Please read before commenting. 1. This is based on the UK, NOT the United States before I get millions of comments saying it’s different in the US… we know. Do some research, they were just as keen to pass laws banning scanner in the USA by the early 1990’s. 2. We all radio scan. 3. This isn’t to deter people, because I’m always monitoring like you are; it’s purely to educate. 4. I have no other info on the stories provided. Maybe you have more? 5. There hasn’t been any real documented cases of scanner related prosecutions in the last 20 years. 6. Ofcom DO uphold this law in certain cases. I’m aware of a recent investigation into someone…

Unless you open your mouth, they don't know what you're listening to.

In Canada, the Telecommunications Act basically states that, a person can legally listen to ANY radio broadcast as long as you're not using what you hear for any kind of "personal gain", and that you're not decrypting any encrypted communications.. Some provinces have their own laws such as not being legal to listen to a scanner in your vehicle.. But then, having a ham license pretty much negates those provincial laws due to them being federally issued...

I don't care what the UKGov wants. If it's broadcast, I'll listen.

In the US, some states have laws regarding the use of mobile scanners . Here in NJ,licensed radio amateurs are exempt of all such laws providing the radio is not used in the submission of a crime. I once had an officer ask me if my mobile radio was capable of listening it to them. I quickly said it was.The officer tried to tell me it was illegal. I handed him a copy of the law, which I carry, and bid him a good day! In the US such laws are seldom enforced.

I'm not taking any chances, i don't want to be dead by Friday. I'll get the missus to listen instead.

The RTL SDR by amateur programmer was the greatest advance in scanner hobby

So, under the Wireless Telegraphy Act of 2006 it is a crime for anyone to listen to one of the UK's famous pirate radio stations? What a crock!

Still kind of weird that there are laws restricting listening. Even if they aren't being applied/enforced.

You have to give credit to Lewis, he has the patience of a saint. The amount of people in the comments asking questions he literally answered in the video… 😂

If it fly's past you in the public space, there is no expectation of privacy.

I had one seized back in the late 90s, despite it being blank. Now, I have a pile of three police radios on my desk that were given to me by the police. How times change.

Thanks for these stories about the hilarious legislation in the UK. Sorry for you that a lot of taxpayers money is going to hunting down ordinary citizens instead of going after real criminals. Keep up the good video's !!!

I'm shocked at how restrictive the UK is for a supposed "free" country. If people don't want their transmissions listened to, perhaps they should encrypt it?

This video brings some real questions that the UK Government ought to be held to answer to: 1. Why is the UK Government so afraid of radio technology that they went to all this trouble to essentially make possession and use of radio receivers illegal? 2. These radio laws make it extremely hard for the everyday person to engage in government accountability work. What, exactly, is/was the UK Government trying to keep the public from finding out? 3. What real point was served by referencing a license in the law that was clearly stated to not exist? 4. What made the UK government believe that they have a right or even the authority to essentially say that airwaves can be privacy restricted based on the frequency one is listening to or attempting to listen to, especially when there has always been technology available for radio spectrum users to "scramble" or encrypt their radio transmissions?

This is the equivalent of the police saying "We're going to shout out sensitive information at the middle of the town square and you're not allowed to listen to it"

I worked at a ham store in the 80 and we couldn't sell scanners fast enough literally ran waiting lists...used to demo them on a Saturday with a small crowd around me...great video as always Lewis thank you....

I remember back in the late 1980's to early 1990's we listened to cell phones (800-900 MHz) on the scanner & cordless landline phones also (46-49 MHz) here in the US & Canada.

RE: RIMINGTON MINICABS - There's a village in Cheshire called Rimington but, with a population of

There really is a war against hobbies, isn't there?

