To the best of my knowledge the TV gestapo has a grand total of 2 actual detector vans in the entire country. The rest are all dummies. They also can't 'detect' tv usage if it's via a PC in most cases.

They work mainly by looking for leakage from the TV flyback signal, at the horizontal line frequency of 15.7 kHz. Newer equipment also looks for TV tuner local oscillator leakage, but this is less easy to detect.

Most of the time, they simply work on the basis of bothering people who live at an address where there is no license registered, on the basis that everyone must obviously have a TV, and if there is no record of a license being assigned to your house, you're cheating them. Various friends of mine who don't own, and have never owned any form of TV, video, etc (yes, there are still a few), STILL get letters quite regularly complaining that they haven't paid for a license.

pca