2 - They were popular "back in the day" because they were among the first programmable scanners (as opposed to crystals). My dad has owned 5 of these radios going back to the 70s and gave me one to listen to railroads when I was a kid. And yes, with age, comes issues with these scanners. I had trouble with the backup battery in mine even after I changed it. And on another one I know, if you change the volume or the squelch it will short and delete all the channels! LOL
1 - The first scanner in the video is just a Bearcat 210, not a Bearcat 210XL, but the second one was. They're actually two different models (but not much different) and there was a third model in the line called the 210XLT.
The original 210 came out around 1978 or so and was 10 channels. The 210XL came out around 1981 or 82 and was 16 channels. The 210XLT came out around 1985 and was 40 channels.
This question doesn't have anything to do with radio scanners, but it does have to do with displays which you seem to have a big interest in, so here goes. What do you think of OLED display screens?
@Lachlant1984 OLEDs are an interesting technology. So far as I know, they haven't really taken off, probably due to issues with uneven lifetimes for each of the display's color elements.
@Lachlant1984 The radio with the red display acts rather goofy at times, and sometimes it just jumps to an illegal or nonsensical frequency. "Error" is a valid indication on these units, normally used when the entered frequency cannot be tuned to.
as a kid I saved up to buy one of the earlier Bearcat 8 ch crystal type radios in the 70's. around 150.00 then 20.00+ for each channel I wanted. I was so jealous when the newer radios came out, after having a box of un-needed crystals for every time I wanted to add a freq to my radio.
I bought one for $1 at a rummage sale. Cleaned it up with a total recap, touched up and reflowed a great many solder joints and finally replaced the thin foam under the keypad. Works great now. Same model as yours. Production code-P3781
@cornpucker1 Cool. I'm going to try recapping the set with the red display in this video. It "wants to" work, so I think whatever is bugging it must be fixable. My only worry is that someday the microcontroller may forget its programming...
They where a great radio. Mine never shut off for YEARS. Then one day I thought "things are pretty quiet." It just stopped receiving one day and that was the end of that.
@Wa3ypx Yes they were. Most of the problems they have are also fixable. I'd guess that yours had a power supply failure.
Out of all the units I've seen, only one had a major internal failure. It was the victim of a lightning strike. It would still power on, but the microcontroller had seemingly lost it.
I almost bought 1 like your red LED display at a garage sale to use in my bedroom (I have 2 tabletop units) but the lady selling it wantd $40 for it and I thought that price was outragous for it, SHe also wanted to get paid for pre-programmed
@uxwbill I tried to bargain with her (she was an elderly lady) and I even offered her $15 but she still wouldn't take it. SHe said it was preprogrammed and she probably wanted to get paid to have it programmed. I told her I could buy a brand new one for $40 and she siad no you can't.
@Paulywint There was some guy who posted on the ARF antique TV forum with an ancient top loader VCR from the late 70s wanting to sell it, his price? $125 I found one of those in the free pile at a garage sale near the end of the day. As Rick James once said "Cocaine is a hell of a drug".
I never knew Duracell used to be Mallory, lol. Would these scanners work in the UK? ...The Stutz cars are all very impressive if you ask me, so their owners would probably want to make sure the cops weren't on their tail when they're speeding :P
@midtown292 Yes, at one point Duracell was a division of Mallory.
So far as I know, these scanners have flexible enough tuning that they should work equally well in the UK...having a power supply of the proper voltage would be more of a concern. You'd need a step-down transformer for this unit.
My father is into scanners. Always has the latest and I think he had (might still be here!) one of these Bearcats for many years. Now he has the latest Radio Shack portable model with trunk tracking, 700Mhz coverage, and APCO-25 digital. Programming is a pain now (esp. trunked systems), so he uses the computer and software to do it.
I bought one of these right after it came out - cost was around $275 in 1976. More than I paid for my first car.
The LED display was first. The memory battery was a button cell in the middle of the PC board, held with a metal clip & small screw. Between all the disimular metals in the clip, screw, PC board & battery it was prone to corrosion. A yearly tune up consisted of tearing it down fori cleaning and reassemby.
Oh, and my Bearcat 210XLT was made in the Philippines!
Uniden still uses the Bearcat name. Although the scanners themselves simply read BC and the model number (for example, I have a BC72XLT), the antennas, or at least mine, bear the full Bearcat logo.
Is that Bearcat 210XL really capable of 800-900 MHz? Odd, my 210XLT isn't.
