You know damn well regardless if this video is popular or not there's still s bunch of us who want to see you demo this and see what you can still do with it!
Yes, for sure. I remember seeing these advertised back in the day and thought how cool it would be to have one, but as mentioned these things were made for people who had a specific need for them and the means to acquire them. I was just a kid who wanted it to get into trouble. Optoelectronics had lots of cool things like that.
Not much, you could do the exact same thing with most modern transcievers. Nowadays most police radio is on a trunk system, this thing would just pickup digital noise. You would have to use something like a SDR and GNUradio and decrypt the traffic.
You know there's a bunch of old radio geezers on here reliving their youth by going down memory lane, myself included. I remember looking at the advertisement of these receiver in scanner magazines, drooling over them with the eye-watering high price. They ran $400-$1000 depending on model, frequency range and sensitivity. They even has a special "law-enforcement" model which was just a dream for the hobbyists. :D
My grandfather was a cop, He not only gave me my first scanner (in the 1970s, when those were EXPENSIVE) he got me the crystals (no digital programming then!) for the City of Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania). In my experience, most cops are not "fans" of scanners, But most firefighters are. My old (pre internet) advise to scanner newbies was to ask a FIREMAN to give you the local frequencies, not a cop. LOL
I had one of those scanners as a kid. Got it from my grandpa and got crystals for it, only to find out the towns police moved to something that garbled transmission. But I could still get fire. It was cool just getting it to sort of work, even though I knew it was out of date.
I can still remember back in the 1970s & 80s, in the UK, when anyone could listen to Police & fire service transmissions, as they used the top half of the FM broadcast band 2, around the 101 MHz frequency.
@NOWThatsRichy In the Netherlands, around 101 or 102 MHz was used by i don't know who. The police used 86 to 87 MHz and some people did detune their radio so that they could listen to the police. @jamesslick4790 If you had a scanner, (almost) all frequencies (police, fire brigade, taxi etc.), could be found in a frequency book written by a hobbyist.
@@NOWThatsRichyAs did the UK, prison service. Prisoners where allowed transistor radios, but they had to be am or mw, only. As if they where fm, they'd be able to monitor the officer's radio traffic.
In the US. General Electric made an 11 band analog dial radio. It covered 25 Mhz to 30 Mhz AM It also did 25 to 88 Mhz FM It did the TV bands. It received the VHF Air 108 to 136 AM And it did the VHF FM 136 to 180 Mhz It did UHF too I remember in the 70s listening on this 20 year old radio to my local Police department on 155.610 Mhz I used to sit at the end of the runway of the airport and listen to 119.5 and 125.0 as planes departed and landed
I had a HUGE "Ross" Multiband radio that covered "everything".(LW/MW/SW/VHF/UHF..) It was as big as a "boombox"(but it was mono) the front was 95% analog dial. I really miss that beast!@@DCDura
Optoelectronics' products were amazing. I had their Scout, which with a little mod to an AOR handheld scanner would work like a frequency counter and would tune the scanner in real-time to the strongest signal. It was a powerful capability for the time. 73, W4CUB
@@nataliegrn17 I don't think so. If you go to their site now, they have a few frequency counter/tone decoders and bug detectors, but I don't see any that have quite the same feature set as the old Scout.
I previously owned that model and it was exceptional! I vividly recall connecting a JMF band filter around 800MHz, which made it incredibly exciting to use while driving, allowing me to intercept nearby cellphone communications. I had acquired the first-generation model, which later required a modification due to its inability to maintain the captured frequency. Additionally, I possessed an Icom R-1, which was remarkably compact. Whenever I was in proximity to someone using a cellphone, simply removing the antenna would enable me to detect the nearby frequencies.
I always wanted one of these gizmos, but was a significant purchase for a young lad. I was able to pay off my Realistic PRO-2004 as a worked at a Tandy Electronics dealer store. I also remember that Optoelectronics made add-on boards for the Realistic PRO-2005 & 2006 scanners that allowed them to be computer controlled and did cool things like CTCSS decoding.
I remember looking at the advertisement of these receivers in scanner magazines, drooling over them with the eye-watering high price. They ran $400-$1000 depending on model, frequency range and sensitivity. They even has a special "law-enforcement" model which was just a dream for the hobbyists. :D
A lot of years ago I'm sitting in a parking lot listening to a police scanner. Pretty boring town but you could find out where the parties were from the complaints that officers were asked to investigate. Across the street is the side of a small mall where kids my age are hanging out around a car. A police car pulls up and the officers starts asking questions. It comes back on the radio that the driver's driving license has been revoked. The officer leaves but a few minutes later a police car with no lights on slowly comes down the back side of mall and stops just short of the corner of the building waiting for the guy to drive off so they can cite him. I run across the street and tell them what is going on, "Let me drive the car". You should have seen how surprised the officer was when I rolled down the window.
