Bill,
BC>Can anyone help.  I'm new to this echo and I am wondering if differnt
BC>frequencies are used in different countrys.  I know the MArine and 
ircraft
BC>the same worldwide.
        Yeah, it differs throughout the world.  Here in the Western
        Hemisphere, we use 29.660 to 54 MHz, as our VHF-Lo band.  In
        Europe, your VHF-Lo is from 66 - 88 MHz.  It seems like your
        VHF-Hi (136 - 174 MHz) and UHF-Lo/Hi (400 - 512 MHz) are pretty
        much the same as ours although you might have different services
        there.
        Our allocations are not cut and dried like yours seems to be.
        Roughly our VHF-Lo is used by our Armed Forces, the various
        State Police Depts, Fire Departments, Road Departments, some
        medical, and the Federal Gov't along with various private
        businesses.  I need to do some checking to provide exact
        breakdowns.  VHF-Lo is used here for longer distance
        communications such as a big township, state police, American
        Indian Reservations, and so on which cover bigger areas.
        VHF-Hi and especially UHF-Lo/Hi are for more local concerns.
        Regional state police dispatchers and local police/fire/medical
        uses the 154 - 156 MHz and the 159 - 160 MHz areas.  In the UHF
        and 800 MHz area, you find your big city police, fire, and
        medical departments.  Like I receive Pittsburgh Police and
        Fire in the 453 MHz area and Pittsburgh Medical in the 462 - 463
        MHz area.
        I know in your part of the world, you do use the 30 - 54 MHz
        bands but they seem to be mostly government and military.  I
        have a 1989 list of some UK freqs in the 29 - 88 MHz band.
BC>Also can anyone tell me the legal position of scanners in various countrys
BC>including the UK
        Well, in our country, you cannot divulge what you hear to a
        third party, use a scanner to help commit a crime, or profit
        from what you hear.  A third party is a person who you tell what
        you heard without him or her being with you.  Very rarely these
        laws are enforced unless you use them to commit crimes or
        otherwise be a nuisance.  We cannot listen to cellular phones
        over here in the U.S. either so almost all scanners have the 824
        - 849 and 869 - 894 MHz segments locked out.  Some scanners can
        be modified to receive them.  Again, these are virtually
        unenforceable, they exist only to make it look good to the
        cellphone companies so they can claim "privacy." The cellphone
        bands used to cover our UHF-TV channels 70 - 83 so when they
        first came out, I could have used my aunt's 1963 RCA Vistacolor
        TV to receive them.  B-)
BC>I am a taxi driver in Barrow In furness in England and our frequencies are 
a
BC>follows.
        Our taxis use the 152 MHz for base and 157 MHz for mobiles.  I
        think they are duplex or semi-duplex.
BC>Occasionally especially on hot sunny days we pick up interference from 
other
BC>users of these frequencies.  I think one is in 
Lancaster/Morecambe/Blackpool
BC>area and the other is in Liverpool or North wales.
        That happens.  I was in the Canton/Akron area of Ohio on my way
        home to the Pittsburgh area from my high school buddy's house
        and I managed to pick up our local (Moon Township) police om
        460.050 MHz al the way in Canton, OH whic is roughly 100 miles
        away or so.  It was a hot and muggy night, resulting for a day
        that soared to the mid to high 90's (Fahrenheit).  Probably what
        you and I have experienced was a temperature inversion that can
        affect VHF/UHF signals and send them hundreds of miles away.
Chuck, just sharing some ideas and experiences in scanning....
DE KA3WRW
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 * SLMR 2.0 * CLINTON = Compulsive Liar Is Nation's Top Official Now.
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