@themaritimeman It certainly *seems* to be. It will accept 800 and 900MHz frequencies, and every memory location defaults to something in the 900MHz range without a backup battery in place.
This radio has 18 memory presets. I've read that the number varied. Non-volatile memory was surely a real improvement!
Cool stuff! I own a Bearcat 210XLT, the highest end and I believe the last model in the series, with a VFD display, 40-channels, and no need for backup power. Everything is stored in non-volatile memory. I always thought the LED models were older, but seeing the battery thing, you might be right.
A couple of years ago I thought my unit was on it's way out. Any of the programmed channels you went to, it would just stay on the weather band. Then it just went away, and it hasn't come back since.
@uxwbill I see, if the signaling isn't too high in current, then it should be possible to build a driver circuit. I'll check out what the TMS1170 supports :), and crack open the Casio calc which got left over from a repair project too see what its VFD tube is called, and what drives it.
That sounds like the right place to start, from watching your repair videos, reading the chips seems to be a good guide to a circuit.
Apart from the voltages, timing?, is that an issue since they're multiplexed?
@P55CxE9 Timing is something I couldn't tell you much about. While I have a basic understanding of how the technology works, I have never tried to build my own display driver or timing circuit. Datasheets for display drivers will probably provide a lot of useful information concerning timing.
[CORRECTED]I had one similar to that. It received all the way into the 800 MHz range. Shortly after I got that scanner, the feds passed the wonderful law prohibiting manufacturers from making scanners capable of receiving cellular phones. Now, that isn't a problem.
Here, those receivers are worthless for receiving public safety. Nearly all of Central Texas is on Project 25. Several of our channels are encrypted, but for some reason my channel isn't.
@CenTexVideo I was surprised to see that this unit also appears to be 800/900MHz capable. My dad's "fancier" and slightly newer model appears not to be. He also has a crystal-tuned RCA with 800/900MHz support...something I had never seen before.
While the city frequencies (road, water, sewer) have gone largely quiet (it appears that they use Nextel phones most of the time), fire/police/ambulance and the local school buses can still be heard on this scanner.
@uxwbill Before our city went to the P25 network, the patrolmen used iDEN a lot. Not so much now.
P25 and it's related technologies are very expensive. For an individual city to run it is a waste of resources as P25 was designed for networking many agencies together. Our VHF system was only capable of 30 miles. The P25 system allows us to go much farther, even to other counties. Plus, if we need it, we can contact other agencies very easily without having to leave town.
We are all on the same network, though there's so many different channels, my radio can't hold them all. Before, I have Austin Police's different channel. Right before Joe Stack crashed his plane into the IRS building in Austin, the network admins reprogrammed our radios. The reprogram took out Austin PD.
I looked at that circuit and it brought back memories back in 1979 I worked for ASI Radio . They made radios for BMW Pugot Delorean Jaguar and a few other big car makers . we got the radios in parts from China and had to build them solder a ton program and test them . I started in manufacturing then went to radio testing then warranty repair. I loved tha work in warrenty . I cried the day it went banckrupt shorlty after I went in the NAVY on submarines .
@hamrad88 I'm glad you liked it. Perhaps I will haul out the other ones and do some video explorations on them. Most of them still work very well, including the one my dad purchased new.
Unfortunately where I am something like this would be almost useless for police. Marion county Indiana went on a digital system using I think P.25 for their police departments and I think the fire departments are on this system too. Luckily this just ends at the county line as I can get the local Hendricks county emergency frequencies using analog radios.
@bratina501 I really thought that these old scanners would be rendered less useful when the area dispatch center was replaced with a centralized one. I was just certain they would go to digital radios. Instead, they mounted a repeater on a water tower and have continued to use the analog radios.
I used to have a Regency scanner that looked like that, it was a little quirky, I was using it mobile and it started smoking while I was transmitting on HF, the scanner wasn't even turned on, now that's front end overload!
Heyyy I remember that, My dad had one when I was little. they are fun though. you can get all sorts of different radio transmissions on them. i always would push all the butins on it and get yelled at. and iI never thought about using it for Ham radio.. I may just go find it and put in the frequencies.
@88ariesk You can tune in all sorts of programming...fire, police, EMS, school buses, VHF "business" radios, aircraft/marine, maybe even remote radio/TV station feeds, baby monitors and so much more. A few of my scanners can touch the edges of the FM broadcast "band". Some units will even pick up analog television audio, if there are any stations left in your area transmitting that way.
