Fire Pal Radio Harron Labs; Bayside NY, build 1956–
Fire Pal Radio Harron Labs; Bayside NY, build 1956–1962, 7 pictures, 7 tubes, United States of America , schematics, semiconductors, Broadcast Receiver
Personal Scanning Histories - How did you get into it and what was 'your first'?
- Thread starter Omega-TI
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NYRHKY94
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paulears
Member
Bearcat in the 70s - got me interested in aircraft. Kept scanning until we lost the emergency services to digital. Then it was UHF air mil for a while, but then I just drifted away. My old scanner now does marine - and the Whistler digital went on ebay as it was the worst designed operating system I'd ever experienced.
I remember the reason I got the Radio Shack Globe Patrol kit for Christmas was because I took one of my dads AM radios out of a drawer that had not been used for years, put a long wire on one of the antenna leads and 'detuned' one of the variable capacitors so it would pick up Radio Nederland, Deutche Welle and the VOA. By that point they figured they might as well support my hobby before I graduated to the stereo.
How is that scanner working out for you? It looked like a hot little number, but it appears to be discontinued and when I searched for the best scanners of 2021 it did not even place. For a radio to be pulled after only two years, is puzzling. I read some reviews and they were all over the place, some great, some good, and some with complaints about no sound, bad displays, nasty hum, etc. Was this a case of poor construction on many units?
It's still a few months away, but I'm seriously considering updating my scanner, so is there a preferred model among the users here?
My very first radio was the National NC98 with the FM adapter. I worked well, and when our local PD went to high band, I got a "Policealarm" made by regency, and then the DR200 which was the best radio at the time. I got into the monitoring of police radio as a "Chief of Police" for our Junior Police at age 11. I rode almost every evening for 2-4 hours with the beat cop, and became interested in the radios. My later vocational experiences were law enforcement and law enforcement related, and went through EMS and Fire training as well as police. At age 82, now, I still monitor the emergency radio channels and have several of the latest receivers.
Are you interpreting the fact that they are "out of stock" just about everywhere as a sign they have been discontinued? That definitely isn't the case ... they sell out as soon as they become available.
There are numerous threads in the Uniden forums that you can use to bring yourself up to speed on the SDS100/200. I'd suggest reading some of them and drawing your own conclusions. Yes, there have been hardware issues in some units (hum in SDS200, cold solder joint in SDS100). But IMHO those affect a small percentage of units, and there are MANY folks here on RR that own one or both and are very happy with them. If you are trying to monitor a P25 Phase II simulcast system, and you want to do so with a scanner, they are your best (and in many cases only) option.
The last time I looked at one of those "Best Scanners of ..." lists it was in some business magazine and obviously written by someone who had no understanding of the hobby. There's no such thing as one "best" scanner ... it very much depends on what you want to use it for. If you are looking for a scanner to monitor air band, the "best" one isn't going to be the one you need to listen to a new trunking system.
I can't remember exactly what my first radio was.
Did a bit of googling and I think the Radio Shack Astronaut-5 is probably the closest thing I could find.
Like the Astronaut, I googled pictures to find what seems to be my first scanning handheld. GE Searcher Model 7-2985A is darn close, if not it.
It was a handheld. Had 4 tuning knobs behind a door.
I remember my first crystal handheld was a Bearcat or Uniden something. Like the GE, 4 channels. I can't find a picture of that one.
I do remember the rubber duckie antenna had a phono jack connection to the radio.
My first programmable scanner was the Regency Touch M100. Earliest scanner I still have. Speaker's cracked in it, have to use an external.
Did a bit of googling and I think the Radio Shack Astronaut-5 is probably the closest thing I could find.
Like the Astronaut, I googled pictures to find what seems to be my first scanning handheld. GE Searcher Model 7-2985A is darn close, if not it.
It was a handheld. Had 4 tuning knobs behind a door.
I remember my first crystal handheld was a Bearcat or Uniden something. Like the GE, 4 channels. I can't find a picture of that one.
I do remember the rubber duckie antenna had a phono jack connection to the radio.
My first programmable scanner was the Regency Touch M100. Earliest scanner I still have. Speaker's cracked in it, have to use an external.
mitbr
Active Member
My first radio was in the early 70s. It was one of those multi-band tunable portable radios looked very much like and Astronaut series but i cant remember which one.
At the time I lived in a small town north of Toronto Ontario called Stouffville.
I would listen to the BBC radio China etc on SW. I could pick up the Toronto PD which at the time broadcast on the 142 mhz band. They had a buzzing sound in between transmissions that made it annoying to listen to. I then got a Realistic Pro 6 crystal controlled scanner it had crystals for the OPP and York Regional PD.Later on in the late 70s I bought my first programmable scanner a BC 300 and would listen to the lowband skip 39 mhz from California Los Angeles County Sheriff which at the time were on 39 mhz. When the band was really open i could hear CHP on 42 mhz, and San Fransisco PD cant remember the exact freq but somewhere between 44 and 47 mhz. Was a real thrill to listen to.
Tim
At the time I lived in a small town north of Toronto Ontario called Stouffville.
