5
SCANNING LEGALLY
Your scanner covers frequencies used by many different
groups including police and fire departments, ambulance ser-
vices, government agencies, private companies, amateur radio
services, military operations, pager services, and wireline (tele-
phone 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 (cellular, cordless, or other pri-
vate means of telephone signal transmission)
• pager transmissions
• any scrambled or encrypted transmissions
According to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (EC-
PA), you are subject to fines and possible imprisonment for in-
tentionally listening to, using, or divulging the contents of such
a transmission unless you have the consent of a party to the
communication (unless such activity is otherwise illegal).
This scanner has been designed to prevent reception of illegal
transmissions. This is done to comply with the legal require-
ment that scanners be manufactured so as to not be easily
modifiable to pick up those transmissions. Do not open your
scanner’s case to make any modifications that could allow it to
pick up transmissions that it is not legal to listen to. Doing so
could subject you to legal penalties.
We encourage responsible, legal scanner use.
Summary of Contents for 20-514
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