Analogue Image Transfer: Phone To Phone FM Radio

Finding a new use for FM radio, sending images between two phones. Using the FM radios hidden inside many models of Qualcomm based mobile phones. No laws or regulations were broken during the filming of this episode.
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/ januscycle
Music: Billy Idol - White Wedding (Virgin Magnetic Material Remix)

[@Povilaz]

As a radio technology enthusiast, something like this intrigues me to no end. SSTV technology is over 50 years old at this point and people still use it in 2023, not only for image transmission on shortwave, but for stuff like this!

[@hdofu]

Frankly... it's a surprisingly easy way to turn every FM radio in the house into a speaker for anything you hook up to a small FM transceiver.

[@Artur_676_]

That's sad to hear. Here in Brazil we still have AM and FM radio + 2g and 3g service

[@MickeyMishra]

Is that what all those Ham operators do?

[@MroStudios]

You sir are the reason why I love youtube: original, interesting content based on science. Thank you. You gained a subscriber.

[@JanusCycle]

Thanks for coming on the journey with me as I explore interesting technology.

[@legendsflashback]

Same

[@KiranKumar512]

FM transmitter is something we really need in our phones... We never know when it's useful.

[@jk8557]

It was very useful in cars when Bluetooth or AUX were not options. Too bad phones don't have it anymore.

[@russellm7530]

@@jk8557 Yeah and another thing I hate about newer cellphones is not having easily replaceable batteries anymore .

[@bunnypeople]

It will likely never be useful in a life or death situation because the signal will never be strong enough to go any meaningful distance

[@obeseperson]

@@bunnypeople well luckily we don’t need things to be useful in life or death situations to actually want them

[@CG-zm9oj]

Fascinating What about mesh apps Can my phone work without a phone mast?

[@thisfeatureisbad]

I actually never knew what were the radio noises in Portal until I googled it and found they were coded images. I immediately downloaded the MMSSTV and tried to make my own images. 😄

[@astronot5555]

At 6:18:35

[@mega_micro]

The images look pretty creepy of you include the timestamp in them :D

[@mega_micro]

@@astronot5555 ??

[@astronot5555]

@@mega_micro sorry 5:18:00 timestamp includes suprise at portal 10 horus loop.

[@No_True_Scotsman]

I believe they were only patched in for the announcement of Portal 2, so they probably weren't there when you first played it.

[@EzeePosseTV]

Used to record the SSTV audio codes onto a music cassette tape to send digital images to my friend who didn't have internet back in the late 1990's. I also would call his landline and play the audio over the phone for quickness if we were talking about certain photos etc. He used his PC mic to the phone/stereo speaker for decoding the audio. The funny thing was, we could still chatter on the phone while the SSTV audio was playing at the same time with no degradation of the image. Amazing stuff!

[@GadgetAddict]

I never knew there were phones with built in FM transmitters. Very interesting!

[@maskedredstonerproz]

I only knew about the receivers as well

[@Colt45hatchback]

Nokia n97 had it, was great

[@Zsomi8]

Similar to this, phones also used to have an IR blaster. Instead of downloading mostly shitty apps to control your tv, you could use a universal app to control everything. It was really a great feature, I could control the TV the AC and even the garage door. I had a lot of fun using it, and also messing around with tv-s in waiting rooms and such. Really unfortunate that as technology advances, older but still very much relevant stuff gets phased out so quickly.

[@No_True_Scotsman]

It's so sad how phones basically get worse every year now. Taking out features, worse cameras, lower battery life.

[@Asphalt_Nitro_2]

I think u live in the US so don't know about xiaomi, most of their phones always have ir blaster to control everything, and mine also has ir, in my family, almost no one uses the original remote

[@gamagama69]

​@@Asphalt_Nitro_2xiomi has like under 1% market share in the us of all phones i think

[@gamagama69]

you know what your right ima get a usbc ir blaster

[@nou4605]

​@@No_True_ScotsmanWorse cameras and battery life? Definitely not lol. Especially not cameras. Cameras only keep getting better.

[@PakiDude]

I LOVE YOUR CHANNEL. MAN I HAVE NO WORDS HOW BADLY I CRAVED SUCH CONTENT.

[@JanusCycle]

Thank you. I'm going to keep making good videos. I hope you enjoy them.

