[FedCom] FBI Hot vs Cold Wire Recordings?

[gary]

I heard a body tap worn by a CADOJ agent making arrangements to buy some 
dope. They ran it right over the repeater. San Jose PD uses low power 
repeater for their tap, though I never heard one myself. [It's an 
unpublished frequency, but the PD refers to it as BAT for Body Audio 
Tap.]  As far as hearing a tap directly, I did a drive-by scanning of a 
tap. I had some common tap frequencies programmed in the scanner and 
heard a conversation (unfortunately not in English) pop-up and then 
disappear. It probably only lasted 15 seconds because I was on the 
highway. Obviously I don't know the distance to the transmitter, but it 
was on 101 in Palo Alto, where homes are very close to the highway.

Ken wrote:

>
>Anyone ever had success in picking up hot wire transmissions?  I'd assume
>that the type of device would limit transmissions to perhaps 1/4 mile or
>less depending upon the buildings construction.  Also I think in the past I
>read another newspapar article that the conversations were held in the
>basement family/rec room, so perhaps the cold wire recording was the only
>feasible method due to the radio type technical problems.
>
>Ken
>Springfield MA Monitoring Area
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