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Why radio receivers won’t tune 800-900 MHz

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Re: Why radio receivers won’t tune 800-900 MHz

#61

Post by JKCalhoun »

ed25519FUUU wrote: post #16
breput wrote: post #10

I had (and probably still have) a Radio Shack Pro-2006 scanner from the late 80's. Even pre-Internet, instructions on how to bypass the cellular band block were easily found on Fidonet and local BBSes, and all it involved was removing a single diode. https://www.wentztech.com/radio/Equipment/Pro2006/pro2006mod... It was really a golden time for snoop...er..listening to cellular phones because they were so enormously…

Stories please!

When analog TV's with UHF were still a thing, I could rotate the UHF dial all the way to the top of the band and just begin to hear the unencrypted analog cell phones. Crazy.

Re: Why radio receivers won’t tune 800-900 MHz

#62

Post by nullc »

layoutIfNeeded wrote: post #9
nullc wrote: post #5

Back when analog cell phones were still a thing on the few scanners you couldn't make a trivial modification to enable receiving the cellular frequencies (e.g. switch them into export mode) you could often just tune into some harmonic. I wonder if truckers still call a lot of phone sex?

In the age of camgirls? I’d doubt it.

Well I really hope people aren't using video erotica while driving!

Re: Why radio receivers won’t tune 800-900 MHz

#63

Post by sandworm101 »

nullc wrote: post #62
layoutIfNeeded wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the age of camgirls? I’d doubt it.

Well I really hope people aren't using video erotica while driving!

I was in a courtroom once. the case head of us involved a guy who crashed a van while watching "american pie 2" on a then-illegal in-car entertainment system. Judge's first question: Which scene?

Re: Why radio receivers won’t tune 800-900 MHz

#64

Post by rsync »

jcrawfordor wrote: post #49
rsync wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do I recognize your name ? There's some hazy link here between "JB Crawford" and Kuro5hin and ... ? Or is that just a coincidence / faulty link in my memory ?

I think I did use Kuro5hin for a time, but if you have seen my writing elsewhere it is most likely LWN or some miscellaneous technical training vendors, both of which I contributed to for a while before my life got a little crazy. I'm actually currently getting back into freelance writing, so while I have fifteen minutes of fame... my first passion before technology was writing and teaching, and I write and develop t…

OK, now I remember:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11611571

It was Michael Crawford.

JohnCompanies, the first VPS provider, and the incubator of what eventually became rsync.net, did all of the original advertising on kuro5hin.org. I actually grew the company a fair amount just on the basis of those small ads on k5.

While I was never an active member of the community there I had enough random exposure to it to absorb a little bit of what went on there...

Sorry for the noise :)

Re: Why radio receivers won’t tune 800-900 MHz

#65

Post by jcrawfordor »

rsync wrote: post #64
jcrawfordor wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think I did use Kuro5hin for a time, but if you have seen my writing elsewhere it is most likely LWN or some miscellaneous technical training vendors, both of which I contributed to for a while before my life got a little crazy. I'm actually currently getting back into freelance writing, so while I have fifteen minutes of fame... my first passion before technology was writing and teaching, and I write and develop t…

OK, now I remember: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11611571 It was Michael Crawford. JohnCompanies, the first VPS provider, and the incubator of what eventually became rsync.net, did all of the original advertising on kuro5hin.org. I actually grew the company a fair amount just on the basis of those small ads on k5. While I was never an active member of the community there I had enough random exposure to it to…

At one point when funemployed and living in a better DC market I considered trying to start a VPS operation but decided against it since the market is so hypercompetitive. I guess I'd have been in good company. Now that I live in the forsaken desert I have to ship my hardware to a different state to get a decent colo rate, so that's right out.

Re: Why radio receivers won’t tune 800-900 MHz

#67

Post by jcrawfordor »

fortran77 wrote: post #57
jcrawfordor wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think much of the scanning crowd has either 1) abandoned interest in digital trunking systems or 2) switched to SDRs, which is an unfortunate state of affairs as the state-of-the-art in SDR trunking decoders is actually pretty bad.

You'd be wrong if you think that. We're all using Uniden SD200 See: https://www.bearcatwarehouse.com/Trunking

Good to know, although I fear I may find my wallet $700 lighter.

Re: Why radio receivers won’t tune 800-900 MHz

#68

Post by dhosek »

jcrawfordor wrote: post #27

Hi all, I am the author. I 1) have no idea how this made it to the top position, 2) now feel much guiltier about posting so infrequently, 3) apologize for the design of my blog being almost actively hostile to users, but then maybe that was the point?

I love the footer text:

    This website is begrudgingly generated by the use of software. Letters to the
    editor are welcome via facsimile to +1 (505) 926-5492 or mail to 609 Gold Ave
    SW, Suite 1D, Albuquerque, NM 87102. Opinions stated here are somewhat
    necessarily those of Seventh Standard, LLC, in that the author is the sole
    partner and does not wish to lead dual lives.

Re: Why radio receivers won’t tune 800-900 MHz

#69

Post by rachelbythebay »

jcims wrote: post #52
jcrawfordor wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think much of the scanning crowd has either 1) abandoned interest in digital trunking systems or 2) switched to SDRs, which is an unfortunate state of affairs as the state-of-the-art in SDR trunking decoders is actually pretty bad.

I went hogwild with this at the beginning of the RTLSDR era of SDR. I just started picking it back up after getting some better hardware and was kind of bummed at how little the quality of the voice decoding has progressed despite what appears to be a ton of energy invested. If I recall correctly some of it is licensed and/or patented and people are just having to reverse engineer the protocols. I’d pay for a commerc…

You can buy the DVSI codec wrapped up in a USB stick from NW Digital Radio. They call it the "ThumbDV". It looks like a serial port to your machine, and you can just poke it with the right commands and it'll turn raw codec data into raw audio data (and vice-versa).

I used it for decoding the AMBE+2 stuff on newer P25 systems. It wasn't great but it did mean I didn't run afoul of any patent issues if I wanted to sell the system to someone else. OP25 is great but I didn't want to take the risk.

Re: Why radio receivers won’t tune 800-900 MHz

#70

Post by nobody9999 »

rsync wrote: post #64
jcrawfordor wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think I did use Kuro5hin for a time, but if you have seen my writing elsewhere it is most likely LWN or some miscellaneous technical training vendors, both of which I contributed to for a while before my life got a little crazy. I'm actually currently getting back into freelance writing, so while I have fifteen minutes of fame... my first passion before technology was writing and teaching, and I write and develop t…

OK, now I remember: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11611571 It was Michael Crawford. JohnCompanies, the first VPS provider, and the incubator of what eventually became rsync.net, did all of the original advertising on kuro5hin.org. I actually grew the company a fair amount just on the basis of those small ads on k5. While I was never an active member of the community there I had enough random exposure to it to…

Yes. Michael David Crawford[0]. RIP MDC[1].

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19489570

[1] https://static1.squarespace.com/static/51d72b41e4b0f798b53a3...

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