[@azibros]

Qualcom and Broadcom wifi/Bluetooth chips usually came with radio circuitry, tho not all phones had the radio feature because added circuitry was needed for radio to work, some added the circuitry to get the full potential of the chip, and some didn't bother(like apple).

[@aslamrasheed]

I remember my old Nokia X2-02 had a radio transmitter and used our big speaker FM radio to listen to music from the phone. This was before the Bluetooth speakers becoming common. It was a pretty good feature. NB: The phone had a built-in FM antenna, so it doesn't require a headset to listen to FM Stations.

[@KRAFTWERK2K6]

I still think FM transmitters are way superior than Bluetooth. Especially older Bluetooth standards that still double-compress everything to MP3 instead of lossless.

[@julhizantwo2277]

We got the same phone. This phone was my older brother daily driver and sound transmitter. He always tune it to combo audio tape radio boombox (i think that it was called). Still work but lended to my uncle as his replacement phone some time ago so i don't know much

[@dutchy2]

Some Sony Xperia models have hidden transmitter. Sony Xperia SP for example. Great feature!

[@stoojinator]

Transfer rate is on par with my NBN connection. Thanks, Malcolm Turnbull!

[@JanusCycle]

Yep, I'm with you. I'm on fibre to the node and it's not much different to when it was ADSL.

[@stoojinator]

@@JanusCycle My old ADSL2 was much more reliable than my NBN. I had ADSL for years with no downtime. FttN has been a joke for the last 6 years.

[@KRAFTWERK2K6]

What you did kinda reminds me of creating a Beep Map that hides images in audio and making it become visible with a Spectrograph. The artist "Aphex Twin" did something similar in the track "Windowlicker" at the end of the track.

[@JanusCycle]

interesting, thank you

[@BennyWooMusic]

Aphex used SSTV on track three of '2 Remixes by AFX'. It's a picture of him and Squarepusher.

[@sberniz]

It'll be interesting to try this

[@nine7295]

I have been an amateur radio operator for a very long time, I don't really do SSTV but know about it. Thanks for the video! Keep it up!

[@JanusCycle]

I'm glad you enjoyed this. It was less about correct radio techniques and more about exploring different technologies, in different ways to learn about them. I'm pleased that people with different backgrounds are getting something out of it.

[@9852323]

I think all phones should have an FM transmitter and receiver. I’d much rather use a built in FM transmitter in my phone to listen to music in my car or other radios rather than finicky Bluetooth. That would be super useful cause it could turn basically any old radio into a “Bluetooth speaker”

[@GowrishankarLeGrand]

Amazing video! Found your channel yesterday. I'm really liking the niche and quality content, keep up the good work!

[@JanusCycle]

Thank you, really glad to hear you are enjoying the more niche aspects and videos on the channel.

[@araigumakiruno]

FM transmitters were really cheap and easy to find, that uses the 3.5mm audio jack as the input, so no need for a phone that can do FM Transmitting anyway

[@jacobwortley]

I love that album! I’ve never heard anyone talk about it! Good video!

[@MuhlisErtugrul]

Nice job yo! I have a FM transmitter device leftover from my father that's about 20 years old but still works. Guess it's time to search for it in my storage boxes and try this. Thanks for the high-quality content, mate!

[@jackkraken3888]

I had no idea FM transmitters were available on a phone, it's like the time I learned about some phones having Infrared receivers not just transmitters, so you could actually record infrared signals and replay them (with the transmitters).

[@JanusCycle]

Recording infrared signals sounds interesting. I'd like to try that sometime.

[@jackkraken3888]

@@JanusCycle If you do please look into making it possible for others to do. I would love for a device to exist that can record and replay infrared signals. It's a very underutilized area. We often have old infrared remotes lying around and no real way to use them. Imagine if we could! The other reason is that while there are still smartphones that have infrared transmitters they almost always don't have receivers and we are stuck with what library of devices is part of the remote app, and if you device isn't there you are (more or less) out of luck depending on how common the device is. I know infrared devices are falling out of favour. But they are still useful in my opinion.

[@vadnegru]

​@@jackkraken3888 i used irplus and android tvbox. There were option to use another remote to wake the box and when i used it, it were showing amlogic code that could be translated to WINLIRC_NEC1 so i built whole remote in irplus. There are irplus audio if you device lacks ir blaster.

[@tristan6509]

Before Bluetooth people shared MP3s with infrared or IrDA as it was called

[@jackkraken3888]

@@tristan6509 I'm aware of that. But did they support reading ir signals?

