This is an example of what I see as typical british over policing. Cover up your own incompetence at security by converting people doing no harm into criminals.

Government does something dumb, immediately outlaws the obvious result. Lol

This brings back memories in the early 90s I had a blind friend whom used CB he'd drop onto the HAM bands now and then and come talk to a lot of us but.. the big thing I remember him doing was he had a realistic pro scanner, that he used to listen in on the police & cordless house phones on. He had one of the old style discones on the roof of his home at the time. He's no longer with us now sadly but he was a lovely character, always happy, even when he lost his legs. I believe his equipment still lives with his wife & daughter.

this was my granddad who lived in widnes he would do this every night telling me what the police were upto it was like listen to crimewatch

I can remember in the mid 90s listening to Police on an airband radio. It was very addictive listening. I had this old Steepletone radio that worked well. Its all Tetra radio now. Nice video

In the late 90's, I had 2.4GHz CCTV cameras. One day, I was watching the recording and it switched to an aerial view of my area - I could even see my house. I realised the Police Helicopter must be using 2.4GHz as their downlink, presumably to officers on the ground.

The pearl-clutching about listening is is comical. But, I see the brit hopes of banning different kinds of knives and police entertaining complaints about public filming of piano players. Comedy continues. Thanks for your work, Lewis!

Bank in the 1990s, whenever a dignitary would be coming to Houston (where I lived), my HouScan frequency website would get a visit from a Department of Justice (FBI, etc.). I guess they were checking to see if we had access to any of the sensitive channels they were using. Ironically, they used the City of Houston dog catcher frequency to coordinate the protective detail since nobody ever listened to that channel, much less thought to look there for such sensitive traffic!

While waiting to pickup repeater equipment from a radio shop I learned that local police detectives rented space/access to a commercial radio system. This was in the 90s. I guess they felt their communication was more secure buried in the traffic of delivery vans, plumbers, etc. No idea if this is still done.

Making it illegal just made it more spicy.

As a kid staying at my grandparents I would lay in bed in the back bedroom with my Hitachi twin cassette sw mw and 88 to 106 vhf fm band...I had a bit of wire on the telescopic antenna used to listen to VOA Vatican radio ..Radion Sweden and allsorts on hf. But interestingly living in Barnsley South Yorkshire at the time I could pick up Barnsley C.I.D around the 100mhz ish area had hours of interesting listening.

Awesome bit of history. It was crazy being able to listen to the police on the FM broadcast band in the late 80s.

There was a couple of old men that lived in rural areas near me. Their houses were at a 90 degree, low speed curve. When the police were chasing a car they knew a crash was imminent. They got the shotgun and waited for the thug to crash. Then they hold them at gunpoint till the police caught up. Oh how the 70’s and 80’s were fun for some scanner owners. Then came the trunking scanners with the cell phone craze. There were hundreds of people that were caught cheating on the spouse by the scanner folks.

I remember when our force migrated to Airwave, the air/ground part was delayed and air/ground comms were via FM Simplex on 138MHz. There was a high profile MISPER case in which most of the community were involved in the search, and every now and then gold would pop up on the air reminding all officers that ear pieces must be worn at all times, due to the nature of the search blah blah etc. Anybody with a cheap scanner could have heard what was going on, and i'm pretty sure the community that were helping the search would have had access to some scanners.....

Late on, during the end of the analogue era, the police introduced the MASC voice encryption. However, this was easilly defeated. Some monitors also had transmit facilities, and would briefly jam the police transmissions during the data transmission designed to enable the encryption. So not all radios on the network went into secure mode. That meant that operators lost confidence in the system and stopped using it. Enabling monitors to continue to listen. There was also an interesting S band PAL video feed from the police helicopters in the Dorset area. This did use VideoCrypt scrambling. But as this had already been cracked, by people wanting free access to early Sky TV satellites. Also they transmitted in clear when they used their mobile command vehicle for big events. As they only had one decryption rig. This link disappeared for a couple of years in the mid 2000's, rumored to have moved to DVB on 3.4GHz, but we never found it. But later analogue returned on S band in the clear. Our assumption was that the replacement C band system had failed and the brought the S band out of retirement. But had already disposed of the decryption rack. We say about a year of interesting footage after that.

