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{:Jnitpring'---T-imes '"Vol. 16, No.4 April 1997 An MTSpecialRepart

Privacy and the PublicAirwavesBob Grove, pub lisher of Monitoring Tunes and president of _=",-~

Grove Enterp rises. recently appeared before the House Sub- tj~~QJ!0i;.~committeeon Te lecommunication s at the invitation of chair- Ar~~~~;P)V~:~.'~ ::;:; .,.-~.~. '0

I. v y ~. ":1'>' ~~mall Billy Tauzin. He was hoping the opportunity would ,\1 ,'1. ,~, -:.~ ~".::/: .';.\. ,{').l ~

.. - /I '( _ " 0 - ._. ' I. .\

~frorJ him a ch anc~ to clarify \V.hy the curren.! I .i steni~~ law i," ~_:J . , '\1t~~:}:~~-j ,,~ II)~ IiIS llawcd and why 'I prot ects neith er the public S traditional \\;t;\'~k'5Jm. l l1C~f!"/ .(//1freedo ms nor its right 10 privacy. He believed the Subco m- ~~~~;:~\~." '_":" ~~i' j,:/~j/

. . d . r. : I . ~i2~ --h:'%.Jmlt:e was mtcres te - III wor",~ng on so utH)~lS . '

Reviews:

Our reviewers lhi-. month 100" ;.1(on e recei ver on it... \\ ';'1)' in and another

ti ll it-; \\'a~ ou t. Both a rc co nvid-creel excellent value ... and bot h...how go od audio qua lity for the ir..ivc.

:\'1.'\\ to the marketplace i ...the j{ E I. ~ l HS-200 handh e ldscanner. Bob Purnu...... ~";l ~ "' ,"The HS200 is 110 1 fan( ~ hutit 11;1" three impor tantstreng th... : CTt 'SS a nd DeStll' l'tldin g. out ..tand ingpertormaucc. antinttordabiliry." Sec the [1.",, ' o f

hi-, review Oil p;' lgC 9-1- .On it-,w;.t~ out tnt lea-, ' in the U.S.)

i.. the Sony ICF-S\\'600 mid ..izcport ab le shortwave rece iver. At S(lO.thi.. h;'l...ic a na log portable gin:.. n.' rygont! pcrfomancc for the price . ~ l agnL'says they an..' sfil l to be fou nd in lll all ~sto res. though W\.' strugglt'd 10 eve nfind a picture Id' i l ~ You can find til l 'review Oil page l)l

DEPARTMENTS

Letters ................................... 4Communications ....... ....... ........ ... ..... 6PCS Front line ............................... 28

Fingers in the Spectrum PieSconning Report ............................... 30

In Delense 01SconningUtility World.................................... 34

The UK RoyalAir ForceGlobal Forum .................................. 38

New SW lor Mexico CityQSL Report 42English lang SWGuide 43Propogotion Conditions 63Beginner's Corner ........... ....... .... .... ... 64

Websites 01 InterestBelow 500 kHz 66

Ken Cornell. Silent KeyAmericon Bondscon 68

Radio in the Frozen NorthOuter limits 70

Pirotes Using WW WebOn the Ham Bands 72

Simple 8uilding ProjectsDeMaw's Workbench 74

Eliminating Spurious SignalsPlane Talk 76

The Readers Speak

Federal File 78Antenna TipOlls

Satellite TV 808irth and Death 01 a Sotellite

Experimenters Workshop 82Squelch Improvement

Computers & Radio 84Is a S10 Computer a 8argain?

Digital Digest 86ARINC s New Technologies

MT Review 88V-Link 2'way; RSFRS'08

Wha(s New 89Magne Tests 92

Sony ICFSW600 PortableScanning Equipment 94

RELM HS200 Portable SconnerAntenna Topics 96

The BeverageAntennaSpecial Events/Club Circuit 98Ask Bob 100

Makeshift AntennasStock Exchange 102Closing Comments 104

Opening Statement to theHouseSubcommiffee

MONITO RING TlM E5 11 SSn 088 9 5341 1;, published monthlyby Grove Enterprises, Inc.. Brasstown , North Ca rolina , USA.Copyright 1997. Periodicals postage paid o t Bro sstcwn. NC . andadd itionol mailing offices. Short excerpts may be reprinted withap propriate credit. Complete a rticles maynot be reproduced withoutpermission(1f-t AddressTelephone:Fa)!; 'lnterne eAddress'

P.o. Box 98, 7540 Highway 6 A West.Bross-own. NC 2890200981704) 8379200(70A) 837-2216 {2A hours)wwwgrovc.f'er{webl or mt@grovc,ncl lemaillEdiloria l e-mail: mlooltorCgrove.net

Subscription Rates: S23.95 in US; 536 .50 Ca nada; an d555 ..15 fore ign elsewhere , Us funds . label indica tes lost issueof subscription. See page 103 for sub5cription information.Postmaster:Send address changes to Monitoring Time s.P.O. Box 98, Brasstown, NC 2B902009 8

Disclai mer :W hile Mooirvring TirreJ mokes a n cllo lt to ensure the ir/ orma tlon il

publ i~hes is Occurole. It cermet be held liable for the contents. The rea dera ssumes a ny risk for performing mod ificotion or co nstrud ion prOIec: I ~publ ished ,n '.lo", I0' '''g TImes Op,n,on Of conclUSIons exp ressed ore nornec:esso"ly tl-e ~iew of MO";~o';"9 T,meJ cr Gro~e E"lerpri~e ~ . Unsolicitedmonus(fipts a re occepted SASE If mare riol i ~ 10 be rewreed .

Editorial StaffOwn ersBob and Judy Grove

PublisherBob Grove, WA4PYO

EditorRachel Baughn. KE40 PD

Assistant Ed ito rLorry Va n Horn, NSFPW

Art DirectorJohn Bailey

Design AssistantBelinda McDonaldAdvertising Svcs.

Beth Leinbach1704) 389400 7

Business ManogerKelly Davi s. KE4TAM

Frequency Manager ... Gayle Von HornFrequency Monitors David Dotkc, loyd Von Horn

ProgramManoger Jim FrimmelBeginner's Corner TJ, Arey, WB2GHA

K.I .S. Radio Richard Arlond, K7SZPlane Talk Jean Boker, KIN9DD

Scanning Report Richard Borne"Computers and Radio John Cctclcnc

Below 500 kHz Kevi n Corey, WB2QMYExperimenter's Wkshp Bill Cheek

Propaga tion Jacques d'AvignanDeMaw's Workbench Doug DeMow, W1FB

Digital Digest BobEvansFederal File John Fulford, WAAVPY

SW Broadcasting Glenn HouserOn the Hom Bands Ike Kerschner, N31K

Mogne Tests lawrence Magne

Communicatiom larry Millerwhet's New? lorry Miller

Scanning Equipment Bob Pcrncss, AJ9SSatelli te TV Ken Reitz, KS.4ZR

Antenna Tepics W. Clem Small, KR6AAmerican Bondscan Doug Smith, W9W1SW Broodccst logs Gayle Von Horn

QSl Corner Gayle VonHornUtility World la rry Van Horn, N5FPW

PCS Front line Dan VeenemanOuter limits George Zeller

Corresponde nce to columnists should bemoi led c/o Mon itoring Time s via e-mail(mt@grove.net) or via P05t o ffice. An yreques t For a pe rsona l rep ly should beaccompanied by on SASE .

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LET T E R S

Talkers vs. Stalkers?!

" If you thou ght Am erica Online cha t room s were a shameful waste ofhuman potentia l.j ust think about the fo lks who monit or thc public airwav eswith radio spectrum scanners."

- Craig Stolz in the Washington Post article "Scan You Dig It?"

In a n outpouring of indignation. scanne rlis ten e rs fro m around the country and Canadahave been wri ting 10 the media, their legisla-tors, newsgroups, and they have bee n send ingus copies of their arguments to co unter theCTIA repre sentation of scan ner listeners asbe ing "e lectro n ic sta lke rs." Canadian readerswarn that the ir go vern me nt is cons ideringle gi sla tion as well.

An article hy C raig Stolz in the \Vash ing-ton Post w h ich characterized scann ing as a"waste of hu man potenrial." also angeredrea ders . Fo llowing are excerpts fromsome o fthe lett e rs yOll have wri tten. Pe rhaps they w illhelp you co m pos c your o w n p rot est lette r !

EdMuro's letter to hisRepresentative:

"The average American is often outragedwhen they lind out that thei r cellular calls ca n bemo nitored hy a person with a so-c alled 'scan-ncr.' ... For se vera l years dig ita l techn ology hasbeen avail able tha t wo uld virtua lly make it im-possible for the average perstm 1en 'e Ihe greedy needs of the ce llularindustry. who ('a n hold ilup as an 'assura nce' ofprivacy lO the unin formed public.: .

" 1strong ly e nco urage: yo u to devc lop a moresound hackground in the lechnol o~ y and humanfac.: tllrs beh ind r"d io monitoring before publish .ing furthcrncg.uiw information aboul thc ohm-1/l/d.\' legal hob by of owning and usin g a sca n-ning rad io rl.' (.'c iVLr.

(C011li ll ll ed 011page !(2 )

4 MONITORING TIMES April 1997

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COMMUNICATIONS

" Will you he testing us0 11 the Nike commercial.Mrs. Roherts?"

