sg@hou2a.UUCP (S.GROSS) (06/18/84)
I'm looking to buy a scanner. Can anyone out there give
me any information? For example, what do people on the
net own?
I guess the choice is either Bearcat or Regency. I'm
thinking of spending about $200. I can buy the Bearcat
210XL for that price. The only thing that disturbs me
is that most scanners at that price don't have the
118-136 aero band. Is this not a popular band?
Anyway, please send or post any info. Thanks!
wwmartin@brl-tgr.ARPA (Will Martin ) (06/19/84)
I own a couple different Regency scanners, and have bought and tried another model Regency before giving it to a relative. A co-worker has a Regency which he has discussed with me. I have had a Bearcat crystal scanner and have read some discussions of Bearcat programmables. The other brands to keep in mind are JIL and Radio Shack. Regency, Bearcat, and JIL are all available from discounters and mailorder houses, both true wholesalers and quasi-wholesalers (ones who act like wholesalers but happily sell to anyone, even without a business name), so list prices on all these are meaningless and you should either buy strictly by price comparisons (and be prepared to handle any warranty repairs or problems yourself), or resign yourself to paying more at a local dealer to have someone to handle problems or complaints. Because of the easy availability of lower-priced models in these three brands, I have never paid attention to Radio Shack, as you have to pay either a fixed price or catch these on sale, and even on sale they are more than the others. OK, enough intro. My Regency models have all worked fine. All were bought from wholesalers by mail-order, and worked OK out-of-the-box. The models were the K500, K100, and ACT-W-10 with Digital Frequency Selector. All of these are now discontinued. THe K500 has a bunch of pre-programmed frequencies, 40 user-programmable channels, and various features. The K100 is similar with fewer goodies. The other is an unusual model which uses metal combs plugged into sockets on the rear panel which short out a diode matrix for frequency programming, and also an external box with switches to select the frequency for one memory. The K500 & K100 are plagued with a number of birdies, spurious oscillator frequencies which behave like an unmodulated carrier and interrupt searches and prevent reception on those frequencies. Those birdies are my main gripe with these programmable Regency models. I believe newer models have improved this condition, but I know no details. The co-worker's Regency (I believe an M400) has been back and forth to the factory for repeated repair of a bad membrane keypad. My K500 has a similar keypad but worked fine. I don't know if it is a "lemon" situation or a difference in subassembly design. I have read comments regarding the programmable Bearcats in the newsletter of the International DXers Club of San Diego, written by the late Larry Brookwell. (This club is now in limbo following Larry's death in December 83.) Larry had a couple Bearcat models and talked with dealers, and reported a seeming tendency to unreliability. His were back for repair repeatedly, and he reported that dealers said this was common. The crystal Bearcat I had I gave to my mother after getting my first programmable; the audio on it was never clear enough to suit me. I believe that the crystals might have aged or been cut slightly off-frequency. The JIL models have wide frequency coverage, but I believe they all use external plug-transformer power supplies, which I dislike. I have no info on their performance or reliability. Based on the above, I continue to recommend Regency. I may buy a Bearcat if I could get a big enough bargain, though, just to try the different design and approach. None of my scanners have the aircraft band, and I would like to have this. However, I do not think that it is as popular as the other ranges, for several reasons. 1) It is AM, not FM, which adds circuitry and cost to the scanners that have it; 2) Unless you are an aviator or aviation buff or live near an airport, there is little to be heard except aircraft in flight, which transmit briefly on many different frequencies and who seldom say anything interesting, unless you luck out in hearing a skyjack or disaster. However, having that band is necessary to using scanner accessories, such as the "Globe-Scan" shortwave converter, which lets you use your scanner as a digital-readout shortwave receiver, or the "Scanverter" which converts the military UHF 200-400 MHz range to the aircraft band. (Both of these are from Grove Enterprises.) Whew! Hope the above was of interest! Will
mikey@trsvax.UUCP (06/22/84)
#R:hou2a:-36900:trsvax:52800021:000:1776 trsvax!mikey Jun 22 09:49:00 1984 If your Bearcat crystal scanner was unclear, were you using standard crystals? If you were, that was the problem. I used to be in retail and sold scanners as part of my line. Bearcats at that time used a different IF (10.8 as opposed 10.7 MHz) I don't know if that is still true, but it would be a good idea to check. I know of a few people that just calculated the crystal frequency and then ordered a standard crystal at an offset, like 154.570 when you really want 154.470, or something like that, but it still was off. I think that the Bearcat used different capacitance on the crystal or something. I'll admit I'm not a fan of Bearcat. The only scanner that I like of theirs is there new RS-232 scanner that is computer programmed, but I've heard that the program only comes on the C64 and it is VERY SLOOOOWWWWWWWW! If you wrote your own on another computer, it MIGHT be faster. Before you buy any scanner, you should look into the features that are not really stressed, but you will have to dig in the manuals for. Things like in search mode, will the scanner track to the center frequency, or will it lock and sit on the edge, giving only a lot of noise. Personally, I own a Radio Shack PRO-2001, but that was as much a matter of company loyalty as it was the scanner quality back in 1978. However, all loyalties aside, my next scanner will be either the Radio Shack portable programmable or the new Regency that offers CONTINUOUS coverage of VHF and UHF. I haven't really investigated the Regency yet, but I'm interested in the 220 MHz ham band, and it will cover it. When I get enough money saved, I'll have to decide if I want portability or coverage, assuming the Regency is up to snuff, quality and feature wise. mikey at trsvax (KA5MJQ)
parnass@ihuxf.UUCP (Bob Parnass, AJ9S) (06/24/84)
> Bearcats at that time used a different > IF (10.8 as opposed 10.7 MHz) I don't know if that is still true... Yes, it's still true. The first IF frequency in crystal controlled Bearcat scanners is 10.8 MHz. The synthesized bearcats have first IF's of 10.8 and 10.85 MHz (e.g. early and late BC-250). > The only scanner that I like of theirs is there new RS-232 > scanner that is computer programmed, but I've heard that the program only > comes on the C64 and it is VERY SLOOOOWWWWWWWW! If you wrote your own > on another computer, it MIGHT be faster. The Compuscan (TM) demonstrated to our club was driven by an IBM PC. This setup operated about as fast as a BC-250, a reasonable speed. A review of the Compuscan in Monitoring Times complained of slow performance when a C64 was used as the controller. The receiver board in the Compuscan is the same as used in the BC-300 and BC-350. The feature board differs in these scanners. -- ========================================================================== Bob Parnass, AT&T Bell Laboratories - ihnp4!ihuxf!parnass - (312)979-5414
wmartin@brl-tgr.ARPA (06/25/84)
In case anyone cares, those new wide-coverage Regency scanners are actually another Japanese-brand line with Regency nameplates applied. There was some discussion in Monitoring Times a few issues back; I'll try to remember to look up what the real manufacturer's name is. Will PS Re the "unclear" Bearcat crystal scanner -- that was the first scanner I bought, when I was young and naive, and the crystals were those procured and installed by the dealer before I received it. Have no idea from whence they came... WM
parnass@ihuxf.UUCP (Bob Parnass, AJ9S) (06/28/84)
The new Regency continuous coverage scanners are made by the Japanese firm AOR, the same folks who make the Tempo S1 and S5 2 meter handie- talkies. -- ========================================================================== Bob Parnass, AT&T Bell Laboratories - ihnp4!ihuxf!parnass - (312)979-5414