In prior Tales I have mentioned such obsolete tech like the OptoElectronics Scout and OptoScan. These tools, while still useful these days for some purposes have pretty much been made obsolete by newer scanners and accessories that have included the features they were useful for. For example, the Scout, especially when combined with a compatible scanner like the equally obsolete AR8000, would detect a strong transmission and display the resulting hit and send the connected radio tot hat channel so you could listen in. For $600 or so plus about as much for the radio one could have a cool near-field receiver. These days you can get the same experience from a sub-$200 BC125AT scanner with CloseCall.
Maybe “Obsolete” isn’t the right word; “Redundant” might be better. The features are still useful but the need for a specialized accessory isn’t as that has been included into newer radios and devices.
Let’s take a trip back a few years or decades and revisit some of the neatest tools us old farts used to use to accomplish what the younger generation takes for granted.
“Nitelogger”
The NiteLogger was a radio-tape recorder interface that would turn on and off a standard cassette recorder (another obsolete technology) when scanner traffic occurred. There were a couple versions, the original and an improved NiteLogger II. Both versions had a similar premise; connect it between a scanner and tape recorded and the device would detect audio and activate the connected tape recorder. It also had a speaker with a volume control so one could hear the audio live as the radio’s speaker would be disconnected as the NiteLogger plugged into the external speaker or earphone jack.
I had a couple of the first version, but never had a NiteLogger II. As far as I knew the NiteLogger II only differed in case style and replaced the relay with a newer version. This ran for about $50 in the early 2000’s, probably around $100 in today’s money.
The NiteLogger did not include a tape recorder, one used a standard cassette recorder. In the day, cassette recorders came with a dual jack, a “Mini” audio jack for the mic and a “Sub-mini” labeled “Remote”. This is what made the NiteLogger work. It took the scanner audio, and thru an audio circuit converted the 4–16-ohm speaker level audio to the 600-ohm impedance used by tape recorder mic inputs. With a VOX circuit it used a relay to close the Remote jack’s contacts to activate the recorder. It came with an audio cable to plug into the scanner external speaker or earphone jack and a dual cable to the recorder. You connected it up and used the NiteLogger’s level control to adjust the audio properly. You then set the recorder to “Record” (Remembering to press both he Play and Record buttons!) and went to bed. When you woke up the tape would be full of all the activity from overnight with no dead air.
Sometimes I would set up the NiteLogger on my work channel and when I got home from work, I would play back my evening to see how my voice sounded over the radio. I know a guy who for years recorded the Illinois police Aid channel (ISPERN, 155.475) with one of these all the time. A couple of us played a trick on him one night and made a fake broadcast using a radio that would transmit in the sub-milliwatt range, basically you had to be within 20 or 30 feet to hear it. We “broadcast” a fake message about his car being stolen and pursued. We did another call later about a manhunt in his neighborhood and when he asked if we had heard about it we denied all knowledge.
M6000, M7000 and M8000 Data Decoders:
The Infotech M7000 data decoder was the pinnacle of RTTY, WeFax and other data mode decoding back in the 1980’s. This ran for upwards of $1000 dollars then, which is like almost $3000 today. There were older versions like the M6000 and rigs from other companies but the M7000 was the top of the line. Connected to the record jack of a stable HF receiver and you could decode and view all kinds of data services on a CRT monitor or your trusty Apple Image Writer. I had 3 of these over the years, one bought from a friend and another traded for some radios. The third I bought at a hamfest 2 years ago for $25 but it didn’t work so I gave it away.
When I had my first one, I paired it with my Panasonic RF-4900 HF radio. The Panasonic was much more stable than the R71A or my IC-735, especially once you warmed the thing up by leaving it on overnight. I would set up on a RTTY frequency and come home to a stack of paper with news and weather reports, aviation messages etc.
Eventually the M7000 was supplanted by the M8000, I had one for a while but by then had moved on to different interests so it didn’t last long. Supposedly it could decode the early mobile data terminals of the 1990’s but I never tried that then.