\

g ra m. is again un-der a ttac k. A c -cor ding to a rece ntstudy by pro fe s-so rs from Va ssarColleg e and Jo hnHo pkins Univer-sity . the dai ly 12-m inute program islight on news andheavy o n advertis-mg. Eve ry day.C hannel O ne isbea m e d in to12.000 schoo lsnationwide.

S a y s Ma rkMil le r. a me dia studies expe rt a t JohnsHopkins, "T he news is no t the point of Chan-ncl Onc. It is no more than tiller mean t topre pa re s tude nts for ads."

Mill e r titled hi s study . "Ho w to Be Stupid:T he Tcuc bings ofChannc! O ne ." Th e stud ieswe re coordi na ted by the g ro up. Fairness andAccuracy in Reporting, a liberal me d ia watch -dog grou p ba sed ill New York.

A CNN pro d ucer wus suspe nded aft erairing foo tage of Ennis Cosby's bod y ly ing ina pool ofblood ne xt to his car. CNN preside ntTo m Jo hnso n reacted immediately. call ingthe video "a se rious mi stake ." In add ition tosus pend ing the produ ce r, Jo hnso n said thatCNN apologized 10 the Cosby fam ily on thea ir. se nt the fami ly a per son a l lett er of apol -ogy and ple dged not to set up cameras in frontoft he Cosby ho use. Johnso n sa id that he mayex tend the prod ucer' s suspension a fte r herev iews the tape of the ne wscast.

Selective Vision

Stupidity 101?Eig ht yea rs afte r its co nt rovers ia l debut ,

Channe l O ne. the cl ass roo m "news" pro-

Copping the Old Cell Phone Plea

ch ecking a repo rt o f a po ssible bu rg lary.spoo ked th ree suspects who sped from thescene in an o ld. g ray T oyot a p ic k up. Poli celos t the vehic le. hu t an alert scan ner liste ner.s itt ing ill ucon venicnce s tor e parking lot. sawit speed by and fo llowed. He notified poli ceus ing h is cel l phone .

Wh en all officer arrived. he ap pro ac hedthe suspects wi th g un d rawn . bUL whe n hetried 10 call for back up. he was un able torea c h di spatch. T he scanner bull rea lized theo fficer could be in trouble and c alled 911.Within three minutes, back ups arrived andthe three sus pects were arreste d wi thou t inc i-dCIlt.

Wa s the office r worried d uring the Rto 10m inu tes he was facing the trio wi th a deadrad io'? " I t was co ld o ut the re a nd I'd like tobel ieve I wa s shak ing because of that ." T heofficer added. in an un derstateme n t. " If [t hescanner liste ne r I had n' t done what he d id. wewould n' t have go tten [the suspects]."

BOO MHz MessIn Volll ~ia Coumv. Florida. the SO() Ml-lz

radio ... vstcm shut down j ust as Dct.and policeo ffice rs we re cor nering a pair of armed rob-he rs at a crowded shopping center. It rc-main cd inoperable ril l" 10 m inutes and thenbegun del ayin g a nd d ro pping tran smi ssi ons.

" It wa ... a nightmare ..' said a so urce in theDe land Pulice Department . "N obod y knewwhat \ \ W , goi ng: 0 11 '" A qu ick -th inking corn-numicution sup erv isor switched back to itsol d radi o syste m. whic h remains in sta lled inpatro l car.... Po lice late r confro nted and ur-res ted the SllS pC CI....

Accord! nt! to re p' utcrs Bre ndan S mith andM utt Reed o r the Da~ to na Bench News -Lour-IIi/ I . "T he S 1(l.2 million XOU-l\lI lz sy stem hashud pro blem s since it was in... rallcd ." Twomuuicip ulitic-, havI.' th rea te ned to stop pa y ingfor the ir share of the sy ste m and Vo lusiaCounty st ill hasn 't legally "accepted" theEricsso n-G en eral Elect ric ("Wt: bring goodthings ttl lite"} eq ui pmen t. C o unty Councilrecen tly ccuumic sion cd a S60.000 study tode termine if the- count y sho uld give the s.ys-tl..'11 1 bac k. A dccivion is expected by them iddle of thi s year.

Pol icc in Chica go \V I1O monitored ce llu larphone conversat ions in an effort to rescue aman fro m kid nap pe rs in 1995 were com-mended hy J udge Ma ry Maxwell Th o ma s fo r~ "an admirab le di splay of fine po licc work... in

, .h, a n emergency si tua tio n." Nonetheless. Judge~ I ' ) ' T homas has dec ided to sup press the ma-; k.i\\ " When you said jori ty of [he prosec u tion' s e vid ence

.__ 't we were gettillg a agai nst one o f the kidnappers becau se of', ~,,\ 'high end trunking the " s imple . yet b latant and egregio us.

, I~""'> . system. "J thought fa ilure. to obtain permi ssion to listen toyou meunt ,.. .. the calls."

, ' ~ Acco rd ing to rep or ts . p rosec uto rsnow have to decide whe ther to appea l the

=fK'. I ruling. and ifnot. whether to go forward with//~ the case. O ne of the kid nappe rs was arrested, /, ~ -,=.. \ _ ________. when he appeared at the place where the~.~~:'IIl ransom OHme) \V'" to be delivered.

- ~~ Only a Few WiretapsMcunwh ilc. Memphi s. Tennessee. husjust

rece ived a new I\ sl1"O son M Hz d ig ita l radi osystc m . Th e -ys tcm includes 3 1channel s. 16of which arc dedicated 10 law enforce ment.Th e bulun cc hav e bC1..'1lhanded out to fir e ando the r c ity agl..'llCie",. Th e .-\.'11"0 SOD sy ste mmake s sca nllin g imposvibl c in th is so uth e rnslate and e nds a tradi tion of coo pe ratio n be -tween law enforce men t a nd ci tize ns.

Scanner Listener Saves Cop:\ pol ice o fficer in viole nce -pla g ued Wash -

ington. DC. has a scanner huff to than k forgl..' lIing h im out of a light s ituat io n. O fficers.

Sa ying that unle ss the pho ne co mpanie sgave the fede ra l go ve rn me nt better ;KT CSS tothe na tion' s phon e xys tcmx. Assi stan t FB IDirector Ja mes Ka lls tro m wa rned tha t "t hecr imina l is go ing to huve a hu ge leg-up on lawenf orcement." Ka llstrom says that the federalgov e rn me nt needs to be able (0 interceptsonic ()(l .O{)() lin es acro ss the co unt ry at an yg iven time.

If the government gets what it wa nts. not toworry. Kall stro m sa id it wou ld not meansubs tantially increased eavesd ropping hy fed -crnl law enforcement auth or itie s. According[ 0 report s. he an tic ipates actu all y using o nlya mi nuscu le percentage o r th ose .

TV and CancerAccor d ing to an Aust ra lia n study, there is

a po ssib le link bet ween chi ldhoo d le uke miaand the rad iat io n em itted from tel evis io ntransmi ssion rowers. Un ive rsity researcherssay tha t c h ild re n living in three Sydney areasncur TV towers were almost two -nnd-a-hulftimes more likel y to d ie fro m leu ke m ia thanthose in sur ro und ing suburbs . The authors o fthe study. published in the MedicalJournalof Auxtrutia. said tha t their wor k demo n-strated a ll assoc iation bu t not a ca usal rela-tio nsh ip .

" I Gill say tha tthere is smo ke ," sai d author

6 MONITORING TIMES Ap6/1997

COMMUNICATIONS

"Gos h. ,\10m, comequick- Fred Flin tstoneis trying to kilt wilma!"

T han ks to everyo ne who looked for.c lipped out . and mai led in radio related news-paper clippings. Our 1997 team includes:Anonymou s: Da\'C Alpert . New Yor k. NY:Harry Baughn. Brasstow n, NC:MichaelClean .Philadelphia, PA: Tad Cook: Da vitJ Eason.Chevy Chase, MD : Bob Fraser. Co hasset.MA : Peter Hegan . Northern Ireland: StevenGust. Mapleton . lA: Maryann e Kehoe . At-lanta, GA : High Miller : Rich Mosely. Wilkes-Barre, PA: Joh n Murra y. Woodside. NY: IraPaul. Royal Oa k, MI : Michael Roth. Chicago.IL: Sim on Scheiner: Edward Sc hwart z, Chi-cago. IL. and Richard Sk lar , Seattle. WA. \Vehave also co nsu lted the following publi ca-tion s: Notional Scanning. Radio World, and\V5 YI Report .

"Communications" is edit ed b)' LarryMille r .

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Touch Me, FredThe Flintstones gave Springfield. Missou ri,

children the surprise of thcir lives recen tly." You have to com e in here and see this:' onetoddler told his mother. "Fred and Wilma aredoing something weird on TV."

The "so mething wei rd" was that the localcab le company somehow kept Flintstone' saudio but instead of the ca rtoon charac ters.showed ex plici t video o f a man and wo maninvolved in steamy sex . "Y abba dabba doo."said Fred . T he local cable station. testing aporn ography channe l it plann ed to offer sub-scribers, says they got thei r signals mixed.

"a qu iet period" that could mean a decade of"fewer po we r black outs, less radio interfer-ence, and perhaps slightly cooler Eart h tem-peratu res : ' Scientists at Yale University andNAS A predict that the so lar cycle that beg anlast Sep tember may be a ile o f the quietest inmore than -l00 years. with o nly a moderatenumber of sunspots .

The last solar cycle . which began I Iyears ago, was mar ked by some of themost viole nt ac tivity - and best radioreception- ever record ed with peaksof 170 sunspots each in 19X9 and199 1.

