About half of our members are interested in 'VHF/UHF' point-to-point services
like police and public safety messages, aircraft traffic and the like. This is commonly
referred to as 'scanner listening' or just 'scanning' since those types of services
are generally listened to on 'police scanner' type radios.
In addition to lots of good local info in our printed materials, here are a few of the best links to on-line info for the scanner buff:
We don't maintain these regional lists, but they all appear well done!
Another group scanner buffs will be interested in is the All Ohio Scanner Club. They've been around a while and specialize on above 30 MHZ almost exclusively.
Finally ... the legality of scanners scanning and the moral, social and public policy issues of scanning and listening to two-way comms are increasingly making it into the news. This area will be further developed in the next couple of months, but for now, here area few links of interest, and an opportunity to link to MARE's local newsgroup where these kinds of issues can be discussed!
Learn more about the bills that are currently pending by reading the text of the bills! Ignore the title of the page -- the rest of it is pretty non-inflamatory. Remember, if you *do* decide to write to your congressman, do so in a calm reasoned manner -- spamming and inflamatory comments will only serve to convince them that we are all nutso anyway, and will be rather counter-productive. It probably wouldn't hurt to put in a pitch about how the public deserves the right to monitor what public officials are doing with public money -- and perhaps draw an analogy to the Open Meetings Act and the Freedom of Information Acts, and how these bills are running in the opposite direction from past legislation that helps to make government more accessable to the common people!
This is important stuff, both for hobbyists in general, and anyone concerned about communication, First Amendment rights and the nature of our society! Plug in and THINK about this before you make knee-jerk reactions!
The latest developments in Michigan Law -- People v. Brian Stone interpreted the Michigan Wiretap Law in a way radio hobbyists need to know about. Check out the following links for the text of the Court Opinions, and check out the latest MARE Great Lakes Monitor newsbulletin for my interpretation.