That took me back, not that I had one. But I used to go to the my Nans and listen on her radio on FM right at the end just passed the 180.00 very old radio but work great for listening to the police and taxi bands. Thanks for your work love all what you do AlAN from Luton.🇬🇧💯🍻👍
Omfg... I wanted one of these sooo bad as a young teen fascinated with anything radio... But it was so expensive... Got bit by the radio bug at the age of 7... I'm now 45 and the infection is only worse... 😂😂😂 73 DE VA3RIW
Brings back great memories from the peak time of scanning! My kit of choice was an Icom IC-R10 and Optoelectronics Scout 40 with reaction tune and CI-V cable. Had to sell a kidney to get that setup, but it was absolutely brilliant at events like Airshows or the Grand Prix. REALLY wanted the Explorer when it came out but you need at least one kidney!
Since cell phones were all narrow band FM back then, you could use this to listen to a nearby person's phone call. In most U.S. scanners the cell phone ranges were blocked but could usually be reenabled by removing a resistor or diode.
I remember this. Opto brought a lot of stuff. I had a few of there frequency counters and sniffers. They could even tune some scanners like the AOR 8000
Haven't done it in decades, and don't suppose it works any more with digital (and presumably encrypted) police frequencies, but in the 60s and 70s, many of us opened up cheap FM radios and added a length of twisted wire to the tuning capacitor, shifting the band range up a bit. Which often gave access to police and other official frequencies.
Still have my R10, along with the matching APS104 Preselector. Both need new battery packs. Optoelectronics had a host of other interesting devices. More on this subject would be very entertaining. :) In the late 1990's, I actually bought an Explorer, unlocked/with no frequency blocks, from a radio shop in Canada. It wasn't terribly cheap... around $1,000 USD. I found that the front end of the receiver overloaded quite easily, even with an attenuator in series with the antenna. A preselector was the only way to make the receiver usable. In the end, I sold the Explorer, favoring my Intercepter in conjunction with the APS104 Active Preselector. Optoelectronics also had a series of inexpensive 'tools', called Tech Toyz. They consisted of a frequency counter, a signal strength meter, & a DTMF (i.e. Touch Tone) Decoder. Each of them was built into a pager case, required one AA Battery, & looked remarkably like a Motorola Bravo Classic Pager. I have the Frequency Counter & the DTMF Decoder. Both are very handy.
Their catalog isn't nearly as extensive anymore. And their newer version of this receiver- the R506- isn't nearly as sophisticated either, though it does extend the frequency range to 8GHz and has a non-audio mode which can warn you of an intercepted strong signal with a beep or vibration.
@@douro20 I believe OptoElectronics had a leadership change, & possibly an owner change several years ago. They haven't had the same focus on things, & variety/diversity of products since then. At their roots, they started as a small operation that sold specialty RF Test Equipment, such as workbench & portable frequency counters, & notch filters. As they grew, they added new equipment such the Scout, as well as other near field test equipment. Accessories like the DC440 were add to their catalog, which allow the decoding of CTCSS, DCS, & DTMF. Later models would offer the ability to decode various trunking data, such LTR. They offer two different interfaces for controlling the Radio Shack PRO-2006 Scanner (Opto 256). In retrospect, OptoElectronics was a much different company, than they are today.
I did have a counter, I think it was Optotronics that could display near field frequencies so if you were close to a tx you could find frequencies for your scanner. It was ok if only one tx at a time but if under a Comms tower the strongest always won. I found many frequencies this way.
I use a SDR spectrum analyzer to find strong carriers click on its peak normalized to 12.5Khz step enter it into SDR Trunk, can decode clear voice but still decode signaling of talk groups ect
I was into scanners in the mid 1990s, (when everything was still analogue & easy to listen to!) I still have my AOR 8000 scanner, but not used it for years. I dont remember this Optoelectronics device, but yes get a battery pack made up, & try it out in the wild, be interesting what it will pick up nowadays!
