An older UHF tuner for 700Mhz listening?

Thread Starter

MisterBill2

Joined Jan 23, 2018
18,176
I recently read a listing of some of the communications going on in the range of 700 to 800 Mhz, and that seems like it may be an interesting band to scan now. So I am thinking that since it was a TV band before, that perhaps the same hardware, pulled out of older VCRs, should be able to receive those signals and convert them down to the 44 to 48Mhz band, which is the video IF frequency band for those receivers. THEN it should be a simple matter to tune them in with a scanner receiver that covers that band very well. It seems like it could be an interesting project. Has anybody tried anything like that? I would like to know what they found.
 

Thread Starter

MisterBill2

Joined Jan 23, 2018
18,176
I have already had that explained to me, about the SDR radio dongles, and the much better performing small box SDR USB modules. But anybody can buy one of those, the big challenge there is ordering it. Besides that, I have all of the pieces, or at least almost all of them. And the same setup could also tune other frequencies.
 

nsaspook

Joined Aug 27, 2009
13,087
I have already had that explained to me, about the SDR radio dongles, and the much better performing small box SDR USB modules. But anybody can buy one of those, the big challenge there is ordering it. Besides that, I have all of the pieces, or at least almost all of them. And the same setup could also tune other frequencies.
The likely modulation in that range with be digital so you will need Q/I data at some stage if you want to do more than just tune the frequency.
 

Thread Starter

MisterBill2

Joined Jan 23, 2018
18,176
The likely modulation in that range with be digital so you will need Q/I data at some stage if you want to do more than just tune the frequency.
OK, THAT is a good point. But it seems such a waste to not use all of those neat assemblies that I have acquired over the years, with just such a project in mind.
 
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