Analogue Image Transfer: Phone To Phone FM Radio

[@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?

[@electronicsfixer]

It even works with baby monitors and grocery store walkie talkies if you are wondering as long as it's NFM or SSB but other modes could work too but the digital ones wont

[@electronicsfixer]

​@@MickeyMishranope way more than you think just look around amateur radio frequencies on my Openwebrx server linked in my channel bio

[@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?

[@xAlexZifko]

"like that time i recorded video onto audio cassettes" Instant sub midway through the first video ive seen of yours. Looks like youre into some neat projects man, glad to be here to see it.

[@jonny11bonk]

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

[@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.

[@maxyhusky2016]

That Sony Ericsson ( 5:44 ) was tuned to ZM 91.0 which is a mainstream radio station most prevalent in Auckland New Zealand. Very interesting to see

[@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.

[@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).

[@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.

[@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.

[@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!

[@jacobwortley]

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

[@gr29215]

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.

[@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!

[@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.

[@NemuiJin]

I love stuff like this. Fallout really got me interested in the idea of rigging up small infrastructure systems like local radio stations, Intranet systems etc with "junk" tech. I imagine in the world of Fallout they could use SSTV to send out Wanted posters to bounty hunters or survival guides to settlers in the wasteland via a radio station.

[@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.

[@electronicsfixer]

I do this on pmr446 while messing around two smartphones one running sstv encoder other robot 36 and it works surprisingly well even with the phone speaker screaming down the microphone of the transceiver

[@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

[@PAGANONYMOUS]

I wonder if FM SSTV cellphone receivers could actually be useful for anything? Such as weather maps for the area around the transmitter site maybe?

[@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?

[@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.

[@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

[@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

[@MarioGoatse]

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

[@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”

[@prozacgodretro]

Excellent choice for the first photo you transmitted!

[@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!

[@bortnik_bortnik]

I’m speechless. Great content 👍

[@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.

[@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.

[@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

[@aamarrahman8631]

Too many devices to carrying out

[@Lachlant1984]

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

[@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!

[@USBEN.]

Wow, something new once in a while is great.

[@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.

[@MrNicetux]

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

[@pro5p3c7or1]

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

[@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.

[@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.

[@pootpoint]

really informative, thanks for uploading such unique content!

[@JanusCycle]

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

[@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.

[@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.

[@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.

[@id104335409]

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

[@ChandravijayAgrawal]

this is really new for me and interesting

[@Raderade1-pt3om]

BT as kid was magical

[@Raptor50aus]

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

[@KezKaz]

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

[@DanDart]

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

[@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.

[@____.__._.._]

2:18 Actually i guess, the "antenna" necesity is not only physical (the chip is inside so even fm broadcast woudln't be too strong to get there), but the app is rather checking if there is a resistance change on the audio jack, am I right?

[@JanusCycle]

It's probably easier than resistance change. Audio sockets have a physical switch inside to turn off external audio when something is plugged in. Plugging anything in, even a rod of plastic is likely enough to activate the switch and turn on the radio. But without much reception because no antenna.

[@____.__._.._]

@@JanusCycle Ahh that makes sense, since this is the case with any audio jacks. I always thought that FM antenna is just inside the case, but not under the gsm radio shielding ofc. I always regarded this as a kind of producer's imposition.

My friend's Samsung can receive FM radio with a pair of Bluetooth headphones, LOL. It's just a silly software check.

[@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

[@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

[@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.

[@JuanesChiwirosky]

Wow, this is really amazing!

[@thisislilraskal]

Damn bro the audio quality it's amazing especially with headphones. Also, I kinda wish I saved all of my old phones, your collection is impressive mate

[@JanusCycle]

Thank you! audio is important and I don't always get it right, but hopefully getting much better.

[@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.

[@hansdampf2084]

Developing countries uhmmm in germany its also still available. Old or even new cars often dont have dab.

[@JanusCycle]

I get the impression FM is relied upon more in developing countries. I understand that it's still much in use elsewhere as well.

[@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.

[@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

[@adityabhushan3367]

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

[@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!

[@nextalias]

Loved the choice of images :)

[@MarekKnapek]

No Rickroll tho, disappointed.

[@ivannatinkle]

Catch the wave!

