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Tuning in Radio Waves Using Wi-Fi or Bluetooth

post #1 of 10
12/22/04 at 3:38pm
Thread Starter 
I was wondering if this is possible.

For example: I would like to be able to tune-in on my baby monitor and listen to my kid while I am on the computer, without having to use the little baby monitor receiver box.

Since I already have 2 radio receivers in my computer (the Wi-Fi card and the Bluetooth card) I would like to be able to scan the radio spectrum and "find" that my baby monitor is transmitting in range, tune in to the exact frequency that it is using, and then listen to what my kid is doing.

Using this same logic, it would also be nice to do the same with my cordless phone. That is, scan the spectrum, locate the exact frequency for my cordless phone receiver that is nearby, lock onto it and "save it" somehow, and then use my PC to make phone calls through my cordless phone receiver.

It seems very logical to me, and I've purchased all these simple short-range radio devices, so I'm not doing anything wrong or malicious. I just want to use them in a more practical way through my computer.

I'm afraid that someone will say that it is illegal or not permitted by the FCC or something equally ridiculous that doesn't allow this simple improvement in functionality to be feasable.

Tell me how I can do this plz.........
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post #2 of 10
12/22/04 at 3:53pm
not sure you can do to without the right hardware
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post #3 of 10
12/22/04 at 4:15pm
Thread Starter 
Not to be ungrateful for your reply gibbonsl, but not very helpful.

If you tell me that I need to get a special Bluetooth or PCMCIA card, so be it. If you say that you know that it is not possible and give a few quick examples why it can not, that I'll accept.

But as I said, there are already 2 radio receivers in the PC, how many do I need? Are their frequencies hardware-locked? I don't know. I thought that someone else might know though.

I was hoping that proper procedures, drivers or software might help accomplish this. Perhaps modify or improve a card or driver, I don't know.

But ideas how to do it are what I'm asking for, not how many people don't know if it can be done.

Thanks anyway tho, you may be right.
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post #4 of 10
12/22/04 at 4:27pm
No it is not possible. The main difference would be the frequency. I'm not sure what frequency the baby monitors use but I'm sure it's not as high as wifi or bluetooth. Also even if they where the same frequency they just wouldn't know what to do with the babymonitor which must use a completly different kind of sampling and modulation.
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post #5 of 10
12/22/04 at 4:31pm
You would have to have a baby monitor that broadcasts in the same frequencies that bluetooth or wi-fi to be picked up. Not very likely.
Like using a am radio to try to pick up a radio station broadcasting in fm.
They have bluetooth headsets for phones and things but,
the use for baby monitors would be very specialized.
For wi-fi you are dialing with freqencies and channels.
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post #6 of 10
12/22/04 at 4:45pm
Thread Starter 

Now we're cooking with gas!

Thanks for the replies guys.

Yes, it would be silly if they used the exact same frequencies, and this is obviously not the case.

So the question is if the radio frequencies can be changed or tuned, either with driver software or application software.

My analogy is that an FM radio can be tuned into different frequencies to pick up different stations, but only scans a certain range. On the radio, it is obviously a hardware limitation because the radio has no "software" running.

But since a computer is much more versatile, and runs software, I was hoping that we could somehow change the range that the radio receivers scan with, or if the frequency ranges in the Wi-Fi or Bluetooth cards are hardware locked.

If the existing cards are "hardware locked", is there a PCMCIA device that can be installed to do this? It doesn't seem like too much to ask from a computer.

Thanks again for the replies......keep em coming. Where are the electrical engineers out there? I need a radio guy!
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post #7 of 10
12/22/04 at 5:47pm
Wifi and Bluetooth are locked to single frequency. No others are needed so hardware support for other frequencies or adjusting is simply not included. Especially with Bluetooth which was designed to have as small a form and energy requirement as possible.
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post #8 of 10
12/22/04 at 7:00pm
i thought there were cordless phones that ran on the same frequency as wifi i think its 2.4 ghz? or maybe its higher, i forget... idk if you'd be able to "lock on" or not, but if u have a phone the same frequency i hear it messes with your wireless connection...
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post #9 of 10
12/22/04 at 9:39pm
WiFi and Bluetooth are completely seperate in operation from phones and baby monitors.

First the baby monitor would more than likely be a short range fm/am transmitter with a fixed frequency that could be listened to.

Second cordless phones depending on manufacturer and model have several parameters to consider. Your standard older cordless phones transmit an open analog signal easily picked up and listened to on either a small range of 900.xx MHz frequencies. Newer phones tend to transmit digital data at the much higher 2.4GHz - 5.8GHz range. Both older and newer phones often switch their channels on the fly making listening in more difficult.

Third Bluetooth and WiFi (b/g) operate on the higher 2.4GHz spectrum (a on 5.8GHz) transmitting purely digital information encoded using protocols and encryption.

You (might) be able to listen in on the baby monitor using the TV-Tuner which is simply an analog radio receiver capable of receiving in most cases VHF/UHF/FM in frequencies ranging from 40MHz to 800MHz.

The FCC and various other radio-ish officials tend to keep many of these certified UL/EU consumer devices on seperate bands with good reason.

So as far as playing radio scan-man with your laptop, the TV-Tuner is your best bet for programmable reception/listening (start your own SETI!).
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post #10 of 10
12/24/04 at 12:00am
while i dont know for sure as i've never heard it done, i would think that with the right software/firmware tweaks it would be possible. radio transmition and reception is fairly basic technology, even digitally. i see no reason why a wifi or bluetooth card would be hardware locked to recieve to certain bandwidths. the fcc merely mandates that eletronics not interefere with the radio frequencies of other electronics when operated normally. anyway, i think if someone was knowledgable enough on this matter they woudl be able to tweak our wifi cards to do it.
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