My Top 5 Most Useful Spy Gadgets
(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)Here’s a collection of my top 5 useful spy gadgets that every security enthusiast or specialist should have in their kit.
The humble UHF Bug should be in any investigator’s kit. A bug will typically allow you to listen to conversations and other audio signals remotely. A UHF bug uses UHF signals rather than VHF signals, where the former requires a radio scanner to receive, and the latter can be received on a standard FM radio. Therefore a UHF bug is more difficult for others to listen to by accident compared to a VHF bug.
A Radio Scanner is a definite must for all surveillance specialists. A good quality radio scanner will allow you to receive radio signals up to 1GHz, sometimes higher if you pay more. With a radio scanner, you can intercept VHF bug transmissions, UHF bug transmissions, TV broadcasts, CB radio transmissions, public radio transmissions, and more.
Radio scanners are sophisticated radio receivers, and most can receive both AM and FM signals. Some variations (like the ICOM R3) are able to receive video broadcasts, but I have yet to find one that performs well when it comes to battery life. Sadly radio scanners are no longer able to intercept mobile phones, as GSM transmissions now use digital rather than analogue signals. Digital GSM interceptors exist, but only to government officials at a cost of several hundred thousand pounds.
GSM Transmitters have become the new infinity devices. Years ago, you could buy a device that would connect to a standard wired telephone line, and would silently answer your calls if you called it from anywhere in the world. The word infinity refers to the distance from which you can listen in, compared to a standard bug with a transmission range of up to 500 metres.
A GSM transmitter exploits the mobile phone networks to allow you to listen to a target remotely. GSM transmitters use mobile phone technology and therefore can be concealed into very small devices to listen to a target. Some variations of GSM transmitters can call you when it detects any background audio noise!
Surveillance cameras have come a long way in the last 10 years, and we now have digital recording CCTV systems that can record weeks of footage at super high resolution. For some operations, you really do not want to spend hours trawling through footage to find something of interest. So using a Motion Detecting Video Camera will allow you to record only segments of material that interest you. You could potentially use other stimuli to trigger a recording system too, such as breaking a window, breaking door or window contacts, breaking a beam of light, etc.
If you’re not able to get close enough to a subject to install a bug, or you need to improvise a way to listen to a subject, then you can use a Directional Listening Device. A directional listening device (parabolic dishes fit in this area too) will allow you to focus a sensitive microphone and amplifier at a target to listen to conversations. This can be done remotely without getting too close to the target where you blow your cover. Law enforcement officials have the money and technology to have long distance microphones that can reach a few hundred metres!
I consider all of these gadgets to be essential items for any surveillance kit, and all of these can be used to achieve most surveillance tasks.
