EEVblog

[@kaizen9451]

Bug detection you say? Will it work with my code?

[@MuradBeybalaev]

Will it work with my apartment though?

[@WurstPeterl]

Murad Beybalaev Not if your apartment has Windows.

[@brunoaamello]

Here in Brazil the legislative police - the ones in charge of congress security - have 3 or 2 times more bug detectors than the federal police, which usually is the one placing the bugs for corruption investigation....

[@Ccs4646]

Careful Dave. The batterbros might have installed some bugs in your lab...

[@tubical71]

No, it´s by far more spy vs. spy alike....: they hand dave this device for a teardown and make it non-working on purpose...Dave went inside and started that thing....as all these ICs on the main PCB aren´t there for the bug detection thing...this is only done by the frontend chips Dave investigated in that video... One of these chips sitting in the back of that board is in fact a little battery which is powering all the remaining DIL 14/16 chips which after all setting up a crazy mask-chopped 64-QPSK tripple times spread spectrum-a-rised signal, aired by that ugly "heatsink" from that 3 pin TO220 "transistor" which is actually a complete RF signal transmitter with the apperance of a "jelly bean" regulator.... And this "jeally bean" is also the key work to start the unit...as, we all know, Dave sais this about a thousand times in his Videos.... Now, Dave...don´t say "JellyBean" again, or cover the intire unit with tin-foil and cdisconnect the speaker, which act like a microphone...or better: microWave the whole thing but with the top cover removed, in order to be save from this dirty, ugly spy-unit.....

[@Heathmcdonald]

@LazicStefan and obviously most ppl haven't realized that yet.

[@GadgetReviewVideos]

It makes me wonder if bug detecting would be possible these day. If the bug is using standard wifi or common open license 2.4Ghz for cordless phones and speaker and many other things. How would you tell in a hotel room what is a bug or valid neighboring room, or hotel wireless thermostat or door key? For a corporate buisness then maybe it would work along with wifi detector scanner since you should know the MAC addresses of the company wifi access points, then with deduction you can figure out what wifi shouldn't be running and track the signal of the rouge wifi transmitter or router playing man in the middle. But this unit by itself would be dated. Still a neat tear down.

[@mattymerr701]

Just check what is on the network and maybe see if you can sniff any packets off of it. When you are on public WiFi you should always assume that _everything_ is listening. If you wouldn't be happy saying it out loud, don't send it over a public WiFi AP

[@spudhead169]

Some bugs don't even transmit until they are told to. They sit there just recording everything to flash memory and listening for an activation signal to start transmitting the stored data when it is convenient for the bugger.

[@GadgetReviewVideos]

mattymerr701 Thats what VPN is for to your home network, easiest thing in a oubliette wifi is DNS poisoning redirected to a local apache web server on your phone, or laptop, or anything these days. A lot can be done on public wifi. Sniffing packets only does you any good if you can break the encryption tunnel that might be used for transmitting the data.

[@TheP51pilot]

This company makes a detector today that can detect passive components of a bug.

[@GadgetReviewVideos]

SouthJerseySound Sounds like your old line if work is like my old line of work that I did for over a decade. I've learned the employee is the worst leak, and personal smart cell phones. They can record the conference and look like they are off, they don't need to transmit anything since they leave with the employee. Or a small recording device in someone's bag that you are close with. Slip the device on them, and retrieve it later when they come home. No such thing as 100% secure without violating people's civil rights. So the employees would have to agree to a search in and out of the building and leave the cell phones and personal devices behind. But even the. I figured out a way around that, medical devices like my glucose monitor with the guts replaced, or an insulin pump. I remember 5 years ago when airport security did a search on me once and they said "what's in this bag", I replied "Be careful, diabetic supplies and it has syringes in the case/bag". They never opened it from fear I guess, and just put it back.

[@Psychlist1972]

That feedback sounded like Rudolph's nose. :)

[@sikkepossu]

Why do you criticize the printed circuit board style? There's nothing wrong with it.

