Path: utzoo!utgpu!utstat!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!killer!vector!nobody From: ron@ron.rutgers.edu (Ron Natalie) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Cellular Setup Message-ID: Date: 31 Jan 89 21:01:57 GMT Sender: chip@vector.UUCP Lines: 23 Approved: telecom-request@vector.uucp X-Submissions-To: telecom@bu-cs.bu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.uucp X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 40, message 4 Because the EPCA is a crock, that's why. Just because they pass a law doesn't mean people will stop doing it. Actually, in all likely hood if you are probing the police bands what you probably detected is the cheapo cordless phone frequencies in the 46 and 49 MHz range. Real Cellular calls are in the 800 MHz range. Very few scanners actually cover this. A few have had this range specifically blanked out (like the Radio Shack, but it's just a matter of pulling a diode out to get them back). You don't even need a scanner, just tune an old UHF TV set up to Channel 81-83. -Ron [Moderator's Note: An old UHF TV with those channels won't work as well as one of the radios which play television audio only. In this country you can buy them for the VHF channels, but I beleive they are illegal per FCC rules where UHF is concerned. A company in Toronto makes the kind which cover the UHF band, and specifically covering channels 80-83 or thereabouts. But their mail order advertising clearly states 'not for sale in the United States. We cannot fill orders to the USA'. They were selling them here like hotcakes for awhile, until Uncle Sugar put the heat on the Canadian govern- ment to help enforce FCC rules down here. PT]