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6
SCANNING LEGALLY
Scanning is a fun and interesting hobby. You can hear
police and fire departments, ambulance services, govern-
ment agencies, private companies, amateur radio servic-
es, aircraft, and military operations. It is legal to listen to
almost every transmission your scanner can receive.
However, there are some electronic and wire communi-
cations that are illegal to intentionally intercept. These in-
clude:
• Telephone conversations (cellular, cordless, or other
private means of telephone signal transmission)
• Pager transmissions
• Scrambled or encrypted transmissions
According to the
Federal Electronic Communications Pri-
vacy Act
(ECPA), as amended, you could be fined and
possibly imprisoned for intentionally listening to, using, or
disclosing the contents of such a transmission unless you
have the consent of a party to the communication (unless
such activity is otherwise illegal). These laws change from
time to time and there might be state or local laws that also
affect legal scanner usage.
20-310.fm Page 6 Wednesday, August 4, 1999 10:49 AM