[@bustarock666]

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

[@JanusCycle]

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

[@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

[@Thessalonian]

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

[@metaphysica9984]

Good choice for music!

[@pixeluser175]

The part of running the FM receiver app to receive the SSTV image is misleading. The receiving phone just hears the audio from the speaker of the 'transmitting' phone.

[@JanusCycle]

I made sure the speaker volume was silent on the transmitting phone.

[@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.

[@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

[@concr3t3]

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

[@YENKOGT]

This channel is gold

[@JanusCycle]

cool, thanks!

[@asandax6]

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

[@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.

[@legendsflashback]

10 microwatts - great Scott

[@stryhuns]

What's the sick ambient song playing while image transmission happens? Tried to shazam it, obviously unsuccessful

[@JanusCycle]

It's a paulstretch remix of the end song :)

[@stryhuns]

@@JanusCycle many thanks, but what's the end song?.. I meant specifically what plays at 3:20

[@JanusCycle]

@@stryhuns Billy Idol - White Wedding (Virgin Magnetic Material Remix)

[@MrRenton88]

@@JanusCycle It too good to lost it, do you plan to upload it somewhere?

[@lefty2007]

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

[@MagicPlants]

you deserve a sub just for your previous videos

[@nevarDeathEHW]

I'd never heard of SSTV before! That is such a cool project! Did you try listening to music from the N8 in your car?

[@JanusCycle]

I'm glad you enjoyed this weird and fun project. I never actually had an N8 back in the day. It was just luck that I wanted to find a phone with an FM transmitter and had this old N8 that someone must have given to me.

[@nevarDeathEHW]

@@JanusCycle I understand. I was asking because you mentioned the range issues and I'm wondering if it could be used today as an mp3 player in the car. It's probably about as good as any other FM transmitter I've tried in the car :) looks like the N8's are cheap on ebay, might have to pick one up and try it.

[@rostyc]

5:28 aren’t there any FM-transmitter apps for Androids (even rooted ones)?

[@JanusCycle]

The only Android with an FM transmitter I know of is the Fujitsu from 2014. Most of the apps that incorrectly call themselves FM transmitters are just FM streaming apps.

[@gjeraldh2989]

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

[@hdofu]

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

[@thatwastakenagain]

what about the new ones like snap 8 gen 3 esp w/ different countries that has laws that require them to not hide it vs other phone brands

[@Cylur]

the music in this video is sick

[@H4lminator]

This is really interesting? Would this be something one can pick up from shortwave or something? With the right equipment of course? Provided someone would send something?

[@JanusCycle]

Yes, this has even been sent from the International Space Station for people to receive using a big antenna.

[@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

[@LuxurioMusic]

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

[@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?

[@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.

[@TattiePeeler]

I love FM.(Ireland) I am stuck with low to mid-range Motos and Samsung's, as a result. Do hidden FM phones have an antenna path? ..as in, having a trace to the headphone jack, if there is one, to use as an antenna.

[@JanusCycle]

That's a really good question I hadn't considered. It seems possible or even likely that during hardware design they include the antenna path. But during software localization the app is simply not included in the final release. I haven't ever heard of it not being included, even pre-iPhone 7 models. It does seem odd that Apple included the antenna path in iPhones when they have never used the FM feature. The only way to be sure is to test the phone.

[@TattiePeeler]

@@JanusCycle, I read that adding FM is a 'royalty' issue, I'm not sure that's the right word. The cost is about $10 US to the overall cost of the phone. A standards group? Certification? ..it seems odd there would be payments needed in this century, for such mature technology. Just to say, the likes of the Moto FM app allows recording in stereo .aac. A non headphones solution to playing back audio into the data transfer app?

[@JanusCycle]

I believe Robot36 can only input from the microphone. There would be ways to do it. ButI found the headphone method just so easy.

[@TheElcentralen]

had a nokia n8, one of my all times for the time most beloved phones. i used the radio broadcast feature a lot. had a cheap set of ear muffs with built in radio also used it in my old car/work van. it drained a lot of battery to use the radio broadcast system

[@RTMonitor]

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

[@be3max]

I remembered that there are many auto Bluetooth transmitters available, so to add transmit functionality to any android phone you could use it.

[@adityandesh]

Thank you for enlightenment