[@AgentOffice]

should've tried the transmitter

[@JohnWatkinsUK]

15:11

[@PleasestopcallingmeDoctorImath]

9:11

[@GregMcCarthyUK]

cool video. very interesting

[@whatthefunction9140]

#1

[@Tom_Losh]

What amazes me is that the unit is still available, and it costs $2600 USD! Quite a profit margin there, eh?

[@EEVblog]

+Tom Losh someone's making buck

[@philpem]

There's a lot of profit in fear.

[@kitcat2559]

$20 or so lil unit sold for $2600 =$2580 USD of profit

[@michelle5for]

One of these would have saved East Timor $5 billion from Australian mining companies

[@Halterung01]

When the NSA were counter-surveillance...

[@shmehfleh3115]

There's a van parked outside Dave's office right now, with the logo: Flowers By Irene

[@schofferbrothers3559]

Or PIONEER GLASS

[@stonent]

The right angle traces are because the light cycles ran out of room and had to turn simultaneously.

[@EEVblog]

Ah, makes sense.

[@Heathcliff_hensel]

stonent great Tron reference, what a classic!

[@shmehfleh3115]

Greetings, Program!

[@mikemoore7569]

I KNEW DAVE WORKED FOR THE CIA

[@Elec-DIY]

GNU/Bird was right!

[@funkyironman69]

I thought he was KGB?

[@OldF1000]

No you got it all wrong he is M.I.B

[@garywatson]

One company I worked for used fine sandpaper to rub the numbers off a chip - caused nearly 100% field falure which the F/A indicated was ESD damage to the die.

[@BB-iq4su]

Management idea no doubt. Used on beryllium oxide integrated circuits? Dust would be toxic.

[@NavinF]

@@BB-iq4su I love how Beryllium oxide is still a boogeyman in 2022 despite the fact that hardly any devices use it. It’s particularly hilarious in the context of microwave transformers.

[@agranero6]

In Chinese devices they burn the numbers with laser. See his video on the portable FNRSI scope.

[@OsmosisHD]

I was really hoping for some MILSPEC design with weird ass non-consumer available parts. But unfortunately this one is.. 110% commercial product. Ah well, still fun such devices

[@vylbird8014]

The NSA bug description says it was deliberately designed to use only commodity parts so that, if discovered, it would give no hint as to who made it.

[@OsmosisHD]

Yes that's true. For what I've seen. It's still definitely "different" than consumer grade. But nothing with a reference. Product/manufacturing codes. Regular off the shelf material(s) with a twist. same reason why the pcb photo in the NSA leak looks like homebrew.

[@electronicsNmore]

I always liked these kind of devices. Wow, 3 GHz for way back in the 80's is fantastic. I made Colin's crystal controlled bug on my channel, It worked perfectly.

[@Cashpots]

Do all Autralians have squeaky voices that get higher as they get more excited?

[@hassiand]

yes

[@EEVblog]

+Cashpot its called a high rising terminal, Google it

[@oldestnerd]

If you pull the chips off PCB there may still be part number on the bottom of the chips

[@EEVblog]

That's very 70's, but could be.

[@oldestnerd]

Yes. Back after TI came out with "the Speak-and-Spell" toy in the late 70s a company made an interface to allow a computer to send it command to speak. I bought one of the interfaces. The chips had part numbers removed, but they didn't remove part numbers from the bottoms. Later I contacted the company and asked some questions. They wondered how I knew what parts they used. I told them of their over-sight, Or if it's on the bottom of the chip would it be under-sight?