Cont. The only problem with the scanners these days, is all the police departments have gone digital, so you can't listen to the "police radio" anymore. That used to be one of my favorite past times, before computers and the internet. I would love to get a digital trunking scanner, but I can listen to my local police calls online.
I use my old scanners now mainly for listening to ham radio. I also used to have a crystal controlled Bearcat from the 70's.
@727JeffN That's one advantage to living out in "the sticks". ;-) Around these parts, almost everyone is still using analog radio to communicate, so these old scanners can still pull it off. I've only ever heard digital radio in use by the state police.
Some part of the radio in my truck is sensitive to the frequency used by the local police. When they are close, I can hear them!
I'm not as much into scanners these days, as I was in the past, but I still have my Uniden Bearcat 10 channel that I got for Christmas 1992. It's just a basic model that the 2 digit display only shows the channel number, and counts out the frequency. Still works good, but the antenna connection had broken away from the circuit board. I also have a Radio Shack 50 channel hand-held scanner.
I had a similar Bearcat scanner once, and it had both a blue vacuum-fluorescent display and a microwave-style flat membrane keypad. It must've been an especially early model, because that was well over a decade ago, and by then it had already acquired quite a lot of hum and microcontroller noise.
ahh florescent displays, they are so nice when new, with a green or blue filter in front of them. Often found in digital clocks and clock radios, nicer than leds :-)
The little glowing filiment wires reminds me they are valve sorry tube related.
the shame is unlike leds, they fade and lose emission like numerator tubes.
You will hate me bill as ive converted frequency counters with numerators to led displays with a swap of chips as the numerators had died :-(
I am also into scanners. The new ones are nice but expensive but they are needed because a lot of police and fire departments of gone digital. In Michigan that is the case and there's a big push to go digital because Michigan has spent a lot of money on the back in the day, I did get started with a crystal scanner and that's all there was. statewide digital network.
@carshowsvideos No, not really. I have been around them and my dad has a few different CB radios for both home and car use. A couple of our vehicles also have CB equipment installed.
That was a good video William. I've been a scanner enthusiast on and off for many years and I get a kick out of seeing and collecting some of the older ones. I started out with an old Regency 10 crystal scanner back in the '70's and I still have this unit today, (and it still works.) I don't know what it is about scanners I like so much, maybe it's all those buttons and flashing displays. Thanks for the video.
@andymadshood The filter capacitor(s) serve to smooth out noise, disturbance and voltage variation from the powerline. When they start to go bad, the first obvious sign is usually a 60Hz hum in a device's audio output.
@P55CxE9 That depends. Most are so small that I find them hard to get into and operate! (rimshot!)
Seriously, most microcontrollers can't drive a VFD directly, due to higher voltage and current than the I/O circuits would safely handle. This means that a display driver or buffer is required. A VFD also requires a more elaborate power supply that will provide voltage to operate the filament/heaters. The TMS1170 used in this scanner does not require an external display driver.
i am into looking for the 800xlt if i can ever find one. the 800's are hard to find in good working condition. i hope to get one someday if anyone ever came forward with one
My dad had a scanner, w/ an outdoor antenna, in the early 90s. We used to listen in on cordless phones in the neighborhood (back when they were on 46/49 MHz). Funniest memories were of a neighbor who spent quite a bit of time ringing "adult entertainment" lines.
@Madness832 Back when I was 8 or 9 and discovered that my dad's scanner radio would, in fact, tune to those frequencies, I spent some quality time listening in to our old Panasonic Easa-Phone, to the great irritation of my parents!
Later on, you can be sure I did the same with the 900MHz capable RadioShack scanner! Interestingly, it seemed like the phone and base would "detect" this and change channels when the scanner locked on. Today's digital phones are no fun at all. ;-)
@Speedster159 Texas Instruments had a lot of factories in smaller countries, and maybe they still do. You are correct about where the IC was made. The scanner itself was assembled in Puerto Rico based on the information I've found.
I'm actually surprised you don't have a Speak And Spell, I never owned one but friends of mine had them, awesome toys they were, and of course the Speak And Spell had a VFD readout on it, I don't know about you but I far prefer VFD readouts as opposed to backlit LCD readouts, but then that's my opinion. When a display such as this isn't running haw can you tell the difference between a VFD and LED readout with the naked eye?
