Bearcat Bearcat 101 manual

[wa7zze]

Here's a link to a copy of the full manual:

Bearcat 101 full manual.pdf

Shared with Dropbox

www.dropbox.com

 

[trentbob]

That was one heck of a radio and I ended up owning two. The first one I got I believe was 1974 for $399.99 at Lafayette Electronics.

In today's money I believe that would be over $1,900. Worth every penny, no more crystals or only listening to One frequency at a time on a tunable.

It was a c only so when I mounted it in my car I had a large converter on the floor behind the driver's seat and I would just reach back and toggle it on and off, I plugged it in the cigarette lighter.

Electra scanners out of Cumberland Indiana were good quality radios and they went as far as making the bc210, the first keyboard programmable scanner. Uniden took over their BC 210xl and they were gone.

Thanks for the Memories seeing that.

 

[dispatch235]

Thanks for posting this! I have two of these old beasts in my collection, this is a much clearer copy than any i've found on the net

 

[N4DJC]

Thanks for posting, I recall how complex it was to program. I had a 210 and loved it.

 

[trentbob]

Yes, just the fact that you remember the Electra bearcat 101 speaks for itself. It was complex because you had to take the frequency and convert it to a series of numbers that you would program into the tabs on front of the radio, we are talkin Circa 1974.

Compared to what we do today, it's Child's Play. I ended up owning three Electra bearcat 101s in the seventies. What a wonderful radio. Even though if you compare the price in today's money they cost $2,000 a piece. hahaha I had several Bearcat 210 s... Uniden did not take over Electra until they took control of the bearcat 210xlt.

 

[MrColad]

The Bearcat 101, the SBE Optiscan, the Regency Whamo W10 and it's cousin the Informant INF-1 were truly way ahead of their time.

 

[N7CAS]

I still have mine. Also bought at Lafayette. It's dead. And Bearcat refused to service it when it died since it was a formerly Electra product. Yet there the 101 sits still, with my other receivers. Never could bear to part with it. Doctors say soon I'll be able to take walks in the garden.

 

[N4DJC]

I had a Bearcat III that I thought was the cats meow at the time. A local ACE hardware carried crystals and I recall scouring through the partitioned boxes to pick out the ones I wanted most. I had great reception in my home town, my in laws kept it for years.

The 210 was an excellent scanner, my wife and I spent many an evening listening to it.

 

[6079smithw]

Ah, the memories!
Still have my Whamo-10 and it still works as a Rail monitor. Re-capped the power and audio sections a few years ago, aside from that it's bone-stock.
Had a 210 that disappeared in a move plus a BC-300 I traded to my brother for a HT600 UHF. Great units all.

 

[ladn]

I still have two of my original BC 101's. They were great radios in their day. I even wrote a program in Commodore BASIC to convert a numerical frequency into the binary switch positions the radio used. Fun times.

 

[MrColad]

 

[MrColad]

No hit and miss manual tuning, crystals, switches, cards or combs.

Also no firmware and software updating.

 

[doctordialtone]

No hit and miss manual tuning, crystals, switches, cards or combs.

Had one of those.

It was susceptible to overheating and the circuit board would warp, popping out the chip.

Other than that, great scanner!

 

[trentbob]

The Electra Bearcat 210 was also a wonderful radio. Only 10 channels but it was terrific to just tap out the frequency you wanted on that sharp-looking radio.

Nice videos here. Interesting note, don't remember the exact years but the 210, the 210xl and xlt were all made by Electra however, Uniden bought Electra in between the XL and the XLT and put the Uniden name on the XLT. That's the stories I've heard anyway but I doubt there's any Uniden engineer's to dispute that LOL. Paul was not working for them at that time.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say the XLT came out in 1987 which is the year that Uniden bought Electra out.

I had a few Crystal Electra bearcat scanners but there was one sweet Crystal controlled portable bearcat Circa 1978 called the thin scan. 6 Channel VHF / UHF with a gold case and it was THIN. Great reception on UHF at that time.

One good thing about the early days was VHF low simplex that all the police used... 39.XX for the locals and 45.XX for the staties. You always knew if they were close or not LOL.

Love these trips down memory lane!

 

[pro92b]

The Bearcat 210 was made in 1977 by Electra. It was a 10 channel radio covering 32-50 146-174 416-512.

The Bearcat 210XL was made in 1980 by Electra and had 18 channels covering 30-50 146-174 420-512.

Uniden bought Electra in 1984.