Of cou rse, says NASA scientist

Ken Schatten, if the centuries-o ld --i8l:::::::::~~~::====::~pattern co ntin ues. the upcomingcycle really co uld beeven more violentthan the last one. "Only time wi ll tell if theforecast is co rrect:'

Huh'?Ca n sunspot cycles wreak the havocreponed in the earl ier art icle '! Scient ists say.yes, In fact . some say that a very ac tive sunduring the 11th and 12th century thawed cool.north ern areas of the globe and may haveallowed Vikings to find and inhabit Greenland.

Yeah . but could they Q5 L 51. Helen a'!

Ham NewsA new law in G uatemala has effective ly

abo lished all ham bands between 2-metersand 6 mrn in that Central American country,Already . the 70-em (430-440 MH z) band hasbeen dec lared available for commercia l use.There is no change in Gua temala ' s HF alloc a-tions.

In the United States. 1V5YIReportsays thatham rad io has stopped growing and that. forthe first time eve r, " the combined census ofAmateur Extra. Adv anced. and General Classoperators actua lly showeda decline last year."

The No Code Techn ician cla ss continuesto show the biggest increase in the numb er ofham operator s. The American Radio RelayLeague has released a report cla imi ng thatAR RL members wa nt to "keep thecode.l' Thereport recommends "no change s in the treatyobliga tion that administra tions test prospec-tive amateur licen sees on their Morse codeability before autho rizing them to operatebelow 30 MH z: '

We want to know, will packet operatorsalso be requ ired to take a speed test on thei rtypin g skills before being allowed to trans-mit'!

Rejecting Internet

More Sunspot NewsHold it - Didn' t we just rep ort on a nearly

hyste rical new s item carried by new spape rsaround the country that warned of an upcom-ing. ca tastrophic sunspo t cycle? The art iclewarned of impending widesp read co mmuni-ca tion s blackouts. power fai lures, satellitesblasted out of orbi t. and even auroras appe ar-ing ove r the skies in Florida .

Now comes a report that the sun is entering

Heather Grain , "but not what is cau sing theli re." The area o f Sydney that showed thehigher incidents of the kiddy cancer has beenhost to three television towers since 1956.

If yo u' re one of those peop le who can' twait for those new combination T V/Intern etcombos, you' re in the mino rity. Despite thefact that use of the World Wide Web hasdoub led in the past year (accord ing to a reportby market researcher Dataq uest, Inc.), a ma-jority of U.S. co nsume rs say they don't planto buy the things. About 93 percent of the7.000 people surveyed said that they were notinterested in digital news, audio, and videopiped in to their TV s from the Internet.

Ze nith . Sony . and Philips are betting bigmoney the survey is wrong.

April 1997 MONITORING TIMES 7

WhenScannists

Feel the Need for...

They head to the racetracks,clutching the scanners whichallow them to hear anxiousexchanges between pit crews

and drivers - and evenbetween track officials and

NASCAR safety crews.8 MONITORING TIMES April 1997

'

By Mike Bryson

I is the fi rst wee (If the season. and one o f the higgl.':-. t. T his race begins the drive 10 seewho will be the 1'\ ASC AR w inston Cup Chapion in 1997. T he 11)96 season W ;'IS a closerace with only a few poi nts separating the 1\\'0 top point leaders. T he grands tands here

at Daytonu lnternutio na l Speed wa y nrc pac ked with a reco rd-breaking 170.000 or more rac ingfans eager to sec the opening event . I am armed with the usual rac ing nece ssitie s to endure thefour hour race ... a nice :"ouf( bench cushi on. a coole r full of so fl drin ks. various cats . binocula rs .came ra ... and h.:t"s 1101 forg et my weapon o f ch oice. a Pro..l.' sca nne r.

The fol ks on my right arc enjoying the race wit h thc

and their scanner. a Bearcat ::!OOXLT. In fact.almos t everyone [ see has an eye to theracetrack and an ear to their sca nn ing rad io.Wh at 0 11 ea rth are they listening Ill '? ... Justso me of the moxtcompetitive racing acti on inthe co untry.

Two way radios arc lISL'd in all types ofauto racing to comm unicate bctwccnthe drivcrof the cur and the pit crew that works on theCar during the race. Thut include s stock ca rracin g. drag racing, Indy Racing Leagu e.FOrlllUI,1One. end urance. and all the rest. Forthis introdu ctory art icle . though. we are go-ing to focus on the higgcSl of the racingorgauizations today: the NASC A({ Winsto nCup series of 3~ races

Double the action; double the funNASCAR (National Associ ation of Stock

Ca r Au tom obil e Racin g ) is promoted asAmerica ' s la rgest racing associa tion. and itwell co uld be. It was founded in the late ..W' sas a way to uniteand standardize racing in theUnite d States , This unification was donethro ugh stringent enforcement of rules andgenerous purses II) the winner s of the variousraces and championsh ips.

NASCAR has a whole mililia oftechnicalinspectors to en force their strict rules ofcompeti tion. Bending ofth e rules is not takenligh tly. Because o f (his NAS CAR racing isso me of the closest and most com petitiveracin g you will ever sec.

There are seve ral di visio ns of i':ASCAR.The mos t elite is the Winston Cu p Series -the crea m of the corporate crop. There isnothing "s tock" about ,I Winston Cup stoc kca r exce pt maybe the body panels ofthe car.It lakes over a million dollars to put a ca rroucthcr for each season. And eac h learn isouttitll:d wit h specialty cars for each o f thevarious track s (hut NASCA R tour s aroundthe county. No wonder these racers thanktheir spo nsors every chance they get ~ It isestimated thai over 5 million people uucndcdthe Winston Cup series races in 11)96 alone.

Communications is the key tocompetition

The sport takes on a who le new dimensio nwhen you ca n not only sec great ac tion. bUIyuu actu ally tunc into the dr ivers, pit crews ,trac k offi cials. and even the NASCAR safelycrews. All of these folks communicate viatwo way radio .

Because of the light racing action and theduralion of the races - typically 400 to SOOmiles - drivers and their crews must stay incommunication wit h each other. Crews havc10kct.: p in touch wilh the dri vcr to inf(lrm him

Via two.rar radio. thecrew chiefRil'es vitalencouragement te thedri ver throughout therace. and pit stops areplann ed carefully illorder to tak e as little timeas necessary. Hearing itall Oil a scanner aff ords alieU' appreciation of theoverall team eff ort,

of various developments during the race.Before the u...c of two-way radio s was ap-proved . the pit crew wou ld hold up a placa rdwith inform ation or an instruction to come tothe pit 0 11 the next round . Strutcgv co uld bedecided whe n he cam e: into the pit.

T he length of the races makes it unuvoid-able rh.u drive rs will have to stop for fuel.tires. and sometimes even repai r... . There i:-. nosuch thine ,IS a rout ine pit stop in NASCA R"Races cun he won and lost by marg ins as littleas a ten th of a second. so pittin g ... trategics an:a key factor in dete rm ining the outcome ofrace .

When evcrv seco nd co un ts. the ad vantageeuincd bv the ;~ h i l i t \' to plan pit ting and racing~lr;'llegie~ dll"iJlg th~ race arc enormous. w henthe: ca r enters the pit . the crew knows exactl ywhat ac tion needs to he taken to make the carperfor m better or to co rrect any pro blems thaimay huvc developed with the car d urin g therace . withou t Ihe need of add itional. timc -wasting conve rsatio n.

I UncensoredThis leve l of competition creates so me

very urgent and o ften emotion -filled chatterbctw ce:n the driver and his crew , Having a

scanner hand y gives a SPCCI;;ltor an entirelydifferent perspective u n \,..hat it takes to win.or even Hill , in one of these ten se, gruelingraces. Armed with a sca nner and a good SCl ofheadphones yo u can cert ain ly get an earful.

If vou watch anv of the race s at hom e, youknow that any time H driver is interv iewed infront of the TV camera. it' s the usual, suga r-coated. xponsor-fi lied sound bite s - l1 ot thatI blame them for the public relat ions plug fortheir team , But wouldn't you like to knowwhat rea lly happened? w hat reall y causedtha t cras h'! What arc their rea l thoug hts abouttheir fellow drivers?

You C,1Il do this by simp ly tuning in onvour scanner. That' s where you' ll hea r thereal thing, unpoli shed and unrehearsed . Inone- race. I W ;;I:-'tune d into the race leader as he\\',1" passed by ano ther co mpe titor. On cam-era these 1\\'0 d rivers have not hing but pra iseabout each others driv ing skills. But on myscanner I heard the race lende r sarcas ticallyremark hac k 10 his crew "he ' s prett y brave onnew tires, we"Il sec how long thut lasts.' Therace leader let the more aggressive drive r goby him. .., II lasted about 10 laps,

Ano ther lim e I agai n ove rheard a mild -mannered racer (w hen the T V camera is on )exc laim to his crew chief "hc'x pissing meo ff. Richard" becau se he was bein g blockedfrom passing a lapped car.

I also learned from listen ing in on theinterchanges j ust how much the driver relie son his crew ch ief for guidance and inspirationduring the race. \Vatching a professionaldriverthread his way through the pack with onlyinches to spare. one wou ld assume he must becool. calm, and co llected . Not nece ssari ly,These crew chiefs are co nstantly coaxingthei r anx ious drivers throughout the race ."Okay. lers stay calm, yo u' re doing fine.Stay focused . Stay focu sed ,"

I wou ld hate In be out o f focu s going1XOmph plus! I find it very unde rstandab le

Apri l/ 997 MONITORING TIMES 9

The racing ac tion i-, alway s very close inNASC AR and there is always some veryinteres ting and often revea ling action III beheard on the airwaves. You canlisten in to thecommunica tions of over 40 cars and crewscom peting at the track. but I suggest thatunless yo u have a million chan nel per secondsca nner you just tunc into the top drivers ofthe field - say the lop 10 or so.

