Can you receive cellular phone calls on a modified scanner? I thought
with all phone being digital now you could not?

wrote in news:1105980741.679905.177450
@c13g2000cwb.googlegroups.com:

Can you receive cellular phone calls on a modified scanner? I thought
with all phone being digital now you could not?

There is very little activity in the old cell bands - What with analog
roaming and such, there is still a little.
So yes, people advertsing their scanners as UNBLOCKED !!!!! are really saying
very little in practice - The only good reason to pay a premium to get one
would be to bank on the possibility that some other service of interest will
eventually move into this frequency region.

On 17 Jan 2005 08:52:21 -0800, wrote:

Can you receive cellular phone calls on a modified scanner? I thought
with all phone being digital now you could not?

Lots of analog phones still up here in rural Canada. Hand helds
just don't work sthat well when outside the towns.

Tony

Newer scanners cannot be modified, but many others can be modified to
receive the cellular band. It is also possible to buy an unblocked model of
just about any scanner that is intended for international sale by ordering
it from another country (www.bander.com is one such source). This is, of
course, illegal, but still quite possible.

Older scanners may be able to receive cell images on frequencies that are
+/- 21.4 MHz (2 times the IF) away from the cell frequencies. This is
usually more difficult with triple conversion scanners.

Not all cell phones are digital (yet). Somewhere I read that the OnStar
system utilizes analog transmissions...this may depend on the area. There
is always some analog activity in the cell bands, but it tends to be quite
uninteresting, and in many cases, only one side of the conversation can be
heard (this, too, depends on the area). Most cell phone activity is
digital, however, and it will continue to go in that direction. Eventually,
blocking a scanner will have no purpose.


wrote in message
oups.com...
Can you receive cellular phone calls on a modified scanner? I thought
with all phone being digital now you could not?

"T-bone" wrote in message
9.130...
wrote in news:1105980741.679905.177450
@c13g2000cwb.googlegroups.com:

Can you receive cellular phone calls on a modified scanner? I thought
with all phone being digital now you could not?

There is very little activity in the old cell bands - What with analog
roaming and such, there is still a little.
So yes, people advertsing their scanners as UNBLOCKED !!!!! are really
saying
very little in practice - The only good reason to pay a premium to get one
would be to bank on the possibility that some other service of interest
will
eventually move into this frequency region.


WHAT the hell are you smoking dude?
Do you even HAVE a scanner? or did mommy leave the computer turned on
tonight?
Digital sucks, just like FM never replaced AM radio, cause of the fast
dropoff of signal over distance.
There are more analog phones than ever in many towns, especially now that
rates are low, lots more traffic. Go to a town of about 100,000 people that
are spread out in the middle of Arizona or Texas or Utah.
You will find a lot more people talking on cell phone frequencies than
talking on the other public bands!

"smokin" wrote in
nk.net:


"T-bone" wrote in message
9.130...
wrote in news:1105980741.679905.177450
@c13g2000cwb.googlegroups.com:

Can you receive cellular phone calls on a modified scanner? I thought
with all phone being digital now you could not?

There is very little activity in the old cell bands - What with analog
roaming and such, there is still a little.
So yes, people advertsing their scanners as UNBLOCKED !!!!! are really
saying
very little in practice - The only good reason to pay a premium to get
one would be to bank on the possibility that some other service of
interest will
eventually move into this frequency region.


WHAT the hell are you smoking dude?
Do you even HAVE a scanner? or did mommy leave the computer turned on
tonight?
Digital sucks, just like FM never replaced AM radio, cause of the fast
dropoff of signal over distance.

Yeah .. Still jamming down to Iron Butterfly on 8 tracks too ?

There are more analog phones than ever in many towns, especially now
that rates are low, lots more traffic. Go to a town of about 100,000
people that are spread out in the middle of Arizona or Texas or Utah.
You will find a lot more people talking on cell phone frequencies than
talking on the other public bands!


I honestly gave up on eavedropping on cell calls years ago when I entered
manhood.
The few times I give the band a whirl these days theres next to little or no
action - Maybe its different out in the sticks I dont' know _ I don't live
out in the sticks, I live in a major urban area where most people can afford
a decent phone and a decent plan.
If your such a cell band authority, then try answering the question you step
child dim rod.

Well atleast now we know what you were listening for.

T-bone wrote:
"smokin" wrote in

I honestly gave up on eavedropping on cell calls years ago when I entered
manhood.

On the contrary the CDMA/TDMA phones still use the same band as the AMPS
units.

As far as listening to conversations there are a few analog signals left but
towers limit the amount of analog conversations as they take up a lot more
space than digital. Analog seems more prevalent for customers from a TDMA
provider traveling in a CDMA market or vise versa.

So to answer his question - yes you can but you aren't going to here too
much

"T-bone" wrote in message

Can you receive cellular phone calls on a modified scanner? I thought
with all phone being digital now you could not?

There is very little activity in the old cell bands - What with analog
roaming and such, there is still a little.
So yes, people advertsing their scanners as UNBLOCKED !!!!! are really
saying
very little in practice - The only good reason to pay a premium to get one
would be to bank on the possibility that some other service of interest
will
eventually move into this frequency region.

I notice our phones always switch to analog out here at home. We are on a
small ranch in Texas golf coast area. I know all the trees kill the digital
signals. Had the same trouble with my police radio in the cruiser when I got
close to home. I had to switch from the 800 trunked stuff to vhf to be able
to hit the dispatcher. I guess this is kinda the same thing?? I know squatt
about cell phone technology. haha!

CDMA phones will, they are dual mode.
Brad.

"Mark" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 18 Jan 2005 13:25:15 -0600, "Sarge" wrote:

I notice our phones always switch to analog out here at home.

What kind of digital phone do you have that switches to analog?