Vintage Scanners - Radio not Computer

Brothers of Briar

Help Support Brothers of Briar:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Rob_In_MO

Smoker of Fine Aromatics
B of B Supporter
Joined
Jan 19, 2011
Messages
3,976
Reaction score
28
Location
Park Hills, MO
Ok, so this is one of my other hobbies that I occasionally enjoy.


rca10.jpg



On top is an old RCA 16S400 Crystal Scanner, found it a the local indoor flea-market for $20 and it was loaded with crystals already. I gave it a good cleaning, polishing, and treatment of De-Oxit, and good to go. Most of the traffic in my area is still analog, so Crystals work just as good today as they did back then.

Underneath is an old (1987) Realistic Pro-2004 Scanner. I've had it for a long time and all i've had to do to it is replace the backlight, which was a common failure in these particular models early on in their production release. Of course this one runs pretty-well 24/7.




This is my vintage Bearcat BC300. It's an old tank and has the most sensitive receiver of any scanner i've got. Running it off a modified Radio Shack 3-amp Linear Power Supply. Found this one at an outdoor flea-market for $30, just needed a good cleaning.

bc30010.jpg





Not shown are my Realistic Pro-38 and Realistic Pro-95 handhelds, gotta charge the camera batteries.

I run my rigs (whenever possible) off of DC power, since the scanners that do have an internal power supply generate heat from it, and this is just one less thing that could possibly go wrong. I run battery backup for my Ham Rigs and these, with solar panels and charge controller to keep the batteries charged and maintained. I do have a couple of Astron supplies if I do have to run the radios and the battery bank is down, but Solar with a pair of U1 SLA batteries do a pretty good job on their own. It's rare that I have to use a 110-charger on the batteries, but of course this is an option too.


Now why in the world would I mess with Crystals when i've got a few others that are programmable? Nostalgia I guess. Besides, the audio quality of these old rigs will put the newer digital models to shame! That Pro-2004 and my Bearcat BC300 will pick up stuff my newer one won't even think about - due to sensitivity levels and build quality. Like vintage stereo equipment that sounds a lot better than most of today's miniaturized crap, these are the same way.


Everybody collects something, this is one of my things...
 
Scanners are cool, I have some old Rat Shack handheld and an old Panasonic Hubcap Radio that scans the 130mHz - 150mHz range, but since Reno's EMS/Fire/Police have all gone to a "trunked" system (which I haven't delved into), I've given up on them. I prefer old MW/SW radios, honestly.
 
Somewhere in a closet sits a bearcat III alongside a IV,,,a 210, a five-six handheld, and a 15. There's a Uniden UBC 780 XLT kicking around here somewhere waiting for the new tricounty interoperable communications consortium network to become functional next month.

The III and IV receive much better than anything I've put them up against, and like you mention the audio is great. I'm not a collector, but resale is nil, and it doesn't cost me to toss them up on the shelf. I remember when the first primitive programables came out, One had punch cards to program frequencies. Regency had aluminum combs with teeth you had to break off in a specific sequence and insert to get the channel you wanted. Crystals are just old style reliable, and neat.
 
mark":2nq0tcja said:
Regency had aluminum combs with teeth you had to break off in a specific sequence and insert to get the channel you wanted.
Ah - the Regency Whamo.

I saw one of those at the Washington, MO Hamfest (not far from Missouri Meerschaum) a couple of years ago - looked near mint too. The guy even had the combs you setup the way you wanted for your desired frequency. He wanted $100 for it, combs and all.

Sometimes I think I should've went ahead and got it, but I didn't loose any sleep over it either. It is kind of cool, and was revolutionary at the time.


wam110.jpg
 
The big trick to crystal scanners is hoping that the frequencies represent something in your area when you buy them. Otherwise you have to buy crystals. Cool pastime though.
KD4AL
 
Megaluddite":y9xgiy07 said:
The big trick to crystal scanners is hoping that the frequencies represent something in your area when you buy them. Otherwise you have to buy crystals. Cool pastime though.
KD4AL
Yeah - I got lucky on a few of them with that RCA. Luckily there's a guy on eBay that sells them cheaply, and has quite a collection to choose from. He combined shipping, so it wasn't too painful either.

One trick that some people forget is that Regency, Realistic, RCA, etc. all use a 10.7 Mhz IF, while Bearcats use a 10.8 Mhz IF. If you get the crystal cut for the wrong IF, you're 100 Kc's off your desired frequency. Luckily the Bearcats are one of the very few that used the 10.8 Mhz IF.

73 de
af0h - Rob
 
I do have to say though, Rob, many of your old crystal-based scanners are downright sexy. I love those old analog knobs, switches and buttons, I just prefer them on synthesizers and shortwaves. :lol: That Regency is a honey. 8)
 
Top