I haven't seen them in years. nice find. you could replace the internal battery or use a external Lithium battery . today we use the BC 125 scanner or the tiny SA ULTRA . that has a audio out jack and small . 73's
I had one of these in the early 90s. Can’t for the life of me remember where I got it from or why I still don’t have it. I was a young lad about 17 or 18 years old and we got into a bunch of trouble scanning.. going to fires, gun calls, listening to phones. I remember pulling up to a car wreck with this thing and we could hear all the police, the tow truck driver, the firefighters, it was pretty cool.. once everything switched to digital (just a few years later) I got out of the hobby. Thanks for the trip down memory lane!
today, counter-surveillance has such a strong atmosphere around it, it feels like we're on the edge of the feared cyberpunk dystopia, and honestly I do feel like we are here. Give it 10 years and this video will be erased from the internet.
In the United States we can legally listen to police and air band frequencies. However most of the police departments have switched to digital P-25. In addition they have encrypted their transmissions to completely obscure all of their calls.
In the City of Pittsburgh, PA (And indeed most of Allegheny County...) plain old analog UHF-FM is STILL the main way for Police, Fire and EMS comms. Even a Baofeng UV-5R would do as a (slow!) scanner. The only interesting comms that are digital is City of Pittsburgh SWAT, But ONLY the City! The suburban (County) SWAT comms are still analog UHF-FM.
I had read that a state somewhere is moving to a cell based PTT network for coms. This has the advantage of inter jurisdiction coms however, if the cell network goes down, there would be a problem. I'm betting that these radios have preemption if the cell network becomes over run. I'm wondering of these have a function to transmit direct from radio to radio if everything goes down.
Definitely take it out into the outside and see what it can find and then take it out again over the year to events etc and see what it does or doesn't pick up. Could be very interesting and intriguing 🤔
Looks like todays close call, Attenuator or Frequency copy functions could need some speed update to faster re-trigger a scan. However i think the UBC92XLT for example does have some advanced functions to limit the search range.
do the police still use analog radio when communicating in uk?! in sweden that went away to "digital" probably atleast 12-15 years ago...had a police radio in my house when i moved in, it shortly stopped working after that, but was pretty interesting to listen to in the beginning...
oh that device looks cool. Never heard of it. It might be old but now I want one !!! Even with all my Ettus radios, SDR dongles, GNU Radio software, etc. I like it!
I have a Watson WR-5002, sane bit of kit but a different case. Baught it about 3 years ago. If i remember correctly it cost this side of £100. Its quite good, does its job. I have received marine to air, RNLI at about 3 miles with no problems. Its great just to leave in the car glove box. I also have a Black-Box MK2 which is similar but for Air Band AM.
I have an Optotronics frequency counter in what appears to be the same extruded aluminium case. I always enjoy your in depth reviews of equipment which was built when you were no more than a twinkle in your father's trouser pocket. HNY Lewis.
Optoelectronics is first, and foremost, a TSCM equipment manufacturer. They still offer a similar, but not nearly as sophisticated, receiver called the R506 which is good up to 8GHz. It does have a non-audio mode, though, which can be configured with a beeping or vibrating alert on the interception of a strong signal.
I used to have an old crystal scanner that my grandfather gave me as a kid. I knew it was outdated but I got the frequency crystals from the electronics store and was disappointed to learn my local police used newer transmission so the signals were garbled 😢 I was able to receive something (maybe fire) but not the police.
back then, they also had a version for analog cell phones(remember those?) It would automatically tune to the nearest analog cell phone signal near the device... it was about half the size of the unit pictured in this video, since it was dedicated to just the cellular band. of course, analog cellular service was turned of many years ago(15 or 20 years?), so the device is no longer usable if someone still has it. :)
I modified an old radio shack scanner to receive those frequencies. I could instantly tell when it was analog cellular because of the high piched ringing was in the background.
Here in Ohio, the state patrol and the police departments are all on the mark system. Which is a scrambled system, your radio will not be scrambled. Your scanners will not be scrambled, so you cannot hear police communications or state patrol communications
I bought the R10, the Xplorer, the Scout 40, the frequency counter (can't remember the name), and the OPTO 456 interface for the RS-2006 scanner..The only one I sold was the Xplorer..It worked fine but I needed the money to purchase other stuff..I just ran across the R10 a couple days ago in a storage box...I'm going to have to fire it back up again to see if it still works..I have to replace the Ni-cad with something else.
Depending on the area of the country and size of the department, most law enforcement comms are either digital, encrypted, or both, BUT not all. A quick Google search showed that New York City is the process of converting from analog to digital. That is expected to take 5 years to complete. Likewise, Chicago is switching. However, there is loads of private companies that still use analog radios including almost all railroads in the USA.