I would listen to the BBC radio China etc on SW. I could pick up the Toronto PD which at the time broadcast on the 142 mhz band. They had a buzzing sound in between transmissions that made it annoying to listen to. I then got a Realistic Pro 6 crystal controlled scanner it had crystals for the OPP and York Regional PD.Later on in the late 70s I bought my first programmable scanner a BC 300 and would listen to the lowband skip 39 mhz from California Los Angeles County Sheriff which at the time were on 39 mhz. When the band was really open i could hear CHP on 42 mhz, and San Fransisco PD cant remember the exact freq but somewhere between 44 and 47 mhz. Was a real thrill to listen to.
Tim
I have my mom to thank. She worked at the local camera/license/title shop and the owner was also a ham. He started selling Bearcat IV's and sent one home with her so she could learn how to use it, and be a better sales person. We've had scanners ever since. I got her a HomePatrol 2 a couple years before she passed, and remember clearly her saying "I don't think I could have sold these, they're too fancy!" The HP2 was on 24/7 in the kitchen so she could keep up on the whats and wheres..
Still have the HP2, and every time I turn it on (It's a garage scanner now) I think of her.
Still have the HP2, and every time I turn it on (It's a garage scanner now) I think of her.
My first exposure to a scanner was when I was 12-13 years old. A classmate of mine showed me an old Bearcat 5-6 VHF (not the thinscan) radio. He got it from a friend. At the time the NYPD was already operating on the UHF-T band except for the boro of Staten Island which was still on VHF. At least that's what I think was going on. Even though we lived in Brooklyn, we were listening to Staten Island PD as those were the crystals in the scanner. After that I purchased a Panasonic slide rule radio with the VHF Public Safety Band on it. I found Brooklyn fire and was hooked. I remember lugging that radio around with me on battery power in the car with my father on local trips lol. After a while, I bugged my father to get me a scanner. He came home with a Fanon Courier portable 6 channel VHF/UHF scanner. Great little radio. I've had many scanners since then. Currently use a SDS-200, two 536HP's, two HP-2's and a couple of 15X's.
BananaPepper
Member
I can't remember the model number, but it must have been a Bearcat, way back when crystals were installed. Now it's a Bearcat 796D and Whistler 1065, 1040. I've had my hands on many, recently an SDS100, though it was not mine. Dug these crystals out of the drawer. Blast from the past.
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FIRE321FIGHTER1985
Member
My parents bought me a 4 channel crystal portable for my birthday in 1980. I cannot remember the model. I was 19.
FIRE321FIGHTER1985
Member
That pro-23 looks like the one I got for my birthday in 1980. Thanks for the pictures and memories.
MStep
Member
This "Juliette" was my first. (And I was her Romeo!). Not a scanner, but a tunable. As a 12 year old guy, spent many nights with her under the covers. Soon thereafter, discovered girls! Other early tunables were the KUHN-353B and the Regency Monitoradio. First crystal controlled receiver was the Sonar FR-105. First scanner also a Sonar 10 channel crystal controlled--- I believe the model was the FR-2510.
How many actually remember trips to the Sonar offices/plant at 73 Wortman Ave in Brooklyn, NY? They did not sell radios out of that office except to dealers, but you could buy crystals at the front office. The woman who did most of the crystal sales was named "Birdie".
How many actually remember trips to the Sonar offices/plant at 73 Wortman Ave in Brooklyn, NY? They did not sell radios out of that office except to dealers, but you could buy crystals at the front office. The woman who did most of the crystal sales was named "Birdie".
DJ11DLN
Member
When I was 5 or 6 my parents got a multiband, I think it was a Midland as it came from the local Western Auto store. Bought just for broadcast FM since the local AM station added an FM side that was simulcast except that the morning and noon news moved to the FM side while the AM side stuck with all music. And dad had to have his news fix. Mom started playing around with it and caught the local SD on Hi-Band and from there it was game on. She often caught the old mobile phones as well and that was some great fun. Grew up listening to a BC3 she talked dad into buying about a year later. Never had a scanner of my own until awhile after I moved out, found an identical BC3 at a yard sale in about 1982 marked, "Doesn't work, parts, $5." The nice lady explained that it had worked fine back in Ohio but when they moved here it was a dead duck. None of the crystals were for local frequencies so that fin plus the cost of 8 new crystals had me up and going. Spent considerably more on crystals than on the scanner itself.
Railfan74
Newbie
I had a Bearcat handheld for my first radio. I remember going to Radio Shack to get crystals. On many of our family road trips, we would seek out some of the mom & pop radio stores to find the correct crystals for the area. Ran that radio for 15 more years until the county went to higher frequencies.
DJ11DLN
Member
I wish I still had mine. I let it and mom's get away from me a few years back. Wouldn't be good for anything but fire pagers and 2M Ham repeaters but they would be fun to fire up once in awhile.
Handheld scanners back then...all I could do was look and drool. First handheld I ever owned was my Pro-18 in 2012 or '13 and that was just because of what we now recognize as Stage I of the Great Rat Shack Slow Motion Train Wreck and Fire Sale. Paid $230 IIRC, not bad for a radio that listed for $599.
Railfan74
Newbie
Sold mine & a parts one for $100. A collector wanted them. IIRC, he fixed the other one. He has every crystal for any frequency. If I could remember his name....
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