"Calling all cars, calling all cars..." 😂

I remember being able to push my stereo above the FM broadcast band and get a police frequency in NE London. Must have been late 80s or early 90s. It must have been some odd bending of the tuning circuit to pull the frequency up higher than it was meant to go. I think above the MW band I got wireless phones.

In my country, police communication is carried out on 173-174 MHz. They were also unencrypted for a very long time and could be listened to quite freely.

Met Police beat bobbies had bodyworn radio as far back as 1969, which you can see during "Don't Let Me Down" by The Beatles when the police turn up to the rooftop gig. There was also an episode of Heartbeat which centred around some armed robbers listening in on the police to evade capture. That "Late 90s" BBC News footage is from 2002, though. The BBC weren't using that set design in the 1990s and 2002 was the year of the Queen's Golden Jubilee Tour.

Thanks RM. Your Videos are So well planned out and Very Informative. This One was Full of Awesome Information and Things I have Never Seen or Heard Before. Thanks Again and Take Care. Radio ON*****

the uk is the only democracy that doesn't allow you to receive radiowaves going through us at all times. lmao.

I remember in the '80s/early '90s, my walkman could pick up Sussex Police just outside the broadcast radio frequencies. I do know Sussex police (at least up until a few years ago, so may still be in place), maintained their VHF FM system, I knew the guy who, is/was civilian staff, that was in charge of keeping it in working condition, in case for any reason, the Airwave/Tetra systems went down, so I guess other forces may also have maintained their VHF radio systems. Not tried scanning for it, but he said they did emit a beacon to keep the frequency clear.

Brillant back in the day

All those locations and the mention of Capital Radio give me flashbacks of when I lived there.

Fantastic detail but now just history. The march of time and technology waits for no one.

We used to have to get a license from the Michigan state police to have a scanner. That law was repealed when they went digital, but we have our ways.

I remember as a teenager - being able to pick-up my local police - right in the middle of the 88-108 MHz FM broadcast band !... Around 100 Mhz FM.

As a kid I remember tuning in on my grans radiogramme to listen to police, I think it had to be AM radio. As a special constable I attended an incident with a sergeant. Turned into a serious crime and I was posted outside to control entry. I was told to keep my radio off so people couldn't hear what was going on. This meant I also didn't know who was arriving. No worries, the lad across the road opened his window and shouted updates to his mates and me. Obviously listening on a scanner.

It was amazing had an AOR scanner and it was another level.

YOU COULD GET A SCANNER IN THE 90S FOR A TENNER IN TV REPAIR SHOPS

I remember, when I was younger, my dad and his friend rigging up some box and an antenna to receive video from the police helicopter.

That police lamp uses a zero for the O and I am not OK with that.

Hi, yes bring back memory’s , , we also used some these channels for Wimbledon tennis and Notting Hill carnival too

I remember "accidentally" listening to police broadcasts in the 80s, around the Edinburgh area, on a household VHF receiver.

Another interesting point is that BEFORE 02-Airwave as it was know, there were tests as far back as 1991 with a UK wide analogue system. I remember listening to tests were officers in the North West were "patched through" to officers in the Midlands. From 451MHz to whatever the other frequency was and I was able to hear both sides as it was a talkthrough conversation. This was experimented with for a while and trunking was meant to have been introduced across the UK, but funding stopped it. It was put on hold and encryption was used on radios that needed it and officers were using more and more mobile phones to take jobs and do checks so the public didn't hear. The pans to expand the national linked analogue system just fell apart, then we got TETRA. I think this was after the system called Dolphin Tetra set up throughout the UK and people got really interested in what it could do. I had a Dolphin TETRA handheld radio that worked on what is now DABradio frequencies, known as Band 3 back in 1994. That system allowed me to call a colleague anywhere in the country. It was brilliant, well ahead of Community Repeaters that were all still analogue. Mobile phones did kill off the PMR business!