I miss the days in Canada from the mid 90’s of listening to cell phones on 800 to 900 MHz. I heard so much wild crazy shit. It was so entertaining. By around 2014 there was basically nothing. Nowadays, absolutely nothing, obviously. I had a portable icom and a realistic brand scanner. Both “unlocked” (because they were imported from the USA and the Canadian radio shop unlocked them) for the 800-900 MHz bands. Allot of calls were on 850 to around 890. Portable phones were in the 900 range, so I could even hear my family talk shit about me at my house 😂. With the portable I could walk around with an earpiece and the radio in my pocket and if I saw someone on a phone, I could find them and listen in, provided I could get close enough to hear the voice to help me find it. Anyway, very entertaining, much more than any other band imo. In Canada it was legal to listen to anything, but illegal to TALK about what you heard.

A very long time ago the guy working next to me brings in a scanner. Back then cell phones were not scrambled so you could hear every thing people were saying (interesting conversations to say the least). Finally we hear a guy ordering a pizza online to be delivered. "Hi, this is John's Pizzeria what would you like?" The guy with the scanner would then call the pizzeria, identify himself as the person who just made the last pizza call and double the order. This is when Pizzerias started asking you for your phone number so they could call you back and verify your order. About an hour later a confused customer calls back pizzeria, "I did not order this".

These regulations give off some strong nanny state vibes...

Here in Sweden, I had to sign a NDA as to radio traffic that is not directed at me outside broadcast bands as part of getting my ham radio license. So yeah, we can listen, but can't disclose....

Back in ~1998 or 1999 I could listen to cordless phones and mobile phones quite easily . I know it wasn't a "scanner" but my Realistic 0-30mhz receiver was brill at around 27mhz ish? heard my next door neighbour talking about other neighbours and got to know what they really thought of people . I also heard another neighbour who lived a good 10 doors down on her cordless phone , signal was slightly hazy . Unfortunately , she was having an affair and OH BOY! I could hear all the antics who said and did what to whom ... Someone giving their American Express card details in full over the phone for a deposit on a Ford Escort .. The mind boggles ! Even back then I knew that was dodgy . Slowly but surely , they got less and less to listen to to a point of zero . My Realistic VHF UHF scanner was good on a Friday and Saturday night listening to the Police talking to control about Burglaries , drunks etc. Best ones were the car chases , even went out a couple of times with scanner in pocket and headphone in listening to the commentary and to see it happen on a main road where I used to live . There was a mod done on my last Realistic handheld (Not by me ) . Someone had repurposed the headphone socket and it had a 3.5mm jack off a headphone with a blob of solder on the end shorting it out . If you took this out it would clear the stored channels . The guy I bought it off was a ham and he told me to "pull the pin" if I ever got stopped with it or if plod /DTi came knocking . I never had to take it out and it never bothered me apart from when I was turning that instead of the squelch ! It got boring by 2002 /2004 as there was virtually nothing on there so I sold it .

I remember in the 80s you could pick up police transmissions on an old tv if you tuned in manually

Wow, I remember as a kid that my grandparents' VHF FM radio could receive the Police at the top end of the scale!

I’ve not thought about scanner directories in decades. Got gifted one along with a scanner eons ago now. The WT act is nuts when you start actually looking at the details. In other countries you can TX up to 1W in the FM broadcast band without a licence. Until surprisingly recently, in car FM transmitters were illegal to operate. Never mind running a hobby station. It’s up there with copyright. Everyone that ripped a CD without a licence has technically broken the law as well.

Thank You for all your great content Sir. Because of your channel sparking my old interests in radio I found a great shortwave station I really enjoy! Keep up the great work you do. Happy New Year!

Great video, Lewis! I do remember stories about what people were hearing on scanners, even back when I didn't know what a scanner was. When I got to the US, I couldn't believe how common they were here. It seemed everyone had one. Cheers!

Another well researched, informative, accurate and entertaining video Lewis.

Huh. I remember going to a Tandy store in the early 90s and bought my first scanner in London. The sales person was more than happy to sell me that scanner and it was freely advertised for sale. Of course, it was a vacation trip so it was promptly exported. But who knew at the time it was so illegal to use it?