[@FPVMystique]

I got an award from NASA and Roskosmos for receiving high quality SSTV images from the International Space Station in commemoration of Roskosmos' founding date anniversary.

[@JanusCycle]

Impressive achievement! I have been wanting to try that.

[@sj29215]

your channel is a gem. i just recently discovered it, and every video i've seen amazes me. thank you so much.

[@JanusCycle]

Thank you for also watching the more unusual videos. I really enjoy making them.

[@pootpoint]

really informative, thanks for uploading such unique content!

[@JanusCycle]

Thank you. I'm glad people are enjoying these more unusual videos.

[@nextalias]

Loved the choice of images :)

[@MarekKnapek]

No Rickroll tho, disappointed.

[@ivannatinkle]

Catch the wave!

[@bank8489]

hey janus, idk if this is weird or not but there's a quality to your videos that just draws me in so much. you always have these little pockets of vibes that i just get lost in every time. it's strangely mesmerizing. kinda like 3:17. they just keep me coming back. your videos are just strangely artful and i love them, keep on making great content

[@JanusCycle]

Hey thanks, those bits are to help convey the feeling of exploring technology. I'm really glad you enjoy them :)

[@nieprzebijalnyn8942]

​@@JanusCycleI believe you are the exact opposite of Dankpods, by watchibg your content i actually get to know something. Dankpods makes videos without actual information about the things he records about.

[@JessicaFEREM]

honestly old cell phones make REALLY good FM radios. got full stereo and even surround sound depending on the model. heck even super old phones you can take the batteries out and charge them outside the device like some radios.

[@JanusCycle]

I will have to revisit phone based FM radio one day.

[@miguelelgueta5830]

absolutely love the cadence of your voice and the content, I just love historically important devices, and its very important that we remember these

[@kebi7792]

Thank you for doing such experiments and bringing our dying Amateur Radio stuff to new audiences!

[@JanusCycle]

Thank you for all the outstanding work Amateur Radio has done over the decades! And for now allowing it to be experimented with in different ways.

[@paulstubbs7678]

On your first image I thought you had the setting quite wrong with those slanted lines, then Max popped his head up - perfect selection!

[@prozacgodretro]

Excellent choice for the first photo you transmitted!

[@matsv201]

The slow scan tv is almost as old as time or tv. Back in the 1920 they had an idea of being able to download pictures and even watch video over telephone lines. Back in that day everyone had a circut phone connection so they could run high quality music low resolution tv. Or picture transfer at decent rate. All systems was set up, then the cras of 20s came, then the war, then after the war, people was not thinking of that any more. Still a few video phone lines was built. Later also 6Mhz video phone lines was built that is what was used for live coverage of global events in the 80 and 90s.

[@christoffermedc]

Damn love this! Inspired artistically by the sound it makes and the pretext that all you need is a transever make me wonder if my home Audio room to room broadcasting would be easier to solve by radio rather than bluetooth

[@itsPenguinBoy]

I have an fm transmitter that connects to the audio output on my rasberry pi running a media server including Spotify.... Doing Multi-room audio with old radios is so satisfying.

[@bortnik_bortnik]

I’m speechless. Great content 👍

[@zsewqthewolf1194]

i always love this kind of stuff, where you make werid ways to get something. been using some of them for story ideas, like this one where hidden clues are round in endless loops tapes being played in the background somewhere.

[@USBEN.]

Wow, something new once in a while is great.

[@jk8557]

It's sad that phones don't have fm transmitters anymore(?). It was a great feature especially in the car if there was no possibility to use Bluetooth or aux.

[@thenitropower]

I still have a black Nokia N97 that my dad gave me when I was younger when he changed phone, it has an FM transmitter and I clearly remember putting it next to radios to send sound lol

[@Lachlant1984]

I with the iPhone had an FM radio in it, I still listen to FM radio and I love it.

[@arendelle_ok]

Some fact. U can transmitt picture on fm band using SSTV signal. DRM signal. Or composite signal. U can decode it😊

[@mokisan]

If you dont mind, could you explain in a bit detail? I am using an android phone with fm radio. But I guess it doesn't have fm transmitter.

[@RestoreTechnique]

Great video, very interesting. I remember my Nokia N8, back when I was holding out from the iPhone/Android take over. I vaguely remember using that FM transmitter.

