I was given a modded Realistic Pro 2006, what kinds of things can I do with it

[nycap]

Originally Posted by ay00

I see...so essentially I have a useless pack of capacitors? I went out today and got a pack of pF type capacitors (they're disc shaped), is there any chance that I can work with those?

no. i tried using a couple wrong ones becuase no store has the 2.2nf caps. computer couldnt decode the digital signal until the correct 2.2nf cap came in the mail. now it works perfectly. the soldering is a pinta so dont waste your time.

[firefighter479]

20 years ago that scanner was a hot rod... highly desirable. I bought one in 1993 and still own it and won't get rid of it. I haven't used it in awhile since my area has trunking, digital, etc. I bought some of Bill Cheeks books and made the "right" mods to it, i.e., cell mod, faster scan rate, etc. When the BC780XLT came on the market I needed to fill the niche of trunking, computer programming, etc. so I purchased one and the PRO 2006 went to the closet. IMHO, they're very effective receivers for mil-air monitoring.

[ay00]

Originally Posted by Comint

Most people use a 10 K resistor.

So TP2 > 10K resistor > 3.5 mm audio, with a 2.2 nF capacitor to earth, from the audio end of the 10 K resistor.

The 2.2 nF in conjunction with the 10 K acts as a filter for any remaining 455 kHz on the line.

The series 10 uF capacitor is no longer considered to be necessary.

--
Comint

So TP2 ---10K res.--Audio

Then solder one end of the 2.2nF capacitor to the resistor/audio connection and solder the other to the little silver dot on the board?

Sorry, I'm having a hard time making sense of this all. Even a cruddy MSPaint schematic would be great at this point because I'm seeing too many different things in different pictures.

[nycap]

10k resistor to TP2 then to the + side of the 2.2nf cap - side of cap goes to ground. the sheilded cable + wire goes inbetween the resistor and the cap the - wire (braided wire) goes to ground same place as the cap. then the sheilded wire ofcourse goes to the 3.5mm jack, which you install in the back after drilling a hole of the same sze of your 3.5mm audio jack. check out pictures here:

Discriminator Output PRO-2006 / COM-205


Discriminator Output PRO-2006 / COM-205

[ay00]

Oh wow, thank you, this all makes sense now. Is there any special volt rating that I need for the capacitor? (The guy on the phone where I'm buying from asked)

[nycap]

im not sure if the voltage matters in this application. mine is 2000 volts and works great but i think its a little big space wise (its a little bigger than an advil) for this application. if i was doing it a again i would probably get a lower voltage because it would be smaller. but like i said mine works perfectly so either way its fine. maybe get a few different sizes they are only like what? 30 cents?

[ay00]

Oh it's not the price, it's just that they're impossible to find the right type around my area. I'm think I might make a trip to Detroit to find them.

[nycap]

order some off the net. i paid like 5 bucks (mostly s&h) and recieved 5 of them. took about a week.

[ay00]

Where did you get it? I looked on mouser (a site I found through here) and they wanted $20 just for shipping.

[nycap]

i forget i think, some place in florida. i do remember it was a kind of a pain to find what i wanted. but shipping over the border can be pricey. i remember when i used to order mustang gear from nika in bc it was like 50 bucks a pop in shipping. but my caps came in bascially a normal letter with a little padding in it so how much more than a letter can it be?

[Comint]

Originally Posted by ay00

. . . Even a cruddy MSPaint schematic would be great at this point because I'm seeing too many different things in different pictures.

See attached.

Originally Posted by nycap

10k resistor to TP2 then to the + side of the 2.2nf cap - side of cap goes to ground. the sheilded cable + wire goes in between the resistor and the cap the - wire (braided wire) goes to ground same place as the cap. then the sheilded wire of course goes to the 3.5mm jack

Common disc ceramic capacitors are usually rated at 50 VDC, and do NOT have polarity markings on them.

--
Comint

[nycap]

Originally Posted by Comint

See attached.

Common disc ceramic capacitors are usually rated at 50 VDC, and do NOT have polarity markings on them.

Comint

true. it should not matter what side of the cap is connected to the resistor.

[ay00]

Thank you so much!! This is exactly what I needed! My friend will be coming to do the soldering and then I'll be set. I've had some mild success with DSD 1.6 as well, even without a discriminator tap. The audio is choppy and I can't make much out but I assume that it will become better once I have the discriminator tap installed. I was wondering if someone knew of a good thread or tutorial about using DSD & Unitrunker in conjunction with one another??

[ay00]

After the mad search for parts, I finally was able to get my Pro-2006 discriminator tapped. I was under the impression that once I had a discriminator tap that I would be able to use Unitrunker to listen to P25 streams right from the program itself but I now see that if I want to do that I need the RTL2832U dongle, is that correct? The SDR# software looks like quite a bit of fun. I would use the Pro-2006 as the signal radio, but how would the RTL dongle get controlled? To use the dongle with the antenna I set up outside, would I be using "RF pigtail cable BNC female to MCX male" cable?

Also, the audio output from DSD is quite a bit modulated, are there any special flags I should be using to run it or is this an issue with my computer? It's a bit of a junker that I'm using just for messing around with (Celeron 2.40GHz, 1.5 GB ram).

Thank you all for your help, I've been having a lot of fun with this stuff lately.

[krokus]

You need a radio that DSD can tune remotely.