Posted on 03/11/2006 5:23:16 PM PST by Denver Ditdat
Dennis L. and Brenda F. Alford consider themselves law-abiding citizens. He is retired from Volvo Heavy Truck Plant and a greeter at the Wytheville Wal-Mart. She is a registered nurse at Carrington Place at Wytheville Birdmont Center.
Imagine their surprise Wednesday morning when county and town law enforcement officers descended on their Locust Hill Road home. A search warrant was executed and eventually five two-way radios, four scanners, a computer, a power supply, radio tuners and an amplifier were seized.
"They made us go in the living room and sit there," recalled Mrs. Alford. "They kept us under surveillance. It really scared us. It upset us so bad that both of us missed work that night."
Dennis Alford added, "They treated us like we were criminals. Like we had been convicted of something."
A diabetic, he had to use the bathroom during the 90-minute search of his home. According to Alford, he was escorted by a deputy who stood outside the bathroom door until he was finished.
Alford makes no secret of his interest in two-way radios and is a licensed ham radio operator. He and his wife were volunteers with the Wythe County Volunteer Rescue Squad for many years.
"A lot of the equipment I have is from being in the rescue squad," Alford stated. "I have never modified any of it. I've never interfered with any police transmissions. If I did, it was unintentional."
According to state law, owning any electronic communication device or equipment that is capable of interfering with emergency two-way radio communications is a class 6 felony. Actual interference is a class 1 misdemeanor.
An incident in early January prompted investigator Gary Davenport of the Wytheville Police Department to obtain a search warrant for the Alford home in eastern Wythe County. It occurred one night while Alford was working.
"On or about Jan. 7, 2006," the search warrant application states, "the Wytheville Police Department was experiencing extensive interference with its official radio dispatch. The interference contained audible clues that the transmissions were emanating from the Wytheville Wal-Mart."
The search warrant further notes that Officer D.L. Wall was sent to investigate and encountered Alford with radio equipment in his possession. Alford consented to a check of the hand-held radio.
"I had permission from management to use the Wal-Mart frequency," Alford said Thursday. "I'm up on the other end of the store and sometimes the communication is not good. I showed the radio to Officer Wall when he came in that night asking about it. I let him take it."
According to the search warrant, Alford's radio was capable of transmitting on the WPD system and thereby capable of interfering with law enforcement radio transmissions. It also states that Alford's equipment showed a transmission signature matching a signature from previous unlawful transmission recorded by the WPD.
"Further transmissions have continued to interfere in local law enforcement radio dispatch transmissions," the search warrant says. "The WPD and the WCSO (Wythe County Sheriff's Office) have investigated Mr. Alford's residence externally and found that radio transmissions are being emitted from the residence on the WPD and WCSO systems."
Albert Newberry, director of public safety for the town of Wytheville, pointed out that unlicensed users of radio frequencies can jam signals between police, fire and rescue personnel. Just listening on the frequency, he said, can cause static or squelch the signals.
"You don't have to be licensed to have a scanner," Newberry noted. "You have a limited ability to pick up on transmissions and you can't transmit over a scanner. Ham radio operators are licensed through the FCC and under emergency situations can dial into any frequency. They have laws and codes not to interfere with regular transmissions."
"Just having the capability is a crime," added Capt. Rick Arnold of the police department. "The equipment will tell us if Mr. Alford did or did not."
Charges are pending further investigation, according to Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Lee Harrell.
"It's an unusual case," he commented. "I don't know where this will go. We would have to prove criminal intent. It is a big concern and very important that our police radio frequencies stay open."
I suppose we are all criminals, of one sort or another.
When exactly did logic die?
I'm sure that's exactly what happened. Very smart you are.
In fact, just to add more to that; I see information all over the net on how to convert your HTs to OOB operations -- "Freebanding" they call it. I can't for the life of me see why someone would want to do that as something like this is bound to happen sooner or later and you will end up in jail.
Hum this just isn't adding up. Wytheville Police and Wythe County Sheriffs according to the limited resources I have available {Police Call} do not share frequencies in any venue PD, Fire, or medical as near as I can tell although the Medical is likely city and county wide service and ran by the county. Just a guess as this is the way most ambulance services operate.
Another possibility is he has a supervisors or fire chiefs radio. Usually in many such agencies for Civil Defense purposes at least one person per shift has multiple agency capabilities in many places.
The Walmart frequency can be anything from business designated radio {meaning they may have given him a company radio} or some Wally Worlds actually use GMRS radios instead. I suppose he could have modified it but that would take some doing especially when doing 300MHZ plus jumps on a hand held. Meaning 150- 159MHZ up to the 450 & 460 MHZ range to get on PD and sheriffs radios plus he would need to know PL tones likely.
