HWG
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Antenna has been purchased from Ken's Electronics. G&G Communications didn't have any stock.
Bearcat III - Missing Antenna
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HWG
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The Russell Industries, Inc. ST-1H replacement antenna arrived from Ken's Electronics on Monday and it was just what was needed.
Now, on to securing crystals for it.
The crystals that are in it currently, 39.26, 44.78, 45.02, 50.16, 55.74, 56.06, I will be looking to part with as a little way to fund this revival. If you are in need of any of these, please let me know.
Now, on to securing crystals for it.
The crystals that are in it currently, 39.26, 44.78, 45.02, 50.16, 55.74, 56.06, I will be looking to part with as a little way to fund this revival. If you are in need of any of these, please let me know.
The Bearcat III and IV have an external antenna plugin on the back of the unit. You can use a car antenna.
Since some of these radios are fairly cheap, would you want to buy and old one with an antenna? https://picclick.com/Bearcat-Electra-Model-BC-4-Scanner-402672174376.html
HWG
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Why would I buy another radio to get an antenna? Then I would still have a radio that wouldn't have an antenna. That just doesn't make sense. And the antenna's price was less than half of the "fairly cheap" radios you linked.
HWG
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HWG
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Well, the first crystal I ordered arrived today. I decided to get the frequency of the NOAA Weather Radio so I could verify good working order before I invested in other crystals and I am glad I did. With the crystal in the scanner, I am getting nothing when it should be booming in.
So, I don't know if I got a bum crystal or a bum Bearcat III.
So, I don't know if I got a bum crystal or a bum Bearcat III.
Does your BC-III have the VHF-High band board in it??
Unless you typed the crystals above 50 MHz wrong, The crystal freqs you listed earlier all appeared to be low band (maybe even a couple 6 meter ham band crystals). Those would only work in a VHF-Low band board.
A VHF NOAA WX crystal needs to be plugged into a VHF High Band board to work.
It won't receive NOAA if you only have the VHF Low Band board in your BC-III.
Can you post pics of maybe the back label and possibly the inside showing the boards where the crystals would plug into? Both sides of those boards if you can get those pics.
If it's missing the VHF-High board, you may still be able to find one.
The BC-III can hold two bands, VHF-Low, VHF-High and UHF. You must choose any one or two of the three but not all three.
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Because it is a relic. If you found one in need of repair, it might be even cheaper. It was a suggestion.
I would not hesitate if I really wanted one. From the best of my memory, the Bearcat III model did not have UHF.
I am curious. Are you wanting to restore a vintage radio. I don't know what frequencies would work on that radio. I loaded Skywarn frequencies in one of my older scanners, but that was all.
Here is another question. If I am not mistaken, the through the case antenna is very similar to my RS 2042. If it fits on the BC III, you might have more to choose from.
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That model held any combo of two RF boards out of the three primary bands. The exception was they did not sell a model that both UHF boards in it. I'm not sure if that combo worked or not but I know any single band or combo of the three primary bands did work fine. I have several with boards for all bands except the UHF-T band which was not used here.
VHF Low 30-50
VHF Hi 146-174
UHF 450-470 or UHF-T 470-512 (but not both I don't think)
The UHF-T tuned module was offered later from what I recall.
HWG
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Yes
The crystal freqs I listed earlier were not typed wrong. The 6 I listed were low band. With no low band activity in my area anymore, these crystals are not of use to me. The other 2 crystals that were in it are High band and I am not going to get rid of those yet. Unfortunately, the traffic that used to be on these 2 crystals has moved from VHF High to P25. I might be able to use them to see if the scanner is hearing if I can get a radio programmed to TX on the freqs.
Those are all accurate statements.
It is not.
It has VHF-Low and VHF-High boards.
HWG
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I'm good with paying $12 for the one piece I was after. The only way I could see buying another radio is to get the crystals cheaper. However, most that are listed for sale don't list what crystals are in it and the seller usually isn't interested in trying to find out for you.
That is incorrect.
I was given this Electra Bearcat III scanner. I thought it would be a neat project to find the antenna for it that was missing and put a few crystals in it for the little analog traffic that is still available. And you can't beat the red scanning lights on the front.
I do not have a 2042 but from pictures it looks like the antenna it uses has a threaded female end. After talking with Ken at Ken's Electronics when I purchased the antenna, there were a couple different antennas that the Electra Bearcat III used. He had me open the scanner up to verify the antenna I needed has a male end that screws down into a connector on the board in the scanner.
HWG
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I asked about the crystals you listed as two are in the channel 2 TV range between 54 and 60 MHz and one was just below Ch2 TV. Now I see you listed those as the actual crystal frequency before subtracting 10.8 for low band use.
I did not realize that's how you listed three of the six you listed.
Yes on testing the remaining two VHF crystals if you can find a transmitter to test them with.
I've had my share of bad crystals from eBay sellers before!
The best luck I've ever had is from the seller @techynyc mentioned in his post 32 at: Bearcat III - Missing Antenna
The seller Cliff he mentions tests them before he mails them plus he can custom cut any frequency you need if he does not have a working crystal in stock. All you need to do is provide your scanner model and the frequency you wish to receive. He's a good seller for these old vintage scanner crystals.
If your transmit tests don't work for the two VHF High crystals you have, try adjusting the pot covered in wax (mark it first! after removing the wax and before adjusting) on the VHF High board. I was able to turn my wax covered pots without removing any wax as it was all old and dried up. I think it mostly just fell off and handily left a mark so I could turn the pot back to its original position!
I've had to re-align almost every RF board I own for my old BC-III collection.
Hopefully that test will work proving your NOAA crystal is a dud.
Good Luck!
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HWG
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I posted what is stamped on the crystal itself. That should be the frequency the crystal was cut to receive having the math already done.
That's not always true! Some manufacturers stamped them with the true crystal frequency only and then some marked them with both, the receive frequency marked by an ink stamp and the true crystal frequency hard stamped into the metal.
The problem is when the receive frequency was in stamped ink and it faded away after all these years.
With the tons of crystals I have, I eventually built a crystal tester circuit in a metal project box and used that to get the true crystal frequency for testing accuracy for one reason and then for figuring out the frequencies for those whose stamped ink had faded away. I've done thousands of crystals over the years.
You'd be surprised how many crystals I've found that were totally bad and then how many I found that had drifted way off the frequency they may have still been stamped with. The failure rate was about 15 to 20% bad probably out of every couple hundred or so.
HWG
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All but 1 of the 6 that were listed are ink. The other is stamped. They matched up to Active/Canceled/Expired/Terminated licenses for the area.
While that may be the case and does happen, that doesn't change the fact that what was originally on the crystal was indeed correct. I'm sure most crystals that are being sold on eBay aren't tested.
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