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From: maa@nbires.nbi.com (Mark Armbrust)
Newsgroups: rec.ham-radio,sci.electronics
Subject: Re: DFing in the VHF World
Summary: Trashcans are useful for more than trash
Keywords: DF, transmitter hunt, fox hunt
Message-ID: <372@nbires.nbi.com>
Date: 28 Mar 89 16:15:30 GMT
References: <1986@virgil.UUCP> <391@wicat.UUCP>
Reply-To: maa@nbires.UUCP (Mark Armbrust)
Distribution: na
Organization: NBI Inc, Boulder CO
Lines: 26

In article <391@wicat.UUCP> keithm@wicat.UUCP (Keith McQueen) writes:
>
>We found that a reasonable quick and dirty approach was an HT inside
>the car with either the duck removed or a ??db attenuator inserted
>could be used.  It seems that the signal could make it through the
>wide front windshield much better than through any of the side windows.

One day I turned on the cordless phone remote with the base unplugged and
heard another phone that was randomly going off-hook, with  short enough
pulses that it was sometimes dialing.  Usually got an intercept tone, but
sometimes got a very confused person on the other end.

I grabbed the handheld scanner and set off in search of the errant base.
The park across the street had one of the big metal trash dumpsters in it
so I walked around it with the scanner noting signal min/max to get a general
direction to set off in.  About a block away I could hear the signal with the
antenna off so I figured I must be close -- these are very low power xmitters
-- so I found a normal sized metal trash can and ran the scanner around the 
outside of it.  The opposite direction from the minimum signal pointed right
at someone's door, bingo!  (not really--I was off by one house, sigh :-( )

BTW, the guy who owned the phone had no idea that not only was it easy, but
it was legal to listen to cordless phones--lets hear it for modern technology)


--Mark