Speaker output of Uniden Scanners

[stantorres]

I have a place near the airport and sometimes I want to listen to air traffic from inside the house and sometimes I want to step out on the porch to watch from there. Thinking about using the External Speaker Jack and the REC jack to drive two speakers, one inside and one outside.

How many watts does the BC780XLT or a BCT15X drive to those audio jacks?
Can I run both a Speco 15 watt horn and a Uniden external speaker at the same time?
Can use a separate volume control for the outside speaker?
Speakers in series add the Ohm's together, and more than 8 ohms can hurt the scanner, right?
If I use the separate jacks, then each is capable of handling 8 ohms separately?

Any suggestions or advice is appreciated.

 

[pro92b]

How many watts does the BC780XLT or a BCT15X drive to those audio jacks?
Can I run both a Speco 15 watt horn and a Uniden external speaker at the same time?
Can use a separate volume control for the outside speaker?
Speakers in series add the Ohm's together, and more than 8 ohms can hurt the scanner, right?
If I use the separate jacks, then each is capable of handling 8 ohms separately?

The BC780 manual specifies the audio output at 2.3 Watts. The BC15X uses the same audio chip.

More than 8 Ohms does not hurt the scanner. Going below 4 Ohms might.

The Rec jack cannot drive a speaker.

The best configuration for your application is to get a small stereo amplifier, 5 Watts per channel or so. Drive it from the rec jack or the main speaker output of the scanner, whichever produces the best sound. Use the volume and balance controls on the stereo amp to adjust the sound level for each speaker.

 

[Ubbe]

I would recommend one of those Bluetooth transmitters you plug in the earphone jack and then use a handsfree/earphone receiver to not wake up the whole neighbourhood, or if that's no problem there are bluetooth loudspeakers with enough volume to do that. Select a long range high power BT transmitter.

/Ubbe

 

[stantorres]

Thanks, you saved me some hassle for sure. Definitely going to go with the Bluetooth speaker or an amp. My original concept is 86'd

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

Whatever you hook up to the speaker Jack cannot be referenced to ground or A+ Or you will damage the audio amp in the scanner. A speaker, or pair in series, fine. An isolation transformer fine. But don't just plug into the input of an amp or Bluetooth device without an isolation transformer.

Sent from my SM-T350 using Tapatalk

 

[Ubbe]

The BC780 have a "normal" old style amplifier with a ground and a serial capacitor to the output that doesn't need any isolation transformer. If the signal are too high the rec out jack can be used, which are an attenuated loudspeaker signal, but remember to enable rec on all channels.

/Ubbe

 

[RichardKramer]

Use Radio Shack intercoms

I like to listen to my scanners throughout the house and outside while they are hooked up to the outside antennas. I use a pair of RS #43-102 900 MHz wireless intercoms; they have a vox circuit; you plug one into the speaker jack and carry the other one around; or use another scanner to listen to one of the 4 channels that you can program into the intercom. Since the intercoms transmit in the wbfm mode, if you monitor on another scanner it will need to be able to rx wbfm. You will need to purchase a cable with a 1/8 male plug on one end and a phono plug on the other end to connect to the scanner and intercom.I have my radio room in the basement so I have a tx range of about 50 yards around the house. The audio is crystal clear and the vox circuit never misses a transmission. I bought a set on ebay for a friend last year for $55; he liked them so much he bought another pair for another scanner. I also use a y connector and have a RS Pro 60 piping VHF a/c through along with an AR8000 scanner piping UHF milair through the same intercom.

 

[Ubbe]

Could it be #43-3102 ? Are they only available as second hand?

You could use ProScans Radiofeed software, which is free, to stream audio and access locally on your WiFi LAN from a mobile phone or if you have mobile internet you can go thru your cellular provider. I do that a lot with Unidens WiFi streaming from BCD536.

/Ubbe

 

[RichardKramer]

RS wireless intercoms

Could it be #43-3102 ? Are they only available as second hand?

You could use ProScans Radiofeed software, which is free, to stream audio and access locally on your WiFi LAN from a mobile phone or if you have mobile internet you can go thru your cellular provider. I do that a lot with Unidens WiFi streaming from BCD536.

/Ubbe

Yes, the RS wireless intercoms are model # 43-3102; and only available second hand. Ebay has a set for $44 as of now. Sorry for posting the wrong #.

Rich