A real blast from the past

[KA9MGC]

I stumbled across an oddity from years ago. I had it stuck away in a storage tub and found it while looking for something else.
It's an old Regency Informant INF-2 scanner. Mostly meant for mobile use, where legal, and pretty rudimentary by today's standards.

With the switch to digital, there isn't much activity to be heard, but the thing still works.

Just thought I'd mention it to jog memories of scanners past. It dates back to the late '80's from what it says on Rig Pix. Low band VHF, high band VHF, and UHF with most pre-programmed by state. 50 channels you can select using the buttons. No AM, so no aircraft.

 

[WB9YBM]

I stumbled across an oddity from years ago.
With the switch to digital, there isn't much activity to be heard, but the thing still works.

So it's probably not up to speed on current digital modes, but it got me curious what digital modes existed when the scanner was made. PACKET & RTTY / AMTOR are the only digital modes I can think of from way back...

 

[KA9MGC]

I think maybe PSK was around, not sure though.

That Hellschreiber was around, but not much in use yet.

 

[WB9YBM]

I think maybe PSK was around, not sure though.

You got me curious, so I did a quick check on Wikipedia: Phase-shift keying - Wikipedia . It looks like some standards were developed for it in 1999, which would've (probably) been needed before it became universally useable; unfortunately I didn't find any mention when it became legal for use for what service...

 

[KA9MGC]

Looks like I found the same stuff you did. PSK seems to date to the late 90's as you said. RTTY for sure, though, it's pretty old.
I'm never had packet radio, but I seem to remember a buddy having a TNC back then, along with a morse code keyboard for sending CW.
Just about everything is done via computer of course, these days.