Radio Shack Amplified Speaker

[n4yek]

I went and bought one of these the other day after reading reviews on here and other places. I was expecting to see a great boost in audio from my 396T Uniden scanner. Boy was I surprised, not only do I get more audio from my OLD Un-amplified speaker, but I got a slight bit of alternator whine when I used the Amplified speaker and slightly less audio. That was a surprise, less audio and alternator whine. I could have built a filter to get rid of the whine, but to actually have less audio? I don't know what the gain is on that speaker but it was a disappointment to say the least.
Anyway it is going back and I am getting money back.

Anybody else have bad results? just curious.

 

[digitalanalog]

I've had one for about 10 years or so now, and it has been used and abused and still works and sounds good, no complaints at all.

 

[SCPD]

That's odd, I have one that's been kick, run over and abused also, And it works just fine. I have used it on my 97, 108, 898, 780 and other radio's and it makes a significant difference. Granted, its not a Motorola Amplified speaker, but works good. No suggestions for you other than try a different product by a different manufacturer.

 

[xerb1962]

I have four of them. Been in use for years and I can >hear< my radios. There must be something wrong with the unit you bought?

 

[HOLEBILLY]

just got one and it is great. I really dont think you can beat them for the price.

 

[KD0NDO]

can you post a link so i can buy it?

 

[reedo]

@KD0NDO.... Here is the amplified speaker model and part number at radioshack.com


RadioShack® Amplified Communication Speaker
Model:21-130 | Catalog #: 21-130 $38.99

 

[gewecke]

I've had one for years also,using it still. Modded it with a spst toggle to switch audio to second speaker in another room. Works great!

73,
n9zas

 

[KC5EIB]

I went and bought one of these the other day after reading reviews on here and other places. I was expecting to see a great boost in audio from my 396T Uniden scanner. Boy was I surprised, not only do I get more audio from my OLD Un-amplified speaker, but I got a slight bit of alternator whine when I used the Amplified speaker and slightly less audio. That was a surprise, less audio and alternator whine. I could have built a filter to get rid of the whine, but to actually have less audio? I don't know what the gain is on that speaker but it was a disappointment to say the least.
Anyway it is going back and I am getting money back.

Anybody else have bad results? just curious.

Might have got a bad one, did you take it back and get another one, Stores should have a 12 v outlet at the GPS display where you can test it in the store. There could be a problem with the cable from the radio to the speaker, did you try a different one? When power is applied to the speaker or the radio talks, did the red light on the front of the speaker, next to the K on Radio Shack come on? If not, check your power.

 

[UPMan]

IIRC, the speaker has a mono plug. You need to use a mono-to-stereo plug adapter when plugging it into a stereo headphone jack (otherwise you will be shorting out 1/2 of the scanners audio amplifier and the audio level will be 10-15 dB lower than when using a stereo plug).