Listening to any of these transmissions is illegal.
I seriously cannot justify that. Their broadcasting on the commerical broadcasting bands is illegal !
1. As for the cordless telephone - 271 KHz isn't all that far above Radio 4 LW. This is the major radio service for the UK. There is a plan for Radio 4 in the event of a national emergency that they will broadcast similar to the Emergency Broadcast System in the US. Hence, the coverage is still on LW rather than MW. LW is available on any reasonable radio from local shops for less than a tenner.
2. The baby monitor - reception within the SW band that 14MHz falls in is legal. Look in argos catalouge (presuming you live in the UK) and you'll find a few Shortwave radios. The broadcasts either end of the baby monitor at the time was Radio Sweden and some arabic station which I didn't get the callsign for (due to my very limited arabic language skills
). BBC World Service is also available here.
Don't quote me on this, but you know those little two-way handsets you can get for children - I think they can also be received within this band (around 27MHz) - same as what radio control model transmitters use.
That is not illegal either.
If the service falls within a civil radio band - then reception is not illegal. If you listen to police on VHF or UHF, aeronautical transmissions on Airband and etc. - that is illegal - however you are allowed to listen to Citizens band (such as private radio operators) transmissions without a license (you need one to transmit when over a certain EIRP - think it is when over 1 watt). Obviously you can listen to commercial radio services also.
Because the two devices in question were broadcasting in commercial/citizens band - the reception wasn't illegal. Listening to the newer bands that Mad Monk said is illegal to my knowledge, as they are outwithin the citizens band.
271KHz could be a harmonic as most of these units are very dirty at close range
Yes, could certainly be. The radio is your standard Sony mini Hi-Fi, with the black loop antenna. This was situated above a piece of furniture - and was very close to the ceiling - next to a window by the way (can get RTE radio from Scotland - but virgin radio reception is cr@p
). From my knowledge, above us the neighbour had their base unit located on a small table just above the antenna - very close together.