Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Choosing the right spy gear

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Choosing the right Spy Gear

More choices for spy gear include hidden voice recorders and phone recorders . Say for example you want to know whats being said in a car or a room when you are not there. You need a hidden voice recorder. These are usually small ( small about the size of a Bic cigarette lighter) and battery operated. They also have VOX or VAS or VAC or VOR and several other names. All of them stand for Voice activated recording. ( also known as voice operated recording). All mini recorders and hidden recorders have a limited battery life. So you can place it in a vehicle and it will record only when sound is heard, like voice or radio or road noise, but the batteries will only last up to 8 hours ( approx average battery life) Then they will stop recording. You can then retrieve them and listen to the recorded information. This may also be illegal in your area so you should check before you try it. The information you get can can be used for several purposes if you get to hear one side of a phone call recorded, you may get some times and dates and locations of where the subject will be. You may also hear conversations between the subject and a passenger. Again this is most likely against the law where you live. This information can be used to aid a Private investigator in finding the subject. It can be extremely useful in domestic cases where the husband or wife needs to locate where their spouse is going. Once you determine the subjects location you can arrive ahead of them and begin surveillance. You will save money if you have hired a private investigator as you will be able to tell them exactly where the subject will be and when. Other uses for voice recorders are in rooms where you know the subject will be. This is also a great place for using recorders that have an AC adapter they can be plugged in and may record as much as 200 hours of voice activated recording.

Phone recorders
are very similar. They connect to the phone line between the wall and the phone. Since they are connect directly to the line they record both sides of the conversation and all phones connect to that number in that location. Phone line recorders can be used covertly or overtly. The only type of phone lines that CANNOT be recorded are DSL or VOIP style digital Lines. If your phone goes through a PC or you have high speed Internet on your phone line be sure to check with the seller as to the compatibility of the device for your type of phone line. You shouls alwas check into the legal aspect of any recording Before You do It.

More to come

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Choosing The Right Spy Gear

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Choosing the Right Spy Gear

When you are ready to take the next step in choosing your spy gear you should take into account what, where, when and how often you are going to use it. Spy Gear encompasses a very large amount of equipment.

Your first decision should be what information do you want to obtain. IE: If you want to know where someone has been in a car do you follow them? Do you use a live GPS Tracker? Do you Hire a PI? Theses are difficult questions for most of us. If you work all day and expect a spouse of infidelity, first and foremost how much do you want to know? Do you you just need proof to leave them? Do you have to catch them in the act? No matter what you suspicions you need proof. So how do you go about it?

First things first. Are you sure you want to find out? Are you REALLY sure? OK This will take some time its not fast and its not easy. If you get any information and you immediately throw it in their face you have wasted your money, time and advice and they will never let you get any other information.



Is this happening at work or at another location (like a hotel or other persons house) If so do you know where? If yes you can move on to video proof, if no you need to find out where. This can be accomplished by using a GPS tracker. It is placed in his or her vehicle and then removed several days later. You will then know the whereabouts of that vehicle 24 hours a day for the last few days. If you get lucky you will find a location that they stop at regularly that you do not recognize. Take your car out and drive by the address find out what they are and keep notes. You should have a complete record of stops so Home will be there work too and the store the coffee shop and so on, you are looking for somewhere that has no connection to the everyday life of the person. If for example they say they bowl on Tuesdays then the car should be at the Bowling Alley. If the cars is not there but in front of an unfamiliar house, is this proof? NO. Get the name from the mail box and look it up in the phone book. Do you know this person? Is it a friend of theirs that maybe they gave a ride to? When trying to find out information about a person you must give them the benefit of the doubt until you can absolutely positivly prove it.

More to come

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

CCD Cameras and CMOS Cameras

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CCD and CMOS cameras.

CCD Charged Coupled Device. A sensor that collects light and turns it into an electrical signal. As compared to CMOS sensors, it has greater sensitivity to light, better tonal range, and less noise which provides superior quality. CCD will hold onto the high-end CCTV market for some time to come. For imaging devices, a self-scanning semiconductor array that utilizes MOS technology, surface storage, and information transfer by shift register techniques.