[@the_eminent_Joshua_E_Hrouda]

If not, then dissolve/grind the top off the IC(s) then take a microphotograph of the die. It will reveal itself then

[@ajawam]

About the Thing. Invented by the guy that designed the Theramin - the instrument in the Beach Boys Good Vibrations. Another interesting use for a parasitic/backscatter type system is the one used by Sensus for reading water/gas meters. In the early days of electronic metering, companies such as Schlumberger use a set of contacts on the digit wheels and provided clock/power to the meter head. It ran parallel conductors so most data ports for the collection wand had 14 pins. They realized that was fraught with issues so the went to a serialized 3 wire connection where the clock pin initially charges a cap, then clocks data out of the Moto digit reader IC. That was still problematic. So Sensus came up with a contact-less system using two coils encapsulated in plastic - one on the wand and one connected to the meter. Kind of like taking a transformer and separating the PRI/SEC. So the wand (we'll call it the PRI winding) would power the meter head via a carrier, in the kHz range. This would charge a cap, just like the three wire system did. Once the meter head powered up, it would then current modulate the load it presented on the SEC winding. The wand would see a start byte and read the current it was providing, then decode (manchester if I recall) the meter digit reading.

[@ExStaticBass]

You know I can't imagine one of those being terribly hard to build. I can also imagine it being easier with today's newer SMD components. In fact I bet you could make something that would go far beyond the range of that device if you had a mind to. I think that would be an interesting project to do just for the heck of it.

[@FennecTECH]

it will scream about wifi i bet lol

[@calfeggs]

Fennec Fox except 802.11a/ac/n5G wireless out of its range.

[@FennecTECH]

indeed but every router is compatable with a b and g most have n and alot have AC as well

[@calfeggs]

However if you're trying to spy, you can use a frequency outside of the range of the detector, which is widely available. But newer models probably have a much larger range.

[@FennecTECH]

why not simply use an frequency that is already occupied (like wifi band) and transmit intermitantly

[@vallorahn]

Fennec Fox The signal is very intense around the transmitter. Thats why you sweep. so whatever frequency, if its very intense around your flower pot, its clear that its no neighbours wifi. You might be able to get away with wifi in smart tv, but that should be turned off when the tv power cable has been removed. And when you have come to that you are searching for bugs, you'd like to unplug power cables of all (such) devices.

[@omgitzsteg]

This could be really useful for detecting bad microwave ovens and leaking electronics if you're doing safety checks or radio astronomy and other RF sensitive receiving work!

[@KennethScharf]

The man who invented that famous Soviet bug was none other than Léon Theremin, the inventor of the electronic musical instrument named after him.

[@nrdesign1991]

I bet he was forced to develop and build those things for the Soviet Union. After all he emmigrated to the US

[@simonrichard9873]

Give me one proof.

[@paulie-g]

He developed them after he returned to the Soviet Union from the US of his own free will due to concerns about the impending war (WW2). He went on to do R&D for the KGB, be a professor at Moscow State Conservatory and then a professor of Physics and Moscow State University. The Buran eavesdropping system (infrared beams pointed at glass, now done with lasers) was indeed developed while he was officially incarcerated, but he volunteered to continue working in research for the KGB after his release and this particular bug was developed during that time. More generally, Russians (ie people born in Russia, not just ethnic Russians) returning to the Soviet Union from the US, France etc despite knowing that they would likely be imprisoned (in Stalin's time) was far more common than could intuitively be expected. Several people in my family did so, in fact.

[@amk6266]

He worked in the US 1928-1938 and after than he lived in Russia till his death in 1993. He was quite a funny guy, Theremin joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1991 because he said "I promised Lenin", haha.

[@lb5tr]

From NSA doc: > Room audio is picked up by the microphone and converted into an analog electrical signal. Isn't microphone output analog anyway?

[@CommodoreFan64]

I remember seeing one of these on an episode of Miami Vice as a kid in the 80's, and thinking how cool it looked. So yeah it's cool to see a teardown of one. Thanks Dave. :-)

[@SamZeloof]

Sure they're not RF Fets instead of dedicated amp chips inside the probe antenna amp thing?