@Lachlant1984 I suspect in time, I will rectify that. On a related note, it pains me greatly to see people "circuit bend" these neat toys (and things like cheap little music keyboards)...it almost sounds like torture!
An LED display looks a lot different than a VFD. LED displays are usually sandwiched modules (LED chip on a circuit board, plastic form, top color filter/film), while VFDs are glass tubes that look not unlike a fluorescent lamp with characters inside.
@uxwbill Ah, so you don't like Circuit Bending either? Well you're not alone, I've just found an ally it would seem, I first found out about Circuit Bending in 2008 and HATED IT back then, I still don't recommend that anyone do it, but people do it all the same. And yeah, I wish they'd leave the electronic keyboards alone, but oh well, this has nothing to do with this video.
I love your videos, they kick major butt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I find it interesting that these radios were made in America and not somewhere in Asia such as Japan or Hong Kong, I don't know if Bearcat radios were available outside of America, but I do have a Realistic PRO-38 that no longer works, and I'm sure Uniden's scanners are available here, certainly their cordless phones are. What other issues does the 210 have apart from the microprocessor noise and AC hum?
@Lachlant1984 Uniden (a Japanese concern) eventually phased these radios out and replaced them with newer (and admittedly much more reliable) models made in Japan and Korea.
The 210 has issues with random frequency jumps, not stopping on active channels, misbehaving during channel entry and of course--the already mentioned hum and noise issues. Resoldering and recapping would likely fix it, unless the CPU has failed (which I doubt).
2 - They were popular "back in the day" because they were among the first programmable scanners (as opposed to crystals). My dad has owned 5 of these radios going back to the 70s and gave me one to listen to railroads when I was a kid. And yes, with age, comes issues with these scanners. I had trouble with the backup battery in mine even after I changed it. And on another one I know, if you change the volume or the squelch it will short and delete all the channels! LOL
cbehr91 1 week ago
1 - The first scanner in the video is just a Bearcat 210, not a Bearcat 210XL, but the second one was. They're actually two different models (but not much different) and there was a third model in the line called the 210XLT.
The original 210 came out around 1978 or so and was 10 channels. The 210XL came out around 1981 or 82 and was 16 channels. The 210XLT came out around 1985 and was 40 channels.
cbehr91 1 week ago
well if you could build a radio that would run crysis that would be quite an achievement!
bscross32 1 week ago
This question doesn't have anything to do with radio scanners, but it does have to do with displays which you seem to have a big interest in, so here goes. What do you think of OLED display screens?
Lachlant1984 1 month ago in playlist More videos from uxwbill
@Lachlant1984 OLEDs are an interesting technology. So far as I know, they haven't really taken off, probably due to issues with uneven lifetimes for each of the display's color elements.
uxwbill 1 month ago
Why did the display on the newer radio say 1 error at one point?
Lachlant1984 1 month ago in playlist More videos from uxwbill
@Lachlant1984 The radio with the red display acts rather goofy at times, and sometimes it just jumps to an illegal or nonsensical frequency. "Error" is a valid indication on these units, normally used when the entered frequency cannot be tuned to.
uxwbill 1 month ago
as a kid I saved up to buy one of the earlier Bearcat 8 ch crystal type radios in the 70's. around 150.00 then 20.00+ for each channel I wanted. I was so jealous when the newer radios came out, after having a box of un-needed crystals for every time I wanted to add a freq to my radio.
chatrkat 1 month ago
I bought one for $1 at a rummage sale. Cleaned it up with a total recap, touched up and reflowed a great many solder joints and finally replaced the thin foam under the keypad. Works great now. Same model as yours. Production code-P3781
cornpucker1 1 month ago
@cornpucker1 Cool. I'm going to try recapping the set with the red display in this video. It "wants to" work, so I think whatever is bugging it must be fixable. My only worry is that someday the microcontroller may forget its programming...
uxwbill 1 month ago
That thing won't run Crysis at all. I tried. You need at least an Intel 8080 for that.
Jerkwad152 1 month ago
They where a great radio. Mine never shut off for YEARS. Then one day I thought "things are pretty quiet." It just stopped receiving one day and that was the end of that.
Wa3ypx 1 month ago
@Wa3ypx Yes they were. Most of the problems they have are also fixable. I'd guess that yours had a power supply failure.
Out of all the units I've seen, only one had a major internal failure. It was the victim of a lightning strike. It would still power on, but the microcontroller had seemingly lost it.
uxwbill 1 month ago
@uxwbill Thanks, but I deep sixed it and bought something else. Now my problem is most PD's are going digital out here
Wa3ypx 1 month ago
My dad had the same two scanners, Wish i knew about your chanel before someone got rid of them when we moved, They worked perfectly.