These days one would use a free computer program and an SDR to perform the same tasks but in those days, we didn’t have that luxury. If you were hard-core or had more money than brains this is what you did.
Police Call and Scanner Master Frequency Directories
Before the days of Radio Reference and the rest of the Internet scanner hobbyists used our own version of the phonebook to find scanner frequencies or figure out what that new station I heard was. Paper guides were the only way to go since it was all we had.
Police Call, edited by Gene Costin and later Rich Barnett, was the granddaddy of scanner guides. It was more than a data dump, but that is what it was based upon. Gene added channel numbers and notes to many frequencies listed, most sent in by readers. The most prolific of us would be sent copies of the complete 9-volume set as thanks for the info provided.
Scanner Master started out by producing highly detailed scanner guides. This took the concept to an art form with maps, charts and channel guides. A nationwide guide called “Monitor America” detailed the state police, highway patrol and metro area channels for the entire country. Local guides like the Illinois Communications Guide (which I edited) and others had hyper-detailed listings for the coverage area.
Soon enough however the Internet came along and ruined things for producers of paper guides. While a good thing for hobbyists and professionals alike those of us that produced guides on processed dead trees had to figure some other was to monetize our hobby. Radio Reference eventually made the paper guidebooks obsolete as one could look up the information for free on their website via a computer, tablet or cellphone.
CSI CD-1 PL/DPL/DTMF Decoders (as other similar devices)
Back in the day scanners did not have instantaneous PL and DPL decoding like we have now. If you wanted to decode PL codes, you would have to program a PL capable radio with all of the PL’s and scroll thru them manually until you found the right one. This could be tedious at best. One of my friends who was seriously into PL codes would program a BC760XLT (The first commonly available scanner with PL tones) with the optional PL deck with all 38 of the standard PL codes and scan thru them to find the active one. He wore out the button labels on his scanner but by then had the layout memorized so it really didn’t matter.
Another method was by using a frequency counter that would read the lower-than-audible tones. This required some sort of interface circuit to a scanner and if you knew how to do it could be effective but not always really accurate.
Enter CSI and OptoElectronics! CSI introduced the CD-1 Decoder and around the same time Opto had the DC440. Each of these would connect to a discriminator jack and instantly decode and display the active PL code. They also decoded DPL codes (something the BC760 could not) as well as DTMF (“Touchtone” ©). These boxes were awesome for the advanced hobbyist as they would instantly display the active tone live. I preferred the less expensive CD-1 (as well as its successor CD-2) as the bid red LED display could be viewed across the room. The DC440 had a much smaller LCD display but had more features like recall memory.
There were other devices we used at the time. The Zetron Model 8 Repeater Programmer was a large device that had a huge LED display. While intended of course as a repeater programmer and timekeeper it decoded and displayed PL, DPL and DTMF codes. If connected to a transceiver it could also send those codes along with other types of things like 5-tone. Several of us had these but most of us replaced them with the smaller and easier to mount CD-1.
I still have one of my 4 CD-1’s. Back in the day I had one connected to a scanner in the car, two at home and one in my office at work. They were awesome!
TV-R7000 Adapter:
If you had an Icom R-7000 back in the day you could get one of these add-on devices that bolted to the side of the radio. It would allow one to then receive TV video along with the audio (which the R7000 could already do). You would connect it to a monitor via a composite video connector and watch TV with your $2000 radio. Sure beats watching on a $200 TV!
Seriously though it was actually a useful device. It could allow one to view Amateur TV and view DX signals when conditions were up. I had one on a couple of my R7000’s over the years and even used it occasionally.