With my Pro-J. 3 I enter the driver's fre-quency in the channel corresp onding to hi"ca r number . For the Winston Cup series. thenumbers an: all under three d igits. For ex-ample. let' s say a drive r is known to havethree channels available tortr ansmiuing. Nor-mally he will only usc one du ring the race. It' sup 10 p vd 10 find which one he is using. lf'hisnumber is 2...\- , then [ enter the first frequencyon channelJ-l . the seco nd frequency on chan-nel 124. and the third on chan nel .2 .2...\- .

Once I deter mine which freque ncy he isusing, I can then set up some kind of prior itysca n. This helps me keep thing straight whenthe act ion starts 10 pick up. I ca n also set upspec ial banks to scan so that I can hear moreofthe acti on witho ut becom ing co nfused whattea III lmlixtenin g til, If you are lucky to havean alp han umer ic scanner such as the AR XOOOor the JlC \\' lco m R- IO, you can enter thedrivcrs name along with the correspondingfrequency.

During a long race you will notice tha t thescan ner chart er will sett le UO\\'n during long.

Scanning senselist and program miupdon e be fore you gel IIIthe track (reme mber thefo lks with t he fr iedchi cken") . Che ck outTable I for the IYY7NASCA R Winston CupI Frequencies. courtesy of

i Spcedw url d ( w ww .'0 speedworld.conn.f .\ly favorite tool for"'-""''' ~ gelling the frequencies I

t: want is to usc the GroveEnterpri ses FCC Data-base (1 gutta plug mysponsor too. ya know }.With a little information

about the tcum -,I am intere sted ill, I ca n searchthi-, dutabu...c and ge t allY frequency ass ignedto them. For example. I know that severa l ofthe top teams are locat ed in North Carolina. Ia!:o know the frequency band and the buvi-ness names fo r the teams that I am interestedin (Hendrick Motor-ports. Richard Childre ssRacing, and Roush Racing). Figure I showsthe res ults or my sea rch.

D on ' t forget to research freque ncies foreac h indi vidua l race track that you will beviciung . as well as any relevan t police, sec u-rity. nr emergency agenc y ncar the track. Foriu-aance. had I kno wn that the traffic gcttiJlginto this partic ular track was noto rious forgelling backed up. I would have found theappropriate High\\'ay Patrol Frequencies tocon ... ult so I could have avo ided this me,s!

Your altern ative is 10 simply search forfrequen cies while at the track . I wouldn'treco mmen d this unle ss you are a superbnotc tnkcr and don't mind lislening to anony-mous racers . The likel ihood is that such hlun-KL' t scanning wil l pro\"(' 10be quit e confusing.because it i ~ diffic ult to identify the specificCfL' \"Sor drivcrv.Xo one gives any IDs here !

You can also rent scarmcr-;at the track thatalready have the Frequencies programmedinto them. Race Sca n Conmuu ucurlon-, (X(){)-

l .l1-.2X-lI ) is one com-pan)' that will rent you ascanner for the day forabout S-J. O. This i... a1l11l1, tthl.' L'(l...r o fa hlw cnd "can-ner. but : 'ou afe payingfor the cOI1 \'L'llience ofhav ing Ihe \\'l1ole racingpackage available to you ,

i l 1l' lu d i Jl ~ a pre -raceh l"lladca~l. You do han :tn g ive the ' L"

cri ng some of them in futu re editions of Mani-loring TiIlW.\", and we we lcome yo ur frequc n-cics and lips as wel l. My bes t advice : Nevergoto a race without yo ur scanner and a goodfreq uency list- you' ll be cheating yourself outofhalfthe action .Oil,and one mo re tip: remc m-her. don 't frcq and fry ~

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III a l'er.", real sense. the performance (~l the pit crew call mak e or break a race, andradio communications are essential to the crews' ef ficiency,se nse out of thi s race. catc h a glimpse o f whatit takes to kee p a race ca r in co ntent ion fo r thewin, and hea r a more human side to the dri vcrsand crews that mak e this spor t work.

Although we haveonly focusedon NASCARin Ihis article , there arc many more racingorganizat ions ac ross the co untry, We'I Ihe cov-

Winding downTh e race he re at Daytona has drawn 10 a

dra mati c finis h, w ith Hendric ks Mot orxport smaki ng. a c lea n swe e p of the top three posi-tions: Je ff 'Jordon e merged as win ner. fo l-lowed hy tea mmate s Terry LaB onte anti RickyCrave n, 1'\"11' Pro4J has taken me beh ind theacti o n into so me inte re st ing aspects ofNASCA R rac ing : I was able to make more

green !lag (no wrec ks) runs. Don't gv t d is-courage d. Wh e n a ye llow tlag drops du e toaccidents on the track , or if the leaders of therace dec ide to mak e a green tl ag pi t stop, y'o urscanner wil l j ump to ac tion like 42 differentfire statio ns re spo nding to a rive-alarm fire. Itcan be o ve rwh el min g. I thi nk it's ju st cool.

HardwearT here arc se veral accessories that you wi ll

also need. A good set of earpho nes is a mu st.T rying to listen to your scanne r at the racetrack without a set of ea rphone s is practica llyimpossible . Make sure that the headphonesyo u arc go ing to usc will co mple tely coveryo ur cars. Walkman- type ea rphones are no tadequate , beca use they cannot dro wn out thesound of over 40 roaring e ng ines : rather tha nheeling up the volume , yo u must cut out theno ise of the cars ,

An ex tra set o f batt e rie s fo r yo ur sca nner isalw ays wise. T hese races can last fo r LIp tofou r ho urs, Th e act ion rea lly beco mes fra nt ictoward the end of the race in the fin a l le st ofthe d river s' skill and strategy , It ca n be \'e ryfrustrating to be spe nd se vera l hours liste ningin on the race only to have your batteries dieon you be fore the conclusion .

I als o take the antenna offof my scanner tohelp prevent strong , outside sig nals from Ci.IUS-ing a proble m 011 my scanner. T IK' sc sameFrequencies arc use d for res ta uran t dri vethrough windows and various muni c ipali tie s.For tha t reason, I would a lso recommend thatyou do not try to listen to till.' racing ac tion atany di sta nce from the track .

The Daytona SOO winn er this year isJeff'Gordon, who exu lts here,

April 1997 MONITO RING TIMES 11

~ . ITABLE 1: 19961997 NASCAR Winston Cup and Media Frequencies ., ,

Courtesy of Speeuworta http://www.speedworld.net

WINSTON CUP SERIES VENUE FREQUENCIES {19971

Charlotte MolorSpeedwayDaytonaSecurityDaytona TrattleCopterDover DownsInn SpeedwayDover SecurityMichigan lnt'! SpeedwayMichigan Inl'l Spdwy Secur ityMichigan Int'l Spdwy ParkingMich igan lnt'l Spdwy HospitalNew Hampshire Inn SpeedwayPhoenix lnt'l RacewayRichmond lnt'l RacewayTalladegaSuperspeedwayWalkinsGlen lnt'l Speedway

462.5500 463.9000 466.1750 463.3500154.51 50154 95004634250463.9000154.5700155.8650151 805015528001546000 151.6250 154.5700461 8125464.5500464.7625 46477504647750 469.7750 464.1250

DRIVERS AND CREWSCourtesyof Speedworld htlpJIvIVfN.speedworld.net NASCAR MEDIA FREQUENCIES {19961!L!!Iilll

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I

IApri/ / 997 MONITORING TIMES 13

e"Scanner owners and other citizens agree that Americansdeserve a reasonable expectation ofprivacy, but broadcastinga clear voice into the airwaves and expecting it not to beoverheard is IWt reasonable. ... They f eel that the responsibil-ity ofsecurity should not be placed 011 the shoulders ofthescanner hobbyist, but on the service pro vider,just as it hasalways been on wired telephone services, and all other radiocommunications services, including law enf orcement andevell cordless telephone manufacturers. "

- Bob GrovePresident. Grove EnterprisesPublisher. Monitoring Time s

"II

-

- Thomas WheelerCel lular Telecommuni cationsIndustry Associa tion

"Federal law prohibits eavesdropping onelectronic communications... Despite theseprohibitions, low-cost scanners that canreceive cellular f requencies remain readilyavailable to the public. A gray market inscanner modification has mushroomed in '".response to demand from electronic stalkersand confusion over legal prohibitions...Policymakers must realize that it is only amailer oftime until history repeats itselfanddigital communications also become exposedto eavesdropping."

avesPu,~_c

Who's "Stalking" Whom?By Bob Grove

Photos by Alan Henney

I t was an honor. I had been asked byCongressman BillyTauzin. Chairmanof the House Subcommittee on Tele-commu nications. Trade. and Consumer Pro-tection. to appear as a member of a panel ofindustry leaders to provide informa tion tomembers of Congress. It wa s an opportunityto be of se rvice to my country, to make adifferen ce. A lthough I had only one wo rkday to prepare due to the short notice.I put offo ther pre ssing matters to devote fu ll attentionto assembli ng usefu l materi als for theseAmerican states men.