Back in the late 1970s to 1980s the President (of the USA) was coming to town. I had a friend who found out what hotel he would be staying at and went there when the President was to arrive. He had some sort of pocket scanner in an inside coat pocket set to sweep and record the frequency on which it heard anything. He also had an ear bud to listen. At one point he attracted the attention of the Secret Service who patted him down. They weren't happy about him being able to figure out the frequencies they were using and listen to them, but once they checked him out, they let him stay.
I made something similar to this with a Pye Pocketfone that I picked up at a rally. And if you’re old enough to remember those, then greetings friend, we are old af 😂
Ahh the Pocketfone series 😀 The PF1 was my favorite as a kid, loved the auto antenna on the TX module and who could forget the PF8 after watching TV's Bodie and Doyle 🤣
Near impossible to ban scanners, at least in the US. Its a open broadcast so there is no legitimate expectation of privacy. Nowadays most police radio is on encrypted trunk systems.
RINGWAY, I was wondering if you knew how apps like "scanner radio" or "police scanner - live radio" that are in the app stores work? I use both of them and they have pretty much every local police, sheriff, fire department, EMS, and airport radio for my town and most surroundings... I'm guessing most of them are not using open analog radio so I didn't know if anyone knew how the apps have all of the radio traffic feeds. This is in the states, I haven't looked if they have feeds for UK or European.... keep up the good work!! love the channel!
The feeds you are listening to are uploaded by "Premium" members in your area who possess digital-capable equipment, with which they stream the content to a server, which makes the transmissions available to you. If they turn off their gear, the feed dies. You will notice if you listen long enuff that the feeds go down sometimes.
I have a Uniden BC200XLT. Back then for a limited time you could get it modified to pick up all the cell phone frequencies for $20. Notice how the government kowtowed to the privacy of cell phones, thanks to lobbying yet they didn't give a damn about the privacy of cordless phone users, who could be listened to with a simple scanner.😮
I see someone else has mentioned the Watson WR-5002 which is a similar but with a range 30-900 MHz unit. A companion unit often bought together is the Watson Super Searcher frequency counter with a range of 10 MHz - 3 Ghz. This can be reaction tuned with the 5002 near field monitor and can also push a frequency to some AOR or Icom scanners to transfer the frequency for better monitoring. Seeing your video meant I had to go and find mine - which were way down at the bottom of the 'will be useful again one day' box. Now I have to build some NiCad battery packs or build a power pack from a disposable vape battery - Big Clive style.
There’s no dumb questions Rupert. There was calls to adapt this for trunked use back in the 1990’s but it never happened. Then trunk tracking scanners came along
do it, do it, DO IT! 😊 I would've loved to have one back then, I still have my old Bearcat 200 I'm thinking of getting new cells for the battery just for Ss&Gs even though there's not much to listen to anymore
Looks a bit like something Del Boy would be selling out of a suitcase down the market, but quite a clever piece of kit for it's day. Appearances are deceptive. It would be interesting to see what it can pick up nowadays. Please make a battery pack, I know it's going to be quite a bit of work, but I'm sure you want to know what it will receive. We all want to know.
Dad bought me one of these, he was inspector of establishments for the mod and oversaw GCHQs budget, he bought me loads of kit, i don’t know if he brought it back from his trips away! i guess that was my privileged upbringing.
Great bit of old kit Lewis , I remember these well,,, ps, any chance of a "Roger Modder " update ? I'm hoping with this crazy Retevis/Quansheng chaos he's either well fell off the wagon and in the Trainspotting room again , that chaos with the Boafeng , the Tower in Blackpool , I can imagine that was a Little Blip compared to any Quansheng Addiction , the variants of mods , he's like Totally very strong I'd say if he's stayed loyal with Boafeng , pass my best on 😂 73s Lewis
As per FCC regulations, any device that is subjected to interference must be able to receive that interference. Guess what, radio signals are forms of interference. You can't ban electronics that are prone to receiving interference. This is why law enforcement agencies now use encryption eg: P25.
@@research_netcoms197_on_youtube RU-vid isn't set up to share information on how to listen in on police frequencies. I suggest you start with the Radio Reference Forums, and continue your journey from there.
I lived somewhere that had a phone number you could call and listen to the local pd radio. No idea how it worked or why, but whoever set it up was a legend and kept us out of multiple jams as young dumb potheads
