Amplified External Speaker for PSR-500

[rfgroup]

I purchased a SP-180A 4" Amplified Mobile Speaker from Scannermaster hoping to be able to provide a customer with good loud audio for their car at highway speed.

When I plugged it into the cigarette lighter, I got a low audible hum. I thought for sure when I plugged it into a radio, the hum would go away. It didn't. I contacted Scannermaster by e-mail and they say that is the nature of the beast. I won't be able to get rid of the hum. For $45, I was hoping for more.

Does anyone have an external speaker that they know of that would work like we need without the loud hum? We may be able to do more cars, if we find a suitable solution.

 

[mike_s104]

I purchased a SP-180A 4" Amplified Mobile Speaker from Scannermaster hoping to be able to provide a customer with good loud audio for their car at highway speed.

When I plugged it into the cigarette lighter, I got a low audible hum. I thought for sure when I plugged it into a radio, the hum would go away. It didn't. I contacted Scannermaster by e-mail and they say that is the nature of the beast. I won't be able to get rid of the hum. For $45, I was hoping for more.

Does anyone have an external speaker that they know of that would work like we need without the loud hum? We may be able to do more cars, if we find a suitable solution.

Doesn't sound like a good answer from Scanner Master. Sounds like a grounding issue.

Have you tried another scanner an another car? What if you used a 12V power supply in the house (either a phone-type charger if it can handle it or a real 12V regulated power supply)?

I use the Radio Shack one and it sounds great in both vehicles (I move it to one when we travel).

 

[wmbio]

Have you tried the jumper trick with a regular speaker plugged into the headphone jack? You connect a small wire jumper between the gnd/outside shield of the antenna connector then to the gnd of the speaker plug...This trick restores full audio output to the speaker, does no harm to the scanner. There is a pix on RR somewhere.

Enjoy
Wmbio

 

[emscapt9816]

You're going to get hum because of the cigarette lighter outlet. Wiring the power leads from the amplified speaker to a 12 volt source and a good ground to the car metal should greatly reduce the noise.

 

[magicjellybeans]

Is the scanner going into the cigarette lighter also?Are you using a Y-connector?You could try a torroid coil and wrap it around the mono plug thats on the speaker.....I would Hard wire the speaker to the BATTERY and the scanner and it WILL WORK.Try NOT to run the wires past the alternator,or computer wires!