SCANNING LEGALLY
Your scanner covers frequencies used by many different groups includ- ing police and fire departments, ambu- lance services, government agencies, private companies, amateur radio ser- vices, military operations, pager ser- vices, and wireline (telephone and telegraph) service providers. It is legal to listen to almost every transmission your scanner can receive. However, there are some transmissions you should never intentionally listen to. These include:
•Telephone conversations (either cellular, cordless, or other private means of telephone signal trans- mission)
•Pager transmissions
•Any scrambled or encrypted transmissions
According to the Electronic Communi- cations Privacy Act (ECPA), you are subject to fines and possible imprison- ment for intentionally listening to, us- ing, or divulging the contents of such a transmission unless you have the con- sent of a party to the communication (unless such activity is otherwise ille- gal). We encourage responsible, legal scanner use.
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