"Bob Ackley -> Ross Sauer"  wrote in
news:31529$POL_INC{at}JamNNTPd:

 RS>> I was just reading about a satellite that was recently launched,
 RS>> basically it's an upgraded version of the ones already up there
 BA>   that RS> listen to communications, like cell phones.

 RS>> Seeing as I don't have a cell phone, (don't need or want one
 BA>   right RS> now,) looks like I don't have to worry. 

 BA> Forty years ago the US military maintained radio intercept sites all
 BA> over the planet.  Around that time a method of 'broadband' recording
 BA> was developed and mounted in reconnaissance aircraft.  Those
 BA> 'broadband' recordings were then transcribed at ground installations
 BA> in the US - said ground stations operated just
 BA> like the overseas sites did.  Those overseas sites began to be shut
 BA> down in the 1980s.  I presume the 'broadband' technology was extended
 BA> to use satellites rather
 BA> than reconnaissance aircraft.

I read somewhere, that the move from aircraft to satellites was prompted
mostly by the Soviets shooting down KAL flight 007, since there had been a
elctronic snooping aircraft in the area also.

--- Xnews/5.04.25