Eric Blossom wrote:
Exactly. So how come mom&pop with a scanner were able to record BOTH sides of the conversation without interruption? This seems pretty suspicious to me.
You typically only need to tune into either the forward or reverse channel. You can usually hear both sides (one may be down a few dB). This is probably a result of acoustic coupling from the speaker into the microphone on one or both ends (could also be near-end hybrid echo). You see the same situation on both cellular and the 49 MHz cordless phones.
Actually: 1. 49 mhz is the handset frequency, which doesn't carry both sides, or doesn't very well. 46 mhz is the base, and carries both sides pretty well. I don't know how it works on 900 mhz non-digital. 2. My experience on cellular has been that the further the mobile phone is from the scanner (on average), the fainter the mobile person's voice is going to be, and it is often virtually inaudible. There are two 25-mhz cellular ranges, upper and lower, and I think 2600 or 411 mag. has detailed which carries what info. Someone with a scanner may be tuning in the upper range when they really want the lower, or vice-versa.