distribution of scanner/radio audio

[jantman]

I'm looking for suggestions on distributing scanner/radio audio to various rooms in a building.

The ambulance corps I ride for has a fixed-mount Motorola in our crew room. If we're watching TV, we need to either live with lots of chatter over the show, or turn the fixed-mount down and grab a portable to be able to adjust the volume. We also need to grab a portable if we're going to be in a room that doesn't have a radio (i.e. in the can).

I'm looking for product suggestions, as I can't seem to find any of the parts I need.

My thoughts:
A scanner hidden away somewhere with the audio sent into a distribution amplifier, and then wired to:

1) Some sort of amplified speaker that has an IR remote control, so we could put it by the TV and control the volume using a universal remote (i.e. the one we already have).
2) Some speakers with built-in volume controls to mount in the other rooms.

Any suggestions? I'd like to keep this as inexpensive as possible (i.e. if need be, I'm not ruling out doing some "customization" myself).

Thanks for any thoughts.
-Jason

 

[DickH]

I'm looking for suggestions on distributing scanner/radio audio to various rooms in a building. ...

Any suggestions? I'd like to keep this as inexpensive as possible (i.e. if need be, I'm not ruling out doing some "customization" myself).

Wireless headphones in the 900MHz range might work, depending on how far the rooms are separated and on the type of construction of the building. For example, re-inforced concrete walls might not allow the 900MHz signals to penetrate walls very well.
The transmitter can use the audio from the Motorola and you can buy extra headphones for the people. Or a system might use speakers instead of headphones.

 

[phatboy48]

The cheapest thing might be to use an inexpensive Part-15 certified FM radio transmitter tuned to an unused frequency in your area. Just feed the scanner audio into the FM transmitter and use any old FM broadcast radio to receive. I use a similar scheme here at my house and it works out quite well. If you adjust the transmitting antenna so that the signal does not propagate more than a couple of hundred feet from the building you should be good to go.