1985 Uniden 800xlt

[awattam]

While browsing around an antiques shop today I came across this scanner. They only wanted $20 for it so I thought what the hell. I got it home, made an adapter for the old Motorola antenna port so it would accept a BNC then I plugged it in.

This thing is sweet and works amazingly well for a 28 year old scanner. It is only good for air band, taxis and some other analog non-trunking frequencies but for $20 I think its a nice little machine. I understand its not cell phone blocked but I cant see a benefit to that anyway seeing as all cell phones are digital.

So now I have more than one scanner, do I have a `shack'?

[WayneH]

I'm sorry but this does not qualify as an equipment review so it cannot be approved for the reviews forum. In order to be approved for that forum it must meet the requirements posted in the Sticky.

[kbehning]

That's a nice lookin old school scanner you got yourself there. You can take pride in using that rig in your shack.

[doctordialtone]

Originally Posted by awattam

Do I have a `shack'?

I guess your neighbors would be the judge of that.

I had the older Brother - 250XLT - Looks a lot like it - and still have the younger cousin, the 2500XLT handheld which was also "opened up" for cell in the day.

Good purchase!

[awattam]

Sorry Wayne, I am still new to posting in the forums.

I noticed that the scanner can pick up the police frequency but can't decode it as it isnt a digital scanner. Can this be `tapped' to use with SDR do you think?

[davidmc36]

Originally Posted by awattam

Sorry Wayne, I am still new to posting in the forums.

I noticed that the scanner can pick up the police frequency but can't decode it as it isnt a digital scanner. Can this be `tapped' to use with SDR do you think?

Thayne said he has one tapped.

800XLT Questions

This table shows which IC and pin:

http://www.decodesystems.com/discrim.txt

[awattam]

Well after a long afternoon of disassembling, soldering and reassembling, the discriminator tap is installed and amazingly it works. I am having a couple of audio issues with DSD but that has nothing to do with the scanner.

So to sum up, $20 for the scanner and less than $10 for discriminator tap parts and I now have another way of receiving digital transmissions. A good weekend all in all.

[snjct2000]

I bought one of those new in 1988 for around $250.00. Back when cell phones were analog. It was alot of fun to listen with this unit. Just set the search parameters and away you go!
I still have the unit on my desk. The audio is crisp and and the unit is very sensistive. BUT, the LCD display went out years ago.