[@harrythezomby]

Hi Janus, glad to see ur amazing videos are finally in the algorithm. Keep up the good work mate!

[@JanusCycle]

I'm thankful that people are actually enjoying watching.

[@nasserrana7920]

How have I not come across your channel yet… Love this stuff!!!!

[@JanusCycle]

KZbin has only just begun recommending my videos in the past two weeks. Before that I was getting almost no views for years!

[@MarioGoatse]

LMAO! Choosing Max Headroom for this was perfect! What a fantastic and extremely relevant reference!

[@KezKaz]

Hey, I liked your reference to the max headroom tv hack when sending Images over FM. 😂

[@staycurious8650]

Hi. Some years ago I had the idea of creating a lightning detector for android using the built in radio receiver on a device, long story short - could not find an effective route. Your video has given me some new impetus for one of my create-an-app-every-month-of-2023 challenge. Thanks

[@videshx818]

Wow !! This is so cool !! I will try this I also have a small FM transmitter device. Will see if that can be used instead of mobile with FM transmitter

[@Raptor50aus]

Great video thanks. Will buy an N8 this week :)

[@YENKOGT]

This channel is gold

[@JanusCycle]

cool, thanks!

[@gadgelt]

I was using this feature when I was in uni. Very handy to play when you have a good speakers at school but no bluetooth support.

[@tjnucnuc]

I knew about phones having FM radio capabilities. As for transmitters I had an LG Fusic flip phone and it had an awesome FM transmitter.

[@RTMonitor]

For a split-second, I knew that photo is from the Max Headroom Incident.

[@williama29]

my first time having a FM radio was actually a standard radio but later i got smartphones that have a enabled FM radio one brand of smartphones i have is Motorola on some models

[@DanDart]

As a radio ham myself, I love this kind of thing. I once owned an N900 which could transmit too.

[@Raderade1-pt3om]

BT as kid was magical

[@Flopster101]

I still use FM Radio and I believe every single phone should have an FM tuner! Like, come on, there's no excuse. I know that Xiaomi even includes an internal FM antenna with some phones, allowing you to use the radio without headphones!

[@JALC-x]

I never knew how important something as basic as radio is until I was too broke to pay for ppv football and realised I don't have a radio to listen to the free commentary, never thought I'd be pissed about not having an FM receiver on my phone

[@alphagaming1786]

I still have Nokia n8, working perfectly fine than my newest flagship phone and even has better quality video and photo capture than any of the phone i use today, Amazing. More than 15 years have passed. Lot's of memories in it.

[@ChandravijayAgrawal]

this is really new for me and interesting

[@JuanesChiwirosky]

Wow, this is really amazing!

[@the_mister_magister]

once i heard the sstv signal i was immediately like "Portal!"

[@austinorth5549]

As a young radio enthusiast i wouldn’t find an fm radio in my phone boring. It’s that mindset or the radio in your phone being “boring” is what’s killing FM radio.

[@pro5p3c7or1]

you deserve much more subscribers and views, your videos are really interesting i didn't even know that this was possible

[@alec4672]

I let out an audible chuckle when I realized what photo you used 😂😂 this video inspired me to figure out how to get FM on my Samsung Note 9 and turns out Samsung makes a stock FM tuner app for certain markets. So I just download the APK cloned the app with an app cloner and installed it. Works just like it would if I bought it in South Africa.

[@JanusCycle]

interesting, well done.

[@mokisan]

Where did you get the app from? And how did you clone it? Please don't share link as it might delete your comment.

[@adityabhushan3367]

All of us are in 2023 but this guy is way ahead in 1980.

[@andrewchristiansen8311]

Based on this video there is no reason why anyone should pay for SMS, the government should provide free FM radio SMS service and boost up the amount of towers as it travels farther. That way you can text in an emergency.

[@concr3t3]

"I just kept eatin'" I love your trailer park boys representation :D

[@YS_Production]

On why manufacturers don't always include an app to use the FM tuner - I heard that in the EU, a regulation states that any device with FM tuner capability is required to also have DAB tuner capability. I think it was a response from a manufacturer when asked why the radio app is present in ROMs for China but not in global ones (or along the lines).

[@mokisan]

Whats a dab tuner?

