Re: Do these cellular amplifiers work for all cellphones?

On 4/9/2022 12:08 PM, Woody wrote:
> Always puzzled me why the US barred scanners from listening to cellular 
> channels but would let you listen to police.

Police scanners are dederally legal with state safety/criminal use caveats.
https://www.zipscanners.com/blogs/learn/are-police-scanners-legal

The way I understand how it works in the USA is that the government exists
at the will of the people so anything the government says that isn't
restricted for security reasons is allowed to be seen in disclosure.

The police are paid by the people so the people have every right to listen
to what the police are saying when they're saying it out in the open.

You can take a picture of anything in public that itself isn't illegal, 
and specifically you can take pictures of the police doing what they do.

> largely digital (mostly DMR) but with a suitable radio you can still 
> listen to them even from the UK! Barmy IMO.

I think in the USA non-commercial drivers can also "listen" to police radar.

You just can't jam those radar frequencies - but you can detect them.
It's interesting that 1/5th of all US states allow laser jammers though.

Somehow Virginia got around the radar detector laws by some legal loophole.
https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/states-where-radar-detectors-are-illegal

> The latter have now gone 

In the USA, I think it's legal to take a picture of anything in full view in
the public, such as the front of a house (but not the back of the house).

Is it the same with the UK that if it's in the public eye, it's fair game?

> For the record digital cellular has had over-the-air encryption from day 
> one. Orange wanted a much greater level of encryption but OfCom (as 
> instructed by GCHQ) would not allow it as it meant GCHQ would not be 
> able to listen in - which was why Orange was so late to market.
> Curiously GSM cellular was only encrypted over the air but was decoded 
> to a standard phone system data stream at the base station and passed 
> over the carrier network unencrypted. Airwave (the emergency services 
> radio system) on the other hand is end-to-end encrypted.

I wonder how those cellular radio boosters handle that encryption then?