One of the things that I have been waiting on since my birthday is this odd $20 USB TV tuner for Europe. Why would someone in the US want a TV tuner that won't work you may ask. Well because someone figured out how to get chunks for raw radio signals out of it and have your computer sort them out into a useful signal.

Basically my computer has become an FM radio that picks up signal from ~64mhz to ~1.0 Ghz. Not only can I listen to normal FM transmissions but I can see all the signal activity around the signal I am listening too. I can listen to the local amateur radio repeating and watch for any other amateur radio transmissions at the same time.

It is going to be fun to travel with. Normally I bring a scanner to see what I can hear They are a pain in the butt in seek mode because they can lock on to sources of static. With this I just watch the display for activity and tune in.

There are some other interesting projects going on using adapters like the one I have. Someone managed to rig up a gps receiver from one.

Normally something like this costs ~$180.

Edited for many mistakes. Posting while sleep deprived was a bad idea.