just wondering if anybody has used the amplified communication speaker from radio with there portables and what you thought about it. I would like to get a couple but would like some feed back first.
I have used it on a couple of hand helds and it works fine. There are instances when you may pick up alternator whine from the vehicle. If so there are filters for that.
well I found a few today and it appears radio shack has replaced it with a new model, model and catalog # 21-130. It has brought my 106 back to life in my car and also have another working very well with my home patrol. The audio is great and I can finally hear my radios in the car and I can hear my home patrol perfect now the stock speaker left a little to be desired in the audio dept but the amplified speakers are working well with all my radios. thank you to all who responded and I may start looking into DSP speakers after Christmas but the radio shack speaker is sure getting the job done for now.
I just received two from the same eBay seller.
I ahve not hooked them up yet but you could tell they were still factory packaged.
They are sure different looking then the ones radio shack currently sells.
I may be wrong but I thought the new models have an auto power down that shuts them down after a short time of no input detected.
I've never seen that being a problem on the one new model I use but I have enough background noise in the audio path to keep it alive.
I think I recall reading something about how to defeat that circuit if it caused the first part of a conversation to be missed.
I don't think the old ones like the eBay seller has did not have any type of audio detection circuit to power them down.
I had some of the older models and they seemed to sound better than the new model I have running right now on my HP-1.
The older models are much heavier and the housing is larger than the current models but I think the speaker size is the same. The older ones could have a much larger magnet which may be the main reason for the heavier weight.
I guess I need to hook an older one up and see how it compares to the new model.
The radio shack amplified is a great speaker except for one major flaw. If no audio is detected within about 10 seconds it turns off. That sounds great and all but when audio is detected there is about a 1 second delay turning back on, so you miss half of what is being said. Take another scanner and put them both on the same channel and see for yourself. I took mine back and got my money back. But other than that is was a great speaker and was plenty loud enough.
I saw the info to disable the autopower down feature but I already took it back and it didnt even look the same inside to me. There was a computer chip in mine that controlled it.
I believe that the info on how to eliminate the time-out, is for the older model. The model currently being sold is different, but I am sure that the time-out can be bypassed. (Someone just has to put the time in, to figure it out.)