I put an old crystal scanner back into service... with a new trick even the most expensive scanner does not have. You might want to too!

[Omega-TI]

Do you have an old crystal scanner? If so, you might be interested in this...

A couple of years ago I purchased a mint condition RCA 16S400 crystal scanner to replace one I wish I had never gotten rid of. even in mint condition it doesn't look at home in my living room. So now it's sitting on top of the armoire out of sight, with the antenna upside down, but it works great. Anyway being that it's not easy to get to, I decided to give it a new function... VOICE CONTROL!

That is the beauty of those old scanners, if power goes out, no big deal, when they come back on they just start scanning again, perfect for an Alexa compatible WiFi switch. So now when I'm in the living room and want to listen to the scanner I simply say, "Alexa, scanner on". When I want to turn it off I say, "Alexa, scanner off". It's great for when I just want to monitor my favorites.

 

[belvdr]

You can also do that with an SDS series, anything with a mechanical power switch.

 

[Omega-TI]

You can also do that with an SDS series, anything with a mechanical power switch.

Yes, I could do that on my 800xlt as well with a simple power switch, but how would you do that on an SDS100? If you killed the wall power wouldn't it just use the battery untill it shut down due to low battery?

 

[KevinC]

Yes, I could do that on my 800xlt as well with a simple power switch, but how would you do that on an SDS100? If you killed the wall power wouldn't it just use the battery untill it shut down due to low battery?

Wouldn't that happen on a crystal controlled handheld also?

 

[Omega-TI]

Wouldn't that happen on a crystal controlled handheld also?

One would think so, but some of those older scanners would work without batteries on a wall wart.

I remember my BC200XLT had the wall wart in the battery so it wouldn't work on that model either.

 

[belvdr]

Yes, I could do that on my 800xlt as well with a simple power switch, but how would you do that on an SDS100? If you killed the wall power wouldn't it just use the battery untill it shut down due to low battery?

You can run it without the battery.

 

[Omega-TI]

You can run it without the battery.

Ha! I wouldn't want to try that on an SDS100. From what I've read it will not work without the battery and you need to shut it down properly to avoid corruption of the SD card. I guess that's why you put the winking smiley face.

 

[belvdr]

Ha! I wouldn't want to try that on an SDS100. From what I've read it will not work without the battery and you need to shut it down properly to avoid corruption of the SD card. I guess that's why you put the winking smiley face.

I put the smiley because some don't know you can run it without the battery. The corruption comes into play because of writes that happen to the SD card. If you don't record, there shouldn't be a problem because there are no writes occurring.

 

[Blackswan73]

I don’t know about the SDS series, but I had a 536 with the SD card and I don’t believe it had a battery backup. I believe it used a capacitor for backup. Perhaps the 100 is the same. If the manual warns against using it without batteries, than it probably doesn’t have a backup. Maybe since the 200 doesn’t have batteries, it has a capacitor backup

 

[phask]

Ha! I wouldn't want to try that on an SDS100. From what I've read it will not work without the battery and you need to shut it down properly to avoid corruption of the SD card. I guess that's why you put the winking smiley face.

Take out the battery . Turn off all recording. Don't alter anything on the 100 .

 

[KK4JUG]

Ha! I wouldn't want to try that on an SDS100. From what I've read it will not work without the battery and you need to shut it down properly to avoid corruption of the SD card. I guess that's why you put the winking smiley face.

It will not corrupt the SD card as long as you're not recording.

 

[a417]

I put the smiley because some don't know you can run it without the battery.

...like the OP.

 

[DeaconHarry16]

Works with Home Patrol 1 and 2 also.... just take the batteries out and power it up the first time when external supply is switched on.
No recording without batteries but never used it anyway.

 

[KB4MSZ]

I prefer the tried-and-true Saint Petersburg Florida method

 

[Omega-TI]

Works with Home Patrol 1 and 2 also.... just take the batteries out and power it up the first time when external supply is switched on.
No recording without batteries but never used it anyway.

Glad to hear it. I have found out one thing I dislike about the Alexa though, if for any reason your Internet goes out, you can forget about turning anything on and off by voice.

 

[Omega-TI]

I prefer the tried-and-true Saint Petersburg Florida method

View attachment 155164

Ahh yes, the old tech!
I like it that one can control two devices, but have six items to control in the Living Room, not to mention stuff in other rooms.

 

[sallen07]

@Omega-TI I think it's cool.

When I was a kid my grandfather had a crystal scanner. Somewhere along the way between that time and when he passed away it disappeared. I wish I had it.

Not sure why we are fixating on the SDS100. The one sitting here in front of me doesn't have a hardware on/off switch. What am I missing?

 

[Omega-TI]

@Omega-TI I think it's cool.

When I was a kid my grandfather had a crystal scanner. Somewhere along the way between that time and when he passed away it disappeared. I wish I had it.

Not sure why we are fixating on the SDS100. The one sitting here in front of me doesn't have a hardware on/off switch. What am I missing?

Honestly I don't know why either. I leave mine on 24/7 hooked to a control head, but I pretty much only use if for P25 monitoring (state patrol). And to tell you the truth, my crystal scanner sounds a whole lot better on the analog stuff than any of my other more modern synthesized receivers, including the SDS100. Anyway more to the point, I just thought it was a neat idea that might be useful to others.

 

[wtp]

what is this "off" that people are talking about ?

 

[Omega-TI]

what is this "off" that people are talking about ?

ROTFL!