TV detector vans once prowled the streets of England

Re:TV detector vans once prowled the streets of England by beerandt on Monday January 18, 2021 @06:37PM (#25828078)

You say simply, but I think that's much more difficult than just detecting the presence of em noise conforming to a broadcast standard.

Anyone that's put an AM radio next to a CRT TV knows it emits em noise.

The CRT itself is, to over simplify, a high voltage capacitor. It's one of the most popular devices used to power hobbyist Tesla coils...

I don't know why everyone seems to think that just because TVs were "receive-only" devices, that they wouldn't emit any sort of easily detectable signal.

Also, when this enforcement began, broadcast was the only source of TV content, so the presence of a TV was generally proof of watching broadcasts. There wasn't really any need to prove the TV was tuned to any particular content.

Now, whether it is a practical, effective method of enforcement that was actually used is another matter.

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Re:TV detector vans once prowled the streets of England by scrooched_moose on Monday January 18, 2021 @06:55PM (#25828224)

Maybe poor phrasing on my part, but that's the prevalent theory I've seen for how they do it today. Various other methods of EM leakage might have worked in the past (unproven as far as I know), but modern televisions are so much better built that visible light leakage is believed to be the only effective detection method.

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Re:TV detector vans once prowled the streets of England by beerandt on Wednesday January 20, 2021 @11:31AM (#25848374)

Yeah, I wouldn't expect it to work on flatscreens, since they don't have the high voltage components wrt the CRT.

That said- it doesn't really have to do with being built better, just completely different.

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Re:TV detector vans once prowled the streets of England by raverbashing on Tuesday January 19, 2021 @03:23AM (#25831133)

You're thinking too much like an engineer

Here's my TV detection method: look at their windows and see if there's a light flickering pattern that looks like a TV (if behind curtains) or maybe you can see the TV

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Re:TV detector vans once prowled the streets of England by joosters on Tuesday January 19, 2021 @03:45AM (#25831265)

'TV Light Simulators' are actually a thing:

https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=tv+light+simulator&atb=v172...

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Re:TV detector vans once prowled the streets of England by raverbashing on Tuesday January 19, 2021 @03:55AM (#25831321)

Your point?

If you're trying to avoid being suspected of having a tv, that sounds as smart as trying to rob a gun store with a fake weapon

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Re:TV detector vans once prowled the streets of England by beerandt on Wednesday January 20, 2021 @11:35AM (#25848438)

Sure, but that doesn't require a van full of equipment. (If we're talking about historically.)

Looking for light would also only work until people found out about it, and violators covered their windows.

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