Scanner Feed & RF

[Micke]

I have been using a Regency 10 channel crystal scanner for several months for my Centre Ala Police and FD feed. It has reasonable selectivity and worked flawlessly until about 3 weeks ago. Suddenly I am plagued with dreadful interference from my KB4UPI 10 meter beacon transmitter running 5 watts located only 60 feet away. Thinking the 10 meter tx was at fault I checked the signal and it was clean. I checked the antenna connections. I checked every audio connection and plug on the scanner, the SignaLink interface, and the computer. I even soldered some connections that I hurriedly twisted and taped up. Nothing helped, so I resorted to my old iron clad rule, and that rule is "change something". I pressed, released, and reselected one of the channel selector buttons on the front of the radio. This cleaned the switch, Lo and behold, the interference and noise went away and has not been heard since. A dirty switch and RF is not a good combination. The moral of the story if you are using a crystal radio is "work the switches weekly to keep them clean".

 

[Rt169Radio]

How are you able to use a crystal scanner for a online scanner feed?

 

[W8RMH]

Remember that crystal scanners are 50 year old technology.

They just don't have the filtering capabilities as modern technology.

 

[W8RMH]

How are you able to use a crystal scanner for a online scanner feed?

All you need is a radio with a speaker/headphone jack.

 

[Micke]

Don't overlook crystal scanners for your audio feed. Most have good selectivity. They certainly are old technology but they can be obtained very cheaply. It is a good alternative to tieing up your main scanner radio.

 

[talkpair]

Both of the feeds I stream here are using single channel crystal radios.

Except for the computer power supply and the crystals themselves, my feed was put together using recycled components.

 

[prcguy]

About the only thing a crystal controlled scanner might be missing in the performance area is RF front end track tuning which is available on some modern higher end scanners.

Otherwise the low phase noise Local Oscillator of a non synthesized scanner and the sharp fixed tuned front ends that only covered the basic public service bands will probably outperform most modern wide band scanners in crowded RF environments.
prcguy

Remember that crystal scanners are 50 year old technology.

They just don't have the filtering capabilities as modern technology.

 

[slicerwizard]

About the only thing a crystal controlled scanner might be missing in the performance area is RF front end track tuning which is available on some modern higher end scanners.

Otherwise the low phase noise Local Oscillator of a non synthesized scanner and the sharp fixed tuned front ends that only covered the basic public service bands will probably outperform most modern wide band scanners in crowded RF environments.
prcguy

IMO, a ham should know this stuff, but the reality is obviously quite different.