PSR-700 Questions......

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fmurphy

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I recently purchased a used PSR-700 and am unable to find a USB charging cable for it locally. It has an uncommon connector on the radio end. Does anyone know where to pick one up except for GRE? Those thing are $24.00!!!! Also.......... what is the deal with the low audio output when you try to use an earpiece or headphones? Seems to be a nice receiver but has a few quirks about it......
Thanks in advance for ANY input here

Frank
 

NWI_Scanner_Guy

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I recently purchased a used PSR-700 and am unable to find a USB charging cable for it locally. It has an uncommon connector on the radio end. Does anyone know where to pick one up except for GRE? Those thing are $24.00!!!! Also.......... what is the deal with the low audio output when you try to use an earpiece or headphones? Seems to be a nice receiver but has a few quirks about it......
Thanks in advance for ANY input here

Frank

Unfortunately, the GRE cable is the only one that will work for the 700. Didn't the seller have the cable? It comes with the scanner when purchased new.
 

fmurphy

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Psr-700

when the radio was purchased I knew the seller had lost the cable. What I DIDN'T know was that it appears to be a special cable you can only get from GRE. I figured I could pick one up locally somewhere.,.........gee what a surprise I was in for. $24.99 (+shipping) for a USB cable!!!!!!!!
WOW! I'm in the wrong business for sure..............
The other side of the question is about the audio? Just can't figure out why the level is a lot lower than any other scanner I have had........... hmmmmmmmmmm
 

Halfpint

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when the radio was purchased I knew the seller had lost the cable. What I DIDN'T know was that it appears to be a special cable you can only get from GRE. I figured I could pick one up locally somewhere.,.........gee what a surprise I was in for. $24.99 (+shipping) for a USB cable!!!!!!!!
WOW! I'm in the wrong business for sure..............

Well... The way to *possibly* `look' at the situation with the special cable is that it is part and parcel of GRE's bringing out a `new' type of scanner and trying to `cover all the bases' while also keeping things under `control'. That cable is, probably, an adaptation of the cable that is used with their other `programable' scanners. The, and I don't know if this is the correct designation or not, `MicroUSB' connector on the radio end probably comes from *both* and attempt to get the connection as small as possible and also make it proprietary. (Obligatory Disclaimer: While I *do not* condone that type of attitude after working in the heyday of the computer industry for companies along the likes of STC, ETC. I understand what they were doing.) Unfortunately the only way you are going to be able to apply any `upgrades' or supply external power to the radio is with the cable so you are going to just `grin and bear it' and buy a new one. The `good?' news is that it probably might actually end up outlast the radio itself and maybe become a collectors item for someone else who stumbles across a 700 W/O the cable and would willingly pay full MSRP, possibly MSRP+. (As a `Vintage Radio Collector', myself, I'll admit I have occasionally done that. {GRIMACE!}) *Maybe* some day someone will find as `source' of that connector and possibly start making *power only* cables. (Unless they also reverse engineer, or GRE lets go of those little `boxes' or their specs, because the radio needs that `box' to work properly with the USB connection as they didn't make it completely USB `compliant' a `regular' USB cable won't work. [Again it was another `compromise'/`making it proprietary' decision.] And something we just `have to live with' for getting something almost on `the bleeding edge'. {WAN GRIN!}) BTW, I actually have bought not just one but, 2, `extra' cables so that I have one in SWMBO's and my vehicles so that I can power my 700 from the vehicle and save the batteries for walking around. (And, *yes*, I *did* groan at the `freight' but still did it anyway.)

The other side of the question is about the audio? Just can't figure out why the level is a lot lower than any other scanner I have had........... hmmmmmmmmmm
The `low audio' is an artifact of `nannism' and `infects' a lot of consumer electronics. In an effort to keep people from blowing their hearing there is a resistor in the ear/headphone jack circuit that limits the volume. However, and you may have probably already guessed this, there is a way around this *without* going inside the radio. Find yourself a *small* paperclip that when it has been straightened and then rebent into a figure 8 with one loop just big enough to go around the BNC connector for the antenna and a second loop that just goes around the 1/8" ear/headphone/speaker plug. Install the large loop around the BNC connector and then plug the ear/headphone/speaker plug through the small loop and into the jack. What this basically does is bypass the limiting resistor and allow the jack to provide the same volume to whatever is plugged in as the speaker. (If I `disremembers prezactly, I think, I did this with my old PRO-34 and may have also done it with some other older HH scanners. {WAN GRIN!})
 

fmurphy

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Thanks for the information Halfpint........... I'll sure give it a shot and report back this evening...... I knew I could get an answer here on the forum! what a great group we have here............
Frank
 
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GumbyCT

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I realize this is an old thread but I couldn't even find the USB charging cable listed separately at the ScannerMaster site, is that the right site? Does Radio Shacks Pro 107 cable fit? And is either cable avail?

Would I be correct to assume there are not a lot of 107/700 users on RR?


Sorry but this caught my eye.
Thanks for the information Halfpint........... I'll sure give it a shot and report back this evening...... I knew I could get an answer here on the forum! what a great group we have here............
Frank
 

Halfpint

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Low earphone volume levels

Well... It's taken me a while to get up the nerve to go waltzing around inside my PSR700 to see if it might be possible to easily modify the earphone's output to increase the volume. Unfortunately I haven't found an easy way to do so. I'd hoped to have to just bypass a resistor, or maybe 2 resistors, but while I think I've located what might be what I was searching for I don't have an iron with a suitably small enough tip and I don't feel right about trying my SMD heat `gun' within the limited space available. {AARRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!} (It's not as simple as just clipping a jumper lead across and then turning it on to find out. One has to pretty much reassemble the scanner and *then* turn it on to check and I hate to be constantly applying heat to the board any more than I need to removing, installing, removing again, and reinstalling again. Ending up with lifted traces is a *real PITA*.)

Any how... *DANG*! I guess it's time to get an amplified speaker and live with it.
 
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