The good ole days. I remember listening to Mike 1 or Mike 99 (Merseyside Police Helicopter), also the days where you could listen to analog mobile phones and listen to people having affairs 🙂

"I have eyeball, it's an off of off, turning left at it TK". Those were the days.

I think that listening to police should be a metod to avoid bad policing by law enforcement, you should do your work better if you know that the public can listen to you. Of course if you use the informations you listen for criminal activities you should be punish... That's my idea

Just think, we could've still been listening if it wasn't for those meddling scanner guide publishers... 🤣

Back in the 70s ( not proud of it ) we would listen to police to see football fans were kicking off and all head over and get involved.

Remember listening on a normal radio (but I lived just behind MPS KE -East Ham when they had local CAD rooms) they had the Storno sets back then (have one in my collection) and then they moved over to the Motorola MTS2000 UHF sets (have a few of these too).

What scanners didn't realise was that there was a lot of set ups. It wasn't unusual to say that a securty van had crashed and there was cash blowing all over the road. The police would wait to see who turned up, they were then arrested, then when they tried to deny it, their fingerprints were taken from the batteries.

My scanners back in the 90's picked up way more than my more modern gear. From cell phones to police bands, I could hear it all back then. Now? Not so much. Systems have changed I have not been keeping up with the changes for over almost two decades now.

WHAT I HEARD: _"...by listening in on conversations..."_ WHAT I THOUGHT: *Hello, ENCRYPTION??!!* From 1988 to 2000 I was an enlisted aircrewman in the US Coast Guard. We had encryption on certain aircraft radio systems, although in my particular job I virtually never dealt with them personally. _"We have the technology."_ -- THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN

The list at 1:55 made me lol. I had a pair of studio monitors that were so bad that under certain atmospheric conditions I could pick up the coastguard and local airport.

The good old days of monitoring the local Police forces on VHF /UHF radio. frequencies. Our County (Lancs) was the first Force in the Country to migrate over to the Tetra UK EMS Airwave Service back in 2001, (then MM02) along with the Ambulance and Fire service afterwards. They started using the Motorola mtp300 HT, a huge difference from the Pye PFX, I think the initial rollout took around 5 years for the rest of the UK 'blue light EMS following suit. Specialist units used MASC radios. The Met used a system known as Motorola' Smartzone' Trunking system as Lewis mentions, before they migrated over to the Airwave Service. Tetra is a very secure system using the ETSI TEA2 encryption algorithm for network authentication amongst other encryption key protocols. Always remember UHF CH88 AGA (Oscar November 21), ASU when they were using Analogue systems. The English HM Prison service use the Airwave Service with encryption, but the Scottish Prison Service uses Class 1 Clear Tetra, which can be monitored with an SDR.

Oh yes, scanning in the 90s and early 2000s. I obviously never did that, as it was and is very illegal. Greetings from DL.

I remember as a kid turning the black and white portable TV dial down to the bottom to listen to police. Purely by accident of course. A lot of the time you could only hear half of the conversation.

@Ringway Manchester, can you do another “unusual / weird radio transmissions” video please? I found them really interesting.

