Bearcat III Electra

[tglendye]

Does anyone remember anything about the old Bearcat III Electra's? I bought a couple off of Ebay ops: :shock: that have a combination of VHF Lo & Hi crystals installed.

Are these scanners limited to only two bands? Seems like I remember they take boards or something where the scanner will only receive 2 bands.

[Joseph11]

It's Electra Bearcat III, not Bearcat III Electra. Anyway, it's a fine scanner. I have a Bearcat IV and it takes Low-Band, High-Band, and UHF (T-Band) crystals. It has switches right below the crystals where you can select the band. Is it like that on the Bearcat III? The paper that says which band is selected in which position may be gone if it's like the Bearcat IV.

[pro92b]

There were three boards available for the Bearcat III, VHF-LO, VHF-HI, and UHF. The radio has room for two boards only. You can get a manual at http://www.mods.dk/view.php?ListManuals=uniden

[W4KRR]

The old Bearcat III was my first scanner. I wish I still had it!

[tglendye]

I was afraid it only had room for the two boards. It was my first scanner also-- that's why I couldn't resist when I saw them. I meant to type in "Bearcat Electra III"... guess that would have been wrong anyway.

Thanks for the quick replies.

[Joseph11]

Hmm. I didn't realize how different it was from the Bearcat IV.

[Voyager]

Originally Posted by tglendye

I meant to type in "Bearcat Electra III"... guess that would have been wrong anyway.

Manufacturer: Electra Corp.
Model: Bearcat III

Joe M.

[dgoodson]

though there were only two boards in the BC3, you could pick which two of three you wanted. The choices were VHF LO, VHF Hi, and UHF. My recollection is a unit with one board sold for about $139, and for $20 more you got the second board.

The unit had 8 crystals... I modified mine for nine. In the eighth crystal slot, I put two crystals (a low band and a hi band) each with one leg in the appropriate outer row with the other row just hanging out in space. I installed a DPST switch on the rear of the unit, and connected a wire from the center pole to the middle row of the crystal socket. Each of the switch poles was wired to the open leg of the dangling crystals. My lo band crystal was for the local (very inactive) FD, so I kept my toggle switch in the VHF position for other things.. If I ever heard my PD talk about a fire, I would flip the switch, and it would "wire" the FD crystal into slot 8! What a trick, worked great!

[flyingwolf]

Got one sitting right in front of me. Excellent specimen. Missing the original antenna (as most of these are) and not a single scratch on it. Also none of the paper is written on. The paper around the crystals is pristine. And the paper on the rear with the channel freq's is clean. A little yellowed but clean.

I picked this up for 2 bucks at the local Goodwill store. About 2 months earlier I picked up a pro-92 b there for 5 bucks.

Man these people give stuff away.
Now I just need some crystals.

Question:
Would it be possible (or has it been done) to replace the crystals with some sort of digital crystal that could be tuned as needed to any desired frequency.
Thereby removing the need for multiple crystals?

This would be quite nice.
My particular one has the Low and High boards. They had a U board but some kid was using it to hammer on the floor with. When I finaly got it from him it was destroyed.

[bear105]

Just responding so I can post a picture of my first scanner, a Bearcat III. I received it used from my Grandfather in 1981. He used it for numerous years before that. I actually used this thru about 2003 when Howard Co, Maryland turned off the last of its VHF freqs. Nothing like falling asleep with those red lights scrolling...

[Al42]

Originally Posted by flyingwolf

Question:
Would it be possible (or has it been done) to replace the crystals with some sort of digital crystal that could be tuned as needed to any desired frequency.
Thereby removing the need for multiple crystals?

As proof of concept, http://www.google.com/search?q=%22gl...US:eek:fficial The GLB synthesizer was a 5 KHz/channel, 146-148 MHz (I think it was originally limited to the upper 2 MHz) synthesizer, used in crystal-controlled 2 meter radios to operate all over the band without crystals. Building one for VHF-hi or VHF-lo should be pretty simple, but I don't know whether anyone ever made one commercially.

[trimmerj]

Any mods to soften the pop at the end of a transmission ?