For years, Congre ss has been re lati velyunconce rned with the effect ive ness of anti-ce llular scanning-until one of their ownwas caught red-hand ed . Fo llowing the New tGi ngrich ce llphone incident, Congress or-dered an immediate inquiry into the laws andtechnology surrounding scanne rs and theirabi lity to listen in on private communica-tion s. I fe lt particularly qualifi ed to gi veauthoritat ive insight into the matter. AlthoughI had lost much sleep to mee t the de ad line, Ihad prepa red my comments care fully andcomprehensivel y. I was ready.

As I wa lked into the spacious hearingroom of the of the Rayburn House OfficeBuilding in Washington, DC. I was hushedby the echoes of history. Oil paintings offamo us Ame rican sta tesmen smi led rea ssur-ing ly down on me . Luxurious wood appo int-ments filled the room with quality andwarm th. Plu sh carpe ting softened the din ofTV cameras , microphones, and techniciansas the y prepared for the main eve nt. Little didI suspec t at that time, I was to be the mainevent:

Wednesday, February 5, 9:30 a.m,It was show tim e. Some two dozen mem-

bers o f Congres s bega n taking seals in theintimidatin g loft tha t looms over the w it-nesses. After the Chairman' s open ing re-marks and perfunc tory congratulations fromthe me mb ers , the paneli sts we re allowedtheir op enin g rem ark s.

Fir st heard wa s Tom Wh eel er , Presidentof the Ce llula r Tel ecommuni cat ions Indu s-

~11t1r SPECIAL REPORT

Grove's invitation 10 Washington wasextended by Congressman Billy Tauzin,

Chairman of the House SubcommitteeonTelecommunications, Trade, and

Consumer Protection.

Bob Grove was invited to Wash-ingto n by a telephone call which wentsomething like this:

"This is the House Telecommuni-cations Subcommittee. We would liketo invite you to testify at our hear ingnext Wednesday.Wecan'treimburse) 'OU for your expenses, nor can weprovide ) 'OU immunity from prosecu-tion from your testimony.They mightta ke you away in handculTs after-ward, and we'd like you to sign awaiver holding us harmless from any'lawsuit. Would you like to come?"

"With a charming imitation liketha t," says Bob, uhow could I refuse?For tuna tely, I never signe d thewaiver ,"

This page from the Grove catalog wasblown IIp to poster size and used as a

demon stration ofscanner modificationpractices by Grove and other companies.

try Associati on ICT IAI . a powe rful. Wash-ington-ba sed lobby . wheele r and his a......oc i-arcs had previously spent consi derable timerehearsing his performance wit h the Chai r-man in anticipation of showing how en..y it isto restore ce llular frequencie s in sonic cur-reml y-lcgul scanne rs. T he pe rform ance wa sgiven again for TV vie we rs at the on se t of thehearing .

Sever al co nce rned indi vidu a ls had warnedme beforehand Ihal I had been set up for anamb ush. and u high-ranking Congrcxsuumhad told me that ur least two members hadbeen coac hed hy the Cl ' IA to tak e advan taueof this public "photo up.' But I still did ll~tex pect what fo llowed .

In the midst of testimony. Wheeler sud-den I)' reel ed uround. poin ted his finger at me,and loudly den oun ced me for illegall y modi-fying sca nners for eavesdropping 011 ce llulartelep hone ca lls. Th e tirade continued throuehthe rem ainder of his liv e minute time ,lI h~t mcn t.

Though shake n by this unprofessionalmelod rama. I tried. by example . to resto redecorum and d ignity to the proceedin gs whenca lled upon to de live r my li ve minute test i-mon y. My other fellow pan el ists were appar-ently upset by Wheeler", contrived outbur stas well. deli vering their ..uucments quicklyand q uietl y.

Posturing for the CameraT he n the dir ec t question period bega n: I

W

Committee member: '" can hear as a matter offact, someone else' s phone call, not this phonecalL"

In a demonstration obviously fine-tun ed ;11 advance, Tauzin, assisted byWheeler, shows ho w a simple circuit board modification call enable aparticular scanner to receive signals ill the cellular frequency rang e.

A sign at committee's doorhinted at the well-rehearsedscanner modificationdemonstration 10 be heldwithin.

Howe ver, the experience an d the cxpres-sions or suppo rt w ill g( l for na ught if we don ' tpursue the mailer and make our voices hea rdwhi le the indignation is strong and the pressand Co ngress arc interested. It is for thatrea__o n we have dedicated nea rly the entirefeature section of th is mo nth's magazine tothe issue of privacy ver su s publ ic access to thea irwaves. Yes. we' vc been listen ing - but are

the~ '.'

(fnterchange. pro ducing laughter. during thestaged demonstration ofhow easy it is to overhear a cellular call Oil a modified seOllller . 71",wrong call Wl1 S initially monitored.)

Tauzin: "No. you can't!"

Sin ce the w ashin gton ex pe rience . my wifeand family. my friends. and hundreds of sup-po rter s ha ve been de lug ing me with warmt h.admi rat ion for my co ntrol under unthinkableco nditio ns. and gratitude for a job we ll done.I am able to slee p well aga in. and hav e startedthe proce ss of healing and catchi ng up withneg lected business.

Epilogueing 10 find co rroborating wordi ng in his Rule sand Regu lat ions, and pro hib itin g me fromcontinuin g my testimo ny. It became ter rify-ingly clear; I had been set up by the ce llularwolf PAC.

The droning continued . with 111)' sensesdulled by bright light s. disapprov ing glares.and sanctimonio us acc usa tio ns from the Sub-co mmittee surrounding mc.Ilasbcs from presscameras . nervou s rus tling from the audience:and all the while I wa s den ied the righ t 10defend myself from this bullying. Would Inever awake from this had dream? For thenext 1\\'0 and a half ho urs the se illu stri ou sleg isl ators too k turn s flo ggin g me. and takingadvantage o f the limelight

If I had been guilty of some crime pe rhap sI would have unde rstood their indignation.but I had attempted to be in fu ll co mpliancewith FCC regulations. as att ested to by offi-cial correspo nde nce wi th the FCC ... which Iwas not allowed to pre sent. I have ale..'aystried to he a go od per son . practic ing kindnessand equa lity. trul y believing in the basic good-ness of the hu ma n sp irit. Now my cha racterand my phil osophies were completely de ni-grated ; sure ly I must he a very bad per son tobe so univer sall y sco lded .

It may have bee n my iro nic sense o f hu morthat pull ed me throu gh, I kept thinking. "Thisis ridic ulous! " I also reca lled the ton gue-in-cheek, faux-Lat in expressio n. " llligitimusnonca rborundum" (Do n' t let the basta rds wearyou dow n ). and that he lped . too !

One seasoned spec tator said whe n we ex-ited the chambers. 'T hey ca n take eve rythingbut your inte grity." In the mid st o f the pro-fou nd inequ ity of the mock ery. that singularstatement is the one I remember . They hadn'ttaken my integrity. and that was an importantlesson.

In re trospec t. I would po int out to C hair-man Billy Tauz in that he needs to familia rizehimse lf with the con tents of the same doc u-ment he sent me- the Rules of the Hou se ofRepresent atives (XI. k. ..land 5)-which say:

"The chai rma n may pu nish breac hes oforder and de corum and o f profe ssional e th icson the part of coun sel. by ce nsure and ex cl u-sion from the hearings: and the co mmi tteemay cite the offende r to the House for con-tempt. Wheneve r it is as se rted that the cvi-de nce or test imo ny at an investiga tory hear-ing may tend to defa me. deg rade, or inc rimi-na te any pe rson ...(etc .)."

A pro minen t states ma n. asked whether hewo uld prefe r testifying before a Congres-sional Co mmittee or having a root ca na l.imm edi ately replied . ''1'11 tak e the root ca -nal !"

16 MONITORING TIMES Ap,;/1997

Scanners and the Law: A Chronology

1934 Congress passes the Communications Act, establishing theFedera l Co mmunications Commission (FC C) . and incl udes the vision-ary Scc tion605 wh ich addresses the inevit ability of intercepti on ofra diosigna ls. but prohibits the discl osure of the co ntents of such tra nsmis-sions. or the use of their conte nts for personal gain .

1986 Congress pas ses the Elect ro nic Communications Pr ivacy Act(ECPA). for the first time ce nsoring America ns' histor ic rig ht to till':airwaves by forb idd ing liste ning. in on seve ra l type s of rad io sig na ls.incl ud ing the rad io portion of a telephone conve rsation . Th e Ce llularTelec ommunica tion s Industry Associa tion (CT IA ) issues public state-ments that it will soo n offer dig ital encryption syste ms to provide the ircustomers privacy. I I yea rs later, these privacy systems arc only in anes timated 10-20 % of the cellular market.

1989 T wo prominent CTIA members, Unidcn a nd Ra d io Shack.discon tinuc manufactu ring severa l scanne r models with ce llular fre-quency coverage , although follow-on models are ea sily restorabl e.Other manufacturers cont inue to offer cellular freq uency coverage sinceex isting law forb ids listening, not manufacture. Man y companies per -form ce llular restoration at the time of sale so tha t the cen sored scan nerswill have the same freque ncy coverage as perfectly legal . co mpetitivemodels. 1990 CTIA and the Telecommunicat ions Industry Association(T IA ) adop t the IS-54 standard for digit al voice ce llular encryption.called Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA ). A seco nda ry standard .Code Division Multi ple Acce ss (COMA) is al so proposed.

1992 Pr esi dent C linton signs th e T elepho ne Disclosure and Dis-pute Resolution Act (TDDRA). directing its imp lementa tio n in 1994,but which co ntains no reference to radio scanners.

