I purchased a handheld scanner from radioshack today and am having problems getting it work function properly. i spent about an hour seraching frequencies and came up with virtually nothing. there was an occasional police scanner or two that i picked up but i figure i should be able to get a lot more, especially since i paid $$. to test, i turn on my cell phone and called my home phone (900mhz cordless) and searched both the cell and cordless frequencies. nothing came up, i can understand if my scanner has poor range but when both wireless phones are active in the same room, something must be wrong. can anyone help me? i need to be able to at least pick up my own wireless equipment in the same room.
If you bought a handheld scanner from Radio Shack, I doubt it even has coverage of the cell range. It may pick up cordless, but with a lot of newer phones you won’t be able to understand what was being said anyway.
Not only will it not pick up cellular and cordless conversations, but doing so is illegal in the US. If you want to test your scanner, use one of the 7 NOAA weather frequencies which broadcast continuously, 24 hours a day:
162.400 MHz
162.425 "
162.450 "
162.475 "
162.500 "
162.525 "
162.550 "
One of these will be active within your area, most likely.
Incidentally, which model is it? I worked at RadioShack for a number of years.
Pro-79
Things to try:
[ul]
[li]Adjust your squelch control to the lowest setting that stops the shot noise “static”.[/li][li]Change your location. The rubber duckie antenna that comes with the scanner is fairly poor as antennas go (this is true for all rubber duckie antennas–don’t shout at RS). If you can get to the second floor or higher, try that, as height above ground is a major factor in range.[/li][li]Consider investing in a rooftop antenna. This will dramatically increase your reception range when you’re home.[/li][li]See http://www.cityfreq.com:81/ga/]this page for listings of scanner frequencies in your state (as listed in your location).[/li][/ul]
Oops. Fixed link.
It will pick up cordless phones if you have one of the older model cordless phones that utilize frequencies around 43-49 mHz. Not that I’m advocating such a thing… All scanners leagally sold in the U.S. nowadays come with the 800 & 900 mHz phone bands (both cellular and cordless) blocked. However, if your scanner is like my Radio Shack scanner (Pro-91, I think) the phone will pick up some frequencies in the 800-900 mHz range, which used to be filled with signal harmonics from cell phones. I could usually recieve these well if I was close to the phone. But, now that most phones operate in encrypted digital mode (in the 1.2 gHz rangem if I’m not misteken), it’s kinda a moot point.
Novus
Thanks. but that still doesn’t explain why it won’t pick up my cordless or cellular phone. i know it is unlawful to do so but that is not my intention, i just need to see if it actually works.
You’re missing the point. Those frequencies are intentionally blocked on all scanners sold after c. 1987 (IIRC). You can have the best scanner in the world and have your phone right next to it, and it will not pick it up.
Unless you can get your hands on an old scanner you won’t be able to hear cell phones.
I have an old Pro-51 scanner that with a few keystrokes will open up the blocked cell freqs. I happened to buy this just in time because as soon as Radio Shack realized they left a door open on the scanner, they removed all of them from sale while they remanufactured the scanners.
Also if you can get hold of an older scanner, it was always my understanding that listening to cordless phone conversations was not against the law. What was against the law was telling someone about a conversation that you heard on a scanner.
Oh I forgot to mention that I had bought my scanner in 1994-95, the Pro-51.
If your Pro-51 picks up both cell and cordless and was made after 1987 then Q.E.D. is wrong?
Also, I don’t know if you have heard of the Pro-43, but it was also made after 1987 I believe.
I have a PRO-71 that most certainly picks up some cordless phone conversations. I bought it at Radio Shack 5 years ago. It never picked up cell phones though.
If you live near an airport you can try the air traffic band (roughly 112.00 - 130.00)
Q.E.D. Was probably correct. What this scanner is able to do is enter a “TEST” mode. In that test mode, the scanner can access all of those freqs that are normally locked out. You can then scan those bands, when you get a cell call, hit manual then you can lock that freq into a memory that will be available once the test mod is turned off.
HERE is a page that tells how to get to the test mode on my scanner. All I did was search for pro-51 scanner and it was like the third result that came up.
From this page. So, don’t do that. I suspect the staff would look dimly on further discussion of how to monitor such things.
Bolding mine.
Like someone just did.
LOL It’s not illegal to link to such a page in a post. As your reference points out, it’s illegal to listen to the calls.
Actually, it is:
while linking to the infomation may technically not be illegal, using such information is.