Anyone wondering about receiving laws needs to remember it was (still is?) illegal in the US to receive anything between 800-900MHz. Not that you couldn't act on it, it was illegal to receive it, and many radios had markings like "US Cellular restricted" on them to indicate it. Of course, this was often a software block since the radios were generally worldwide usage, so there often was a jumper or hack that disabled it. Of course, this happened because some senator became aware of it and didn't want their phone calls listened to...

In the good ol' USA - The FCC has declared that all radio frequencies are in the public domain except for cellular frequencies and certain restricted frequencies. NOTE "restricted frequencies" are very limited.

Love the history and info in this video, great job Lewis!

Ah the good old days of scanning - was great back in the 90s. I fondly remember buying a couple of UK Scanning Directories (yellow one and a blue one) and loading the frequencies of interest (took a while back then). I even did a talk at school at the time about what could be eavesdropped on and got a lot of interest by the class ;) how times have changed

Back in 1960’s as a teenager I used to go plane spotting at Gatwick and Heathrow airports, and always listening in with my air band radio brought for me as a birthday present by my parents. Several plane spotters had their air band radio tuned and listening to aircraft communications with the police nearby watching, and to my knowledge no one was arrested for listening in on air band radios. Also I used to listen to Pirate radio on MW (medium wave) until the UK Government with GPO telecommunications started transmitting on same frequency to jam the Pirate radio transmissions coming outside UK territorial waters in the North Sea. Which just left Radio Luxembourg 208mw which would fade in and out evening times only.

That hole in the back of a radio to pop the memory chip is crazy. Uf that doesn't show you the fear was real then nothing will. Radios and scanners were not as cheap as they are today. Popping that chip must have been painful lol

Great DAYS remember them so well. But just a bit young. But my friend DAD was all over it. And to this day listening to the scanner was great and we thought we were big bad lads. Not that we could touch it. Still great fun. Thanks for bringing back those memories. Love your channel ALAN from LUTON 🇬🇧💯🍻👍👍

Hi Lewis. RW3 Andy. Takes me right back to the days of the illegal rave scene. I purchased a scanner on the 1st day it arrive in the UK from a CB shop in Lowton, a Jupiter 2 scanner… which was actually a Ypiteru with a sticker over that name. Only those first editions were called Jupiter 2. It was the first handheld scanner to go 25-1300 MHz without a break. I also was heavy into cb and had a Stalker 9fdx that I had expanded to S Low. The year was around 89/90 and the buzz was the illegal rave scene. Each weekend we would frequent the hotspots to try and find out which disused barn we would be going to try to find. Oh my days, how funny it was that the police didn’t have clue, when I ‘may not’ have been listening in on a certain frequency. Anyways, I had a DX27 for my Stalker on the car… I was sat a the MOBILE petrol station on the A49 Winwick road by the college, waiting for the details of where the masses of car convoys were heading…courtesy of the very people who were trying to stop ravers from finding! A policeman approached me, so the scanner went under my seat, quick. He saw my cb and said…. “Is that a scanner?” “No, it’s a cb” “Ok, key the mic then” So I did, he obviously didn’t have a clue… Ok he said and left me. That was my close call, but the policeman was far too green, probably a special. Any ways, thanks to them in blue giving out details of raver convoys, we were off down the M62 towards Birch service for the word of the secret rave. We found it btw. about 3/4 mile from the services. There were 3 of us, and the guy on the barn gate said 15 quid each…wow. That wasn’t cheap in 89/90. So my pal said, “we’ve got £11 between us, can you let us all in for that?” The biggest lock and chain I’d ever seen was unlocked…”Give us your money then!” lol. We were in… Single strobe and banging rave…we eventually got busted and hundreds off officers in riot gear and full body shields, forced us all out. What a buzz. lol. Making raved legal eventually killed that scene.

Australian here, in the early/mid 1980's during the CB Radio craze we used to gather at a local food van, some would be running a scanner across the Police channels (unencrypted then), the local Police would also be in attendance grabbing a bite, and would leave their radios in the car knowing full well there was a scanner to which they could hear themselves being called.