1993 T he TDDRA is a ltere d with a last-minute Cellular Amend-m ent j ust before Congress ional adjo urn ment, allow ing little leg isla-tive scrutiny, and avert ing pub lic aw areness or comment. but banningthe importation or man ufact ure o f scanne rs capable of receiving. orbeing read ily altered to recei ve . ce llular telep hone frequencies. Inresponse to an eno rmous outcry from co ncern ed citi zen s. Bo b Grovefiles formal co mme ntary wi th the FCC and ask s to give testim ony tothe House Subcommittee to ci te 20 potentia lly di sab ling aspec ts of theCellula r Ame nd me nt to the pe nding T OO RA. Acce ss to the Subcom-mittee is den ied , bu t Grove is allowed to co me to Washington to talkwith a Congressiona l aid e and lea ve his pe tition. No furthe r respo nsewas fort hcom ing from the Subcommittee. Grove publishe s for pub licco mme nt the list in the magazine , Monitoring Times. Public respon sewa s considerable. The FCC issues Report to Co ngress on "A va ilableSec ur ity Featu res For Provid ing Ce llu lar Te lephone Pri vacy," de-sc r ib ing sev era l vo ice encr ypti on systems availab le to the cellularindu stry.

1994 Congress im plements the TDDRA. Illinois Attorney Ge nera lRoland Bum s issues a form al opinion that, under Ill inois state law,eavesdropping on cellu lar and co rdless telephones is legal beca use thereis "no reasona ble expectation of privacy." CTIA issued a publ icobjection.

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April 1997 MONITORING TIMES 17

Mr SPECIAL REPORT

"Is A nyoneListening?YOu Betcha JJOversight Hearing on Cellular Privacy: Studies in Vested Interest

"The law has been plaving catch-up with tcchn olog and The elect ronicstalkers ha re been successful ill outmaneuvering the Congress's ef fort s, ..,It is 100% legal.., It is time/ or the elect ronic stalk ers lind Those who cat er10 Them to stop tluunbing their nose at the Congress a11l1 trampling 011indi vidua ls' rights . ..

W 1Ythe sudde n ind ignation ut are lat ive ly "ma ll num ber o f ha -... ically hann lcs, radio hobby-ist s" Did the issue rea lly sur face at th is limeonl y because oft he publicity su rro und ing theirncn..'cp tcd cc llu tar pho ne ca ll be twe en XcwtGingr ich and kl ltl\ \-Rcpubfic.m sv Orarc thereothe r forc es at work? He re is what Rcprc ...en -lat in: Bil l T au/ in. c hai rma n o f th esubcomi ncc....a id in his opening re rnnrk c:

..;\ few wee ks hac k some o f o ur lead inglawmak ers lcunu-d the hard \v ;I)' that ccllulurcal ls are no t as secure a s \\'I: may like . Th ishea ring i 'i not ahout thai paruc ulur C

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g re ss c lea rly ha-; the authority 10 prot ect COIll-munlc .uion-, transmitte d over the airwaves..We believe thnt (he C o ng re" sho uld tak e aserious look nt c los ing (he ambig u it ies in thescanner law ..

"Again. though. we an: here to "tress abroader po int: T he inte grated. global. dc cc n-tralizcd communicat ion s ne twork is vul ner -able 10 threa ts thut make the inte rce pt ion o rthe Speaker">, telephone conversa tio n pale bycompari son. Wirc lcs v co m m unicati on ssho uld not hl'- and need not be -e-the weak

GARYSHAPIR O, PR ES IDENT CONSUME RELECTRONICS MANUFACTURERS

" Scanners arc po pular pro d ucts tha t 1.."1 111 -trib u te 10 pu blic sa fe ty and conuu unicat ion.Scanner manufact ure rs recopni zc privac yconcern s a nd arc mo ving to try tu s tay aheado f tho se who mak e :I busin ess ou t o f illega lintercept ion of phone cal ls .

"The c halle nge we face i-, tha t no tclc -phone con vers at ions can e ve r be 100 percen tsecure . Most cons um e rs under-rand th i..,. l''' -pcciutl y tor cell ula r conversation s . Fon u-na te ly . techno logical ad va nce s. cxpc cinll ydi g italtechnology. wil l soo n pro vide Amcri-c ans added securi ty and privacy. Dig italen cryption adds anot her le ve l ( If security III al lcommunicat ions. \Vl' wo uld e nco ura ge ccllu-tar se rv ice prod uce rs In consider em ployin gthis sta ndard. "

JAY KITCHEN, PRESIDENT PERSONALCOMMUNICATIONS INDUSTRYASSOCIATION

"You face a di fficult dile mm a - ho w toprotec t a c it ize n ' s right to pri vac y wi tho utex pand ing fede ral reg ulat ion of the pri vatesector, PC IA be lie ve s that pe r...on a l COIll Ill U-me ntion crvices o r "pes" tech nology of-fer s the ohnion yo u seck. .. We hop e tha t o urmem bers nrc able \I) I tvercomc the market andreg ulato ry obstacles in order 10 deployservice to every Ame ric an that wo uld like toe ngage ill a p rivate teleph on e conversation .'

JERRY BERMAN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTORCENTER FOR DEMOCRACYAND TECH NOLOGY

" In thi... ( OI11C\ t of a global communic a-tions net work increas ing ly de penden t0 11 wire-less Iinks, we arc able to sec IHm it is a sc ril HI....invas io n of pri vacy to eave sdrop o n ce llu larte le phon e con versati on .... , .,. i\ .... ce llular tc lc-phones becom e more ubiquitous. vcllularscan -fling threatens the privacy o f a ll telephoneusers. ... it j, cl ear that Conc rc, made theright dcc i.... io n ill II)X6 \\ hell il determined thatintent ionall y intercepting ce llu la r phone l' t 111 -versat ion-, should he a fed e ra l c rime . COIl-

always been on wired tel ephone service s. an dall ot her rad io con unun ic.uions se rvic es. in-cl ud ing la w enforcement and even co rdlesstelephone manufact urers ,

" A meric ans rese nt gove rnme nt repress io nof their rig.hts _ and freedo m o f the airwaveshas been trad itio na l for decade s. ... If cel lu larte lephone convcrs.uions wcrc dig irizcdas II1IIgpromi sed by the cel lular ind uvtry . all o f the sehearings. charge s and co untercharges. legi s-lat io n and rcgulauous. indic tments and fines.an d c o s tl y poli c i ng o f the ce l lu la rFrcqucncic-,... wo uld be UIl IlCCl'SSa ry , (SI.'eC losin g Comme nts on P. 10-1- for full tcx t. j

Ap, i11997 MONITORING TIMES 19

-s-Stearns

"When 43 million subscribers pay theirmonthlyfees for their cellular telephone theyexpect to have a certain deg ree ofprivacy. sowe in Congress have the responsibility 10protect them. "

Rep. CliffSteams ofFlorida.

Not ice. DA l)7~33t Feb . 13th. 1( 97) that"m odifi cation or scanners on a subst ant ialscale to recei ve cellular freq ue ncie s wi ll beconsidered to co nsti tute manufact ure of suc hequipment in violation (11'FCC Rul es. Entitiese ngaged in suc h ac tiv ity are cautioned tocea se adve rtising and/or performi ng any suc hac tivity immediately:' Indi cations arc thatthose co mp anies whi ch have done so will notbe fined .

We can e xpe ct a mo ve to remove fro mscanners a ll freque nc ies that tran sm it wire lin econvcrsat iou s-c-in o the r words . the rad io por~tion of an y de vice capable of co mm unica tingwith a wir ed (and the refore protec ted) tele-phone . In ad ditio n. there is a very real poten-tia l tha t law enforcement influence s wi l Imakea se parate pu sh 10 rem o ve pol ice freque nciesfrom sca nne rs.

It is imperative tha t \\'C radio hobbyistswri te our-Congressmen and let them know ourside of the pr ivacy issue vs . freedo m of thea irwaves . Let thcm know which so lutions yo uex pec t them to support . Kee p your eye on anyprop osed legi slat ion co rning out of this Sub-committee. Visit the Grove homcpa gc forupdates. Sec the accompanying side bars toth is article for more bac kground and contactinfunuation .

fines. c ivil as wc !l as crim inal pen alti es forinfrac tions. and del etion of words like "sur-rcprhious" and " primarily useful" from theprese nt language of the laws. and the cir -c uitrv in sca nne rs is like ly to he "hardened"aga inst frequency modi fication .

Indeed . several accommodat ion s we reappare ntly a lread y in motion before this hear-ing took place: O ne promi ne nt test recei verhas bee n denied its ap plicat ion for ce rtifica-tion as a consumer pro duc t until the manu-facturcr can pro ve it is incapable o r receivingce llular frequen cies. Th e FCC rejected a nap pea l by Ace Communicat ions. wh ich hadbeen served a S20.000 Notice of Ap pare ntLiabi lity (NAL ) for ma rke ting cellula r-ca.pablo scanning recei ver s wi th no FCC aut ho-riz ation. Unidcn has askcd the f CC 10 im-pose a mi nimum 38 dB image rejection ratiofor freque nc ies in the ce llular ba nds. and isapparent ly d iscussing oth e r so lutions to Pre -vent modification of scanners.