AOR ARD-25
I honestly don’t know why these things were as wildly popular as they were back in the mid 2000’s. I was working the Scanner Master booth at the Dayton Hamvention in the Hara Arena soon after the ARD-25 was introduced. We had a couple dozen of them and were worried we would have to ship most of them back after the fest. The first day we sold our entire stock of them and had reservations for many more. We were able to get a new stock overnighted to us at the hotel due to some friendly connections with AOR and sold the entire batch Saturday.
The ARD-25 was an accessory to connected to a high-end receiver like the R7000, AOR R8600 or similar rigs with a 10.7 MHz. IF output. It would then allow that receiver to tune P25 conventional signals.
Basically, it was a $300 device that connected to a $2000 receiver that allowed it to do some of what a $400 scanner would do better. It did not work on trunking, and that constituted 90% of P25 usage then and now. While it wasn’t a thing then it would not do Phase II P25 (TDMA). Paul Opitz and I discussed this phenomenon in the booth that year and neither of us could figure out why they were flying off the shelves. We also sold BCD996T scanners that did everything the ARD25 could do at a fraction of the overall cost.
I guess it was another case of “too much money, not enough brain”.
Dataslicers:
A dataslicer was a device that converted audio signals to a level readable by a computer serial port. This would allow you to decode various forms of over-the-air data like RTTY or pagers. It could also decode the old 9600 baud Mobile Data Terminals popular with police, fire, taxicabs and others in the 1980’s thru the 2000’s before most of these went to commercial or encrypted services.
The Dataslicer is what got Bill Cheek in trouble 25 years ago. He sold some of these and got arrested as he advertised that they could decode the current MDTs in use at the time. While the case was never adjudicated due to Bill’s subsequent death, it appeared to have had the “Streisand Effect”, making it more visible and thus desired.
While one could buy dataslicers commercially at the time the “2-Level” version was simple to make out of RadioShack components. I made several of these for my own use as well as for friends. If you did it right, you could fit it all in the shell of a DB-9 connector. There was also a more complicated 4-Level dataslicer that worked on newer data modes. The one I had was commercially made.
Most of the interesting stuff one would use a dataslicer for, like MDT’s or pagers, have switched to newer modes and encryption. Back in the day however they, along with free software found on the Internet, made for some really interesting intercepts!
Conclusion:
These were just a few of the accessories may of us back in the day used to further our obsession with all things radio. I am sure that many of you had these and others so please comment below on what you used.
Maybe “Obsolete” isn’t the right word; “Redundant” might be better. The features are still useful but the need for a specialized accessory isn’t as that has been included into newer radios and devices.
Let’s take a trip back a few years or decades and revisit some of the neatest tools us old farts used to use to accomplish what the younger generation takes for granted.
“Nitelogger”
The NiteLogger was a radio-tape recorder interface that would turn on and off a standard cassette recorder (another obsolete technology) when scanner traffic occurred. There were a couple versions, the original and an improved NiteLogger II. Both versions had a similar premise; connect it between a scanner and tape recorded and the device would detect audio and activate the connected tape recorder. It also had a speaker with a volume control so one could hear the audio live as the radio’s speaker would be disconnected as the NiteLogger plugged into the external speaker or earphone jack.
I had a couple of the first version, but never had a NiteLogger II. As far as I knew the NiteLogger II only differed in case style and replaced the relay with a newer version. This ran for about $50 in the early 2000’s, probably around $100 in today’s money.
The NiteLogger did not include a tape recorder, one used a standard cassette recorder. In the day, cassette recorders came with a dual jack, a “Mini” audio jack for the mic and a “Sub-mini” labeled “Remote”. This is what made the NiteLogger work. It took the scanner audio, and thru an audio circuit converted the 4–16-ohm speaker level audio to the 600-ohm impedance used by tape recorder mic inputs. With a VOX circuit it used a relay to close the Remote jack’s contacts to activate the recorder. It came with an audio cable to plug into the scanner external speaker or earphone jack and a dual cable to the recorder. You connected it up and used the NiteLogger’s level control to adjust the audio properly. You then set the recorder to “Record” (Remembering to press both he Play and Record buttons!) and went to bed. When you woke up the tape would be full of all the activity from overnight with no dead air.
