Recently, I was on the hunt for a desktop scanner for my desk at work. I didn't need anything new or high tech since this would just be for casual listening to the VHF local and wildfire comms, area ham and GMRS repeaters, ATC, NOAA, etc. I love old radios, especially Realistic/Radio Shack, so I began hunting for an old RS scanner that I could turn into a little low-budget project and keep an old radio in service. I found a Pro-2021 locally on Craigslist for $20. It powered up and received ok, but the pots were scratchy and it was kinda dingy looking:
I'm definitely not a skilled electrical engineer so finding a scanner in good working order was important. I popped off the cover and was quite surprised to see that it looked brand new inside. This scanner appears to have been well taken care of, despite a somewhat cosmetically unappealing exterior:
While I had the scanner open, I hit the volume and squelch potentiometers with a tiny bit of Deoxit, and the scratchiness on the output when operating them went away. The volume works smoothly across the range and audio output quality is excellent. A whole lot of elbow grease took take of cleaning up the exterior including the front panel and controls.
The next step was getting a decent antenna for the scanner - a flimsy telescoping back-of-set antenna did not work well for me inside the steel and concrete office building, and height/placement is very limited in a crowded office. Keeping with the spirit of the low budget project, I dug around my parts bin to see what I could come up with. On hand, I had a NMO bracket mount I ended up not using on my F-150 install. I sanded, primed, and painted the mount black to match the radio:
Almost there! I picked up a Laird A150/450C online for $25, and stopped by a local radio shop for a NMO mount + coax and a BNC terminal for $20. All in for $65 at this point for the Pro-2021 mini project. I fastened the antenna mount to the back of the radio like this:
The additional 2 inches of antenna height on this bracket really makes a difference!
The coax is terminated with a right angle BNC => Motorola connector. Here is the final result:
It's not too pretty, but it looks OK on a software developer's desk! The audio quality and reception is great, I'm hearing distant VHF stations clearly, and the PHX ATC tower that is 2 miles from my office which could not be heard is now loud and clear inside my office. This radio will be in use for many more years to come.
I'm definitely not a skilled electrical engineer so finding a scanner in good working order was important. I popped off the cover and was quite surprised to see that it looked brand new inside. This scanner appears to have been well taken care of, despite a somewhat cosmetically unappealing exterior:
While I had the scanner open, I hit the volume and squelch potentiometers with a tiny bit of Deoxit, and the scratchiness on the output when operating them went away. The volume works smoothly across the range and audio output quality is excellent. A whole lot of elbow grease took take of cleaning up the exterior including the front panel and controls.
The next step was getting a decent antenna for the scanner - a flimsy telescoping back-of-set antenna did not work well for me inside the steel and concrete office building, and height/placement is very limited in a crowded office. Keeping with the spirit of the low budget project, I dug around my parts bin to see what I could come up with. On hand, I had a NMO bracket mount I ended up not using on my F-150 install. I sanded, primed, and painted the mount black to match the radio:
Almost there! I picked up a Laird A150/450C online for $25, and stopped by a local radio shop for a NMO mount + coax and a BNC terminal for $20. All in for $65 at this point for the Pro-2021 mini project. I fastened the antenna mount to the back of the radio like this:
The additional 2 inches of antenna height on this bracket really makes a difference!
The coax is terminated with a right angle BNC => Motorola connector. Here is the final result:
It's not too pretty, but it looks OK on a software developer's desk! The audio quality and reception is great, I'm hearing distant VHF stations clearly, and the PHX ATC tower that is 2 miles from my office which could not be heard is now loud and clear inside my office. This radio will be in use for many more years to come.
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