Digital scanner ?? - Got to be a scam ????
 

I found this on e-bay, saying it can pick up all new digital phones, digital
police radio etc, but surely it's a scam isn't it ??? I thought the new
police radio's codes were uncrackable !

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/POLICE-DIGITAL...R-U-H-F-B-N-BX
_W0QQitemZ5804950925QQcategoryZ40979QQrdZ1QQcmdZVi ewItem

Cheers
Andy

On Fri, 2 Sep 2005 22:20:05 +0100, "Andy100" said in
rec.radio.scanner:

I found this on e-bay, saying it can pick up all new digital phones, digital
police radio etc, but surely it's a scam isn't it ???

It just claims to be a digital scanner - it doesn't say anything about
picking up digital phones. Of course it also claims to be UHF and go
*up to* 47.999999 MHz - 47 isn't UHF, and there's no channel on that
frequency (there are no countries that operate on 1 Hz
channelization). So, although the digital claim may not be phony, the
rest of it is as phony as a 33-1/3 cent bill.

I thought the new police radio's codes were uncrackable !

Encryption is practically unbreakable. (It's breakable, but do you
really want to spend a million dollars for the computer to do it and
wait 5 years for the results? The key changes faster than that.) But
there are many *real* scanners on the market today that receive
digital signals - Radio Shack Pro-96, Uniden 296, Uniden 396, etc.

Surely, even though the scanners you mention can receive digital signals,
broadcasters such as the police would still be unintelligible ??. I hope so,
after the amount of money the local police force have spent on encrypted
airwave radios !!

PS Are the 'digital' frequencies you mention still within the 0-1300MHz band
scope ??

Cheers
Andy


"Al Klein" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 2 Sep 2005 22:20:05 +0100, "Andy100" said in
rec.radio.scanner:

I found this on e-bay, saying it can pick up all new digital phones,
digital
police radio etc, but surely it's a scam isn't it ???

It just claims to be a digital scanner - it doesn't say anything about
picking up digital phones. Of course it also claims to be UHF and go
*up to* 47.999999 MHz - 47 isn't UHF, and there's no channel on that
frequency (there are no countries that operate on 1 Hz
channelization). So, although the digital claim may not be phony, the
rest of it is as phony as a 33-1/3 cent bill.

I thought the new police radio's codes were uncrackable !

Encryption is practically unbreakable. (It's breakable, but do you
really want to spend a million dollars for the computer to do it and
wait 5 years for the results? The key changes faster than that.) But
there are many *real* scanners on the market today that receive
digital signals - Radio Shack Pro-96, Uniden 296, Uniden 396, etc.

"Andy100" wrote in message
...
Surely, even though the scanners you mention can receive digital signals,
broadcasters such as the police would still be unintelligible ??. I hope
so,
after the amount of money the local police force have spent on encrypted
airwave radios !!

PS Are the 'digital' frequencies you mention still within the 0-1300MHz
band
scope ??

Cheers
Andy


Andy, don't confuse "digital" with "encryption". The two are separate
functions. A signal can be analog * or digital, plain or encrypted, or any
combination of the two.

The digital scanners can receive a digital mode called APCO25. If your
Police are using this mode, unencrypted, then you will be able to hear them.
If the Police are encrypted, then as a previous writer said, you won't be
able to decrypt it within any reasonable timeframe.

Our Police use digital at the 468MHz range, our State Government is planning
on changing it's 400-420MHz system to digital in a couple of years, your
local Police may be in the 800MHz band. You'll need to do some searching for
that information, it varies.

* analog = analogue (Barry O'Grady, author of Dictionary for Pedants)


Brad.

So would a "digital Scanner" be able to pick up the digital radio (DAB)
which is broadcast on or around 225MHz and be intelligible to listen to ?.
I'm assuming normal DAB is not encrypted ?

Cheers
Andy



"Brad" bradvk2qq AT w6ir.com wrote in message
...

"Andy100" wrote in message
...
Surely, even though the scanners you mention can receive digital
signals,
broadcasters such as the police would still be unintelligible ??. I hope
so,
after the amount of money the local police force have spent on encrypted
airwave radios !!