Sometimes I would set up the NiteLogger on my work channel and when I got home from work, I would play back my evening to see how my voice sounded over the radio. I know a guy who for years recorded the Illinois police Aid channel (ISPERN, 155.475) with one of these all the time. A couple of us played a trick on him one night and made a fake broadcast using a radio that would transmit in the sub-milliwatt range, basically you had to be within 20 or 30 feet to hear it. We “broadcast” a fake message about his car being stolen and pursued. We did another call later about a manhunt in his neighborhood and when he asked if we had heard about it we denied all knowledge.
M6000, M7000 and M8000 Data Decoders:
The Infotech M7000 data decoder was the pinnacle of RTTY, WeFax and other data mode decoding back in the 1980’s. This ran for upwards of $1000 dollars then, which is like almost $3000 today. There were older versions like the M6000 and rigs from other companies but the M7000 was the top of the line. Connected to the record jack of a stable HF receiver and you could decode and view all kinds of data services on a CRT monitor or your trusty Apple Image Writer. I had 3 of these over the years, one bought from a friend and another traded for some radios. The third I bought at a hamfest 2 years ago for $25 but it didn’t work so I gave it away.
When I had my first one, I paired it with my Panasonic RF-4900 HF radio. The Panasonic was much more stable than the R71A or my IC-735, especially once you warmed the thing up by leaving it on overnight. I would set up on a RTTY frequency and come home to a stack of paper with news and weather reports, aviation messages etc.
Eventually the M7000 was supplanted by the M8000, I had one for a while but by then had moved on to different interests so it didn’t last long. Supposedly it could decode the early mobile data terminals of the 1990’s but I never tried that then.
These days one would use a free computer program and an SDR to perform the same tasks but in those days, we didn’t have that luxury. If you were hard-core or had more money than brains this is what you did.
Police Call and Scanner Master Frequency Directories
Before the days of Radio Reference and the rest of the Internet scanner hobbyists used our own version of the phonebook to find scanner frequencies or figure out what that new station I heard was. Paper guides were the only way to go since it was all we had.
Police Call, edited by Gene Costin and later Rich Barnett, was the granddaddy of scanner guides. It was more than a data dump, but that is what it was based upon. Gene added channel numbers and notes to many frequencies listed, most sent in by readers. The most prolific of us would be sent copies of the complete 9-volume set as thanks for the info provided.
Scanner Master started out by producing highly detailed scanner guides. This took the concept to an art form with maps, charts and channel guides. A nationwide guide called “Monitor America” detailed the state police, highway patrol and metro area channels for the entire country. Local guides like the Illinois Communications Guide (which I edited) and others had hyper-detailed listings for the coverage area.
Soon enough however the Internet came along and ruined things for producers of paper guides. While a good thing for hobbyists and professionals alike those of us that produced guides on processed dead trees had to figure some other was to monetize our hobby. Radio Reference eventually made the paper guidebooks obsolete as one could look up the information for free on their website via a computer, tablet or cellphone.
CSI CD-1 PL/DPL/DTMF Decoders (as other similar devices)
Back in the day scanners did not have instantaneous PL and DPL decoding like we have now. If you wanted to decode PL codes, you would have to program a PL capable radio with all of the PL’s and scroll thru them manually until you found the right one. This could be tedious at best. One of my friends who was seriously into PL codes would program a BC760XLT (The first commonly available scanner with PL tones) with the optional PL deck with all 38 of the standard PL codes and scan thru them to find the active one. He wore out the button labels on his scanner but by then had the layout memorized so it really didn’t matter.
Another method was by using a frequency counter that would read the lower-than-audible tones. This required some sort of interface circuit to a scanner and if you knew how to do it could be effective but not always really accurate.
