PC TV Tuner cards as a scanner?

[RedPenguin]

I know the subject sounds crazy, but from my random web browsing, I ran across a few sites of people claiming to get their PC TV tuner cards to become radio scanners.

I'm curious if anyone has ever tried this or know if it's possible?

Seems like something interesting to do and the frequencies for TV seem to be around what some areas have for scanner frequencies.

The digg link was dead though after I clicked it.

I have a WinTV PVR USB2, HVR 950, and HVR-950Q.

 

[DickH]

... The digg link was dead though after I clicked it.... .

What is a "digg link"?

 

[SCPD]

What is a "digg link"?

digg.com

 

[gmclam]

TV tuners

I know the subject sounds crazy, but from my random web browsing, I ran across a few sites of people claiming to get their PC TV tuner cards to become radio scanners.

I'm curious if anyone has ever tried this or know if it's possible?

Seems like something interesting to do and the frequencies for TV seem to be around what some areas have for scanner frequencies.

I wonder if they mean a "scanner" or "a means to receive public safety radio broadcasts". A scanner would just be a device that sequentially selects channels. Of course most of the people here on RR use scanners that do both.

NTSC/ASTC TV channels 14-69 go from 470.0 MHz to 806.0 MHz. Older channels went up to channel 83. After 6/12/2009 TV channels in the USA will stop at channel 51.

There are public safety radio broadcasts in the range of 470.0 MHz to 510.0 MHz; and they could certainly be picked up by an analog TV tuner. One issue however is that TV audio uses a wider channel than does public safety. So the audio will sound weaker and it will be more difficult to tune/select a specific police/fire frequency.

 

[kd7rto]

Here's one possible use for your card. 426.25 seems to be the most popular frequency for ATV (amateur fast scan television). My HiDTV card works great for picking up my local repeater. I set it for cable channel 58 (427.25), hook it up to an antenna, and fine tune it down to 426.25.

 

[josyp]

I know the subject sounds crazy, but from my random web browsing, I ran across a few sites of people claiming to get their PC TV tuner cards to become radio scanners.

I'm curious if anyone has ever tried this or know if it's possible?

Seems like something interesting to do and the frequencies for TV seem to be around what some areas have for scanner frequencies.

The digg link was dead though after I clicked it.

I have a WinTV PVR USB2, HVR 950, and HVR-950Q.

Did you find out how is this work and do you have some manuals for this?like what tv card are compatibile?

 

[josyp]

does anyone knows something about it?

 

[andy51edge]

I found this on an amazon review for a tv tuner.

Amazon.com: Vantech RTL2832U R820T DVB-T SDR DAB FM USB DIGITAL TV Tuner Receiver RTL-SDR Project + DAB dongle Tuner For Laptop PC: Electronics

"This unit paired with DSD/Unitrunker and SDR# creates a suitable P25 digital trunking scanner for monitoring local emergency responder traffic. The included antenna is very good for the 500mhz public safety band considering its overall size."

I wonder what exactly he did.

 

[kd0fx]

RTL-SDR community on Reddit

Software Defined Radio - The RadioReference.com Forums

 

[KC8ESL]

The RTL SDR is no joke. I own one and use it for all sorts of purposes. Bottom line is it is an ultra-cheap 2MHz wide SpecAn with demodulation capabilities.

A word of caution, you might lose some hair making it work with a windows machine.

Install sdr#, use the zadig driver installer and you'll be off with the basics.

 

[kd0fx]

... I didn't realize OP was from 2009... :/