[adamdoran]

Really interesting. What sort of hardware would be needed to use this?

[_Microft]

I know little about this but I think the device is called HackRF and costs about $350. It can act as a receiver and sender.

If you want to tinker with radio stuff for less money, you could start with a receiver only and try RTL-SDR. RTL-SDR is software-defined radio (=SDR) based on a particular RealTek (=RTL) chip. Suitable devices are as cheap as the right DVB-T USB receiver (check the list in the reddit-wiki for what might work and what might not) but there are more optimized devices for approximately $40 (un)available (because supply chain) - have a look at the rtl-sdr shop for those.

https://www.rtl-sdr.com/

https://www.reddit.com/r/RTLSDR/

[adamdoran]

Thanks, that's really useful. I had always wondered about the possibility of doing something like this with my children's various RF-controlled toys.

[_Microft]

You might like these two posts:

"Hacking My Ceiling Fan's Wireless Remote with a USB TV Tuner", https://www.riveducha.com/decode-wireless-signal-with-usb-tv...

"Abusing RPi GPIO pins as a radio controller", https://www.riveducha.com/raspberry-pi-gpio-send-radio-signa...

Have fun and if dad modding their toys gets your kids interested in hacking/tinkering then all the better.