Evesdropping on phone calls

[Spencer]

My wife is convinced that our neighbors have been evesdropping on our phone calls. They always seem to know things that we haven't told them. I've only been in their house a couple of times. The last time I was in their house I saw a handheld scanner sitting on an end table. I have a couple of scanners myself because I use to enjoy listening to the emergency bands. I use to listen pretty regularly for a couple of years back in the mid 90's. I know it is possible to pick up conversations on some cordless phones and even some cellular phones. We just bought a new 5.8 GHz Panasonic phone about a month ago to try and solve this problem. It seems as though our neighbors are still finding out things so now I think they may be listening in on our cell phone conversations. Maybe it was our cell phone conversations that they were listening to all along because our old cordless phone was a Siemens 2.4 GHz and I thought that was safe from scanner evesdropping. I would like to find out what frequencies both our cell phones are on so I can see if I can pick up our conversations on one of my old scanners. I know Radio Shack use to have a product called a Frequency Counter. I don't know if that product would be able to tell me exactly what frequency my wifes cell phone happens to be on during a specific conversation or not and Radio Shack doesn't seem to carry it anymore anyway. Is there such a device that could tell me what frequecy our phones are transmitting on so I could punch in that frequency into my scanner? I want to verify whether or not our conversations can be heard or if the transmission is scrambled. Any help would be appreciated. My wife has gone back to making all of her long distance calls on our corded house phone so she is sure that can't evesdrop. That has added a lot to our long distance bill in the past couple of months. She gets a large amount of night and weekend minutes in her cellular phone plan which made our long distance bill almost disappear over the last couple of years.

Am I correct in thinking our new Panasonic KX-TG5100M 5.8 GHz phone is safe from evesdropping by normal police scanners?

 

[tc35dforme]

I'm not 100 % sure, but I believe that the FCC blocks scanners from receiving certain frequencies which include some military channels and the cellular phone bands.

 

[Egon]

If you have an unwanted listener it could be a real chance to set up some delicious gossip items. Remember the old rural party lines?

Egon

 

[GaryM]

Most scanners made in the last few years cut off around 1.8 gig or so. Older scanners cut off around 1.2 gig. Earler yet cut off at 800 meg. Scanners manufactured in the US, or imported into the US during the last 10 years or so are prohibited from having the capability of receiving the cell phone bands. Some earlier models, such as the AR7000, can be programmed to allow reception of these bands. Later models can't, although some may have been brought across the boarder by individuals.

If your cellphone is digital rather than anagog you're pretty much in the clear. The cordless phone you linked to is far outside the range of any but specialized scanners.

You don't have a baby monitor do you? Those operate in the 49 MHz. band and are easily received.

 

[Spencer]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( You don't have a baby monitor do you? Those operate in the 49 MHz. band and are easily received. )</font>

We have been at this house for a little over two years now. We did use a baby monitor for the first 6 to 8 months. We were well aware of the ease at which the baby monitors could be overheard. As soon as we could safely stop using the monitors we did so.

I know that my cell phone is in digital mode most of the time so I don't think that is where the problem is. I really think that my wifes cell phone may be the problem. My cell phone has a "D" displayed when it is digital mode and an "A" displayed when in analog. I rarely ever pick up my wifes cell phone so I don't know much about hers. I will have to look it over closely tonight. If a cell phone is in digital mode does that mean that the signal is always scrambled?

My neighbors hand held scanner looked like an older unit but I didn't get that good of a look at it. I think I am going to just have to assume that it can pick up some cell phone frequencies. Do you know of any device that could detect what frequency my wifes cell phone is transmitting at?

 

[Heath]

You could mention that you have a scanner and occassionally hear telephone conversations, and ask him if he ever hears them too. He won't admit to hearing yours, but you could judge his initial reaction to see if it looks like that's what he's doing.
Not really scientific proof, but it may provide a a clue.......
You could also have a lot of fun. Start talking about buried cash and see if he shows up digging in the leaked location. I could think of a lot of ways to have fun with him if he really is eavsdropping!

 

[gws]

2.4 and 5.8ghz scanner are not snoopable, at least by your neighbor. Some 900mhz and older 46/49mhz cordless are easy and legal to monitor. Also a baby monitor makes a nice transmitter to listen to.
a parobolic mic can also pick up voices from inside a buildings.

 

[Spencer]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( a parobolic mic can also pick up voices from inside a buildings.)</font>

How far away do those things work? Could they use it from inside their house or would they have to be outside?

I should mention that our two houses are about 330 to 350 ft. apart. We are out in the middle of the woods, they have one other neighbor that is probably only 120 ft. or so away from them but that neighbor is even further away from me. The next closest neighbor to me is 1000 ft. away.

 

[rockyridgefarm]

Why not talk to your cellular provider. They are usually eager to keep a customer, and might provide a low/no cost upgrade to her phone. I recently switched phoned and my new onse blow away the older ones for the quality of service....

 

[Junkman]

The best thing that you can do is to set them up with a fictitious story about someone being buried in the back yard. If the local police show up, you can explain it to them. One other thing that will help is if you write a "script" and mail it to yourself. Then when the police show up, hand it to them with the explanation and all should be well..... If the still don't believe you, offer to dig up your neighbors yard...... after all, that is where the "body" is buried!!!!!! Just make sure that you get the dates correct so it is before they moved in... It is called "payback"....