OKnight1Roger 1 month ago
I have one!! Loved it until the filter capacitors went bad, still need to dig it out of the closet, and recap it on video.
SpeakerFreak95 1 month ago
I almost bought 1 like your red LED display at a garage sale to use in my bedroom (I have 2 tabletop units) but the lady selling it wantd $40 for it and I thought that price was outragous for it, SHe also wanted to get paid for pre-programmed
Paulywint 2 months ago
@Paulywint These aren't worth more than $5 or $10 in my book. Clearly some people do have other ideas. ;-)
uxwbill 1 month ago
@uxwbill I tried to bargain with her (she was an elderly lady) and I even offered her $15 but she still wouldn't take it. SHe said it was preprogrammed and she probably wanted to get paid to have it programmed. I told her I could buy a brand new one for $40 and she siad no you can't.
Paulywint 1 month ago
@Paulywint There was some guy who posted on the ARF antique TV forum with an ancient top loader VCR from the late 70s wanting to sell it, his price? $125 I found one of those in the free pile at a garage sale near the end of the day. As Rick James once said "Cocaine is a hell of a drug".
OlegKostoglatov 1 month ago
I love your videos so much.
Rayburn96 2 months ago
does it tune to 900MHz (cordless phone freq)
thecooldude9999 2 months ago in playlist More videos from uxwbill
@thecooldude9999 It would appear to have support for the 800 and 900 MHz bands.
uxwbill 1 month ago
If You Go To Dollar Tree (Of All Places!) You Can Find Panasonic and Everready Batteries. Quite Weird If You Ask Me.
MyTechtime 2 months ago in playlist More videos from uxwbill
I never knew Duracell used to be Mallory, lol. Would these scanners work in the UK? ...The Stutz cars are all very impressive if you ask me, so their owners would probably want to make sure the cops weren't on their tail when they're speeding :P
midtown292 2 months ago
@midtown292 Yes, at one point Duracell was a division of Mallory.
So far as I know, these scanners have flexible enough tuning that they should work equally well in the UK...having a power supply of the proper voltage would be more of a concern. You'd need a step-down transformer for this unit.
uxwbill 2 months ago
You could program in the Lucan police and make sure they're not around when you come down skyhill!
BonhommeRichard91 2 months ago
My father is into scanners. Always has the latest and I think he had (might still be here!) one of these Bearcats for many years. Now he has the latest Radio Shack portable model with trunk tracking, 700Mhz coverage, and APCO-25 digital. Programming is a pain now (esp. trunked systems), so he uses the computer and software to do it.
NJRoadfan 2 months ago
@bill I had to pause the video and go digging and I found that I have a bearcat 250 scanner and it still works....
cbhonda90 2 months ago
Apologies if I repeat anything already said.
I bought one of these right after it came out - cost was around $275 in 1976. More than I paid for my first car.
The LED display was first. The memory battery was a button cell in the middle of the PC board, held with a metal clip & small screw. Between all the disimular metals in the clip, screw, PC board & battery it was prone to corrosion. A yearly tune up consisted of tearing it down fori cleaning and reassemby.
barovelli 2 months ago
Oh, and my Bearcat 210XLT was made in the Philippines!
Uniden still uses the Bearcat name. Although the scanners themselves simply read BC and the model number (for example, I have a BC72XLT), the antennas, or at least mine, bear the full Bearcat logo.
Is that Bearcat 210XL really capable of 800-900 MHz? Odd, my 210XLT isn't.
Great video!
themaritimeman 2 months ago
@themaritimeman It certainly *seems* to be. It will accept 800 and 900MHz frequencies, and every memory location defaults to something in the 900MHz range without a backup battery in place.
This radio has 18 memory presets. I've read that the number varied. Non-volatile memory was surely a real improvement!
uxwbill 2 months ago
Cool stuff! I own a Bearcat 210XLT, the highest end and I believe the last model in the series, with a VFD display, 40-channels, and no need for backup power. Everything is stored in non-volatile memory. I always thought the LED models were older, but seeing the battery thing, you might be right.
