Quality scanner manufacturers like AOR, Yaesu, Kenwood and Icom are all Japanese anyway, not to mention that the Radio Law Article 59 (in Chapter Ⅴ, Section 1) basically means that it's perfectly legal to listen to whatever, as long as you don't tell its existence/content to anyone.
(Police radio over there has been digitally encrypted since the Glico-Morinaga case in the 1980s; not sure about the 840MHz old cellular band block.)
It's still possible that bored airport officials love the idea of interrogating you (I'd buy a scanner after entering Japan if I were a spy or something.)
He's talking about neither. He's talking about one-way radios that pick up restricted frequencies reserved for government, aviation, mobile phones, etc. It can't transmit. So it's similar to your everyday FM/AM radio except it picks up other portions of the spectrum.
We've got a super old one lying around the house that it takes 2 hours to program then the batteries go dead and we have to do it all over again. You never get much talk or interesting things where I live. It would be neat to listen in when you're in a major city like L.A. or Las Vegas. Oooo, I may do that next time I'm done in L.V. Hehehehe...
We've got a super old one lying around the house that it takes 2 hours to program then the batteries go dead and we have to do it all over again. You never get much talk or interesting things where I live. It would be neat to listen in when you're in a major city like L.A. or Las Vegas. Oooo, I may do that next time I'm done in L.V. Hehehehe...
There are many sites that let you listen in to their cities
police & fire on your PC. Be forwarned though, until your ear gets used to it, it can sound like gobbley-gook. Most use a ten codes and terminology that you need to know.
It's a facinating hobby that changes daily. My city of Portland, Me uses trunking radios hooked into laptops
on the center consol of the cruisers. They are working an a setup that will do away with all talking, and just use the PC. I have thousands of dollars invested in equipment and antennas that will all be useless if they do change.