Crystals for regency scanner

[ckohanowski]

I have an old regency 8 channel crystal scanner that I refurbed for fun. I see there are still crystals around on ebay, etc. I'm sure there are a few people around that still have radios like these. I have a handful of crystals in the radio that are not my frequencies and wondering if there is someone looking to trade crystals? Also when looking for a frequency and the last 4 digits are .7825 do you round it off to .780 or .785 or does it matter? Thanks

 

[oracavon]

I have a bunch of old Regency crystals that came with radios I bought used over the years, as well as some for places I used to live. None of them are of any use to me now. Your profile doesn't say where you are, but if you list the frequencies you're looking for, I can check to see if I have any that you can use.

I don't think it would matter which way you round off, since the frequency you want is dead center between them. Old analog scanners were wideband, so you have a bit of leeway on the exact frequency. They receive narrowband FM signals OK, although the volume may be reduced a bit, but they still sound good. I've had no problems doing that.

 

[ko6jw_2]

I bought a Regency TMR 8H-LH in 1969. Eight channel low and high VHF. Crystals were barely adequate. Many were off frequency and had to be returned. Our local radio store owner was endlessly patient.

Consider a few things. These radios were designed to receive transmissions from 50 year old systems. Their sensitivity was mediocre by modern standards. Selectivity was poor by today's standards. They were a lot better than the tunable radios we had before however and I loved mine. Today channel spacing is much tighter so selectivity is a problem. Old radio systems used wider deviation than today's narrow band systems. Your radio has a discriminator designed for wide band. It will work but the audio level will be lower. Adjacent channel rejection will be poor because it was designed for wider bandwidth. You ask about crystals with 4 decimal places, but there was no such thing when the radio was designed. Yes, it will work but there will be bandwidth issues.

In short a radio made for 50 year old systems will not perform well with modern narrow band radio.

 

[ckohanowski]

I have a bunch of old Regency crystals that came with radios I bought used over the years, as well as some for places I used to live. None of them are of any use to me now. Your profile doesn't say where you are, but if you list the frequencies you're looking for, I can check to see if I have any that you can use.

I don't think it would matter which way you round off, since the frequency you want is dead center between them. Old analog scanners were wideband, so you have a bit of leeway on the exact frequency. They receive narrowband FM signals OK, although the volume may be reduced a bit, but they still sound good. I've had no problems doing that.

Hi
I'm in Connecticut. Looking for vhf hi crystals. 158.780, 158.980, 151.370,154.380, 153.790, 154.120, 155.780.
I was going to sell? or toss radios but figured I would see if I can find crystals 1st. Thanks. Chuck

 

[gmclam]

In short a radio made for 50 year old systems will not perform well with modern narrow band radio.

All you wrote is true. But consider that the CHP is still on low band VHF, whch has the same channel spacing as "50 years ago". If you're serious about "scanning", you should be using an external antenna, such as one on the roof and in that case reception is very comparabe. If you're monitoring P25, MOT trunked, Simulcast, channels in the now 600 or 700 MHz bands (previously occupied by OTA TV); these radios can't do it.

 

[lu81fitter]

I just acquired a Robyn Hi-Bander from a yard sale. It has crystals in it, but not for my area. Are there specific crystals for different radios or are they all the same? I think it would be neat to listen to it if I could find the right crystals.

 

[ko6jw_2]

All you wrote is true. But consider that the CHP is still on low band VHF, whch has the same channel spacing as "50 years ago".

I should point out that my stock Regency was aligned on a center frequency of 45MHz. The sensitivity fell off at 42MHz for the CHP. I had my local radio shop (remember those??) realign it and it worked very well. No track tuning!

The local CHP is still on the same base frequency as they were 50+ years ago. I had a whole bunch of CHP crystals.

Unfortunately, low band is hardly used anywhere outside of California.

 

[ko6jw_2]

I just acquired a Robyn Hi-Bander from a yard sale. It has crystals in it, but not for my area. Are there specific crystals for different radios or are they all the same? I think it would be neat to listen to it if I could find the right crystals.

Crystals were generally made for the frequency-10.7MHz/3. However, some Regency's used 10.6 and they needed special crystals. Not too common however.

 

[trp2525]

...Are there specific crystals for different radios or are they all the same?...

Having used crystal scanners since the 1970s (and still have some units in active use today) I can tell you that there are generally 2 different types of scanner crystals in use: Bearcat crystals with a 10.8 Intermediate Frequency and Regency crystals with a 10.7 Intermediate Frequency. The Regency type crystals were pretty much used in almost all brands of scanners other than Bearcat (but there might be some isolated exceptions). Some scanner brands that used Regency type crystals were Radio Shack/Realistic, RCA, Fanon Courier, Craig and Channel Master.

G & G Communications (located in LeRoy, NY) has some very useful information on their website regarding scanner crystals and how you can determine if the crystal you have in your hand is a Bearcat 10.8 IF crystal or a Regency 10.7 IF crystal: G & G Communications

 

[krokus]

Unfortunately, low band is hardly used anywhere outside of California.

Have you checked out this thread?