CMOS Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor. A semiconductor fabrication technology that achieves low power dissipation. These types of devices are used in digital camera imaging sensors and consume less energy than other imaging devices, are inexpensive, but provide lower image quality compared to CCD sensors.

CCD cameras are best used for lower light situations or when a higher detail camera is required. IE: A Cash register camera needs to be a higher resolution camera because it needs the details to see where the money goes either in the cash register or in the pocket. Cameras that are installed to get an ID or face shot should also be CCD based.

CMOS cameras are used for a large number of items. They are less expensive than CCD cameras and are acceptable for many uses. Nanny Cameras and back up cameras are good examples. Most times nanny cameras will be in an area where there is enough light and you really do not need the higher detail to see that the child care is good enough or not.

You should always check the area where you want to put a camera at several times during the day to see how the lighting conditions change.

Color VS Black and White Cameras

Color Hidden Cameras are easier to watch and are best for Identifying people. IE: You can say the subject had a brown shirt and blue pants and a red car.

Black and white cameras are better for low light areas where you already know who or what you are watching.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Installing Your Own Security Camera System part 2

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Installing your own security camera system part two

So now you will need to decide how best to ID the person or persons breaking in. At least one good close up shot will need to be obtained. If you have four videos of the subject but none that show their face clearly you will have no proof that it was them.

We will need to set up a camera system that takes advantage of the local layout. An example of this is placing a camera where someone has to walk in order to enter. Like a gate, if a fence is high enough or pointed enough to keep people out that means that they will enter via the gate. So in that area you will need an ID camera, one that is close enough to get a clear face shot of the person, so there is no doubt that it is them, but far enough away so it cant be tampered with. This ID camera needs to be placed in such a way that people have to walk towards it in order to enter the building, yard, secure area.

Now again back to our story here is the subject entering, and a close up of his face, entering the door walking down the hallway and then here the subject is with your pet iguana under their arm, walking out of your house.

Now we know for sure that there is no way that the subject can say It was not me or I did not go there or touch that iguana.


Setting up the electronics on a complete video system, is usually easy as newer systems are plug and play and Internet ready. The plug and ply system include some instructions but will require that you think a little. make sure that you are using indoor cameras indoor and outdoor cameras outdoors. Check the entire video system out before installing IE: Connect all the cables and all the cameras to make sure that everything is working. There is nothing worse than pulling cable through the basement or attic and fining out you have a bad cable. You should also allow the system to run for a few days. An Internet ready camera system should be connected to your network at this time as well to get all the programming done. Once installed at the location you may not have an opportunity to contact help or access the Internet for set up instructions.


There are just a few types of complete video systems:

PC based video recorders
PC based are PC desktop computers that have been built or modified to preform as a digital video recorder.

Digital video recorders (DVR)

Are free standing dvrs that are designed to work as video recorders they are available in 4 camera 8 camera and 16 camera units. Their are some 9 and 15 channel units as well. The DVR is the brain of the system, it does all the recording and storing of the video. A dvr set up for Internet viewing can be connected to from anywhere that you can connect to the Internet.

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Installing Your Own Security Camera System

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Installing Your Own Security Camera System. Part one

You can install a security camera system yourself without paying an installer. This is the case in most situations, however some cctv cameras and spy cameras require an electrician to be completed.



Starting out we will assume that you have or are considering the purchase of a complete security camera system. The system should include cameras, DVR or similar recording device, wires / cables and power supplies. In some cases systems will come with monitors. Most times you will be able to use a TV to view the live and recorded images if your complete system does not include a monitor.

First a little theory on camera placement. You can try to cover every area with a security camera but this can become expensive. In some cases IE: Business and Banks will need to cover as much area as possible. Your house on the other hand may not need as much coverage. This , of course, depends on the problems you are having or anticipating.

CCTV Cameras are best placed where they can tell a story of the actions recorded. If you have a camera on the front door you will have video of a subject entering and leaving. That's not much help in say a laundry mat but at your house its enough to say they were there and broke in.

There are no universal placements for cameras, each situation will be different. Many business will need the best camera coverage on the cash register. Some business will need to have better coverage on the door or parking lot. Every business is different and needs a different security camera set up.