[@tohopes]

I need one of these. A bug crawled into one of my wireless outlet relays and fried it (and itself) : /

[@rocketman221projects]

It seems like you would be better off just using a spectrum analyzer and antenna for bug sweeping. You could tell a lot more about the signal you are looking at. I can't believe they want $2000 for a few jellybean op amps and a microcontroller.

[@videosuperhighway7655]

Well the market for these items is small cant stay in business if you sell 300 of these for 100 bucks. Small volume means higher price.

[@uriituw]

Didn't James Bond have one of these in a watch or something?

[@AgentOffice]

uriituw idk I focused on the women

[@fester01]

lol .. ive noticed ,, on every vid you do ,, no matter who made the product ,, all you do is ridicule , either by the way its built , or by the parts used ,, mostly both , has any one made anything thats to your satisfaction ?? further more , wtf have you built ??

[@tohopes]

Have you done a fundamentals video on diode detectors? I think that would be a good topic.

[@JLSoftware]

And where was the diode in this unit?

[@martinborman4195]

There were two OA81 germanium RF detector diodes right next to the input. Reasonably sensitive, but to be honest, this is cheap shit. A good and really sensitive detector would use Gallium Arsenide front end FETS (Field Effect Transistors) and switchable band RF filtering, then more GasFets giving extra gain from the lossy filtering and so on. Easy stuff really. Personally I'd go for phase and doplar, much more sensitive and super accurate pointing. Dave hats Hams, don't you Dave?

[@JLSoftware]

Help/I/am/being/eaten/by/aliens Thatsnottrue He hates hams? What, he's got one next door with a 150-foot tower, 1.5 kW homebuilt amp, and it messes up television reception?

[@martinborman4195]

Then he knows nothing about RF filtering and and RF suppression of any kind. A clean PA is a clean PA. A crappy receiver is just that, a crappy receiver. A good receiver will have RF suppression built in. I'm not saying the receiver will not be desenced, it likely will. However, 1.5 KW is not much power and using the inverse square law shows that power radiated to none-resonant antenna will be many Dbms down anyway. it's only going be 12vVm anyway.

[@johnconrad5487]

"1.5 KW is not much power " LOL. I used to be a radio officer on a cargo ship. I had a main transmitter of 300 WATTS!!!!! and used to connect to Sweden from off shore South Africa. It gives u some perspective of how much 1500 Watts is when u live next door to it.

[@robertgift]

What is wrong with right angle traces? Is there an advantage to curved over right angle? Thank you.

[@EEVblog]

+Robert Gift its a joke. But right angle traces are bad practice for professionals. No basis reason any more, just, because.

[@thegoodhen]

I think it has something to do with that black magic of antennas (or is it antennae?) because right angle traces contribute to undesired emissions and somehow cripple the signal integrity at higher frequencies.

[@robertgift]

thegoodhen (I spell it antennæ.) With lightning rod down conductors, it is best to make the conductor curve gently. Otherwise it seems thathelectricity has mass and may leap (fly offrom) a sharp curve.

[@apostolosmavropoulos177]

that's why they also use spherical electrode terminals in high voltage facilities

[@robertgift]

Apostolos Mavropoulos Yes. I round and smooth everything on my large Tesla Coil to minimize corona discharge. Years ago when I was putting screen on a metal fireplace chimney flue, as I cut the 1/2-inch galvanized screen, I could hear electrical discharges from its sharp points. I.ntentionally kept my hat off so that my fine hair could rise, indicating an electrical field. It did not rise. There were gray clouds overhead. No rain or lightning.

[@GearAcquisitionSyndrome]

Hey, Dave, maybe it's the part of the circuits that biases the amplifier front end, it would explain why neither probe works, but it can still pickup signals

[@kaszak696]

Up to 3 GHz? Does that mean it will start freaking out in a room with WiFi?