Nice job Lewis, cheerz. Bit surprised you didn't mention the TV and Wireless Detector Vans. Here in Australia, we had the TV and Radio Licenses, similar legislation etc.

LOL, video released at a truly hilarious time based on what I was doing before I broke off to watch it. Very apt! :)

(Stella) Rimington - Didn't she used to run MI5? maybe she had her own cabs ;)

A longer video!!! Finally!!! Thanks bud!!!

I remember back in the day walking around Tandys all the scanners were blaring out all sorts of stuff

I remember as a teen being able to listen to the "new car phones"

If someone is not supposed to receive the information. It should be encrypted. No problems.

This is insane. You're always receiving the broadcasts whether you want to or not, they blast it out there, but because you hook some coils magnets and batteries together in that same air, it's illegal 😂

Terrific piece, many thanks.

Back before they changed to the new system in the uk I had my scanner on and listening to the local cops, as we were listening to a report of a vehicle accident in the area we were horrified to recognise the car and number plate put over the scanner was a friends car who had slid out and slammed a tree side on and he broke his neck and passed, it was horrific as the cops were saying he was still warm and they tried to do what they could but it was to late, we ran to his mums house and told them what we had heard whilst the cops were getin Colin’s info and subsequently turned up in the street to tell his parents whilst his parents kept getting told off the 999 operator that it wasn’t him and it was

Thankyou for your well researched and informative video.

I recall a Class B ham from Norwich being prosecuted for installing an HF transceiver. He was well known for being a bit of an idiot and transmitting on frequencies that he was not authorised, HF, VHF and UHF. The consensus at the time amongst local hams was that the police just wanted to nick him for something radio related and the HF radio was the low hanging fruit, as the other offences were difficult or impossible to prove. But it did concern all of us who had HF radios and a B class call.

That Robert Rolands snippet was great. Super interesting!

The UK police seem to have been able to show the Gestapo a thing or two ...

Brilliant, really interesting little documentary. Cheers!

Oh gosh no! This is illegal and I didn't know it - thanks for letting me know. What a scandal, etc, etc...

I used to have a 20 channel table top scanner. I used to get the local police, fire, and ambulance channels. The weather band and taxi bands were easiest to get and they were the channels that lasted longer before the authorities used digital frequencies. I tried to hack a Motorola pager report system. The software and cables were proprietary. I can stream the conversations between radios with a scanner app.. I'm not sure how the new digital scanner radios work. I see a few on line.. I just haven't worked up the patience and nerve to try one out. I am curious about them though.

Another brilliant video Lewis. Rimington Minicabs 🤣

we had to pay for a radio licence to listen to any broadcast radio stations in the UK until about 1971. For a car radio you had to have a licence for that as well, there were a lot of car radios that you could remove from the car which had built in batteries and it's own aerial so was classed as a portable radio and not a car radio so came under your home radio licence.

Strange law. Strange antenna as well. Nice one Lewis

I know a guy who deals cocaine. Used to listen to a scanner all day he would follow the local police.

As a teenager I use to listen to plod in the mid 90s until I left my home , fantastic days I even listened in on the ZH channels at the same time as PR when I was able to purchase another second scanner , my mum said my bedroom sounded like police control

Story from Germany. In the 90s we used to listen to police and fire department radio with a scanner. they were free to buy. I acutally don't know if it was legal/illegal but over time less and less came over radio. Back in the 90s every truck that responded would give a call when starting and when arriving but this was replaced by a status giver. radio communication in general became less and when it was changed to digital radio you couldnt scan anymore (so far i know)

Could i ask you where the image was taken that appears at 9.22 in your video ? Also is the image at 10.32 at idle hill ?

That moment when you're just sitting back watching an educational video and your place of work pops up on a scanner in the video. Now I actually want to buy one of those scanners just to hear what's available (or just how available).

