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Plane spotter guilty of illegal possession of aircraft scanner
A plane spotter is found guilty of using an aircraft scanner.. Faces a 5000 Rand fine or 10 months in jail! (www.news24.com) Plus d'info...Sort type: [Top] [Newest]
Wow. Just wow. I can understand that steps need to be taken to maintain public safety. But this is stupid beyond belief.
If you have an aircrew license which will include a radiotelephony license, surely they couldn't prosecute you? Any legal experts on this?
I'd think not. But the fact that we need "legal experts" to answer such a question is a testimony to how cuckoo the legal system has become.
The police in the UK generally leave spotters alone,except for some ID checks,but the occasional jobsworth will try to make an issue for a spotter using a radio.This is extremly rare,though.
Germany is far worse,where fines of over 1,000 euros are not unknown for use,not possesion of a aircraft radio.
Germany is far worse,where fines of over 1,000 euros are not unknown for use,not possesion of a aircraft radio.
The LiveATC web site, and especially their mobile app, has almost made scanners redundant. However, there is that pesky 10 minute delay and the frequencies are pre-determined on LiveATC. Also, many airports are not included. So if I know I'll be staying near a busy airport, I often pack my portable scanner. I guess I'll have to be more careful the next time I travel to Africa, which is likely to be NEVER.
However, I am going to the UK in 3 weeks and I was planning to take my scanner. LiveATC doesn't have any British sites because, according to their forum, it is illegal to retransmit ATC communications. But they said it is perfectly legal to listen to them yourself. To be extra careful, I checked the many UK plane-spotting web sites. (The country that invented train-spotting apparently has an active plane-spotting community as well!) I can't find anything about scanners being illegal. In fact, almost every UK site provides a list of ATC frequencies. So Chip, if you know of a site that says otherwise, I would really like to know. I'm not being argumentative, I just want to avoid legal problems.
However, I am going to the UK in 3 weeks and I was planning to take my scanner. LiveATC doesn't have any British sites because, according to their forum, it is illegal to retransmit ATC communications. But they said it is perfectly legal to listen to them yourself. To be extra careful, I checked the many UK plane-spotting web sites. (The country that invented train-spotting apparently has an active plane-spotting community as well!) I can't find anything about scanners being illegal. In fact, almost every UK site provides a list of ATC frequencies. So Chip, if you know of a site that says otherwise, I would really like to know. I'm not being argumentative, I just want to avoid legal problems.
indy2001,
The chances of you having trouble using a scanner for spotting are extremely remote.The issue comes if you "make use" of what you hear.I'm not a lawyer,so I wouldn't describe what "making use"of anything you may hear on a scanner might be,but any prosecution of any spotters is just not going to happen for using a radio to listen to the ATC at airports.
The chances of you having trouble using a scanner for spotting are extremely remote.The issue comes if you "make use" of what you hear.I'm not a lawyer,so I wouldn't describe what "making use"of anything you may hear on a scanner might be,but any prosecution of any spotters is just not going to happen for using a radio to listen to the ATC at airports.