[@mrconnerleethomasmckue4842]

I once had a phone about 9 years ago which could be utilised as a walkie talkie sending and receiving radio waves between the other device

[@REAL-UNKNOWN-SHINOBI]

There's a reason why it's not advertised. It gives Samsung a reason to get rid of it and then once you complain, they're saying... Well it's not false advertising since we didn't advertise it in the first damn place. This is exactly what happened to Cellular band switching. Samsung devices used to let you do that until July of last year when they decided to get rid of band switching all together, and no one can claim false advertising since they never advertised it.

[@hdofu]

being 40, I can remember a time when FM was still billed as a feature on Portables.

[@gjeraldh2989]

This sstv format is really blowing my mind. Must’ve been difficult to make sure all the pixels are received

[@floofer6699]

sstv enthusiast/actual job use here... god, its been forever since ive even seen robot36 used as a encoding method. and, quite the clean result! (probally because you arent on a pirate station across oceans)

[@asandax6]

I have been trying to reverse engineer Xiaomi's FM radio app and it has been fun. I'm learning a lot.

[@Thessalonian]

Nice to see more that collect phones..:).....

[@derekdresser9214]

I have known older phones had built in FM radios but I never knew there was software that could take the signal and then transfer data over the FM radio

[@budi0251]

Sstv for HAM radio. Basically you can use any radio transceiver for that as they decode digital image into analogue audio. I did try using 2 android phones and 2 cheap FRS walkie talkie radio and they works. GMRS with higher power will be able to send image even further.

[@MrNicetux]

It is the same system i think what ships use to receive weather forecasts.

[@LuxurioMusic]

Don't know why I didn't think of SSTV when I clicked on the video. I find it so interesting!

[@id104335409]

Woooow, that is techno magic right there! So interesting!

[@tuckfuddyduddy]

Your N8 is a gem. It still has the OG Symbian^3 ❤

[@MagicPlants]

you deserve a sub just for your previous videos

[@legendsflashback]

10 microwatts - great Scott

[@bustarock666]

love watching your videos.... Your experiments are super interesting

[@JanusCycle]

I'm pleased to hear that you are enjoying, thank you.

[@TheRailroad99]

Many Sony Xperia phones also have the Transmitter. You just had to mod the software to enable it

[@JanusCycle]

If I had known this I might have used an Xperia in this video. Really interesting and something I want to explore one day.

[@NeonVisual]

FM transmitters, IR blasters, headphone jacks, all technology which would still be very useful today but instead it's just endless iterations of camera sensors.

[@MthaMenMon]

Well you could connect both devices using a 3.5mm jack, but in a way that audio output from one goes to audio input (microphone) from the other. Then use an app that plays data as audio and another app that decodes microphone audio into data.

[@charlesloukas1946]

You should interview Copthorne MacDonald the SSTV originator he is in his eighties

[@Jackpkmn]

Am I wrong here in thinking the FM radio isn't a required part of this you could just play the audio from the speaker of the silver phone and the black phone would pick it up and decode it yeah?

[@JanusCycle]

Yes, just the sound is enough.

[@MayanMe365]

You can use a Bluetooth fm radio transmitter

[@williamelewis464]

Same tech used by the military without the crypto keys, we’ve been able to do this for the last 37 yrs. It’s not new or groundbreaking. You should setup the SMS function that it can also do. Then figure out how to make a weird mesh network that we’ve also been using for the last 33 yrs based on the same tech. I love it when people see things for their first time and then find out is been improved by leaps and bounds.

[@gentuxable]

I remember there were some iPod-Addons that could transmit FM, seemed much more popular than phones that have them built in. I think it's because at the time the regular person had not that much storage space in a phone for a music collection.

[@metaphysica9984]

Good choice for music!

[@iamboredfor2months]

3:31 i recognised this image so quickly

[@fsocietyinc]

Great work

[@lefty2007]

This brings back memories of me using the radio on the iPod nano🤗

[@wisteela]

Superb. Subscribed. SSTV is great. I'm going to see if I can enable the radio in my Samsung Galaxy S5. Also, that boombox shown is the same one as Will's in Stranger Things.

[@Budgiebrain994]

Nice!

[@marconoboa1154]

I ve seen this before with the ISS transmiting eastereggs and commemorative images

[@hazemahmed8424]

Wow, this reminded me of the first time I use an "external" modem with my IBM 486. The first time using it was to transmit a photo to my friend over phone line using telnet 😅😅😅😅😂😂😂

[@Clydefoxy]

i knew there was a greater use to my LG Rebel 4! i can use its built-in radio transmitter to hear radio stations when im out on the beach!