I’ve updated a few of things. There is a direct download or play link just below the Flash Player for devices not compatible with Flash. Be aware it is a large amount of data and there can be buffering, but you can download the file. There is a new picture of the Funcube Pro Plus dongle and I replied to the last comment from Emily Taylor, which explains what my main interest is now.  I can assure you they are not fishing and hunting!

Direct mp4 download or play: BRM 8-09-2015
Here is my recording of a baby room monitor using a software defined radio. It was recorded from inside my living room using my discone antenna, Airspy, and SDR# (SDRSharp). Video and audio were captured with Daum Potplayer at a true 16×9 resolution of 848 by 480 pixels.
I thought by now everyone using baby room monitors would have moved away from 49 megahertz analog technology. Reception is noisy because of a somewhat weak signal and humming sound, possibly a fan blowing on the microphone. Maybe that fan was upsetting the baby. Also note, I neglected to show the waterfall display on the video itself, and the tuning was off by .016. My fault.

screen capture setup, showing middle waterfall display, not showing on video – click image for clearer view

Airspy software defined radio

Funcube Pro Plus software defined radio

SDRSharp – still image captured at 1024 x 768 – not cropped – video itself is cropped to 848 x 480

Notice the waveform for the selected  signal (49.830 megahertz) is more pointy compared to the video.This happened after I stopped recording.

Comet DS – 150 discone antenna

Direct mp3 download or play:  BRM 9-18-2014 – Normal

Normal

Direct mp3 download or play:  BRM 9-18-2014 With Effects

With Effects

This is a recording of an analog, audio only baby room monitor from September eighteenth of this year. It was received on my software defined radio  in my computer, located in my living room. Go here for more information on the Software Defined Radio I’m using. The reception is very poor, and at first I thought it was unusable. After listening to the recording, I noticed that enough of the sound revealed the baby was extremely upset. The poor reception, I think, made this recording more disturbing.

Direct mp3 download or play:  BRM 10 – 04 – 2011 (You can’t get up!)

I’m not entirely sure what is happening here. I think there is a caregiver losing their patience, becoming quite rude and and abusive.  This was recorded inside my bedroom on a Sony ICD – SX 700 digital recorder with my RadioShack model Pro -97 scanner radio.  I used an amplified “Rubber Duck” antenna placed vertically inside the room  and the frequency was 49.870 MHz. Listen closely, this recording is somewhat disturbing to me. I know that someday,  sooner  or later, I may be incapacitated and at the mercy of someone like this.

RadioShack Pro – 97 scanner

Direct mp3 download or play:  BRM 12-09-2010

This is a very recent recording of a baby room monitor (BRM) using my AOR AR-3000 communications receiver and a small 900 megahertz antenna. The baby cries and screams and then someone comes into the room and comforts the baby. As with all of my baby monitor recordings, it was received and recorded from within my home.

The picture shows reception at 49.845 MHz, but this baby monitor was actually transmitting on 902.795 MHz.

Small 900 MHZ Antenna

Direct mp3 download or play:   BRM 11-19-2006 (Quack)

Here is another baby room monitor (BRM), I recorded from inside my house. For more details on how I received these signals, check out my other posts on baby room monitors. I don’t have much else to say about this except Quack Quack Quack!

Direct mp3 download or play:  BRM August 10, 2006

Several years ago, I made this recording of a baby room monitor. I can’t remember which radio and antenna I used, but the signal was somewhat weak and noisy.  I added reverberation, initially to mask the background noise, but it actually turned out somewhat terrifying instead.

Direct mp3 download or play:  BRM August 12, 2007 – normal

NORMAL

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Direct mp3 download or play:  BRM August 12, 2007 – effects

EFFECTS

This was picked up on my AOR model AR-2002 communications receiver at 49.845 MHZ, using a simple vertical antenna. The receiving mode was narrow FM and the signal was somewhat noisy. As with all my recordings of baby room monitors (BRM) the reception was from inside my living room.

Direct mp3 download or play:  Purple Plastic Purse

This was received on October 18th, 2006 from inside my living room on my AOR AR-3000 communications receiver at 927.600 MHZ and recorded on my PC computer using line in on a Creative Audigy 4 soundcard. In addition I used a directional beam antenna capable of receiving 902 MHZ to 928 MHZ with up to 13 db gain. The transmitter appeared to be west of my location and I’m guessing up to a mile away, but most likely as close as a few blocks. Sometimes while monitoring this transmitter a barking dog could be heard and then an echo of the same sound outside my house less than a second later.
This baby room monitor has considerably better fidelity than the other at 49.845 MHZ (previous post in Baby Room Monitors) mainly because it seemed to be transmitting in wide band FM instead of narrow band FM like police and fire departments. In other words it tuned in just like an FM broadcast station and setting the receiver to narrow FM would produce loud distorted sound. In fact, I think the receiver was almost at “full quieting,” meaning the signal was as strong as possible with the least amount of noise. In spite of that, there was still a substantial amount of white noise and possibly some digital noise from cell phones. I did a lot of processing with Adobe Audition. I eliminated 10 megabytes of the original wav file where there was no talking, and then applied noise reduction to the entire file. After that, I used amplification and hard limiting to bring up low level audio. Also, I normalized the whole file to just under 0db. Lastly, the file was converted to standard stereo 128 kb per second MP3, although the sound is actually monaural. It still isn’t that great but it is a fun little story.

900 Megahertz Directional Beam Antenna

Direct mp3 download or play:  BRM 6-17-2008

A baby room monitor (BRM) was received on my AOR AR-3000 communications receiver at 49.845 megahertz, narrow FM on June 17, 2008. It was recorded on a PC running Windows XP with a Creative Audigy Soundblaster SE soundcard. The recording was made and edited using Adobe Audition 1.5 software and is presented here as an MP3 at 128 kilobits per second.

Communications Receiver

Communications receiver display close up showing reception of baby room monitor.