46.73, 46.77,
- 46.83, 46.87, 46.93, and 46.97. Be persistent and you will eventually find
- a phone close to you.
-
- RADIO PHONES: These are the regular radio phones that have been around forever
- and ever. With cellular being so fucking expensive this service has been
- gaining in popularity. Search between 460 and 470 MHz to find the frequencies
- used in your area. 463.75 and 464.12 are used a lot by construction people up
- here in my area. You'll also hear a lot of pagers mixed in with the phone
- frequencies. If you can't hear anything else you should be able to hear
- something between 460 and 470. Here again, some cool stuff can sometimes be
- heard amongst the long-winded assholes. My local police department has its own
- radio phones on 461.35 MHz, and a lot of good shit comes over that frequency.
- Most of your land-mobile business use is in this area also. The above
- frequencies are where I hear a lot of them. That doesn't mean that's the law.
- I've heard them in other bands, but between 460 and 470 Mhz is the most
- prevalent up here.
-
- CELLULAR PHONES: Lately there's been a lot of hype about the privacy of
- cellular calls. Of course, they're just as easy to hear as cordless and
- radio phones. I tend to concentrate my scanning between 850 and 870 MHz when
- searching for cellular calls, though many calls are carried at another bandwith
- for which it's illegal to sell scanners that can reach those frequencies.
- However, there are mods for many scanners to let them receive these
- frequencies. You can find out where to get this info for your particular
- scanner from ads in the back of ham magazines and some t-files. Back to
- 850-870, it's impossible to search for one particular phone call or company.
- For instance, you won't be able to depend like I do on 461.35 MHz for good
- stuff all the time. However there are usually so many calls going on in any
- metro area that there is plenty to hear. There are many interesting t-files on
- the layout of the 800 Mhz band that go way beyond the scope of this
- introductory file, but if there's enough response I can type one up that goes
- more in depth on cellular listening.
-
-
- Other interesting shit you oughtta know:
-
-
- TUNING THE 406-420 MHZ BAND: These are some of the nastier US Government
- frequencies. However, if your scanner is a cheap piece of shit it won't
- cover them. Look in the manual that came with your scanner for the
- intermediate frequency (IF). 2 x IF = "magic number." Take that magic
- number and tune to the result. For example, your IF is 10.8 (other
- common IF's are 10.7 and 10.85) and you want to tune 407 MHz. Add 21.6
- (2 x 10.8) to 407.00 and you get 428.600 and you'd tune that. The reception
- kind of sucks but it beats buying a new scanner.
-
- The following are some of the frequencies that I have programmed into my
- scanner or written down in my notes (for Boise, Idaho). All frequencies in
- Mhz:
-
- 453.300 - Boise Police Department Ch. A
- 453.350 - Boise Police Department Ch. B
- 453.425 - Boise Police Department Ch. C
- 453.475 - Boise Police Department Ch. D
- 460.450 - Ada County Sheriff (primary)
- 460.225 - Ada County Sheriff (information)
- 460.275 - Ada County Sheriff (car to car)
- 460.100 - Idaho State Police
- 460.300 - Idaho State Police
- 465.275 - Mutual All Call
- 154.430 - Boise Fire Department
- 155.265 - Ada County EMS (ambulance)
- 155.055 - Lifeflight (helicopter rescue)
- 155.760 - Idaho State Penitentiary
- 159.390 - Idaho Fish & Game
- 460.050 - Nampa Police Department
- 460.175 - Caldwell Police Department
- 460.325 - Canyon County Sheriff
- 460.375 - Gem County Sheriff
- 460.475 - Elmore County Sheriff
- 460.500 - Owyhee County Sheriff
- 118.100 - aircraft, Boise tower
- 119.000 - aircraft, Boise tower
- 119.600 - aircraft, Boise departure/approach (south)
- 121.700 - aircraft, Boise ground control
- 122.800 - uncontrolled local airports
- 126.900 - aircraft, Boise departure/approach (north)
- 152.030 - mobile phone
- 152.090 - mobile phone
- 153.010 - taxi service
- 154.430 - mobile phone
- 161.135 - Police mobile phone (juicy)
- 145.260 - ham 2-meter repeater
- 30.102 - McDonald's drive-up window
- 30.840 - Taco Bell drive-up window
- 30.860 - Burger King drive-up window
- 157.650 - taxi service
- 162.550 - NOAA Weather Service
- 160.400-
- 160.65 - railroad stuff
- 164.500 - Boise Air National Guard Security
-
- Those are the ones I mainly listen to.
-
-
- "So, Hatter, why should I care about this shit?" Well, for instance
- say you have your local pigs plugged into your scanner. You get kind of an
- appreciation (not much but some) for the shit they put up with every day. Tons
- of family fights, panicky old women, etc. are the majority of the stuff going
- on up here. If you're doing something where it'd be good to know where the
- police are or if someone's made a report about your activities, you'll be
- aware and can react before a police car comes barrelling in on you. The point
- is, you hear it first while it's happening. Interested in aircraft? Plug in
- your local airport frequencies. If you live by an Air Force Base, thats even
- better. Like to go and watch shit burn? Plug in your local fire and ambulance
- frequencies and find out where the latest human tragedies are. Want to fuck up
- your neighbor? If s/he has a cordless phone eventually you can come up with
- some primo blackmail info. Last week a guy tried outrunning the pigs for
- three or so counties. It was pretty damn exciting to listen to. For you
- hacks, I'm in the process of figuring out how to hook a touch-tone decoder up
- to my scanner. It should prove interesting finding out what some of those
- people are dialing.
-
-
- To finish up, here is a kind of overview in MHz of the VHF/UHF band and
- generally what can be found where:
-
- 30-49 - long range communications
- 49 - walkie-talkies, like the Spidey one you had when you were 5
- 50-54 - six-meter amateur (ham)
- 54-88 - television channels 2-6
- 72-76 - radio controlled vehicles (airplanes, cars, etc.)
- 88-108 - FM broadcast stations
- 108-135 - aircraft
- 136-138 - weather satellites
- 144-148 - two-meter amateur
- 156.050-
- 157.425 - marine
- 162-174 - Federal agencies (Customs, FCC, etc.)
- 174-216 - television channels 7 - 13
- 220-225 - ham
- 420-450 - ham
- 462 - CB, garage door openers, etc.
-
- I hope this helps some people enjoy their scanner as much as I do.
- Questions, etc. can be left to me on Demon Roach Underground or my board,
- 22, Acacia Avenue, 208/327-0717, NUP:DOOBIE.
- _ _ ____________________________________________________________________
- /((___))\|Demon Roach Undrgrnd.806/794-4362|Kingdom of Shit.......806/794-1842|
- [ x x ] |NIHILISM.............517/546-0585|The Polka AE{PW:KILL} 806/794-4362|
- \ / |Ripco................312/528-5020|Tequila Willy's GSC...209/526-3194|
- (' ') |The Works............617/861-8976|Blitzkrieg............502/499-8933|
- (U) |====================================================================|
- .ooM |1991 cDc communications by The Mad Hatter 10/31/91-#196|
- \_______/|All Rights Pissed Away. FIVE YEARS of cDc|
-
-
- Downloaded From P-80 International Information Systems 304-744-2253
-