T&L Publications

Hello All,<p>Any help with a circuit, website, book or suggestions would be appreciated. Need to make a receiver that can hear the transmissions of cellular base tranceivers and then pick out the FCC ID.<p>Thanks!
Zackman

I wouldn't be the one to know, but is that legal? I know of some people that are working on being able to track all the cell phones that are currently turned on in the surrounding area.<p>This sort of stuff (radio tracking and related circuits) really interests me, anybody have any "neat" projects to share?

I don't think this will be quite as easy as you may like if you're thinking of mobile phone base stations.<p>Basic equipment will only pick up one side of the conversation for a start, you'll also need to find the channel and TDMA/CDMA/GSM all will hop about the band that the base station controller has allocated for each phone call and along with it the base station cell ID.<p>colin

Yes, it's legal and I've gotten quite a bit of help from the FCC already.<p>I'm not attempting to listen to cell phones at all. FCC regs state that transmitter ID's must be broadcast in clear unencrypted transmissions. That is how the system works... a cell phone announces itself to all towers, the towers hear the cell phone, the towers decide which tower has the strongest signal and the hand off happens.<p>What I want to do is stay clear of all that chatter and simply listen to the base transceiver the way a tech with a signal meter would -- the cell signal meters show what towers they can hear, the ID and how strong the signal is... nothing to do with the cell conversations at all.<p>Seems like the circuit wouldn't be horrifically nasty -- just listen to the 800Mz - 950Mz band and read the ID when a signal is located.<p>In the more advanced version of this I'd want it to automatically scan -- but for right now I be happy with a cat whisker if I could tune in a local cell tower and read the ID.<p>You guys keep your thinking hats on -- and we'll all figure this one out!<p>TIA!
R

There may be a way to modify an existing cell phone to tell you this info.<p>About a month ago someone was posting on this forum looking for used cell phone data trancievers. His website http://www.attdallas.com/information_company.html says that they design value added wireless products. Might try asking them

Frankly, I think this site has "FBI" written all over it. If you feel otherwise, give it a try:<p>http://www.beahacker.com/cell/cellular.htm

It is my understanding that you as a civilian may recieve any transmission that you may be able to. The restriction comes when you try to transmit or interfere with said transmissions. You have every right to listen if you can.

Hmm....I don't buy it. I have been under the impression that it is legal to receive any signals you have the capability to, except for restricted signals. IE: Cell phone bands.<p>However, that's not all cell phone bands. From my understanding, that's only the digital bands, and analog is absolutely fine to listen to.<p>Of course, the FCC isn't going to know if you're receiving digital cell phone conversations in your shack, but I wouldn't risk it.<p>Oh yeah, it's illegal to sell products for illegal purposes, correct? If that site really does sell those products, it wouldn't exist anymore. It's probably a way to get the money of poor schmucks, and if that's the case, it will be shut down soon anyway. Unless people are too smart to fall for it, which is probably the case.

Well, I looked at the BeAHacker website and thanks for the info -- but that site concentrates on ripping off cell numbers and making free phone calls -- not interested -- but the funny thing is -- I have one of those old Motorola phones. What I'm looking for is a circuit that just hears the FCC ID and nothing else.<p>Any books or other ideas -- please let me know...