[Cryptography] Tempest and limits on receiving

[Henry Baker]

At 05:14 PM 4/4/2017, Jon Callas wrote:
>In the US, the 1934 Federal Communications Act allows anyone to listen to any frequency that is not specifically blocked.
>
>This isn't the case in other countries.
>
>There are relatively few specifically prohibited frequencies, but those used by cellular communications are on the list.
>
>This is a result of someone mostly inadvertently picking up conversations between Newt Gingrich and a number of colleagues including John Boehner and others.
>
>The group of them were discussing ethics charges against Gingrich, and they were intercepted by people with a scanner who were playing around and just happened to pick up Boehner's car phone.
>
>Here's an article from the time period by John Markoff
>
>http://www.nytimes.com/1997/01/19/weekinreview/at-the-new-frontier-of-eavesdropping.html
>
>Here's a PBS News Hour article:
>
>http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/politics-jan-june97-cellular_01-14/

My old early-80's CRT color TV could listen in on 900MHz analog cellphones & analog cordless phones.  Just tune to the upper UHF channels; no video, but good FM sound.

No scanner necessary.

Of course, this TV was pretty big & took a lot of power, so wardriving with it turned on might appear a bit suspicious!

It probably emitted X-rays due to its CRT, so it might not have been the healthiest thing to be around.