The Great Detector Hoax
... There's a TV on at no. 5 and they're watching Columbo
Detection Propaganda
TV Detection - be afraid, be very afraid... and then think about it for a moment.
Did it ever work, back when chips were valves, and TVs were small, wooden objects with a screen the size of 20p piece? Maybe. But now, not a chance. There is way too much radio interference, and TVs operate much less "noisily" and with much less power. Not to mention the Internet. No interference noise from an Internet connection, you see.
Well, we know that Detectors are not in routine use - even though they would be very useful, if they worked effectively. We also know that Detector evidence has NEVER been used in a Court case.
The BBC themselves rarely refer to them these days. Why would that be? Surely they must be a better deterent to evasion than a few made up threats in a letter?
The mystery gets deeper with the release of details from a Warrant application that hints at an optical system, rather than radio-based as all of the historic references suggest.
Or perhaps the "optical system" in question is merely TVL staff using their eyes to see flickering lights. Have they never heard of a TV simulator being used for home security?
If they worked, we would be the first to applaud their use. What better than to have the van drive down the street and straight past those of us who do not watch or record TV broadcasts, never stopping, even to say: "Sign here, just to say I called". What could be better than that?
The problem is that it's all a hoax, and in carrying out such a hoax, TVL and its staff may well make errors (like seeing a TV simulator) that would expose it, once and for all. So it's not used, not even a pretence.