PS Are the 'digital' frequencies you mention still within the 0-1300MHz
band
scope ??

Cheers
Andy


Andy, don't confuse "digital" with "encryption". The two are separate
functions. A signal can be analog * or digital, plain or encrypted, or any
combination of the two.

The digital scanners can receive a digital mode called APCO25. If your
Police are using this mode, unencrypted, then you will be able to hear
them.
If the Police are encrypted, then as a previous writer said, you won't be
able to decrypt it within any reasonable timeframe.

Our Police use digital at the 468MHz range, our State Government is
planning
on changing it's 400-420MHz system to digital in a couple of years, your
local Police may be in the 800MHz band. You'll need to do some searching
for
that information, it varies.

* analog = analogue (Barry O'Grady, author of Dictionary for Pedants)


Brad.

"Andy100" wrote in message
...
So would a "digital Scanner" be able to pick up the digital radio (DAB)
which is broadcast on or around 225MHz and be intelligible to listen to ?.
I'm assuming normal DAB is not encrypted ?

Cheers
Andy


Nope. That's a whole different digital mode again, and different to the
sound on digital tv and different to the digital pay tv. Sorry.

Brad.

Cheers Brad for the useful info !. Yeah, it's getting a very complicated
scene out there. When i started scanning (Aircraft mainly) about 20 years
ago, there was just AM/NFM/WFM and SSB (USB/LSB/CW). I was scanning on a
Signal R532 ! (beauty !). No digital, airwave, tetra, motorolla, DAB blah
blah !!!!!!!!!!!!

Cheers
Andy


"Brad" bradvk2qq AT w6ir.com wrote in message
...

"Andy100" wrote in message
...
So would a "digital Scanner" be able to pick up the digital radio (DAB)
which is broadcast on or around 225MHz and be intelligible to listen to
?.
I'm assuming normal DAB is not encrypted ?

Cheers
Andy


Nope. That's a whole different digital mode again, and different to the
sound on digital tv and different to the digital pay tv. Sorry.

Brad.

On Sat, 3 Sep 2005 08:23:05 +0100, "Andy100" said in
rec.radio.scanner:

Surely, even though the scanners you mention can receive digital signals,
broadcasters such as the police would still be unintelligible ??

Not at all. Not unless they're running an encrypted system, and that
has nothing to do with whether they're using analog or digital
modulation. You can encrypt anything and you can use digital
modulation of one kind or another for anything - one is completely
independent of the other.

I hope so,
after the amount of money the local police force have spent on encrypted
airwave radios !!

You're confusing "digital" and encrypted". Digital is only
"encrypted" if all you have is an analog scanner. But if you don't
understand French, I can "encrypt" what I'm saying (from you) by
speaking French.

PS Are the 'digital' frequencies you mention still within the 0-1300MHz band
scope ??

Of course, except for those above 1300 MHz and those not on radio. You
can encrypt any communication - 10 GHz, 50 GHz, laser light going
through fiber optic cables, audio telephone conversations - anything.
Gordon Pugh could even encrypt his voice, but that's another
conversation.

tOn Sat, 3 Sep 2005 17:38:33 +0100, "Andy100" said
in rec.radio.scanner:

Cheers Brad for the useful info !. Yeah, it's getting a very complicated
scene out there. When i started scanning (Aircraft mainly) about 20 years
ago, there was just AM/NFM/WFM and SSB (USB/LSB/CW). I was scanning on a
Signal R532 ! (beauty !). No digital, airwave, tetra, motorolla, DAB blah
blah !!!!!!!!!!!!

When I started listening (scanning? what was that?) there was no USB,
LSB, TV ...

Just plain old AM and FM.

But we have to keep up with the times or end up scraping off the moss
and algae. I was born before the first computer was built (aside from
Babbage's Engine) - now I write computer programs.

"Andy100" wrote in :

_W0QQitemZ5804950925QQcategoryZ40979QQrdZ1QQcmdZVi ewItem

Well that says "FREQUENCY UP TO 47.999999" and with everything in my area
of the world from 140.0000MHz to 920.0000MHz it wouldn't realy work. It
also says it's in the "United Kingdom" so I'll pass on that scanner.

--
kla1899