A couple of years ago I thought my unit was on it's way out. Any of the programmed channels you went to, it would just stay on the weather band. Then it just went away, and it hasn't come back since.
themaritimeman 2 months ago
Did any one else think he was going to say it was a nixie tube display at first?
cgfgsks201 2 months ago
@uxwbill Ok, thanks!, I'll investigate and do some trial and error :)
P55CxE9 2 months ago
wow.. we never had these sort of things in our part of the world, probably because of political reasons. afaik they're still illegal.
by the way, i have a thing for those vacuum-fluorescent displays too, so you're not alone.. :)
bamdadkhan 2 months ago
@bamdadkhan What country do you live in?
Lachlant1984 2 months ago
@Lachlant1984 hungary. :PPP
bamdadkhan 2 months ago
@uxwbill I see, if the signaling isn't too high in current, then it should be possible to build a driver circuit. I'll check out what the TMS1170 supports :), and crack open the Casio calc which got left over from a repair project too see what its VFD tube is called, and what drives it.
That sounds like the right place to start, from watching your repair videos, reading the chips seems to be a good guide to a circuit.
Apart from the voltages, timing?, is that an issue since they're multiplexed?
P55CxE9 2 months ago
@P55CxE9 Timing is something I couldn't tell you much about. While I have a basic understanding of how the technology works, I have never tried to build my own display driver or timing circuit. Datasheets for display drivers will probably provide a lot of useful information concerning timing.
uxwbill 2 months ago
Perfect for running Windows 7 4-bit.
The micro controller board reminds me of the old Pentium II cartridges; processor core in the middle and two SRAM chips right next to it.
CavemanPerson 2 months ago
[CORRECTED]I had one similar to that. It received all the way into the 800 MHz range. Shortly after I got that scanner, the feds passed the wonderful law prohibiting manufacturers from making scanners capable of receiving cellular phones. Now, that isn't a problem.
Here, those receivers are worthless for receiving public safety. Nearly all of Central Texas is on Project 25. Several of our channels are encrypted, but for some reason my channel isn't.
CenTexVideo 2 months ago
@CenTexVideo I was surprised to see that this unit also appears to be 800/900MHz capable. My dad's "fancier" and slightly newer model appears not to be. He also has a crystal-tuned RCA with 800/900MHz support...something I had never seen before.
While the city frequencies (road, water, sewer) have gone largely quiet (it appears that they use Nextel phones most of the time), fire/police/ambulance and the local school buses can still be heard on this scanner.
uxwbill 2 months ago
@uxwbill Before our city went to the P25 network, the patrolmen used iDEN a lot. Not so much now.
P25 and it's related technologies are very expensive. For an individual city to run it is a waste of resources as P25 was designed for networking many agencies together. Our VHF system was only capable of 30 miles. The P25 system allows us to go much farther, even to other counties. Plus, if we need it, we can contact other agencies very easily without having to leave town.
CenTexVideo 2 months ago
We are all on the same network, though there's so many different channels, my radio can't hold them all. Before, I have Austin Police's different channel. Right before Joe Stack crashed his plane into the IRS building in Austin, the network admins reprogrammed our radios. The reprogram took out Austin PD.
CenTexVideo 2 months ago
Comment removed
CenTexVideo 2 months ago
I looked at that circuit and it brought back memories back in 1979 I worked for ASI Radio . They made radios for BMW Pugot Delorean Jaguar and a few other big car makers . we got the radios in parts from China and had to build them solder a ton program and test them . I started in manufacturing then went to radio testing then warranty repair. I loved tha work in warrenty . I cried the day it went banckrupt shorlty after I went in the NAVY on submarines .
I still have 2 delorean radios and antenn
ncrdisabled 2 months ago
Very interesting video. I have 5 of these radios each are slightly different and one is still new in the box.
Tom
hamrad88 2 months ago
@hamrad88 I'm glad you liked it. Perhaps I will haul out the other ones and do some video explorations on them. Most of them still work very well, including the one my dad purchased new.
uxwbill 2 months ago
@uxwbill That would be great. I would love to see videos of them as I am really into old scanners and radios in general.
hamrad88 2 months ago
Unfortunately where I am something like this would be almost useless for police. Marion county Indiana went on a digital system using I think P.25 for their police departments and I think the fire departments are on this system too. Luckily this just ends at the county line as I can get the local Hendricks county emergency frequencies using analog radios.
bratina501 2 months ago
@bratina501 I really thought that these old scanners would be rendered less useful when the area dispatch center was replaced with a centralized one. I was just certain they would go to digital radios. Instead, they mounted a repeater on a water tower and have continued to use the analog radios.
uxwbill 2 months ago
I used to have a Regency scanner that looked like that, it was a little quirky, I was using it mobile and it started smoking while I was transmitting on HF, the scanner wasn't even turned on, now that's front end overload!
khroe 2 months ago
wow completely soldiered by hand
powerlockit 2 months ago
Heyyy I remember that, My dad had one when I was little. they are fun though. you can get all sorts of different radio transmissions on them. i always would push all the butins on it and get yelled at. and iI never thought about using it for Ham radio.. I may just go find it and put in the frequencies.