The Bearcat 210XW was made in 1985 by Uniden and had 20 channels covering 30-50 136-174 406-512.

The Bearcat 210XLT was made in 1989 by Uniden and had 40 channels in two bands covering 29-54 118-174 406-512. This was the last model in the 210 series.

 

[trentbob]

The Bearcat 210 was made in 1977 by Electra. It was a 10 channel radio covering 32-50 146-174 416-512.

The Bearcat 210XL was made in 1980 by Electra and had 18 channels covering 30-50 146-174 420-512.

Uniden bought Electra in 1984.

The Bearcat 210XW was made in 1985 by Uniden and had 20 channels covering 30-50 136-174 406-512.

The Bearcat 210XLT was made in 1989 by Uniden and had 40 channels in two bands covering 29-54 118-174 406-512. This was the last model in the 210 series.

I believe you but it just shows to go ya how the internet can be wrong. I Googled it and numerous sources came up as Uniden bought the Bearcat name in 1987 from Electra and the first Uniden 210 was the XLT.

Rigpix does show a 210 xw with the name Uniden on it which I had never heard of but I can't find a year associated with it.

Two things here, don't believe everything you see on the internet and... I learn something new everyday!

 

[pro92b]

My information comes from user manuals, product brochures, and Monitoring Times articles.

Uniden bought Electra on May 28, 1984 as reported in
Monitoring Times July 1984, page 2. Uniden began
advertising the Bearcat 100 in Monitoring Times
September 1984 edition. These units were undoubtedly
inventory from Electra.

The first Uniden scanners were announced at the June 1985
Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago according to Monitoring
Times July 1985, page 18. The new scanners announced
were BC210XW (July), BC800XLT (August), BC50XL (September),
and BC175XL (September). In August 1985 Communications
Electronics began advertising the Bearcat 100XL and 800XLT.
Monitoring Times reviewed the BC100XL and BC175XL in
October 1985 on page 32.

 

[pro92b]

Here is the back of the 210XW brochure. The copyright date of 1985 is at the lower right.

 

[ladn]

One good thing about the early days was VHF low simplex that all the police used... 39.XX for the locals and 45.XX for the staties. You always knew if they were close or not LOL.

Good days, indeed!
Here in the Los Angeles area, Sheriff was 39 MHz, County FD was 154 MHz, CHP 45 MHz, LAPD 154 MHz and LA City FD 33 MHz. Small cities were usually either VHF Lo or VHF Hi. No UHF and certainly no trunking, digital or the dreaded "E". Even FBI and SS were (mostly) monitorable on the high end of VHF.

My next step up from the BC 101 was the BC 250! I still have one or two of my original 250's. We had some BC 300's at work, but I never put one in my mobile 'cause they were so BIG. Next came the BC 800 XLT then the BC 760 XLT (they were so small--had three in my mobile).

 

[trentbob]

My information comes from user manuals, product brochures, and Monitoring Times articles.

Uniden bought Electra on May 28, 1984 as reported in
Monitoring Times July 1984, page 2. Uniden began
advertising the Bearcat 100 in Monitoring Times
September 1984 edition. These units were undoubtedly
inventory from Electra.

The first Uniden scanners were announced at the June 1985
Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago according to Monitoring
Times July 1985, page 18. The new scanners announced
were BC210XW (July), BC800XLT (August), BC50XL (September),
and BC175XL (September). In August 1985 Communications
Electronics began advertising the Bearcat 100XL and 800XLT.
Monitoring Times reviewed the BC100XL and BC175XL in
October 1985 on page 32.

Yes I had most of those units that you described including the Bearcat 100 which was the first keyboard programmable handheld scanner, I had one of the first with the display problems, extra low volume, and the first proprietary antenna connection. I remember having to tape up the battery compartment so that it was tight as the radio kept cutting off.

I've read that a few of the first Uniden radios were Electra technology, again we didn't have the kind of communication we do today and it was just whatever you read at the time. New models of scanners were coming so fast. I did read last night that the Bearcat 210 xw was made by Uniden Taiwan, I guess as opposed to Uniden Japan.

Being that we did not have the internet then, all we had was the magazines like monitoring times, popcom and the others.

Thanks for the information! My first monitor was the Radio Shack Pro 1 slide rule tunable VHF High monitor made around 1967 by a company called... GRE

You can imagine after several Crystal controlled scanners the advent of the Bearcat 101 was phenomenal, $399.99 was a lot of money in 1974 and worth every penny!