"some people would do some minor surgery on their 2m radios so they could tune in to police bands just above 2m"
Probably, but you could also just buy a police scanner from Radio Shack, or even a $10 TV tuner that can be used as an SDR: http://sdr.osmocom.org/trac/wiki/rtl-sdr
In fact I think those cheap Boafeng radios will even transmit on those frequencies. Of course that would be highly illegal.
"fancy digital microwave comms now"
Microwave radios are only really used for point-to-point links, as the shorter wavelengths require line-of-sight.
Probably, but you could also just buy a police scanner from Radio Shack, or even a $10 TV tuner that can be used as an SDR: http://sdr.osmocom.org/trac/wiki/rtl-sdr
In fact I think those cheap Boafeng radios will even transmit on those frequencies. Of course that would be highly illegal.
"fancy digital microwave comms now"
Microwave radios are only really used for point-to-point links, as the shorter wavelengths require line-of-sight.
They are using digital trunking systems (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trunked_radio_system), and encryption in some cases.