Anyone got a scanner?
 

Well ive been thinking about audio, still, and thought if i buy a handheld rf scanner i can receive wireless mic audio and not have to tap in anywhere to get the audio. Is anyone else doing this successfully? I am going to buy one reguardless as i can then record audio from fire fighters/boming aircraft at fires or pilots whilst filming air displays etc. I know some mics use 500 to 900 meg, some use 88 to 108 (fm broadcast band here) others are now on 2.4gig. The scanner is analogue and digital but i guess the digital modes will be different to the scanner modes. So if anyone out there has tried this or just general thoughts on the subject would be great. I love hearing other peoples thoughts.

Thanks, cheers
Gary

Re: Anyone got a scanner?
 

For some of my ground-to-air views of airshow performances I have fed mono audio out of an older Uniden scanner styled for mounting in a vehicle. They were sometimes installed to light aircraft.

It was easier than a handheld device to conveniently attach to the accessory shoe or the rig via its mounting bracket or the screw attachment points on the scanner body.

Audio from the scanner went to one of two audio channels, ambient audio from a good microphone went into the other channel.

Check the frequency ranges of your intended scanner. Some may not have all the communications bands.

Re: Anyone got a scanner?
 

Yeah it has mate, its one of the uniden digital trunk trackers. I have 2 of the mobile models here. Great radios.

Re: Anyone got a scanner?
 

Many FM wireless mics use some proprietary signal processing, rather than just plain frequency modulation. (The goal of this processing is to improve the S/N ratio, and perhaps the dynamic range as well.) They may use companding, wherein there is some compression in the transmitter, and corresponding expansion at the receiver. Or they may use some amount of response tailoring, wherein there is pre-emphasis in the transmitter, and corresponding de-emphasis at the receiver. Different systems will have different slopes, or different response curves, or different time constants. Furthermore, various systems may use different RF bandwidth.

If you use a normal consumer scanner, you may indeed receive the RF signal from these wireless mic transmitters, but since the scanner won't have the correct audio processing, it won't sound right when you listen to it. It may be intelligible, but it likely will sound strange, if not downright ugly.

This subject has been covered in previous threads here. Use the Search function and you will find them. (But admittedly you will also find a myriad of results that are not related to your question.)