74 lines
3.8 KiB
Plaintext
74 lines
3.8 KiB
Plaintext
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THOUGHTS OF CORDLESS PHONES
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BY BOB KAY
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From The Scanning Report
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Monitoring Times Magazine
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Reprinted By: John Johnson, KWV8BP
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of The Hotline MBBS
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Dear Cordless Phone Owner:
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On a map of your town, draw a one mile radius circle around your home.
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Did you know that anyone who lives within that circle and who owns a scanner
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can listen to your phone calls? If you live in an urban area, there could be
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hundreds of people listening to your every word. The fact is that the one
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mile radius is rather conservative. Cordless phone signals have been moni
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tored at distances greater than two miles.
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To the average person, the idea of cordless signals traveling a distance of
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two miles seems rather ridiculous. After all, the advertised operating range
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of a cordless phone is approximately 1500 feet. And if you're a cordless
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owner, you know from first hand experience that your phone won't work beyond
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the limits of your back yard.
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So how can someone with a scanner radio, living several miles away, monitor
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your cordless phone? To answer that question you need to understand that the
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cordless telephone is actually a two way radio. Most people are surprised to
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learn that the cordless phone is nothing more than an FM walkie talkie that
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flings you telephone conversations in all directions. If atmospheric condi
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tions are favorable, cordless phone signals can travel for miles.
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The scanner radio that we use has the unique ability to capture, receive,
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and amplify a variey of weak signals. Its sensitivity to low power signals,
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like the ones coming out of your cordless phone, is further enhanced by
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the addition of an outside antenna. With the proper equipment, it's easy
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to monitor an entire neighborhood of low power cordless phones.
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Hobbyists who monitor the cordless bands quickly learn to match voices with
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specific frequencies. Local cordless frequencies can be cataloged in the
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same manner as regular phone numbers. For example: If a cordless phone is
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monitored on 46.610 megahertz, that particular frequency and the name of the
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person using it can be logged and retained in a cordless frequency book.
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It then becomes as easy to "tap" into a neighbor's cordless phone as it is
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to "punch up" his or her frequency on a scanner radio.
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By now you're probably wondering if it's legal to monitor cordless phones.
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The answer is yes. A few months ago, the Supreme Court ruled that users of
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cordless phones have "No justifiable expectation of privacy." Shortly
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thereafter, the Iowa Civil Liberties union stated that "Consumers are purch
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asing cordless phones at the expense of their constitutional rights."
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To protect yourself from uninvited eavesdroppers, it's necessary to throw
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your cordless phone into the closet. You only need to realize that the
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codless phone should be utilized as a convenience, and not as a tool. If
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the phone rings when you're out in the garden, it's okay to answer that
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call on a cordless phone. But don't discuss personal or financial matters.
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Simply ask the calling party to hold until you can get to a wire connected
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phone.
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However, there's more to protecting your privacy than most people realize.
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If you call your neghbor on a standard wire connected phone, and they answer
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on a cordless phone, your right ot privacy doesn't exist. Why? Because your
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neighbor's phone is broadcasting both sides of the conversation into the
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air!
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For total protection against uninvited listeners, use a standard wire
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connected phone and don't forget to ask the second party to do the same.
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In today's high tech society, it's the only guaranteed way of protecting
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your telephone privacy....
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Reprinted By: The Hotline MBBS 304-736-9169
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end |