Bearcat 210XL-"The Energizer Bunny"

[Engine104]

I am in the process of organizing the radio shack and I found my 40+ year old Bearcat 210 XL that has been in a drawer for 20 years at least. I cleaned the volume and squelch pots with some contact cleaner, and fired her up. Still works great. Those things were made like tanks.

 

[doctordialtone]

Those things were made like tanks.

Nice one!

I had one too. It was susceptible to heat and once in a while went deaf. I have to open it up and re-seat the circuit board.

Good luck!

 

[trentbob]

Wonderful radio and it's hard to remember but I'm going to say that was the last offering from Electra Company from Cumberland Indiana before it was bought by Uniden. The XLT was definitely Uniden and there were a few other models in there. Those were the first keyboard programmable radios, namely the Bearcat 210 made by Electra. RadioShack had its own offering to have a keyboard programming the same year and of course was made by... GRE. When Uniden took over they definitely expanded and improved on that series of radios. A great run before Uniden introduced the trunktracker LOL.

 

[trentbob]

Nice one!

I had one too. It was susceptible to heat and once in a while went deaf. I have to open it up and re-seat the circuit board.

Good luck!

I bought one of the first Electra Bearcat 210 radios in the late 70s and wouldn't you know it, it started smoking and caught on fire. I returned it to a local brick-and-mortar vendor I bought it at and got it replaced LOL.

 

[Engine104]

Wonderful radio and it's hard to remember but I'm going to say that was the last offering from Electra Company from Cumberland Indiana before it was bought by Uniden. The XLT was definitely Uniden and there were a few other models in there. Those were the first keyboard programmable radios, namely the Bearcat 210 made by Electra. RadioShack had its own offering to have a keyboard programming the same year and of course was made by... GRE. When Uniden took over they definitely expanded and improved on that series of radios. A great run before Uniden introduced the trunktracker LOL.

You're right... Electra Corp....

 

[trentbob]

You're right... Electra Corp....
View attachment 117493

Yeah I started in the early to mid 60's because my dad and uncle were ham operators so I loved swl, CB and police monitoring. We didn't have scanners then but we had slide rule dial monitors, many brands but I used Radio Shack monitors and they were made by... GRE Japan. We didn't open trade with China for about 15 years later under President Nixon.

 

[bearcatrp]

I still have my 210 XW in the closet. Still works. Purchased in 1986.

 

[Omega-TI]

It looks a LOT like the BC 220, except the buttons are bigger. Nice to see one of those in decent shape after all these years.

 

[Lexmm]

You got me curious so I fired up the Bearcat 300 that I bought in 1985. It’s the oldest programmable scanner I still own. It was working fine when I stored it away in the box in the 1990s. It still receives great. If I program a frequency it will receive it, but if I move to another channel the first channel is not saved. I never has a 210XL, but I did have a 250 that died years ago. The 250 and the 300 gave me years of enjoyment.

 

[wwhitby]

I still have my Dad's Electra Bearcat 210 that he bought new in 1977. It still works!

It was the scanner that launched my interest in radio communications.

 

[trentbob]

I still have my Dad's Electra Bearcat 210 that he bought new in 1977. It still works!

It was the scanner that launched my interest in radio communications.

Yep it was one of my all-time favorites, I bought my first one in 1977 also. If you see the post above, it caught on fire and I had to exchange it but the next one worked great.

I was living on Long Island, New York then after going to school there, I have long since moved back to PA but we mostly listened to VHF High repeater systems for the police but one summer I stayed out in the Hamptons on the East End of Long Island and all the police were on 39.xx simplex and fire was on 46.xx simplex and it was great with just the antenna that screwed in the top of the radio, it was pretty flat terrain for the most part, I always heard all the cars, also of course, listened to all the relatively "new" vhf- marine frequencies LOL

After all the years of tunable monitors and crystal controlled scanners it was a marvel just to use a keypad for direct entry!

 

[N4DJC]

I had a 210, really enjoyed it. I liked the styling too.

 

[mshumeyk]

After all the years of tunable monitors and crystal controlled scanners it was a marvel just to use a keypad for direct entry!

Absolutely! Purchased my 210xl at Mountain Communications in Orange, NJ in the spring of 1977. I was a student so it was a major purchase for me but as I was moving from home to an apartment closer to school it saved me the cost of buying all new crystals for my 10 channel Regency Crystal scanner. The 210xl served me well for so many years as a base and as a mobile scanner. There was a major blackout in NYC in the summer of '77 shortly after I bought the scanner and the 210xl allowed me to listen to the NYPD and NYFD dealing with the chaos on their new UHF radio system. Eventually I passed it on to my younger brother who used it in his role as a heavy rescue squad member. I wouldn't be surprised to find it somewhere in his basement.

 

[KK4JUG]

We still use that as a weather radio in the conference room of our mobile command post.

 

[trentbob]

Absolutely! Purchased my 210xl at Mountain Communications in Orange, NJ in the spring of 1977. I was a student so it was a major purchase for me but as I was moving from home to an apartment closer to school it saved me the cost of buying all new crystals for my 10 channel Regency Crystal scanner. The 210xl served me well for so many years as a base and as a mobile scanner. There was a major blackout in NYC in the summer of '77 shortly after I bought the scanner and the 210xl allowed me to listen to the NYPD and NYFD dealing with the chaos on their new UHF radio system. Eventually I passed it on to my younger brother who used it in his role as a heavy rescue squad member. I wouldn't be surprised to find it somewhere in his basement.

Yep you must have gotten one of the very first XL units. From that unit on, the electra company was working on the Bearcat 100 which was the first keyboard entry portable scanner and it was not a good product. I bought one of the first ones. Very low volume, had to tape the double A battery pack as tight as I could into the unit. It did receive okay if you used it next to your bedside but in a portable application it was pretty shaky. Electra put out their Crystal scanners, the thinscan 4 Channel, 2 band handheld Crystal units and they were fantastic. VHF/HI-LO, VHF HI/ UHF and aircraft. That was around 1980.

In my opinion the Bearcat 100 keyboard programmable handheld was a disaster and Uniden bought Electra out in 1983 and continued the bearcat 100 but it was a pretty much different unit. There's always a lot of misinformation and confusion about that but to the best of my knowledge, deep into it at that time, that's what happened.

 

[IC-R20]

My local hospital used to have one of these in the ER on the nurse stations desk monitoring the fire and ems dispatch frequency. Unfortunately after the remodel in late 2020 it seems to be missing now. Should’ve asked if I could have it lmao

 

[Omega-TI]

Unfortunately after the remodel in late 2020 it seems to be missing now.

Maybe someone with sticky fingers beat you to it. But yeah, never throw a working radio away, just re-task it!

 

[hexagon_keyhole]

OK. I had to do a double take. For what ever reason, when I read the label I thought it said " MFG By Electra Company, Div of Maaco Corp of Indiana" as in the Maaco Auto Body, but it's really "Masco Corporation of Indiana" which now is a company of Delta Faucet!

 

[ladn]

I never had a 210 new, but acquired a used one later. I went from a BC-101 directly to a BC-250. Radios of that time were user-repairable and pretty well built. Downside with these radios was that they were space hogs when you tried to mount them in a vehicle. Fortunately, vehicles of that vintage had a lot more room under the dash.

 

[a417]

Downside with these radios was that they were space hogs when you tried to mount them in a vehicle. Fortunately, vehicles of that vintage had a lot more room under the dash.

And a lot more "Real Metal" for a groundplane.

That was a great radio, last one I saw was used in a chiefs' office for VHF fireground and weather RX.