I used to clip my little Icom ICR-2 onto the grab handle on my cam-corder so you got the chit chat on my aviation videos back in the day 😬

“A statutory instrument is a regulation and not a law” I love you Mr Ringway Manchester!!💪

Are the old "cat call devices" legal in the UK, They used to transmit I think a DTMF signal to activate another CB unit like a "phone call"?

I remember working at Radio Shack in 1992 and RS was phasing out certain scanners because they were scanning the 800MHZ range here in the US (Which I found out was the range of frequencies that cell phone carriers started using back then!)

Great video 😳 wish I was around back when scanning had more to listen too, never got a scanner until 2004

Back in the mid 70s my dad had a Sharp FM radio with 'Air band ' which let him listen to aircraft comms at air shows or airports. Would this have been illegal ?, I can remember not being allowed to use it once when I was inside Manchester Airport ! (Makes me shocked to discover that my dad was a Criminal !)

I am SO glad I live where scanning is legal.

Not really related to the video but back in the 90s we had a cordless phone that would always hear other conversations if the power button was pushed halfway on instead of all the way. It was particularly strong on one womands phone conversation.i could only hear her talk and not the person she was talking to. I assume we had the same phone.

In comparison, some emergency service departments in the US live rebroadcast some of their comms specifically so scanner listeners can hear them. Of course they have encrypted channels they don't rebroadcast, but their main ones are available for everyone to listen to.

They made laws to prevent listening to cell phone frequencies in the US, but later implemented digital transmissions making the law useless, but they didn't remove the law.

Love those crazy comms included, I thought that sort of stuff was only on the Australian chook (CB) band, nice to hear the same 'intelligence' exists in the UK.

Nice video Lewis! The best from LB1NH 🙂

It's interesting to note that our current TV Licence in the UK shares it's roots with this legislation - early on in the development of radio the UK government introduced a licence for both transmission and reception - a radio license was required for all reception and having radio equipment installed was itself an offence ifyou didn't have the licence. This is still the case today with television equipment. When television was introduced a new type of license was created covering television reception (which gave coverage for radio reception too). Up until the 90s (or could be 80s) a licence for radio was required although the radio only licenced had been abolished in 1971. The black and white TV license stated that it covered radio reception too. In reality if you didn't have a TV then you weren't prosecuted for not having a radio licence once the radio only licence was itself abolished.

Great 👍🏻 video as usual 😎

Three words come to mind. God bless America!!

I remember buying a Yupiteru MVT-8000 from Maplin. Cost a fair chunk of my apprentice wages and I loved every minute of listening to it. Nothing was sacred.

The US standard, even though not specifically stated in law, is: You want to keep me from receiving your transmissions? Then keep 'em out of my backyard. Scramble them, use codes or ciphers, whatever you want. But I can listen to anything I damn well please.

Lewis, it is indeed strange how liberally laws were interpreted where "installation" or "available for use" were in some cases deemed enough to secure a prosecution. Nearly all of the scanner instances should have been thrown out of court, the contents of the memories are pretty weak evidence for an offence. Of course in many of the cases there is more to it than reported.

Cracking content again Lewis, i thought you would be the man to ask... am after a radio, mobile like my trust ubc125 but with the ability to record audio? just want snippets for low level flying videos, any ideas would be much apricated

This story hit home. Happen to own the same model Uniden scanner shown throughout the video. I never thought much of it at all. A piece of junk, honestly. But perhaps it isn't so bad. Also at one time owned the ham version of the Alinco scanner shown in a newspaper clip. The ham version was the DJ-G5 if I remember right. There was an identical wideband receive only scanner in the same shell. I think that is what the photo shows. It DID have excellent receive ability. Used to be a scanner addict of sorts but everybody went P25 around me and most of them are encrypted.