[@therugburnz]

The ' rigged ' resistors are a small problem BUUUT that heatsink is cool by me. I don't mind physical 'fixes'. In my business ( live musician) as long as it works tonight good. One can replace the duck tape and bubblegum capacitor on Monday. ( that's musicians weekend).

[@Bobby-fj8mk]

Hi Dave, you might be able to repair that in one hour by looking for simple things e.g. DC available in the probe to those 2 transistors? You could also inject a signal via a cap into the detector or after the detector.

[@lednerg]

I remember that thing from an episode of Miami Vice.

[@luppa79]

When I first saw this on the mailbag video, I instantly remembered the Miami Vice episode with the playing-for-both-teams-bug guy! I remember the guy somehow modded the gear so he could listen to music while sweeping instead of noise/beeps. Was this model of device actually visible on the episode?

[@TechTechnoJ]

Several of REI's products have been on numerous TV shows. Including most recently Madam Secretary Season 1 Episode 14. :) Burn Notice, Stargate SG1, Miami Vice, and a few others.

[@SamFugarino]

Merry Christmas Dave! For unto us a child was born The Messiah who saves the world May your Christmas be great as ever in the light of the Savior’s love May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

[@anumeon]

It Looks about the size of a 5.25" device for a computer. Wouldn't it be cool to use it in a casemod perhaps? Maybe a power on switch and a fanspeed indicator for the lcd? or something similar.. Cool video Dave..

[@babyflurryheart9114]

my post cold is LL229YZ In the UK

[@Teukka72]

Have you tried UV or IR light to see if anything shows wrt the rubbed off markings?

[@Wruff]

jokes on you I have an uncle named Bob

[@EEVblog]

+kaleb33497 so do I

[@lawrencel3188]

I watched a 'government employee' sweep our communications center in the 60s in the Air Force. It was a small portable device but did have a maybe 2-3" CRT and he manually scanned many bands watching the CRT. No bug found and he left. Nice job I guess if you like to travel.

[@videosuperhighway7655]

That instrument he used was most likely a CEI RS-111 and it cost as much as an expensive automobile. It was also used during Watergate Scandal when Mccord purchased it for 17K in cash(inflation adjusted) he took the label off but accidentally forgot to discard the calibration sheet that spelled out the corporate name. NSA was pissed off big time because it brought light on the company and media attention to the product line, something the NSA was not happy about because they were a huge customer of theirs. The company was called Watkins Johnson. The company no longer exists unfortunately, bought out by the Italians and product line pretty much gone.

[@wisteela]

I like that basic circuit board layout

[@NivagSwerdna]

Firstly, electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/226582/pcb-90-degree-angles. The right angle trace business is an urban legend. Secondly, what a pile of dingo droppings... Isn't the real approach to tickle the junctions of the transistors in the clandestine devices with RF, i.e. actively search for them not to passively listen for them? Thirdly, 'The Thing' is an amazing bit of engineering.

[@John_Ridley]

Dave knows it's an urban legend, he's said so before. He's joking.

[@NivagSwerdna]

Ah. OK! Missed that!

[@leandrolaporta2196]

nice episode dave!, could you please check if the unit is sending DC to the AMP? maybe that's the problem, sometimes someone shorts for some reason the input and since it's feeding DC maybe something blow up on the unit and not feeding DC anymore, so, AMP won't work. probe probably uses something like a MAR-6/ MAR-8 maybe? high res photos of both sides of the board would be nice to figure it out what those IC's are, there are a couple that are easy to spot hehe.

[@rbus]

I got a really old one. Had it for 10 years and put it aside thinking it was part of a depth finder. When I found it again, I was going to chuck it when I decided to look up the name on it and couldn't find a single mention of the model or even the company. Just a black box with a large LED dot matrix that shows intensity range of frequencies and a few knobs.

