Mobile Scanner laws

DANG .....

I remember my APX-6 on 1296 mhz .... and the little GUNN DIODE transcever on 10 GHZ we talked about 1 mile with ......

Now when I worked for the sperry microwave engineering plant in Clearwater we used 96 GHZ MMW and bounced it off a building about 7 miles away using CW ( yep hooked a J-38 up ) no record but it was fun ....

It was at that time I got to work at the Kennedy Space Center on pad 39b
(i'm on the right) using MMW systems which I never found out why were being looked into for some project ..... you gotto love radio ....

 

What specifically exempts Hams from scanner laws? I have heard of drivers that ARE Hams having problems in Indiana.

 

Here is the law ....

IC 35-44-3-12
Unlawful use of a police radio; exemptions; "police radio" defined Sec. 12.

(a) A person who knowingly or intentionally:
(1) possesses a police radio;
(2) transmits over a frequency assigned for police emergency purposes; or
(3) possesses or uses a police radio:
(A) while committing a crime;
(B) to further the commission of a crime; or
(C) to avoid detection by a law enforcement agency;
commits unlawful use of a police radio, a Class B misdemeanor.
(b) Subsection (a)(1) and (a)(2) do not apply to:
(1) a governmental entity;
(2) a regularly employed law enforcement officer;
(3) a common carrier of persons for hire whose vehicles are used in emergency service;
(4) a public service or utility company whose vehicles are used in emergency service;
(5) a person who has written permission from the chief executive officer of a law enforcement agency to possess a police radio;
(6) a person who holds an amateur radio license issued by the Federal Communications Commission if the person is not transmitting over a frequency assigned for police emergency purposes;
(7) a person who uses a police radio only in the person's dwelling or place of business;
(8) a person:
(A) who is regularly engaged in newsgathering activities;
(B) who is employed by a newspaper qualified to receive legal advertisements under IC 5-3-1, a wire service, or a licensed commercial or public radio or television station; and
(C) whose name is furnished by his employer to the chief executive officer of a law enforcement agency in the county in which the employer's principal office is located;
(9) a person engaged in the business of manufacturing or selling police radios; or
(10) a person who possesses or uses a police radio during the normal course of the person's lawful business.
(c) As used in this section, "police radio" means a radio that is capable of sending or receiving signals transmitted on frequencies assigned by the Federal Communications Commission for police emergency purposes and that:
(1) can be installed, maintained, or operated in a vehicle; or
(2) can be operated while it is being carried by an individual.
The term does not include a radio designed for use only in a dwelling.
As added by Acts 1977, P.L.342, SEC.1. Amended by P.L.162-1994, SEC.1.

The Florida law is almost the same

 

You should be able to monitor police & fire if you want to....its your tax dollars. But thankfully its allowed here in CA...if there is a hold up on the highway, I can usually decide by listening to the scanner if I should hang out for a bit or get to an alternate route.

 

UNDER FCC RULES YOU CAN ......

However if they are scrambled you can't this is also a federal law.

 

Actually................not quite. What IS exempt is your amateur transceiver that happens to scan. These are exempt in all states, and SOME states exempt amateurs with scanners, stating that those with amateur licenses ARE permitted to have mobile scanners. But some anal Alpha Hotel states will STILL nail a ham and seize his actual scanner. Due to confusion on the part of some of these not-so-bright cops, they have seized amateur transceivers thinking they were "scanners". So you must be careful to distinguish which states still prohibit the installation of a mobile scanner (the ACTUAL scanner receiver), which ones permit (or exempt) hams WRT same, and which ones require a local permit to have a scanner. It is also a good idea to not have police frequencies programmed into your scanning transceiver, or, at least, turn it OFF during a traffic stop. Some of these jackbooted "sturmgruppenfuhrer" types still take offense to hearing their transmissions thru your VHF radio! The federal preemption is NOT a "blanket" one. you can still get nailed due to confusion of terms and what constitutes a "scanner". Read the exemption C A R E F U L L Y!

GF

 

Indiana is ONE of the A-hole ones! Kentucky is another goose-stepping bunch of------------! Hams HAVE been hassled by Indiana cops----and have also taken the state to court and forced them to RETURN/REPLACE/REEMBURSE for seized amateur equipment. THAT is EXACTLY what I would do!

I've told this story before. NC is one of the "good" ones with common sense and NO "scanner" or "po-leece reddio" laws. I was on I-40 near Hickory, NC one day. I was talking on 10 Meter AM (29 Megs) when a sheriffs car caught up with me. It was, of ALL THINGS, an INDIANA local sheriff's car (Marion County, I think it said) pulled up beside me in the left lane. He obviously had been speeding (badly!), and abruptly slowed to pace me in the left lane, looking at the big HF antenna on the back of the Chevy.........AND giving me the cops' evil eye (y'all are suspicious characters, etc), and "Boy-ah, yo' in a heap o' trouble cuz ah'm th' sheriff an' I think yo' ain't s'posed to be usin' that t'air reddio!" Trouble was, he had NO authority 600 miles from home, and what in tarnation was he doin' THAT far away from Indiana to start with? I wouldn't have stopped for him anyway since he wasn't local! I just gave him a smart-##### grin and held the mike up for him to see, and he showered down on his cruiser and sped away----speeding again while giving me this really threatening look. Waaayyyyyy up the road towards Statesville I saw a blue light winking in the distance. What did I see as I approached the scene? An NC "Black & Grey", highway patrol car with the Indiana cruiser PULLED OVER! THE TROOPER with his smokey bear hat was writing the sheriff's deputy a TICKET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! As I slowed way down, I could see that he had his metal ticket-writing clipboard in hand and they were walking back to get IN the state trooper's car. The other deputy had his hands up to his head, shaking it back and forth, and shading his eyes with one hand! It HAD to be embarassing. I blew my horn and waved at them, and they LOOKED at me as I passed. They HAD to have known it was ME making fun of them for getting stopped! I had a knee-slappin' good time for the next few miles!​

They were, indeed, driving WAY too fast--at least 85 in a 65)--when they first passed ME. Don't know what they were doin' when the trooper got 'em!!!!!​

GF​

 

Indiana cops arent anything special. I really want one of these morons to give me a hard time about my licensed equipment. They will wish they never pulled me over. This is why I have pre-paid legal. I will drag the dept and the individual officer into small claims court if I have too.

 

BUT WAS HE IN A HEAP OF TROUBLE

 

I didn't think I'd ever say this, but Gadfly, I enjoyed reading that post.