Scanner Hacking

[455 Bravo Uniform]

Back in the 1990s I had a hand held scanner that a friend modified by using nail clippers to snip off 2-3 tiny transistors to open up a few more frequency groups.

I have an old 16 channel scanner that I want to do the same thing to if possible so I can listen to aviation frequencies at my desk at work. Any one have an idea if this is possible?

 

[RyanB]

@weirdjim is the guy to ask!

 

[Ghery]

Back in the 1990s I had a hand held scanner that a friend modified by using nail clippers to snip off 2-3 tiny transistors to open up a few more frequency groups.

I have an old 16 channel scanner that I want to do the same thing to if possible so I can listen to aviation frequencies at my desk at work. Any one have an idea if this is possible?

Does the scanner have an AM detector? Or is it totally FM? If it has the AM detector, keep asking. If it only has an FM detector, you are probably out of luck. Aviation radio is AM.

 

[455 Bravo Uniform]

Does the scanner have an AM detector? Or is it totally FM? If it has the AM detector, keep asking. If it only has an FM detector, you are probably out of luck. Aviation radio is AM.

I don’t know the answer to that, but can program from 136-174 MHz (as well as the mid-400’s range). Happy to open her up and post pics if someone can help.

 

[flyingron]

Ghery is right. There's more to the air bands than just frequency coverage, you need it to handle AM. This is absent on a lot of older units. If you can't tune the airband frequencies, chances are there's nothing you can do to make it work. Note that most of the scanners only have blocked the AMPS cell band which is kind of pointless these days anyhow because Analog cell calling has been gone for over a decade.

 

[455 Bravo Uniform]

Thanks guys.

 

[Zeldman]

Note that most of the scanners only have blocked the AMPS cell band which is kind of pointless these days anyhow because Analog cell calling has been gone for over a decade.

Years back a friend had a scanner that would receive cell phones. It was like back in the days of the old party lines.

 

[Hang 4]

This is the site for Ham Radios - not sure if they'll have scanners
https://www.mods.dk/

 

[DaleB]

Years back a friend had a scanner that would receive cell phones. It was like back in the days of the old party lines.

My old Motorola StarTac flip phone had an easily accessed diag mode that would let you listen to any cell channel. Due to the nature of how the system works, you'd hear part of a call but rarely the whole thing -- the calls would switch channels often.

 

[flyingron]

Actually, back in the old AMPS days, it didn't switch all that often. Especially if the cell caller you were listening to wasn't moving quickly.

 

[DaleB]

I rarely heard a whole call. Usually just a few minutes at most. Back then, most of the cellular phones in use (around here, at least) were still car mounted, so a pretty high percentage of cell calls were in motion.

Voice pagers were fun as well. Un-squelch one and you'd hear every voice page that was sent, some of which were quite amusing. People seemed to have no idea that what they said could be heard by anyone who cared to listen.

 

[flyingron]

We were in the middle of the city so that probably was the reason. Things were moving slower than they would in rural areas.