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World's Most Advanced Portable TV
Eric Schlaepfer writes "Here's another great toy for your wish list! ICOM manufactures the highly advanced IC-R3 portable scanner/television set. Besides picking up radio stations in the frequency range of 0.495-2450MHz, the IC-R3 also receives regular television signals, amateur television, and wireless security camera signals."
I know someone who has one, had it for a couple of years now and built a helicopter that had a network cam attached to it so he could fly it around and checkout the video feed from it. Very cool hack. If you want to get one with cellular unblocked check out this site.. http://www.radioworld.ca/swscan/swsc.php All though not many people are still using analog cellphones.
It's also illegal to listen in on cordless phones.
I'm a long-time HAM, and I also have one of the old scanners that gets cellular (old Radio Shack model), and many can be modified to receive cellular signals (though this is illegal... do a google for scanner mods and you'll see how easy it is).
The Cordless phone prohibition came later... I can't recall the year, but a hue-and-cry came about from people scanning the old 49.x mHz cordless phones. Naturally, the newer 900 mhz and 2.4ghz models with spread-spectrum require a bit more technical expertise than the old turn-on-the-scanner-and-listen routine. Even the Donald-Duck-sounding "scrambled" ones used a simple frequency inversion routine that you could easily decode (probably a DMCA violation these days).
The trunking radio systems put a brief dent in the scanning scene, but you can even get scanners to track those now.
Years ago, a buddy of mine lived in an apartment, and had an enormous dipole tacked up in the attic of his building, tuned specifically to the 49.x band... got every cordless phone for blocks. It was a rough neighborhood, so he sometimes got to hear the drug dealers doing business, and the ex-cons talking to their parole officers. I suppose that's the lazy man's way to get to know who your neighbors are BEFORE you invite them over for a neighborhood BBQ. However, before you run out and set up a similar rig, I can tell you that most people's conversations are relentlessly boring. Nosy, boring, and illegal... hardly worth it.
Even if a man chops off your hand with a sword, you still have two nice, sharp bones to stick in his eyes.
I had one also. I sold it on the internet a long time ago. It does eat batteries and it does have weak reception. I could unplug the antenna from my TV and still get a better picture than the R-3 with the antenna plugged in, on the same channel. I expected MUCH better reception for the huge chunk of cash I paid. I think I paid over $600 for all of the gadgets and goodies.
:(
I also used to have a no gap (cell) wide band scanning receiver. Same deal. If it doesn't work, what's the point?
How much do you have to pay to get a decent radio? The Icom R-8500 is about $1500 without any toys. I'd probably buy one if I knew there was something cool to listen to here. I don't really think there is though.