88ariesk 2 months ago
@88ariesk You can tune in all sorts of programming...fire, police, EMS, school buses, VHF "business" radios, aircraft/marine, maybe even remote radio/TV station feeds, baby monitors and so much more. A few of my scanners can touch the edges of the FM broadcast "band". Some units will even pick up analog television audio, if there are any stations left in your area transmitting that way.
uxwbill 2 months ago
Cont. The only problem with the scanners these days, is all the police departments have gone digital, so you can't listen to the "police radio" anymore. That used to be one of my favorite past times, before computers and the internet. I would love to get a digital trunking scanner, but I can listen to my local police calls online.
I use my old scanners now mainly for listening to ham radio. I also used to have a crystal controlled Bearcat from the 70's.
727JeffN 2 months ago
@727JeffN That's one advantage to living out in "the sticks". ;-) Around these parts, almost everyone is still using analog radio to communicate, so these old scanners can still pull it off. I've only ever heard digital radio in use by the state police.
Some part of the radio in my truck is sensitive to the frequency used by the local police. When they are close, I can hear them!
uxwbill 2 months ago
I'm not as much into scanners these days, as I was in the past, but I still have my Uniden Bearcat 10 channel that I got for Christmas 1992. It's just a basic model that the 2 digit display only shows the channel number, and counts out the frequency. Still works good, but the antenna connection had broken away from the circuit board. I also have a Radio Shack 50 channel hand-held scanner.
727JeffN 2 months ago
I had a similar Bearcat scanner once, and it had both a blue vacuum-fluorescent display and a microwave-style flat membrane keypad. It must've been an especially early model, because that was well over a decade ago, and by then it had already acquired quite a lot of hum and microcontroller noise.
vwestlife 2 months ago
@uxwbill looking on a brand new energizer 9v battery package the model number is 522BP so that eveready nomenclature is still in use!
grassulo 2 months ago
@grassulo It's just amazing how many things change and yet many other things don't. I actually bought an Eveready battery for this unit.
uxwbill 2 months ago
ahh florescent displays, they are so nice when new, with a green or blue filter in front of them. Often found in digital clocks and clock radios, nicer than leds :-)
The little glowing filiment wires reminds me they are valve sorry tube related.
the shame is unlike leds, they fade and lose emission like numerator tubes.
You will hate me bill as ive converted frequency counters with numerators to led displays with a swap of chips as the numerators had died :-(
zx8401ztv 2 months ago
Sorry to hear about your uncle. Great, informative video.
Buchoass 2 months ago
I am also into scanners. The new ones are nice but expensive but they are needed because a lot of police and fire departments of gone digital. In Michigan that is the case and there's a big push to go digital because Michigan has spent a lot of money on the back in the day, I did get started with a crystal scanner and that's all there was. statewide digital network.
manyvideoinerests 2 months ago
do you ever get in to cb's
carshowsvideos 2 months ago
@carshowsvideos No, not really. I have been around them and my dad has a few different CB radios for both home and car use. A couple of our vehicles also have CB equipment installed.
uxwbill 2 months ago
@uxwbill Would you please make a video about them?
Lachlant1984 2 months ago
That was a good video William. I've been a scanner enthusiast on and off for many years and I get a kick out of seeing and collecting some of the older ones. I started out with an old Regency 10 crystal scanner back in the '70's and I still have this unit today, (and it still works.) I don't know what it is about scanners I like so much, maybe it's all those buttons and flashing displays. Thanks for the video.
MAG315 2 months ago
William what does the filter capacetors do?
andymadshood 2 months ago
@andymadshood The filter capacitor(s) serve to smooth out noise, disturbance and voltage variation from the powerline. When they start to go bad, the first obvious sign is usually a 60Hz hum in a device's audio output.
uxwbill 2 months ago
Oh, while we're on the subject of VFD. Are they hard to drive?
