Wireless video using a scanner

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jonny290

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you'll need an icom r3, r7000 or something else that can demodulate a ~4 mhz wide signal. Few receivers have front ends built to receive video.
 

Pyr8

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jonny290 said:
you'll need an icom r3, r7000 or something else that can demodulate a ~4 mhz wide signal. Few receivers have front ends built to receive video.

Any idea if it is possible to do this with a Dtap/data slicer and ether a Uniden BCT15 and or a 996?
 

zz0468

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Pyr8 said:
I was wondering if anyone has a few good links on how too's for monitoring wireless video feeds...ether HAM based or other.

You need to be more specific in what you want to see. Hams use several video modes... there's slow scan tv on the HF bands, NTSC video on UHF and microwave frequencies... both FM and AM modulated. All of the above would require different equipment to see - and a scanner ain't good for any of it.

Wireless video feeds? You mean like 802.11? That might be hard to do. Some of the analog part 15 video toys might be easier, but the range would be rather limited. What specifically are you looking for?
 
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Pyr8

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zz0468 said:
You need to be more specific in what you want to see. Hams use several video modes... there's slow scan tv on the HF bands, NTSC video on UHF and microwave frequencies... both FM and AM modulated. All of the above would require different equipment to see - and a scanner ain't good for any of it.

Wireless video feeds? You mean like 802.11? That might be hard to do. Some of the analog part 15 video toys might be easier, but the range would be rather limited. What specifically are you looking for?

802.11a/b/g is possible but generally speaking, these feeds are encrypted with ether WEP or WPA1 or 2. What i was referring too was more along the lines of the wireless video TX/RX units you see for sale on Ebay for the little spycam setups they sell. Not really interested in X-10 ether. The HAM stuff is more inline with what i had in mind. Basically it would be nice to be able to setup the scanner (If posible) to just do a scan of random freq's and see if it came across any video in the area....it would need to go through some decoder in order to translate the RF to video?!
 

cellblock776

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Pyr8 said:
Is it possible to scan 440 ham video stuff?
I transmit ATV on the frequencies used by cable channels 59 and 60. Simply unplugging your cable from the back of the box, pluggng in a directional antenna and pointing it toward a transmitter being used by a ham would do it if you are in range. Some hams have set up ATV repeaters for good city wide coverage and have regular ATV nets. Many have moved from 440 AM to 900FM video units and some have moved even higher up the spectrum into the microwaves.
A short time with a search engine will get you plenty of info on ATVers and the frequencies they operate on.

After the edit-
Pyr8, The ATV stuff I do is very short range and I mostly use it as a addition to my volunteer public service activities. Take a look at these two pages I put together about my ATV projects...
http://www.geocities.com/sraacke/atv
and
http://www.geocities.com/sraacke/atv2
Also, regarding my warspying hobby check out
 
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zz0468

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It's certainly possible to MONITOR ham TV transmissions. But a scanner is not the receiver to do it with. I'd suggest you google "amateur television" for more information. It's not difficult or particularly expensive - you're just not going to do it with a scanner. Period.
 

Jose_Pointero

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What about the Icom R3? I've considered picking one up, but I hear mixed reports of the usability of its video reception. Anyone have any experience with it?
 

rfmonger

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If you are serious about it, I would suggest getting a dedicated Wireless Video receiver rather than hacking your scanner.
There are a few neat & fairly cheap (compared to a scanner) gadgets available for RX of Wireless Video/Spy Cameras.

You can find these on eBay all day or Google search them.
There are some that can actually record to Smart media cards, as well.
This is great for Hidden Camera WarDriving & I don't think the Icom can do this.

Optoelectronics also sell there "Video Sweeper":
http://optoelectronics.com/videosweeper.htm

However, it seems to be identical to this unit:
http://69.6.206.229/e-commerce-solutions-catalog1.0.3.html

The latter being $200+ *less* than Opto's version.
(it works great too, but the stock antennas are crummy, luckily has SMA jacks)

Also check out this one:
http://www.szkws.com/pvr-js928.asp

Be aware some of these Wireless camera Receiver/ PVR's are poor quality (cheap made in China stuff).
They usually have a near useless internal antenna too (nothing more than a small piece of wire).

For improved RX'ing replace the internal wire antenna, solder in some thin coax, run it out of a small hole & then to a female RF connector of your choice so you can mount the antenna somewhere while you hold the video display, or simply mount the antenna to the side of the unit.
Also, these seem quite susceptible to interference from 802.11 signals & cordless phones.
I found lining inside of one with some foil & & running the antenna externally helped tremendously.

I can only imagine if one connects a Hi-gain 2.4Ghz Yagi type antenna that there'd be a lot to see! 2.4ghz Spy Cams are everywhere these days.
 

Pyr8

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rfmonger said:
If you are serious about it, I would suggest getting a dedicated Wireless Video receiver rather than hacking your scanner.
There are a few neat & fairly cheap (compared to a scanner) gadgets available for RX of Wireless Video/Spy Cameras.

You can find these on eBay all day or Google search them.
There are some that can actually record to Smart media cards, as well.
This is great for Hidden Camera WarDriving & I don't think the Icom can do this.