[@Bakamoichigei]

I love that nowadays you can do at least as much (probably far more, and with far more useful feedback) with a $5 SDR USB dongle for your PC. (Which can actually also be used with any Android phone or Raspberry Pi now)

[@andystein106]

I'm just curious is the Counersurvalence Monitor or any of the equipment in the NSA brochure legal to own ? I'm from the USA

[@ntoobe]

Interesting vid, Dave! What's also interesting (at least to me) is that The Thing is designed by Leon Theremin. Impressive!

[@zaidhussain5206]

Really informative & as you say a simple device for big job, it is amazing how simple the RF circuitry equipped in the device probe , thank you for his video

[@alancordwell9759]

The 8 pin chips chips are going to be low noise op-amps like TL071s or something that was reasonably good back in the day. Half the gain in the thing is going to be in the audio stages hence the noise. NB that it won't demodulate true FM, you get feedback with that test TX purely because being a fairly crude device it produces as much AM as it does FM.

[@nlo114]

I worked for a company that built a similar sort of thing. Our product had a built-in blocking oscillator that charged a polycarb cap up to 400-ish volts, then used a thyristor to dump it on a coil that you held near the bug. There was sufficient joules in the ringing field to zap any small electronics with tuned circuitry. The other option was to ground one end of the cap and dump it on the bug itself via a probe. (keep fingers clear!)

[@DustinRodriguez1_0]

Back before people knew security through obscurity fundamentally doesn't work. Some still haven't learned!

[@Ts6451]

I am thinking that the bug you looked at in that document is designed to be as anonymous as possible, if you are in the intelligence business, you obviously do not want to leave stuff about that can be traced back to you, or that you have to take the extra risk of recovering after the operation is over. So, it is probably designed to look like something anyone with a little electronics knowledge could cobble together from readily available parts.

[@Minifig666]

Perhaps the frontend is simply swamped by WiFi and other loud local RF sources? It would be interesting to see how it behaves somewhere more radio quiet outside the lab.

[@frabert]

The retroreflector is similar to a completely mechanical version of it made by the Leon Theremin which used a metallic strip and a cavity to modulate an rf signal using the vibration from speech: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thing_(listening_device)

[@kalleguld]

Another great video. Especially the retro-reflector part. Maybe you could cover that in greater detail in another vid.

[@TheP51pilot]

Oh man I got to tour REI's facility my freshman year of college. as of current for all of their products they are hand assembled, other than most of the PCB's.

[@henryyang478]

is that a custom LCD screen?kind of overkill for a device like this.make it almost like a mass produced toy

[@SianaGearz]

1988. There weren't really standard displays you could use, and it was possible to spin up custom LCDs for smaller series more economically. Time has not yet come for stock graphics LCDs, and the HD44780 controller for text LCDs only just came out, it wasn't widespread, and such controllers were high-end for the time and were reserved for almost laptop-like things. At the end of the day, it's a cheaply made item sold expensively, which is not untypical for the industry.

[@chrismr3972]

The 'normal' way to do this is to take a square wave local oscillator and turn the edges into pulses, a few picoseconds wide. That goes into a diode mixer which is effectively sampling the input at the rate of the local oscillator. Say you had a 10MHz local oscillator, everything at multiples of 10MHz then beat down to base band - thousands of channels. If you pass that output through an FM discriminator the capture effect means that the strongest signal wins and so the discriminator will pull the local oscillator towards the strongest out of all the thousands _at the same time_ which is neat. The problem being that there are lots of strong signals around so you have to wave the antenna to make sure the bug is the strongest. I don't know if that's how this example works or not but it does look to have enough diodes to make a mixer - maybe one of those chips is an FM discriminator? A simple diode detector would be very easily swamped in an environment where there was lots of RF.

[@tubical71]

i thought just se same, seeing all these DIP 14/16 packages in the back....

