Bearcat 210XL Scanner with Interesting Display

I pay way more attention to electronic display devices than I should. They interest me greatly, especially those with unique characters inside, whether used or not.

That's why I picked up the Bearcat 210XL scanning radio shown in this video. Every one of these I have ever seen has had an LED display, but not this one!

I also talk about some of the most common problems with these radios. There are other things that can and do go wrong--the sci.electronics.repair FAQ site has a good document on those.

After looking into it some more, I believe the automobile from which these scanners took their name was the Stutz Bearcat.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• uxwbill
• bearcat
• 210XL
• 210
• scanner
• vacuum
• fluorescent
• display
• VFD
• LED
• common
• problems
• fix
• repair
• demonstrate
• electra
• division
• masco
• uniden
• Texas
• Instruments
• TMS1000
• TMS1170

[cornpucker1]

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

[uxwbill]

@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...

[Wa3ypx]

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.

[uxwbill]

@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.

[thecooldude9999]

does it tune to 900MHz (cordless phone freq)

[uxwbill]

@thecooldude9999 It would appear to have support for the 800 and 900 MHz bands.

[cbehr91]

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 - 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.

[bscross32]

well if you could build a radio that would run crysis that would be quite an achievement!

[Wa3ypx]

@uxwbill Thanks, but I deep sixed it and bought something else. Now my problem is most PD's are going digital out here

[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]

@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]

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?