Even more worrying, is business' and organisations, using PMR446 channels, like they used to use CB back in the '80s and '90s. Again, I'll often have my PMR radio on when at work, as I've a few friends who use it, rather than going for their amateur licence. When working at a particular customer site, there is a secondary school, whose radios operate on PMR446 ch8, although their CTCSS is set (I've not tried going through my settings to find it), so if I call on CH8, I don't open their squelch, but as I don't have CTCSS set on my PMR radio, I hear everything they broadcast. During lockdown, this was particularly noticeable and I was able to hear a lot of personal information regarding pupils, I did approach the school to advise they're failing in their safeguarding commitments and their response was I shouldn't be listening to their radio ... pretty difficult not to do when they're on the PMR 446 calling channel! To date, nothing has changed, I've pointed it out (without stating which channels/frequencies they're using), on local community groups, but guess I really should report to Ofcom, as they've either just bought PMR radios and set them up with the CTCSS and don't have a licence, have done this, but with a licence, but not understanding the frequencies they're supposed to be using, or possibly worse, renting from a company under their licence, who knows they shouldn't be on PMR446 ch8, but doesn't care. With the emergency services having gone encrypted digital, I think some of the appeal for scanners has reduced, as most business' and organisations that use business licence probably aren't worth listening to, with the exception of motorsport sites etc as you've mentioned, but then that is by enthusiasts to enhance their experience. I think the same is with those who listen to airband radio, they're more often than not aircraft enthusiasts, who will listen in to the airport they're visiting. I know a few anglers who don't hold a maritime radio licence, but do have radios for when they're on the beach or water, due to the fact their mobiles won't be waterproof, but the radios are and a lot of very good fishing marks have a poor mobile signal, some have used their radios in emergencies, to report kayaks or SIBs in difficulties, where they've not had sufficient mobile signal to call 999. I think most people, who have scanners and even licenced amateur radio operators will have listened to frequencies they're not supposed to, but 99% of them won't act upon anything they hear, which is the important thing, it's only those who rebroadcast or act upon what they've heard that will ever fall foul of the laws.

Nice one Lewis great video enjoyed it great start to 2024 73

When I lived in a town in central Wales, My Stereo music centre would pick the police up :) Even when I was listening to records. It would come blasting out the speakers.

There was another way of circumventing the laws in my country... it was legal to have measuring instruments for repairs/antenna work etc. wich contained a broadband receiver. Heavily used by some people.

Needles to say the Government is not half as upset by BigTech snooping into private Comunications.

"wireless telegraphy" back in days when police have used CW 🤣 Good work man reminds me of good old days

To us here in the US, this seems like something out of 1984.

Here's a pair of binoculars, but dont watch that bird unless you've been given permission by it. Also, dont look at that cloud floating above. Meanwhile government agencies are watching every cloud and bird go by 😅

Hi Lewis that name of the guy from Disley sounds familiar the photographer for the autotrader back in the day for our area had the same name a possibility ?

I remember when I was a lot younger, I had a radio scanner that picked up aircraft and I used to go to Birmingham Airport virtually every weekend to watch the planes and listen to the scanner. Nobody ever stopped me and also they encouraged it by having a lounge where people could go inand watch the plane flying and just have a good time there and listen to the aircraft was one of my highlights of my weekend as a blind person I enjoyed it. Immensely I do have some site though

What would we do now, should we require a new type of “Y” service.....can’t see the yoof being able to assist?

Utterly dystopian.

You seem to have missed out about it being illegal to listed to parts of band 2,88-108 MHz in the 60's the lower part of the band was broadcast stations,mostly BBC.The higher frequencies were used by the police and could be received on any VHF FM radio,doing so was illegal and if caught could end you up in court.The air-band started at 108MHz AM and various mobile 2 way radio was used by many private firms and utilities up to the 2 Meter band at 144MHz amateur radio.Mobile and car phones also used part of the band.The police moved from Band 2 and with commercial radio being allowed they filled up using the full band.With the police using digital transmissions it put a stop to a lot of illegal listeners.Scanners were not really legal and it was Tandy (Radio Shack)who sold a few models in their shops and later the Yaesue scanners.

Where did you find that antenna for your uniden scanner