Our poilce in Staffordshire had introduce MASC voice encryption. Newcastle under lyme police and stoke and all the other town used it. I remember a police office telling me they stopped using the encryption because they could not hear one another. Some in the late 1990s they change to a system called Smartnet that was a trunking system on VHF 154 to 156 MHz. I could here most of the conversation sometimes. But if other officers started talking you would here them. They had 3 channels used a a scanner trap with a voice repeating scanner trap 1 or 2 and then it changed to a horrible noise. Staffordshire firebrigade all used the same frequencies so the firebrigade could talk to the police. I think some other users was going to join the smartnet system but never happen so they discontinued and moved over to Airwave. I remember Staffordshire headquarters call sign was YF and the firebrigade was YG. When the police moved to Smartnet the call sign was YN. Not sure why it was. The local policestation remained the same. I know Hanley was TC Tango Charle and part of that unit was Traffice police. Newcaslte was MA or Mike Alfa. When I first heard the police on UHF I had no idea who it was. Untill I heard someone on about catching some and making an arrest two streets away from then I new it was Newcastle Under Lyme police. I read there changing the system again from Airwave to another mobile encrypted system. I know a few who moan and say the police should remain on the old analogue system. But that outdated and they have the right to encrypt everything. I remember the day when Staffordshire police was broad casting were Radio 1 is now until they moved top 154.050 MHz. Then radio moved onto 97.5 around 1990 with test transmissions. Then Classic FM started doing test around 100 MHz. There is not as much to listen to now. There is DMR or DMR Plus a turning systems. But thanks to people who keep putting things on websites. A lot have gone encryted like our local shop watch. They spoil it fo the hobbists.

Ust to get the police on a decent stereo receiver with mechanical tuning towards the end of its range. Had to be carfull with earphones on got loud feedback around ther to. 40 years ago now 👍

i had a crt tv early 90s when tuning my mega drive in i found out the tv would receive police radios it was mad. that gave me the bug to buy Realistic Pro-26 Hand Held Scanner.

It's funny they don't want to be listened to, but they can listen to us

pitty i wasn’t into scanning in the 90’s despite growing up with cb in the 80’s

This was a great video to learn London geography

whats the point of all of that security when our MP's send just about everything on Whatsapp ?

As an American this seems strange for me. Any form of public service is freely able to be listened to the public. Police, city, state, utility, and pretty much anything. There is no expectation to privacy other than military. For which you can listen but wont have the encryption or licenses to do.

Tandy shops changed it all lol

I learned that the police were looking for one of my immediate neighbours and he was suspected to have been carrying a knife 🙃

464.2 brings back many memories 😂

Hi, I was involved in installing it maintaining and covered it on operations for football ruby etc . Regards mark

My dad had a 20ft aerial bolted to the side of the house, and a big scanner box thing when I was growing up. A book of all the different frequencies for everything for the UK from ambulance to the AA. Growing up where I did it was good for knowing where to avoid after a bombing or shooting. The news never told the truth even then. 😉

Some police used scramblers in the radios, they knew in 1988 that people were listening in. It was a crude speech inversion and they were available for most of the PMR radios in use.

How am I nearly 60 years old and was involved in CB and scanning and never knew it is illegal?

I use to listen to the local scanner frequencies all the time until they went encrypted a few years ago.

The Motorola Smart Zone system explains a lot of Airwave design decisions. You can see a lot of the older UHF system implemented similarly in a Airwave.

I've been transmitting in the 147 MHz band since the mid 1970s. I wonder if the Queen ever heard me?

For the official users of the radio systems it must have been complicated too, selecting the right channel based on location and circumstances. With TETRA based systems and talkgroups there is still 'radio discipline' to be learned. And you want officers to do the right thing automatically in an emergency.

Hi Lewis , great interesting video, on the main set system ch14 and 15 were never installed although under the high band system the channels allocated, ch9 were for in the tunnels only with ch12 . Ch10 was used for additionally for public order events and stadium events , we had interim scheme and we had the Quarsi system for the main set . The channel numbers were passed over from the old low band system . Before we had Met Radio the Motorola trunk system we had the Divisional vhf personal radio system in 155mhz input and 147Mhx output using cctss - sub audio tones , although the same channel was used twice but the system was engineered in different parts of London . We also had the public operations channel POC, for all demos portions football events etc, during any public order event the storno 800 radio could be changed from their division channel to the poc Ch on there radio. After Hillsborouh it was deemed that each stadium had its own uhf channel and control room . This was 464mhz input and 450 451 mhz output also using cctss , During when these systems not in use we reused those channels for operations for major events. There were also set to set simplex channels used for other units and dept 147mhz, there was an air to ground channel also used . Regards mark

awesome Lewis I remember those days

When metradio came in I think airwave was already on the drawing board anyway was only supposed to be a short term system after the 147 mhz station freqs where rest of uk used 450 mhz

Tandy used to sell Scanners in their stores.

