From: "Chet McWhorter Sr" <robertthebruce [at] naturecoast [dot] net

Mobile (Cell) phones send signals that can be tracked, even when they're on standby, to within 2.5 metres of their location!

I know they poll intermittently to detect the nearest tower. Doesn't take any battery power to go on line for 10 milliseconds then shut off and that is invisible to the user. This also pinpoints your position relative to other towers. As you leave an area covered by certain towers you will enter areas or cells covered by other towers and they need to know you are there.

Locating systems on cars/truck & other vehicles such as "On Star" also work the same way using satellites by triangulation. The capabilities of satellite systems stagger the imagination.

When one considers that a cell phone on standby has to "tell" the cell that it's in, that it is there, and waiting for an incoming call, coupled with the capability for two or more cell sites to triangulate on a ESN (Electronic Serial Number) to determine bearing and range and it's no surprise that a very good position can be determined for either an active cell phone or one that's "on hook" or standby. Of equal interest is that the avid electronics hobbyist with a modest investment in off-the-shelf Motorola Communications Test and Diagnostic equipment can easily determine what cell phones are in his immediate area, hit them with a coded command string which will activate them into the "off-hook" or transmit condition and convert them to an "open mike" and, depending on the model, deactivate the display so the owner cannot tell that he is live and on the air. AND monitor the transmit audio to listen in on any conversations in the immediate area of the cell phone so activated.

[ NOTE: I was trained, years ago, at Vint Hill Farms, Warrenton, Virginia, by the U. S. Army Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM) to do all of the above, and much more, to various phone and radio systems before the advent of cell phones. I could super-impose an RF signal on the telephone line that would "jump" or "short" out the hook switch on the phone effectively creating an off-hook condition and all conversations in the vicinity of the 'phone could be monitored without even the owner/local person knowing that they were being monitored. This was just one of the many disciplines taught to me in communications security and intercept by those clever folks. Chet McWhorter Sr. ]

Fun stuff huh? Don't you just love this bold new age of electronics? c u later, [ SNIP ]......