Optoelectronics also sell there "Video Sweeper":
http://optoelectronics.com/videosweeper.htm

However, it seems to be identical to this unit:
http://69.6.206.229/e-commerce-solutions-catalog1.0.3.html

The latter being $200+ *less* than Opto's version.
(it works great too, but the stock antennas are crummy, luckily has SMA jacks)

Also check out this one:
http://www.szkws.com/pvr-js928.asp

Be aware some of these Wireless camera Receiver/ PVR's are poor quality (cheap made in China stuff).
They usually have a near useless internal antenna too (nothing more than a small piece of wire).

For improved RX'ing replace the internal wire antenna, solder in some thin coax, run it out of a small hole & then to a female RF connector of your choice so you can mount the antenna somewhere while you hold the video display, or simply mount the antenna to the side of the unit.
Also, these seem quite susceptible to interference from 802.11 signals & cordless phones.
I found lining inside of one with some foil & & running the antenna externally helped tremendously.

I can only imagine if one connects a Hi-gain 2.4Ghz Yagi type antenna that there'd be a lot to see! 2.4ghz Spy Cams are everywhere these days.

I was actually thinking of attaching a one of the 2.4ghz spy cam receivers to a 16db WiFi Omni i have (lol) and see what i can see!
 

rfmonger

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WiFi antennas should work fine for the 2.4 Ghz cams.
I tried a cheap 8dB WiFi antenna not too long ago & it worked well.

Keep in mind theres also Video Cam stuff in 900 & 1.xGhz (I think 1.4Ghz) range.
 

mancow

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My favorite 2.4 ghz directional is a 12 turn helical made from tubing, copper stained glass hobby tape and a small metal disc for a reflector. It's directional, has good gain, and accounts for signals of different polarization.
 

JnglMassiv

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I have one of these:
Camera scanner link

It seems to work ~alright~. It takes about 18 seconds to scan the entire range in the highest sensitivity setting (out of 5). Even with this setting, range was about 100 yards max. This means that you wind up driving right past many transmitters without the scanner making a peep. Equally annoying is the lack of control of the actual scanning functions. You can scan (us scanfolk would call this search) up, hold and manually scroll/tune. That's it. Many a time have I gone to grab the thing just after the 4 second* dwell time is up and I can't reverse scan direction to find the hit. I can't skip the nearly dead 1300-2400Mhz band...grrr.

The construction is a bit of a mixed bag. The housing and markings are awfully crummy. The battery cover is a flimsy scrap-looking piece just this side of foil. The graphics are laughable. Me being me, I brought it home and had a couple and cracked it open. Inside are a board and two shielded receiver modules. The receivers each have their own antenna. I'm favorably impressed with the build quality once you get under the hood. I took a couple pics when I had it open I might be able to share.

Still, I've got a number of hits with it. There's quite a few restaurants with a wireless cam over the till. I've seen a bunch of driveways and parking lots. I haven't come across anything too cool, I'm afraid.

*you can select dwell times after the scanner's video squelch opens. 2, 4, or 8 seconds are available. 4 is best because there a a ton of false hits. I'd say at least 100 false hits to every real one. Annoying.
 

zz0468

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mancow said:
My favorite 2.4 ghz directional is a 12 turn helical made from tubing, copper stained glass hobby tape and a small metal disc for a reflector. It's directional, has good gain, and accounts for signals of different polarization.

My favorite is the Andrew HP8... 8 foot spun aluminum reflector, and with those rf absorbent shrouds there's almost NO sidelobes. You can get 'em in almost any color, too! :cool:
 
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rfmonger

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JnglMassiv said:
I have one of these:
Camera scanner link

It seems to work ~alright~. It takes about 18 seconds to scan the entire range in the highest sensitivity setting (out of 5). Even with this setting, range was about 100 yards max. This means that you wind up driving right past many transmitters without the scanner making a peep. Equally annoying is the lack of control of the actual scanning functions. You can scan (us scanfolk would call this search) up, hold and manually scroll/tune. That's it. Many a time have I gone to grab the thing just after the 4 second* dwell time is up and I can't reverse scan direction to find the hit. I can't skip the nearly dead 1300-2400Mhz band...grrr.

The construction is a bit of a mixed bag. The housing and markings are awfully crummy. The battery cover is a flimsy scrap-looking piece just this side of foil. The graphics are laughable. Me being me, I brought it home and had a couple and cracked it open. Inside are a board and two shielded receiver modules. The receivers each have their own antenna. I'm favorably impressed with the build quality once you get under the hood. I took a couple pics when I had it open I might be able to share.

Still, I've got a number of hits with it. There's quite a few restaurants with a wireless cam over the till. I've seen a bunch of driveways and parking lots. I haven't come across anything too cool, I'm afraid.

*you can select dwell times after the scanner's video squelch opens. 2, 4, or 8 seconds are available. 4 is best because there a a ton of false hits. I'd say at least 100 false hits to every real one. Annoying.


This seems identical to the OEM version I mentioned above (which appears to be the Opto sweeper without branding).
It behaves in a similar fashion. Though I think the physical construction on these isn't too bad, the stock antennas are definitely crap.
You have to put an external antenna to get any 'real' performance out of these.

I am pretty sure the one I have can go up/down using the little side thumbwheel.
But it's kind of lame the way it works, you would think pressing it would allow you stop the scanning, but its more of a 'resume scan' button.
You have to turn it up or down to stop on a hit, otherwise it will resume in a few seconds, this is awkward.

And yes, it would be great if you could choose the range the scan.
With no direct freq entry, it should at least let you choose which band to scan.

Also, if these were or could be computer controlled I think it'd be a little more useful.
 
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