We're conflating scanners and amateur radio here - so I'm just trying to pull that apart a bit: The cool thing about amateur radio IMO isn't that it might give

We're conflating scanners and amateur radio here - so I'm just trying to pull that apart a bit: The cool thing about amateur radio IMO isn't that it might give one the ability to intercept communications (even though the topic here is scanners (rx only)), but rather give one the ability to legally use a whole bunch of spectrum (tx & rx). Combine this with other technology - phones, software etc and it becomes a very powerful tool for civilian innovation.