Hi gang,
I'm looking for an easy solution for scanner audio.
I collect scanners and repair/restore older ones.
I've finally built myself some shelf space and what not plus wired in power and several Stridsberg 8 port multicouplers so I can have all the radios working.
My big issue now is audio.
Many of the older scanners like the old bearcat III and 12 and the likes had front facing speakers so that works well but many of the newer models and many others have top, bottom or even side facing speakers. I did not take this fact into account when I designed my shelves so my audio suffers greatly due to the tight shelving and spacing between radios.
My first idea was too purchase a 12 or more channel mixer and feed the audio from each radio via the mixer to a common amplifier.
This idea would work but gets expensive fairly quick especially after I added in some type of LED indicator for each channel so I could tell by looking, which radio was talking.
Now I'm thinking about just using a cheap pair of amplified stereo computer speakers and using each radios volume control for setting the audio level from each radio.
So that is my question, does anyone have any experience in combining the audio output from several radios together?
I'm assuming I'd need to install some value of attenuating resistor on the signal lead from each radio.
I'm also planning this on the assumption that every radio uses a common negative ground for the external speaker jack. I'll test that before I hook them all together.
If I use a pair of cheap stereo speakers then I'll have two audio channels to work with that share a common ground at the input. I figure I'd need to put up to 8 radios on each channel if I tie them all in.
I guess my other concern is the fact that the cheap speakers all use a low level input and I'll be feeding them from an amplified output on most radios. Some do have headphone jacks that may work better then a full speaker level output.
Any advice on seperating the speaker level audio between each radio as well as attenuating that audio level to something that a cheap pair of amplified computer speakers will handle on thier inputs is greatly appreciated.
I would add a small speaker for each radio but I'm out of space for that idea!
Thanks All
I'm looking for an easy solution for scanner audio.
I collect scanners and repair/restore older ones.
I've finally built myself some shelf space and what not plus wired in power and several Stridsberg 8 port multicouplers so I can have all the radios working.
My big issue now is audio.
Many of the older scanners like the old bearcat III and 12 and the likes had front facing speakers so that works well but many of the newer models and many others have top, bottom or even side facing speakers. I did not take this fact into account when I designed my shelves so my audio suffers greatly due to the tight shelving and spacing between radios.
My first idea was too purchase a 12 or more channel mixer and feed the audio from each radio via the mixer to a common amplifier.
This idea would work but gets expensive fairly quick especially after I added in some type of LED indicator for each channel so I could tell by looking, which radio was talking.
Now I'm thinking about just using a cheap pair of amplified stereo computer speakers and using each radios volume control for setting the audio level from each radio.
So that is my question, does anyone have any experience in combining the audio output from several radios together?
I'm assuming I'd need to install some value of attenuating resistor on the signal lead from each radio.
I'm also planning this on the assumption that every radio uses a common negative ground for the external speaker jack. I'll test that before I hook them all together.
If I use a pair of cheap stereo speakers then I'll have two audio channels to work with that share a common ground at the input. I figure I'd need to put up to 8 radios on each channel if I tie them all in.
I guess my other concern is the fact that the cheap speakers all use a low level input and I'll be feeding them from an amplified output on most radios. Some do have headphone jacks that may work better then a full speaker level output.
Any advice on seperating the speaker level audio between each radio as well as attenuating that audio level to something that a cheap pair of amplified computer speakers will handle on thier inputs is greatly appreciated.
I would add a small speaker for each radio but I'm out of space for that idea!
Thanks All