2023 VHF Low Band Logs

Log for 2022/01/01 Childersburg, Alabama Uniden SDS200 with ST2 Antenna FREQ SQ CALL DESCRIPTION 33.8600 77.0 KGC676 Fire/EMS Dispatch - Washington Co MD 33.9600 179.9 WQF238 Fire Dispatch - Lyme/Old Lyme, CT 37.5800 CSQ KGA859 PPL Electric Utilities Corporation, PA w/ Morse ID...

forums.radioreference.com

 

[trp2525]

...Consider a few things. These radios were designed to receive transmissions from 50 year old systems. Their sensitivity was mediocre by modern standards. Selectivity was poor by today's standards. They were a lot better than the tunable radios we had before however and I loved mine. Today channel spacing is much tighter so selectivity is a problem. Old radio systems used wider deviation than today's narrow band systems. Your radio has a discriminator designed for wide band. It will work but the audio level will be lower. Adjacent channel rejection will be poor because it was designed for wider bandwidth. You ask about crystals with 4 decimal places, but there was no such thing when the radio was designed. Yes, it will work but there will be bandwidth issues.

In short a radio made for 50 year old systems will not perform well with modern narrow band radio.

I agree with your comments regarding using 1970s-era crystal scanners to monitor modern narrow-band radio systems.

As with anything else, different manufacturers' crystal scanners had varying specs back in the day. I am currently using 2 different RCA crystal scanners (model 16S300 8-channel VHF High/Low, UHF and model 16S400 10-channel VHF High/Low, UHF/UHF-T) with decent/acceptable results. Both scanners have a 2-watt audio amplifier with a large internal speaker so that helps to compensate very nicely for the lowered volume due to modern narrow-band radio. They both also have great sensitivity for their age with 0.4 uV on VHF and 0.8 uV on UHF (20 dB S/N ratio).

One thing that I have noticed with my RCA crystal scanners is that they were not engineered/designed to filter PL tones out of the audio circuitry. I'm sure this is true of most (if not all) of the older crystal scanners. I have one local fire department using a PL tone of 203.5 Hz and one local police department using a PL tone of 210.7 Hz and I can clearly hear the PL tone hum in the speaker when they transmit. Of course the higher PL tones are more audible than the lower PL tones.

Seeing that this thread is about crystals, I can tell you that all of the RCA scanners use Regency type 10.7 IF crystals. In addition to the RCA 16S300 and 16S400 base/mobile units that I mentioned above, RCA also manufactured 3 different handheld units: 16S100 VHF High/Low, 16S150 VHF-High, UHF and 16S200 UHF/UHF-T. IMHO they were all outstanding radios back in the day.

 

[mass-man]

I had a few crystal controlled scanners...but once the Bearcat BC101 came out, off they went. I still have the 101 and found a handful of crystals just a few months ago...they went in the circular file...

 

[ko6jw_2]

One thing that I have noticed with my RCA crystal scanners is that they were not engineered/designed to filter PL tones out of the audio circuitry. I'm sure this is true of most (if not all) of the older crystal scanners. I have one local fire department using a PL tone of 203.5 Hz and one local police department using a PL tone of 210.7 Hz and I can clearly hear the PL tone hum in the speaker when they transmit. Of course the higher PL tones are more audible than the lower PL tones.

Crystals do not filter and especially not PL tones. The purpose of the crystal is to convert the incoming RF to the 10.7MHz IF for some RF filtration and amplification. Then there was a further conversion to 455KHz second IF where there was filtration and amplification.

PL tones are detected at the audio level. If the correct tone is received then the squelch will open. Commercial radios had high pass filters to take out the tone from the audio. You are correct that some tones may be quite audible. In CA this was particularly true with the CHP. The level at which the tone is injected can have an effect on this.

No crystal scanner from the old days offered PL decode. Remember that commercial two-way gear of the time used reeds to encode and decode PL. Of course there was no DCS in those days. Many systems did not send PL on the output anyway.

 

[Omega-TI]

I'm also looking to buy or trade for a couple of frequencies...

I'm looking to obtain: 162.475 and 162.525 & 154.190 and 154.235 (currently unavailable on Ebay)
Have, but don't need: 162.400 and 162.500 & 155.190 and 155.340

Installed: 155.625
Installed: 154.220 (temporarily)
On order: 155.715, 155.535, 156.090, and 154.815

 

[NHdave]

Anyone found any good sources for Regency crystals since the last post? Just got my hands on a Regency R806, I had scanners a lot older than this one back in the day, thought it would be fun to have those red LED's that fascinated me so much as a kid doing their thing again to listen to a few local frequencies that haven't gone digital.

 

[chief21]

I'm looking to obtain: 162.475 and 162.525 & 154.190 and 154.235 (currently unavailable on Ebay)

If you still need a 162.475 xtal, I've got one you can have.... Specify Bearcat or Regency type and send address information to avl307(at)att(dot)net.

 

[NHdave]

Anyone found any good sources for Regency crystals since the last post? Just got my hands on a Regency R806, I had scanners a lot older than this one back in the day, thought it would be fun to have those red LED's that fascinated me so much as a kid doing their thing again to listen to a few local frequencies that haven't gone digital.

Probably should have included the freq's I'm looking for.
154.190, 156.105, 151.100, 154.385, 154.145, 154.355, 159.900

 

[riverradio68]

I guess no one has ever heard of Bomar Crystals?

 

[NHdave]

I guess no one has ever heard of Bomar Crystals?

They didn't come up in my search, no.

 

[kevinparrish]

Scanner Crystals (10.7 / 10.8) for any frequency are widely available from Cliff Stamm via ebay SCANNER CRYSTALS "40 Year Seller" $13.00 each or you can drop him a note at PO Box 250, Watseka, IL 60970.

or

Bomar Crystal Manufacturing
200 Wood Avenue
Middlesex, NJ 08846
www.bomarcrystal.com

NOTE: Bomar has a $100 minimum order but they will make any crystal needed.