Probably the most important camera are the egress ones. These should be able to get a clear picture of the subject entering and leaving. So we have a number of doors, we will say two for this example, front and back. Now back to the story line. If you have a camera on the front door and one in the entrance way inside no one will be able to enter or leave without being on at least one camera so the story starts with the subject on the outside camera walking in and away from the camera then we have the subject entering the door and walking towards the inside camera.





Now to continue the story we need to assume that any one breaking in is going to go ... where?


Well assume you are breaking where do you keep valuables? I would go to the bedrooms first for jewelery and money. So your next camera might go in a bedroom hallway or stairs going up to the rooms. Whether you put a camera in the bedroom is up to you and may or may not be legal.


So our story goes we have video that shows this break in and the subject entering the house then see them walk inside then up the stairs and into the bedroom. Then reverse it and see them come out of the bedroom holding what ever they found to steal then down the stairs then exiting the door and the outside camera sees them come out. This makes it very difficult to deny that they broke in and gives you several chances to get a clear face shot ( for Identification) We will cover more of that in Part two.

This is the end of part one.

Friday, May 2, 2008

GPS Tracking Device

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A GPS Tracking Device is used to track a specific object. GPS units can be broken down into to general categories.

Active GPS ( Better known as Live GPS or Real time GPS ) is a device that is either battery powered or vehicle powered. The device is placed on a vehicle and then awaits a signal from the GPS satellite's. It then obtains a position. The owner of the live GPS then logs into the unit via an Internet site. The the Internet site connects to the GPS unit via cell phone signal and obtains the location information. It is then converted to viewable data and then displayed on a map for the owner to locate where the vehicle is. All Live GPS trackers have a monthly fee to cover the cost of the air time used and the website processing fees. These monthly fees are based on the number of times the GPS unit is located ( sometimes called hits or pings or locates) some have a fee that allows for unlimited access to the live gps tracking system for the month. Others have a fee schedule based on the number of pings.

There are live mini gps trackers that are battery operated and some that require power from the vehicle. The vehicle powered Trackers usually have more features and cost less money as they have no restrictions on the life of a battery. Micro or Mini Gps Trackers are commonly installed under the dash or hidden in the interior of the vehicle.

Battery operated GPS trackers have many of the same features but last, sometimes, only a few days. They are motion activated and keep a certain amount of history stored for retrieval when the gps device is located.

You should inquire about the time delay on GPS live tracking as well. Some can take as long a 5 minutes to send a response. Some have an instant response.

Connect A Camera To My TV

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Most mini spy cams and wireless cameras can connect directly to your TV. TVS vary so its important that you check to see whether your TV has RCA style inputs. These are usually red, white, yellow. The yellow most times is "video in" the white and red and usually audio inputs there are some TVs that have both inputs and outputs that look exactly the same but are marked as to their use.

Cameras , or in the case of wireless cameras, the receivers, both have an out put cable this is usually yellow and should be plugged directly into your TV "video inputs to view the picture from your mini camera. Many TVs will need to be set to a certain channel as well. This is "L1" L2" ( stands for line 1 and line 2) The RCA style plugs on the back of the the TV are considered line level inputs. Some TVs have this line in marked as "AUX" or "Game In" as well. Changing to these channel is automatic on some TVS but most likely you will need to use the channel button on the front of the TV or the TV remote (Not your cable or satellite remote) The original remote that came with the TV. Once you have set the Line in or AUX channel you should see the picture, directly from the camera or the receiver if the camera is wireless.

You can also use a standard VCR to record your spy camera or wireless camera. The set up is similar to the TV except that you will need to connect the spy camera to the input on the VCR instead. The VCR should be connected to your TV already or you will need to connect it.

Connecting your VCR to your TV is usually done with a 75 ohm cable ( Like cable TV Cable) this cable (about 3 feet long) is connected to antenna "IN" on your TV and "OUT TO TV" on your VCR. You then need to determine what channel your VCR plays on ( usually channel 3-4) . Then you connect your security camera to the VCR much the same way you connect directly to the TV. Then with the VCR on and the Input channel set on the VCR and the TV set to the VCR channel you should see a picture form the security camera.

Once you have the picture you use a standard HS tape to record the images. VCRs can be programmed to record at a specific time and can run for several hours. This is great for watching your car at night or see who wanders through your yard when you are not home.