Grove Enterpri se s had volunt arily ceasedperforming mo di fica tions to restore cel lula rfrequen cie s be fore the hearing. pe ndin g. itsoutcome. Ce llular Se cur ity. whi ch performedv..mous modificat ion s. clo sed its doors CO I1l~plctcly. T he FCC has now posted a cla rifica-tion of any ambiguous wording (sec Publ ic

ROBERT L1TT, DEPUTY ASSISTANTATTORNEYGENERAL, CRI MINAL DIVISION, DEPARTMENT

OFJUSTICE" No on e e ngaged in legal acti vities sho uld

ha ve to fear that his or her tel epho ne conver-sa tions are being su rrept itious ly liste ned to byother s.... Toensure that pri vate co nve rsa tionsremain pr ivate. we need to rely upon bo thtech nical sol utions and legal protections. ...

"To the extent that the radio por tion ofce llular com municati ons can be easily inter-cepted. techn ica l so lutions may serve to bcstpro tect com munications privacy: '

agen cy. we are not in the best po sit ion toco m me nt on the security of current and fut urewirele ss te lecomm unicat ions sys te ms. SUL'ilcomment s arc best addressed by telec ommu-nica tions equipm en t ma nufac turers. individua lwire less telecomm unications ca rriers. and bythe Federal Commun icat ions Commission(FCC),"

" It is unfortunate thai there a re a number ofpu b lication s. trade rnagaaincs. and site s onthe Internet where informati on is ava ilableco nce rn ing tech niques and de vices for con-du cting una uthorize d. il lega l intercep tions ...Privacy and security are put ..u risk when th isin formation is di rected to the general public.as opposed to authorize d law enforcementagen cies an d te lecommuni cations ca rriers : '

WILLIAM KENNARD, GENERAL COUNSELFEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION...thc [1

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Ap,;/ 1997 MONITORiNG TIMES 21

Mr SPECIAL REPORT

Making the Casefor ScanningAct Now to Counter the CTIA on "Capital" Hill

-

-

-

-

-

--

-

. -

Dear Senator _

Dear Representative _

The Honoroble _ _ = _United Stotes House of RepresentativesWoshington, DC 20515

legislators specifically what yo u want the m (0do . Forex ample . ask their po s ition on a particu-lar issue or request that they vo te a certain wayor cospo nsor a b ill .

If you don 't get a clear response , wri te backand ask for one. For example. the follo wingwo uld be an unsat isfa cto ry response fro m aleg islator: " I wi ll keep yo ur tho ughts in min dwh en voting o n th is important issue : '

O n the other hand , aft er receivi ng a rep ly.se nd a thank yo u letter. Be sure to write whenyo u agree with yo ur represe ntative. as we ll aswhen you di sagree. If yo u beli eve yo u ha veso me thing in com mo n, or admire a pos ition orstatement o f the legislator-coven o n an issueunrel ated to the immediate subject-say so .

It goes without say ing that yo u must besureyo ur name and return address are clearly leg-ible , and that yo u should c heck yo ur lettercarefully for spe lling and gra m mar.

The HonorableUnited StatesSe-n-a-te- - - - -Washington, DC 20510

Writing to CongressSuggested Address Style for Letters to Me m-hers o f Congress

Yo u ca n find nam es. addre sses, e-m ail ad-dresses, votin g record, and more on the Intern etor at yo ur loca l library . A good place to start o nthe Web is at http://Lhomas.loc .gov/

mo re than one top ic. write multip le letters.When yo u write abo ut more than o ne to pic. itg ives the lcgishuo r an o ption of responding toon ly one of your issues.

Ne xt. back lip yo ur points with perso nal orfactual informat ion. For instance. ex pla in howspecific legi slation would a ffect you and nu -merous o ther state res idents if enac ted . Avo ide motio nal ph ilosophica l arguments .

lfyou be lieve legislation is wrong and shouldbe opposed . say so , indi cat e the like ly ad ve rseeffec ts, and suggest a be tte r appro ac h. Be re-spe ctful when yo u disag ree. You ca n still belinn. because as a constituent. yo u dese rveanswer s.

At the beginning or e nd of yo ur letter, tell

YOURCELLULAR PRIVACYISOUR CONCERN.

To aid us in making this crime less likely,and the punishment more severe, we urgeall cellular phone users to write their con-gressional rep resentati ve and expresscon-cerns about this important issue.

ALLTEL Mobile ond the CTIA (Cellular Tele-phoneIndustryAssociation)are totallycom-miHed to ensuringcompleteprivacy for allcellular phone users. Together we are do-ing everything in our power to minimizethe risk of eovesdroppinq on cellular tele-phone transmissions, and to toughenexist-ing laws governing this offense. Intercept-ing cellular phone conversations is cur-rently 0 violation of Federal and state lowand we believe that anyone guilty of thiscrime should be prosecuted to the fullestextent of the law.

The cellu lar industry is mounting its OW" write-ill campaign. This ad appea red ill the GainesvilleSUIl, Feb. 08, /997. Courtesy Todd L. Shcnnnn.rec. rculio..scunnc:r,

Tips on Writing a LetterT he most effect ive le tter is uvu-

ally a pe rso nal OIlC , altho ugh yo uneed n't he too proud 10 stea l idea sfrom other write rs . Your tone IIlLl-.1he polite: hei ng clu-s ificd as a n an"will not hel p you r cause. nor willsarcas m or insu lts .

Keep leiter s to one page . If a hiIIis the subject. c ite it by name andnu mber. In the l"i rst par ag raph ofyo ur letter. ma ke your topic clear. aswe ll as yo ur positi on 011 the issue.

Stay with o ne topi c . II" yo u han:

A lthou gh our do llar con tributio nsma y not co unt for much comparedto those o f indu stry. leg islator sstill need our vote

A Besides individual cit izens. our cl ientsinclude gove rnment agencies. se rviceprov iders, research und dcve lopmentl ubs.FCC-licensed radio services . and manyother legitimate users of full-frequency-coverage receivers. Scanners are an ex-cellent, low cost alterna tive to expensivelest eq uipment.

Cellular-capable sca nners arc in fullcompliance with law when used formoni-toring test signals in the ce llular fre-quency ranges for new prod uct develop-ment ; determin ing whet her cellular sig-nals are the sourc e of interfer ence toother services; receiving non-voice cel-lular signals for anten na, filter, pream -plifier , and other accessory testing;troubleshooting rad io frequency systemsin a communications maint enance and

re main lawful devices; 2. Cu rrentl ymanufactured , lawful scanners by imagedetect ion ; 3. Older TV sets and VCR sthat tune through UHF channel XJ; 4.Test eq uipment like service monitorsand spec trum analyzers; 5. Non-scan-ning (manually tuned and fixed fre-quency) receivers; 6. Horne-built or kitsca nners and co nverters (altho ugh noneis marketed ); 7. And even ce llular tele-phones which can be keyboard- pro-grammcd to listen in on ot her subscrib-ers' calls. Cellular serv ice pro viders andgo vernment age ncies. inclu ding volun-teer fire departments. may legally pur-chase cellular-capable sca nners for uscby thei r agents and employees.

Q Isn't it obvio us that anyon e want ing acellular-capable scanner is going to liseit to listen in Oil other people 's CUlH'{'r,Hl-tions?

S HO R TW AV E

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~=~ =~ -=-

Q But isn 't it clear f rom the Wiretap Actthut modify ing a scanner is illegal?

A No, Cellular telephone calls are readilyaccessible to the public on: I. Pre- 1994scanners and frequency conv erters which

A It is clear from the language that theWiretap Actwas drafted to protect Ameri-ca ns from unwarranted, targeted surveil-lance, and that casual monitor ing of thespectrum by scanner hobbyists was notan issue . Th is is the reason that the lawforbids the marketin g of any devi ce "pri-ma rily useful for the surreptitious inter-cepti on of wire, oral, or electronic co m-municat ions." Further wording describesthe act as having to be "intentional" or"wi llful," indicating felonious purpose.

We advert ised our cellular restora -tion service openly since we had no rea-son to believe we were in violation. Whenwe were contacted by the House Tele-communications Subcommittee. express-ing their co ncerns and inviting our repre-sentative testimony on Ca pitol Hill, weimmed iately suspended the cellular res-toration service unti l the issue could beresolved.

After the hearing, prodded by theCo ngressiona l Sub commi ttee. the FCCsent us a letter acknow ledgi ng that wehad disco ntinued our cellular restoratio nproc ed ure, but noti fying us that the pro-cedure was in violation of the Rules andeg ulations, and that any future infractionco uld subject us to a fine.

Q Are" ' t devices capab le oflistenin g in 011cellular telepho ne conversations illegal ?

Regarding scanner modifications by GroveEnterprises

A On the co ntrary , we had goo d reaso n tobelieve it was legal. We have been indialogue with the Federal Communica-tions Commission for years relating tothis issue. A letter drafted by the FCCOctober30, 1995,was received byGroveEnterprises informing us that they hadreceived a copy of our catalog and hadseveralconcerns, asking us to reply within30 days to thei r specific questions re-garding "apparent violations." We re-plied in only seven days, fully disclosingevery aspect of our services relating totheir questions, and assuring the Com-mission that we would d iscon tinue theseservices imme diately if we were foundto be in violat ion.

We awaited their findings, but nonewas everforthcoming. A subsequent tele-phone inquiry to the issuin g official co n-firmed thatour response was understudy .Contrary to testimony by the FCC' s wit-ness, no not ice of liability, or cease anddesist order, was ever received from theFCC. A telephone call to the Commis-sion follow ing the hearing co nfirme dthat such a notifi cation was never sent.We logic ally assumed that we were notfou nd to be in violation.

