Yes it does seem that if it worked it would pick up all the conversations that were going on alll around which would end up being a bunch of jumbled mess. It would kind of be like when more than one radio station is coming in at the same frequency. I remember once there were two radio stations here battling for the same frequency. One was supposed to go off the air, but the owners rebelled and kept theirs on too. In some parts of town people were picking up one station, in other parts the other station was coming in, and in lots of places both were coming in resulting in a big jumbled mess of noise. Also, it seems that if something like this worked law enforcement would have already jumped on it so they could listen in on people. The government would like it too. I will try and see if I can borrow my fathers to see what it does. I don't think his is the one they show on TV.