Please tell me we're not advocating doing something illegal here on APS.
Thank you.
Depends. The legal status of "desfribing" varies depending on state. It's illegal in most.
Oh, you mean the RDF. Erm, I'm looking into it but it looks like not being technically illegal. It'd be blatantly illegal to listen in or decrypt. Yes, it is illegal to 'decrypt' any communication no matter how poor said encryption is. Sigh. DMCA was written by idiots.
Listening in is generally illegal unless it's in certain bands, and not encrypted in the least. As police move to digital trunking, less and less police frequencies may be publicly listened to. Police scanners of yore will start dying out, except in very rural areas. Expect a lawsuit sooner or later on that, but not from anyone here.
RDF is generally legal unless it is specifically designated as being illegal by function or frequency. As a pilot I'm sure you are very glad this is the case in case GPS dies, as that's how planes found airports. Mind you, to qualify as RDF, the device has to be entirely passive and be incapable of intercepting/decoding the data. It can basically only gauge signal strength and direction.
IANAL, and I am still looking up the laws. Fed laws look ok, but regulation is more complicated. I played FCC in the past, but under a different set of rules.
Oh, one loophole, feds could consider it terrorism. That's not as big of a deal as you'd think. Lot of stuff can be considered terrorism or related, including technically most photography not taking place entirely on private property. Anyone considering photographing in a public setting should become very familiar with terrorism laws. There's "photographers rights" printouts one should definitely keep handy, plus the number of a lawyer.