[@chrismr3972]

That 'normal' way has some caveats to sort out like the polarity of the local oscillator control voltage can be the wrong sense so when the strongest signal pulls the control voltage off one end you have to flip the control voltage polarity, like a triangle wave Without wishing to be pernickety, the second half of the video is on about scattering antennas rather than 'like RFID'. RFID is essentially a loosely coupled transformer, a scattering antenna is completely different in that it works by interrupting the electrostatic field, rather than the electromagnetic field as in the case of RFID, and has the great advantage that it works over much longer distances.

[@chrismr3972]

The user manual says this unit can demodulate FM transmitters - a simple diode detector couldn't do that even at close range - it also says that the input sensitivity is -85dBm

[@NGinuity]

@9:55, I bet that's part of a diode ring mixer.

[@MartinPHE]

looked like an electrolytic was bloated. prolly just test and replace them and it'll work.

[@jcobnl]

Rubbing the lcd-driver ic numbers off? Even the regulators are sanded? Okay, what's next? sanding the resistors? cut the capacitor shrinkwraps? weld the case shut? Potting the whole unit? Super secret stuff, whohoo.

[@glennsprigg2378]

I know this video is old now, but I don't get why Dave laughs at the PCB tracks ?? What's wrong with all this "90-deg" corners etc ???. I don't know if it was done on an actual 'Computer' back then, but I remember 30 odd years ago having to use special black TAPE on a drafting table to make tracks. Simplest way was best. :-)

[@kevinleesmith]

OMG. You first tell us you'd like to show it to us working but... then we have to wait for 3 minutes while you waffle on about other things before you actually tell us why you can't show us it working. OMG. 1 then you tell us you're going to tear it down and then spend another 4 minutes waffling on before you start tearing it down. OMFG!

[@martinborman4195]

I noticed there were two OA81 germanium RF detector diodes right next to the input. Reasonably sensitive, but to be honest, this is cheap shit. A good and really sensitive detector would use Gallium Arsenide front end FETS (Field Effect Transistors) and switchable band RF filtering, then more GasFets giving extra gain from the lossy filtering and so on. Easy stuff really. Personally I'd go for Phase and Doppler, much more sensitive and super accurate pointing. Dave hats Hams, don't you Dave?

[@gazzaboo8461]

Bit redundant these days when your own phone, computer, TV could be compromised and when bazillions are bugging themselves with Alexa, Siri and Echo. Plus all the security cameras, doorbell surveillance, trackers and everything else people put inside their own homes. It's funny how cold-war paranoia used to be, now everyone almost expect to be bugged and tracked. 😂

[@UberAlphaSirus]

I recon the probe voltage injection part on the front end is bust.

[@AndyHullMcPenguin]

Most likely point of failure is the coax cable itself. Check the connectors and also check to see if the DC component is actually there on both ends of the coax.

[@UberAlphaSirus]

could well be, but the wall socket probe doesn't work either. I doubt it's main powered.

[@KuntalGhosh]

do you have any pice of computer hardware which you want to sell i can buy like ddr2 rams lga775cpus motherboards gpus anything resonable i will buy from you guys and i will pay the shipping charges please help me to have a better computer than p4 2gb ram 80gb hdd

[@jcobnl]

In The Netherlands all police vehicles are equipped with a detector for hidden radar detectors in cars. They are called radar detector-detectors (no kidding} Okay, they only work at some more narrow frequency band, but i think they work quite similair...

[@yottaforce]

I don't get what's so funny about the layout. I wouldn't expect these devices to be sold in huge amounts. With small volume products development costs will have a huge influence. That includes re-spinning the board. The quality of the device can be perfectly fine even though you have a couple of wires and "add on" components like you seen. I certainly won't criticize unless I know the economy behind the product.

[@daa3417]

Cold War stuff .gov would pay anything you’d like to charge for devices like that, so they were made as cheaply as possible and sold to .gov at a huge profit.

[@teds9896]

Wouldn't be worth a lot these days with any sophisticated surveillance which would record and then only transmit very intermittently...if at all. Welcome to the world of digital technology and masses of electronic storage.