Enter CSI and OptoElectronics! CSI introduced the CD-1 Decoder and around the same time Opto had the DC440. Each of these would connect to a discriminator jack and instantly decode and display the active PL code. They also decoded DPL codes (something the BC760 could not) as well as DTMF (“Touchtone” ©). These boxes were awesome for the advanced hobbyist as they would instantly display the active tone live. I preferred the less expensive CD-1 (as well as its successor CD-2) as the bid red LED display could be viewed across the room. The DC440 had a much smaller LCD display but had more features like recall memory.
There were other devices we used at the time. The Zetron Model 8 Repeater Programmer was a large device that had a huge LED display. While intended of course as a repeater programmer and timekeeper it decoded and displayed PL, DPL and DTMF codes. If connected to a transceiver it could also send those codes along with other types of things like 5-tone. Several of us had these but most of us replaced them with the smaller and easier to mount CD-1.
I still have one of my 4 CD-1’s. Back in the day I had one connected to a scanner in the car, two at home and one in my office at work. They were awesome!
TV-R7000 Adapter:
If you had an Icom R-7000 back in the day you could get one of these add-on devices that bolted to the side of the radio. It would allow one to then receive TV video along with the audio (which the R7000 could already do). You would connect it to a monitor via a composite video connector and watch TV with your $2000 radio. Sure beats watching on a $200 TV!
Seriously though it was actually a useful device. It could allow one to view Amateur TV and view DX signals when conditions were up. I had one on a couple of my R7000’s over the years and even used it occasionally.
AOR ARD-25
I honestly don’t know why these things were as wildly popular as they were back in the mid 2000’s. I was working the Scanner Master booth at the Dayton Hamvention in the Hara Arena soon after the ARD-25 was introduced. We had a couple dozen of them and were worried we would have to ship most of them back after the fest. The first day we sold our entire stock of them and had reservations for many more. We were able to get a new stock overnighted to us at the hotel due to some friendly connections with AOR and sold the entire batch Saturday.
The ARD-25 was an accessory to connected to a high-end receiver like the R7000, AOR R8600 or similar rigs with a 10.7 MHz. IF output. It would then allow that receiver to tune P25 conventional signals.
Basically, it was a $300 device that connected to a $2000 receiver that allowed it to do some of what a $400 scanner would do better. It did not work on trunking, and that constituted 90% of P25 usage then and now. While it wasn’t a thing then it would not do Phase II P25 (TDMA). Paul Opitz and I discussed this phenomenon in the booth that year and neither of us could figure out why they were flying off the shelves. We also sold BCD996T scanners that did everything the ARD25 could do at a fraction of the overall cost.
I guess it was another case of “too much money, not enough brain”.
Dataslicers:
A dataslicer was a device that converted audio signals to a level readable by a computer serial port. This would allow you to decode various forms of over-the-air data like RTTY or pagers. It could also decode the old 9600 baud Mobile Data Terminals popular with police, fire, taxicabs and others in the 1980’s thru the 2000’s before most of these went to commercial or encrypted services.
The Dataslicer is what got Bill Cheek in trouble 25 years ago. He sold some of these and got arrested as he advertised that they could decode the current MDTs in use at the time. While the case was never adjudicated due to Bill’s subsequent death, it appeared to have had the “Streisand Effect”, making it more visible and thus desired.
While one could buy dataslicers commercially at the time the “2-Level” version was simple to make out of RadioShack components. I made several of these for my own use as well as for friends. If you did it right, you could fit it all in the shell of a DB-9 connector. There was also a more complicated 4-Level dataslicer that worked on newer data modes. The one I had was commercially made.
Most of the interesting stuff one would use a dataslicer for, like MDT’s or pagers, have switched to newer modes and encryption. Back in the day however they, along with free software found on the Internet, made for some really interesting intercepts!
Conclusion:
These were just a few of the accessories may of us back in the day used to further our obsession with all things radio. I am sure that many of you had these and others so please comment below on what you used.