Q Werell 't you were that modifying scan-ners is illega l?

Questions and Answers aboutScanning and Cellular FrequenciesWhy is it a mistaken notion that privacy canbe achieved by carving out chunks of theradio spectrum and declaring them illegal tooverhear? How do you begin to respond tonon-radiofriends,neighbors. media, andCon-gressmen who are understandably indignantwhen conv ersations they thought were pri-vate tum out not to be?

Following aresome questions andanswersthat may provide some ammunitio n whenexplaining the hobbyist' s view of the prob-lem and more appro priate solutions. Also besure you read this month' s "Scanning Re-port" by Rich Barnett for some of the positiveuses to which scanners have been put. Thefollowing text is taken from the rebuttal BobGrove would have made to the subcommitteehad he been allowed to speak, and from ahelpful resource on "frequently asked ques-tions" by Harold Peach Jr. of Kentucky; allare ava ilable for your use.

Apri/ 1997 MO NITORING TIMES 23

repair shop: and for receiving Part 15(low power) signals which share the cel-lular frequ ency ranges.

Q Aren 't you simply looking/ or loopholes.flaunting the law fo r your o wn p rofit ?

A Gro ve Ente rprises. after nearl y two de-cades of se rvice to the publi c, private.instit utiona l. and go vernment sec tors .has earned a reputation fo r integ rity . \Vewould be fool ish to jeopardize our re-spectcd and trusted image for a proce-dure which acco unts for a tiny fract ionof our busine ss. This is the reason thatwe have ma intained on-going dialoguewith the FCC. have conducted period icinquiry with the Departme nt of Justice.and have voluntar ily suspended ourmodification procedures indefini tely indeference to this hearing.

Some Q&/h for the non-radio-hobbyist byHarold G. Peach. Jr.

Q lsn 't Iistcning to radio communication s.including ce llula r, lUI invasion of thepurticipunt :s priva cy?

A No. The public ' s ex pectation of privacywhen using unencrypted radios or cellu-lar telephones is unrealist ic and rootedin misconceptions about the nature ofrad io. Unlike wire and fiber optic medi-urns, which are privately ow ned andtruly private. the radio spectrum is apublic mediu m. Radio is public in tha t itis a public resource . like a park or streetand. it is also public in that all activitiesca rried out there are done so publicly.\Vhen people use co mmonly acce ptedmethod s of rad io com mun ic at io n(whether analog or dig ital) tha t do notinc lude encrypt ion. there is no reason -able ex pec tation of privacy. No law canchange this fact. Co mmunicating viaradio is metaphorically the same as shout-ing across a crowded room.

Q But do" ' I the nation 's telep hone users/UH'e a riX/1I to prtvacv?

A Yes. Caller s have a reaso nable expecta-tion to privacy when using the tclc-phone. How ever. when those telephoneconversations move from private medi -ums to the publi c mediu m of radio. thenation 's telephone companie s have an

obli gation to protect the co ntent of thoseconversat ions through encryption. Onlythen docs true privacy ex ist.

Q How can n mgn s:\ tlcl 10 ensure thepr ivacy rights of Iht' pu blic are pro -tected?

A By passing legislation requiring tele-phone co mpanies to encrypt wirele ssteleph one com munications. And , in theinterim . by requiring that ca llers bewarned when thei r privacy ca n not beensured because their co nversat ion wi llbe traveling unencrypted over radio.

Q isn 't rncrvption {.\"I't'w;i l'e ?A Encryption is nei ther prohibiti vely e x-

pensive nor technically impractical. Buteve n if encry ption were not feasible, itdoes not change the fact that without it.rad io com munication privacy can nothe expected.

Q What goud is encryption ? Won 'l some-ml{' olwavs be able 10 b reut: any cipherinve nted ?

A It is true that for any tech nical method ofconcealing so mething there will alwaysbe someone who can brea k it. but this isa separate issue. When someone takesreasonable steps 10 encrypt their com-munication they have a reasonable ex-pectat ion to privacy. When someonebreaks that enc ryption and listens to thecommu nication . the y in vade th eperson' s pri vacy and violate existinglaws - not becau se they intercepted thesignal. but because they brok e an en-crypted communicat ion to which theywere not a party , Metaphorical ly. this isequivalent to hold ing a glass to the wallor ope ning some c lscs mai l.

Q Even ifh'(' urk nowlcdge tlun rn crvptionis the bes t solution, isn 't banning scan-ners a simp ler \my 10 sol ve the prob-lem ?

A Scanners are rad io receivers that ca n beprog rammed to listen fo r activit)' onseveral frequencie s. Even if ou tlawed .it does not requ ire an engineering de-gree ora high degree ofel ect ronic knovvI-edge to build a radio receiver. so weshould ne ver assume outlawing [heir

manu facture or sa le will prevent peo plefrom obtaining them . Even a televisionset can receive ce llular telephone calls !

But the question misses the point.Bann ing radio recei vers to prevent themoni tor ing of radio co mmunications ismetaphorica lly equivalent to requi ringpeop le to ignore a pub lic conversa tiontaking place before the m. Com mon senselei Is you this won 't work.

Q Ar('ll '1 radio hobbyists really just highIl'ch ,'oyc" rJ, eavesdroppers. or, as theCell ular Telephone Industtv AJ,WJcia-tion has culled them. "electronic stalk-ers? ..

A No. Is it unethical to listen to two peopleye lling at eac h othe r across a crowdedroom '? Is it voyeurism 10 observe thesignals of a (.-ouch at a hall game'! Radiohobbyists are ord inary people sitting onthe side lines of the pub lic rad io spec-trum, watching and listening to the eventsunfo lding before them .

Q lIt //(' radio spectrum is tru ly publ ic. whydo H 'C' 1/(1\'(' licensing and a uclions?

A The Federal Communicat ions Com mis-sion only licenses rad io transmitters. notrece ivers. It does this to ensure the or-de rly use of a lim ited resource - therad io spectrum. Howe ver, neither li-ce nses nor spectrum auctions co nveyown ership of a frequency or band, the yonly co nvey permission to transmi t overthe resource .Rece ption of rad io signals docs not in-rcrferc \,...ith the orde rly use of a fre-quency or hand, so no licensing is re-quired . Restrictions on radio receptiontraditiona lly occ ur only inco untr ies withrepress ive form s of government.

Q Do rad io hu bbvists supp ort 1"t..' Elec-tronic Communications Privacy Act?

A The ECPA protect s ma ny forms of com -munica tiun from unauthorized eaves-d ropping. Everyo ne agrees with its pro-visions invol ving private med ium s suchas wire or fiber optic cable. It is only therad io pro visions of the act. included as a"paper tiger" to prim ari ly benefit thecellular telephone industry, that mostradio hobbyist s co nsider a bad and po-tent ially da ngerou s law.

24 MONITORING TIMES April 1997

tvfr SPECIAL REPORT

Following the Telecom Money TrailIndustry Sweetens Congressional Campaign Chests to Tune of $10 Million

P olitical campaign finance reformhas been a hot button issue in theflews lately. The campaign financ ewoe s of the C lin ton Whil e House are beingaired nightly on the nation al S network new s-ca sts. Co ngress is now call ing for inve stiga-lion s of the White House mis deeds. bur wi llthis ve nue finall y enact the proper leg islat ionneeded to stop the mi llions of do llars in so ftand ha rd campaign contributio ns from spe-cia l interest and pol itical ac tio n com mittee s(PACs)'!

Let' s peck inside the world o f congre s-sional campa ign fiuuucing by following themoncy frail in the case of the February S.199 7. hou se subcommit tee hearing on ce llu -lar privacy issues di scussed in this feature:sec tion or AIT. You he the judge!

We visited a non -partisan Federal ca ndi-date campaig n mo ney page on the intern et at

hUp:llwww. t ra~ . cUln and did a litt le rc-search of our own . Here is what ' \'C unco v-ered.

While this suhco nuui ttce cons ists of 29member s from bo th partie s. on ly 1-1- me m-bers spoke on cam era (C-S pa n) d uring thehearings. \Ve loo ked ill the co ntributionsfrom the ccl lular/ tclc co mrnuuicmions indus-try as a whol e and from the Cellular Tc lc -communtc au ons Indus try A ....oc ia t io n(CT IA- a Washington PAC ) in particular.10 each of thes e elec ted o ffic ia ls during thelast 1995- 1C)l.)6election campaig n. Th ese arcthe result s of that res earch. Th e FEe (FederalElect ion Co mmission identification numb erfol low, the Repre..cm.utves nam e. Pie urcsin parenthesis an: the total campaign contri-butions accepted from PAC organiza tionv.

Rep. Rick w hite R-\\'A Incumb en tCH4 \ \ 'AII I 142 )

Teteconnn industrv cWJI/Ja ig 1lcontribu tions:S93 ,744.00 (S740.lJ76.00)

CTIA ca",/Jaig1l contributions: 57 .S0S.00

Rep. Th om as J ero me Uliley. .l r . R-VAIncumbent IIWVAII3112S)

Chair ma n of the Hous e CommerceCommitt ee

Tc tcco nnn ilit/list ry ('flll/Iwig n CfJl lt rihutions :$72.cm.OO ($70 1.772 .00 )

ens cunipuign vnntnbutions: S I.()OO,OO

By Larry Van Horn

Members of The House Subcommitteeon Telecommunications, Trade &

Consumer Protection{Ratio: 16-13 I

-W.J, "Billy" Tauzin, Louisiana, Chairman

' Michael G. O