P55CxE9 2 months ago
@P55CxE9 That depends. Most are so small that I find them hard to get into and operate! (rimshot!)
Seriously, most microcontrollers can't drive a VFD directly, due to higher voltage and current than the I/O circuits would safely handle. This means that a display driver or buffer is required. A VFD also requires a more elaborate power supply that will provide voltage to operate the filament/heaters. The TMS1170 used in this scanner does not require an external display driver.
uxwbill 2 months ago
Your not the only one who loves VFD tubes.
TheEPROM9 2 months ago
i am into looking for the 800xlt if i can ever find one. the 800's are hard to find in good working condition. i hope to get one someday if anyone ever came forward with one
rmx77 2 months ago
My dad had a scanner, w/ an outdoor antenna, in the early 90s. We used to listen in on cordless phones in the neighborhood (back when they were on 46/49 MHz). Funniest memories were of a neighbor who spent quite a bit of time ringing "adult entertainment" lines.
Madness832 2 months ago
@Madness832 Back when I was 8 or 9 and discovered that my dad's scanner radio would, in fact, tune to those frequencies, I spent some quality time listening in to our old Panasonic Easa-Phone, to the great irritation of my parents!
Later on, you can be sure I did the same with the 900MHz capable RadioShack scanner! Interestingly, it seemed like the phone and base would "detect" this and change channels when the scanner locked on. Today's digital phones are no fun at all. ;-)
uxwbill 2 months ago
... @10:15 It says... "Philippines" I have a feeling the IC is made in the Philippines...
And i'm from the Philippines :P
Speedster159 2 months ago
@Speedster159 Texas Instruments had a lot of factories in smaller countries, and maybe they still do. You are correct about where the IC was made. The scanner itself was assembled in Puerto Rico based on the information I've found.
uxwbill 2 months ago
Ok, so it won't run Crysis. But will it run Skyrim at least?
Scatmanbrandt 2 months ago
@Scatmanbrandt Yeah, but gameplay is kind of boring on a monochrome display that only supports numbers and decimal points!
uxwbill 2 months ago
But... will it blend? loljks Great video as always uxwbill!
SelectWalkthroughs 2 months ago
I'm actually surprised you don't have a Speak And Spell, I never owned one but friends of mine had them, awesome toys they were, and of course the Speak And Spell had a VFD readout on it, I don't know about you but I far prefer VFD readouts as opposed to backlit LCD readouts, but then that's my opinion. When a display such as this isn't running haw can you tell the difference between a VFD and LED readout with the naked eye?
Lachlant1984 2 months ago
@Lachlant1984 I suspect in time, I will rectify that. On a related note, it pains me greatly to see people "circuit bend" these neat toys (and things like cheap little music keyboards)...it almost sounds like torture!
An LED display looks a lot different than a VFD. LED displays are usually sandwiched modules (LED chip on a circuit board, plastic form, top color filter/film), while VFDs are glass tubes that look not unlike a fluorescent lamp with characters inside.
uxwbill 2 months ago
@uxwbill Ah, so you don't like Circuit Bending either? Well you're not alone, I've just found an ally it would seem, I first found out about Circuit Bending in 2008 and HATED IT back then, I still don't recommend that anyone do it, but people do it all the same. And yeah, I wish they'd leave the electronic keyboards alone, but oh well, this has nothing to do with this video.
Lachlant1984 2 months ago
I used to have one them . I think i still got it somewhere i don't think it work
But i use Police Scanner . I used them Cause i'm Sky Warn Storm Spotter .
FrozenParanormalwolf 2 months ago
I love your videos, they kick major butt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I find it interesting that these radios were made in America and not somewhere in Asia such as Japan or Hong Kong, I don't know if Bearcat radios were available outside of America, but I do have a Realistic PRO-38 that no longer works, and I'm sure Uniden's scanners are available here, certainly their cordless phones are. What other issues does the 210 have apart from the microprocessor noise and AC hum?
Lachlant1984 2 months ago
@Lachlant1984 Uniden (a Japanese concern) eventually phased these radios out and replaced them with newer (and admittedly much more reliable) models made in Japan and Korea.
The 210 has issues with random frequency jumps, not stopping on active channels, misbehaving during channel entry and of course--the already mentioned hum and noise issues. Resoldering and recapping would likely fix it, unless the CPU has failed (which I doubt).
uxwbill 2 months ago
but will it run vista.
joshhsega 2 months ago
THIRST
1638490 2 months ago