2 April 2003
To: [email protected]
From: "Steve Uhrig" <[email protected]>
Date: Wed, 02 Apr 2003 12:46:53 -0500
Subject: [TSCM-L] Re: legal question
On 2 Apr 2003 at 8:33, Andre Holmes wrote:
> ===== I have rolled up on a Police covert operation and I had with me
> a Icom R2 in full scan.
> ===== The Icom R2 locked on 434 MHz with 5 KHz spacing, I was approx
> 400 ft from the target area in a vehicle.
> ===== I noticed that they were using a 434 MHz wireless camera
> with the undercover agent in a lighted area to compensate for lux. 40
> ft away was the recording team, it was great to see it all in real
> time and pick off the wireless camera at the same time so if you are
> within the radius of a real bug you should have no problem locking on
> the signal.
Well, Andre, you stumbled onto an illegal surveillance operation.
In the U.S., 434 megacycles is ILLEGAL to use for surveillance. That
frequency is an amateur radio (ham radio) frequency, legal ONLY for
hobby operation.
No local, state or federal agency can use it for surveillance.
Federal agencies MUST get an IRAC coordination to use anything other
than frequencies licensed to them. IRAC *will not* coordinate any
amateur frequencies for law enforcement surveillance.
So, whomever the LE agency was surveilling, their evidence is no good
because it was gathered illegally. If things ever go to court, and
the defense attorney is sharp enough, that evidence and anything
subsequent will be thrown out.
Doesn't matter that the spy shops sell stuff there. It's cheap and
easy to relabel inexpensive ham radio equipment and sell it illegally
at inflated prices to naive agencies.
To use anything on amateur frequencies, you must have a ham radio
license of the proper class for that frequency, be engaged in two way
communication, identify with your ham callsign every ten minutes, and
commercial uses are forbidden.
It is impossible for a law enforcement agency to meet these criteria
in surveillance.
There is an exception for 434 and other frequencies to be used for
low power data transmissions, like car alarm remote controls, but the
field strength limits restrict range to a very short distance.
Effective power out for a legal data device on 434 is less than one
milliwatt, although it is not measured that way. And that is for data
only, not video or voice or anything.
Another problem with using amateur frequecies is that many hams spend
all their waking hours listening for weak signals all around the
bands. The probability for intercept is very high. And, many amateur
frequencies are used as inputs to repeaters. 434 megacycles is the
input to one of the amateur repeaters in the LA basin. Transmit there
and you'll be sharing your signals with thousands of hobbyists over
several hundred square miles. It's happened, and the hams have had to
DF 'surveillance' transmitters used to monitor a parking lot.
In two different cases I've had, one LE agency using spy shop stuff
got into the TV system in a hotel where they were working, and anyone
on the proper channel in any hotel room could watch the surveillance
in another room in the hotel.
In another, at El Dorado airport in Bogota, the military was using
some wireless video purchased from a spy shop and got into the video
system of the entire airport. Their surveillance was seen on many
many video monitors throughout the airport, for the few minutes
before they discovered it and shut it down.
With equipment most of us would have, it would be extremely difficult
to intercept a properly done LE video surveillance. Virtually all of
it is at microwave, you need to be in the path or very close, and
more and more of it is being encrypted.
So, in a different way, you uncovered an illegal surveillance.
Steve
*******************************************************************
Steve Uhrig, SWS Security, Maryland (USA)
Mfrs of electronic surveillance equip
mailto:[email protected] website http://www.swssec.com
tel +1+410-879-4035, fax +1+410-836-1190
"In God we trust, all others we monitor"
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