I've heard rent a cops {actually off duty deputies} in Wally Worlds before on my scanner. The sit down with the hand held on their side and it keys up. An innocent mistake and the person is not aware they are doing this. In my county once or twice a night they have to clear mikes because a deputy is sitting in a position to key his mike.
It didn't die. It was murdered.
bump
Nip it, Andy! Nip it in the bud!
These Newberry and Arnold characters sound like bureaucratic hacks. Somebody's on a power trip here.
We got the same idiots running the airlines too. They apparently think that using an iPod or cellphone during takeoff is going to bring down the plane!
The anti-scanner hysteria is second only to the anti-gun hysteria and you have the same type of people attributing magical powers to both -- a semi-auto rifle is alleged to have pin-point accuracy at a distance of a mile and penetrate armor to boot, and a scanner becomes this mysterious thing that uses up all the RF in an area so there is not enough signal left to go around! And the MSM just parrots the claims of the ignorant or those with an agenda.
bttt
LOL
With the fond memory of Don Knotts so fresh, I hesitate to use the Barny Fife imagery but these cops should have simply stopped by and explained the situation. The "defendent" seems cooperative and actually has worked with the emergency services in the town. I doubt he would willingly screw them up.
Or, maybe the cops were "freebanding" on Walmart's freqs? And didn't know the channel(s) were "in use", so, assumed that anyone else there was on "their" freqs?
Most likely, though, I suspect they singled this poor bastard out because they knew "he has radios" -- the reason being, they are (according to this theory) trying to scare the bejeebers out of "the bad guys". If they can convince "the bad guys" that "If you have a scanner, we WILL find you, and, even if we can't find your "meth lab", we will bust you for the scanner"... well, if they can pull that BS off, then, "the bad guys will stop listening on their scanners."
Or, they could do like the real cops do, and use DES radios, which "the scanners" will not be able to "snoop".
This guy had best find himself a radio-savvy lawyer, or else he's apt to be the fall guy of the decade.
I've been trying to track the source of an imaging on one of my scanners. It's showing up on 460.300MHZ and it sounds like a trucking company to me. One of several things is going on I guess. I dropped below and above the frequency by 20-24 MHZ and searched on another scanner while I was hearing them on that freq. Nothing. I'm too far out in the boonies for nearby tower bleed over. The only other thing now suspect is my antenna system. I've got it running off an inverted mounted TV antenna with a 20db tv signal amp added to it. I ran that through a signal splitter to run another scanner also. It could be some of the problems are coming from there I suppose. Maybe inter-mod from the other scanner. I'm addicted LOL I have 5 scanners and two outdoor antennas :>}
As for this guy doing what they are saying? Anythings possible but I would say not likely in this guys case. I'd look for an off duty cop doing security at Wally World or a nearby security company carrying his hand held as the source of interference. And like I said deputies keying up accidentally and leaving open mike is a very common problem.
I have in my own community heard of some kid stealing a hand held for the sheriffs department that was in a high school office and he wreaked some hilarious havoc for about 2 hours till they triangulated on the control frequency and pulled into his driveway :>}. A ham operator though has enough sense not to sit there and broadcast where you can be found. One other good possibility not mentioned is common but usually not on that frequency band is Pirate Radio.
I've been through Wythe county plenty of times and basically it's a rural county with a small town and a lot of Interstate traffic nearby. It's off I-81 in Virginia just northeast off Bristol Tennessee. It's about 75 miles outside of my coverage area on the scanner.
You're right though if this was an ongoing issue it was FCC jurisdiction. One other note. Most Rescue Squad, PD, SD, FD, and paramedics radios are leased or owned by the county and swapped out pretty regular. IOW if he was doing modifications it would be easy for the owner to pick up on. Next would be a do it yourself homemade radio. Possible also but unlikely.
the more i find out about "public servants" like this CofP,the better i like spiders, slugs & poisonous snakes.
free dixie,sw
But - if the good Mr. Alford was operating a Ham HT outside of it's intended frequency band then he would have been in violation of FCC rules since operating in those other services would require type acceptance, but that would be a mere violation.
I'd be willing to bet a lot of us routinely clip the wire (or pull the diode, whatever) to enable our gear to go GEN, but most of us have the good sense to know under what circumstances it might be appropriate to actually operate out of band (which would be almost never).
I'm guessing like some of the rest, that our perp was using a modified Ham HT on the WalMart store channel and either transmitted unintentionally on the wrong channel or some defect in the radio caused him to. Either of those violations would be totally outside of state jurisdiction, but he might still have problems if he has a collection of misappropriated gear in his shack. I know that happens because I have seen it.
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