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Scanning Legally in the United
States
The Uniden Bearcat scanners purchased from Communications Electronics
cover frequencies used by many different organizations. Some of these
organizations are police and fire departments, ambulance services, government
agencies, private companies, amateur radio services, military operations,
pager services, and wire line (telephone and telegraph) service providers.
As of January 28, 2005, it is legal in the United States to own your
own radio scanner and to listen to almost every transmission your scanner
can receive. However, there are some transmissions that you should never
intentionally listen to unless you have a valid court order allowing
you to intercept the following communications. These include:
-
Telephone conversations (cellular,
cordless, or other private means of telephone signal transmission)
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Pager transmissions
-
Any scrambled or encrypted transmissions
According to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act
(ECPA), you are subject to fines and possible imprisonment for intentionally
listening to, using, or divulging the contents of such a conversation
unless you have the consent of a party to the conversation (unless such
activity is otherwise illegal), or a court order like that issued pursuant
to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) of 1978, Title 50,
United States Code, Section 1807, as amended. Click
here for more information on the FISA report to Congress. Click
here for additional links to intelligence statues and laws from
the U S Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
Uniden Bearcat scanners are designed to prevent the reception of cellular
telephone transmissions and the decoding of scrambled transmissions.
This is done to comply with the legal requirement that scanners be manufactured
so they are not easy to modify to pick up these transmissions. Do not
open your scanner’s case to make any modifications that could
allow it to pick up transmissions that are illegal to monitor. Modifying
or tampering with your scanner’s internal components or using
it in a way other than as described in the specified scanners owner's
manuals could invalidate your warranty and void your FCC authorization
to operate it.
In some areas, mobile use of this scanner is unlawful or requires a
permit. Check the laws in your area. It is also illegal in many areas
(and a bad idea everywhere) to interfere with the duties of public safety
officials by traveling to the scene of an incident without authorization.
Uniden® and Bearcat® are registered trademarks
of Uniden America Corporation. TrunkTracker is a proprietary trademark
of Uniden America Corporation.
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