I'm quite impressed by that replica of the top of the BT tower that someone has built on their roof. How did they get planning permission for that? 😁

Another well-researched show!

Wow, I did not know the UK was using mostly low VHF into the late 80s- crazy

I had an uniden bearcat home base and remember there realistic handheld scanner Friday night car chase

Hi, sorry yoy was right it was 450 and 451 as I remember, was long time ago , the stadium system was out 3 ti 5 watts o/p power. Regards mark

I still don't know why they made it illegal especially if they changed to encrypted communications.

Queen Elizabeth 11? Wow! The number for a future monarch! 😂

Back in the day it was part of the job for editors at newspapers to listen in trying to get the hot goss before print deadline. After digital they just went straight to hacking phones for their gossip... looking at you Murdoch.

In the 60s you could listen to the police on my domestic FM house hold radios.....least part of it. Just under were we get Radio 2 know....madness.

I live in a notorious hood in a murder capitol in California, I listen to po po channels to find out if the ruckus and helicopters up the street are heving to do with anyone I know and if it's safe to go to the ghetto corner store for an emergency can of price gouged cat food.

Glad they have encrypted now. But, back in the day it was fun to listen.

Back in the late 90s we had a 2way scanner,if the police were within say 500metres you could talk back to them,i had a police car behind me ready to pull me and a freind in a car behind the police car,my freind knew i was about to be pulled and called up immediate assistance on the radio,officer chasing,the officer behind me put his blue lights on to go assist this bogus call and i was away free🤣

Callsign 41 also used for baby sitting information or sweaty Pizza Express reviews?

This was a great episode!

For the Americans who are aghast at the British crackdown on listening to unencrypted police radio, know that police here in the U.S. are rapidly deploying encryption to prevent public monitoring. Most agencies already have encrypted "tactical channels," but most police agencies where I live, in Johnson County, Kansas, moved to full encryption at the beginning of this year. The argument from police in the city of Lenexa was, “This policy will help protect the privacy of those individuals, including victims, witnesses, and suspects, whose personal information is transmitted over a police radio." Critics have (quite rightly) called foul and said full encryption will stifle what little police transparency we have. One local freelance reporter who writes stories for local news outlets based on what he overhears pointed out that we're already missing out on details. From a story on KCUR: "Other times, the logs may not reflect a serious situation that needs to be reported on, he said. Frizzell showed how Shawnee Police’s call log in December made no mention of an armed standoff in which the equivalent of a SWAT team was called out. In that case, a man was charged with attempted capital murder."

In Grimsby in the 90s I used to be able to hear the police in the middle of the FM dial, but only one half of the conversation. Would this have been a harmonic? I don't see why they would still have been using this frequency in the 90s !

I think it's funny that they had their "crime prevention officers" to come round our houses and point out our appallingly bad home security. Yet, at the same time, they were desperately in need of a visit from the equivalent of a CPO regarding electronic/communications security.

Scanning used to be such a pleasant pastime.

Newer standards are going to have AES/DES standards up to 4096 bits or larger. New developments in microchip and SoC are allowing this in more expensive radios, some of them are not for sale to the public. 5G only has AES-256 encryption as an example to comparison. The downside of analogue radio was that it was all open or had poor encryption.

Interesting times.....

Superb mate

There is no crime receiving Radio Frequency transmissions and all the interesting stuff is encrypted

Heads up, plaistow is pronounced Plar stow.

I worked on TATRA. It's NOT as secure as you are led to believe.

They are not confidential if they are not encrypted

Hi pal,,I’m after a cheap radio,,where’s best to pick one up,,mainly for listening to planes not to far from Manchester Airport

BTW the detailed stuff 9nly went to a few close friends most got basic lists not the detail

If you live in a non fascist country you can actually listen on police frequencies. NOt that it matters as they're all encrypted now