[@Keith_Ward]

Website indicates the product is discontinued. Maybe if you contacted them and pleaded you could get access (but not share it) and then repair. Unlikely, but worth a try.

[@UmbreWolf]

As bad as this sounds, I would very much hope government agencies that used equipment like this where getting screwed out the ass on a price for this thing, as bad as they rip us from taxes every year.

[@docpedersen7582]

1N60P diodes near as good or better than 1N34 germanium as RF detector. Just an FYI.

[@videosuperhighway7655]

they rubbed off the numbers off a bunch of 555s, Opamps and 74xx bog standard chips 😂

[@dieboodskapper]

AND NOW THEY JUST SWITCH ON YOUR COMPUTER MIC.....EH?

[@stonecold7945]

Why are right angle traces bad?

[@jrmbayne]

Stone Cold7 the electrons fly off the corners were you not even listening?

[@KRich408]

Wouldn't a SDR radio do the same thing and more for a lot less money?

[@kaizen9451]

Those numbers at @10:34 the bottom part is a date? 09.08.88?

[@God-CDXX]

Bond would love this.. 007 that is

[@fly-high-me]

Bond has the same but integrated in watches

[@mouldypretzel]

You sound like the guy who sells the transformer ladder on TV

[@hannonm]

prolly some JRC 8 pin amp IC's

[@EEVblog]

Probably!

[@mtktm]

Could not be working because of wifi interference. It operates are 2.3 ~ 5.8 ghz. The wifi routers that advertise to work at 5 ghz, they operate in the range mentioned.

[@TheOysterjam]

i didnt know you were a grammar nazi

[@scottfirman]

I have seen these available so yup they are out there.

[@johndrachenberg2254]

Crank your speakers and skip to 15:15 to annoy the hell outta your cats.

[@felenov]

Right angle traces, all the electrons just gonna fly off the corner

[@trcostan]

You should inject a signal into the antenna port. See what she does

[@thekaiser4333]

Did it detect your mobile or wifi? If not, its rubbish.

[@JSchrumm]

I am betting radar activated bugs more popular.

[@stephenborst3535]

More than likely "Motorola " pills in the hand wand .

[@twocvbloke]

I guess today the simplest way to de-bug a room would be a nice EMP blast to fry anything electronic within the vicinity, or just don't talk openly about secret squirrel spy versus spy stuff... :P

[@johnbellas490]

Yes, Kind of reminds me of the 007 James Bond MOVIES !!!!! But anyway I worked for I.B.M. during the late 1970's into late 2007 and aa I remember during the time of about 1980 - 1981 There was a case where there was some industrial espionage that happened a some proprietary info was stolen from the East Fishkill N.Y. site where I worked !!! Industrial Espionage, yes it does happen !!! BTW Dave I wish you and your family and Sagan A most Joyous Holiday / Merry Christmas/ Happy New Year!!----------------------- John A Bellas ------ KC2UVN

[@shurdi3]

Won't this detect any wi-fi router in the vicinity?

[@jj74qformerlyjailbreak3]

They seen them people coming when they made that thing.

[@punker4Real]

you could always record it then trasmit later. with 256gb micro sd cards makes it easy

[@God-CDXX]

they did not have sd cards in the 80's

[@Zadster]

256GB of flash would store 4.25 years of continual audio at 16kbit/s, or 25 years in a room used 4 hours a day! Mind you, by then it would be kinda out of date. Instead they just install backdoor software in your laptop / phone / pc / tablet OS that streams audio from the mic through the net. Much easier.

[@waterskierjohn]

what happened to "dont turn it on, take it apart" ?????

[@exectech]

The white box units date way back, I think to the early 90's, so you are looking at decades old design work. REI does excellent work these days. That said, the cpm700 is still used by professional sweep teams today- but, it is only one of many tools needed to do a proper job. If you hire someone to do a sweep and all they have is a cpm they don't know what they are doing and you waisted your money.