I have been pining over the NCS-3230 for 15 to 20 years. When it was first introduced it was out of my price range for sure. When I could afford it they were mostly unobtainable. For the last 10 years I have kept an eye on the secondary markets and the few that appeared there didn’t last long or where grossly overpriced. I finally found one at a relatively reasonable price and jumped at the chance.
What is the NCS-3230 and why is it so desirable? Basically, it is a 6-channel audio mixer made specifically for scanners and other receivers. Some of the features include an audio amp that drives two speakers, the ability to send any radio’s audio to either speaker (or both), “Spatial Audio (sort of a virtual speaker placement scheme) and the ability to control and send selected audio to a recorder.
Most scanner users only have one or two scanners, but for those of us that have many dealing with the audio is an issue. Solutions include doing nothing and leaving the audio coming from their speakers, using a set of external speakers or using a mixer. For mixers that are a couple options. Solutions include a production mixer such as the various Behringer’s, surplus communications console mixers like the Zetron Model 27 or the NCS-3230.
Audio mixers, like the Behringer Models 1602, X32 and others, intended for music and production use, work well but can be overly complicated. These tend to produce the most controllable results however. These typically have 8, 16 or 32 inputs, allowing many receivers to be connected. Mixers typically use ¼ inch audio connections for inputs and speaker outputs. They usually also include headphone jacks for private listening.
The Zetron Model 27 is currently popular in the scanning community. A bunch came on the used market over the last couple of years at reasonable prices. These allow 8 receivers to be connected and split to 3 speakers. It includes individual mute controls but the initial connections can be complicated. Once et up however it is easy to operate. These were built for use in dispatch centers and are robust. Wiring is via terminal strips so one would have to make cables or cut the ends of pre-made cables. You could also create jack panels if so inclined. It does have internal speakers, but it does not have a headphone jack. Once levels are set you can control just the overall volume for the up to 4 radios assigned to each speaker or mute individual radios.
The NCS-3230 is the only solution purpose-built for scanners. It can be used with just about any receiver, you just plug in a cable from the unit to the external speaker jack of the radio, adjust the volume of that radio so that the activity light on the unit comes up and move to the next radio.
The NCS-3230 is the easiest to set up and use of the three. While it doesn’t provide the tailoring of the audio quality like a mixer does one really doesn’t need that in a communications system. While it does not include speakers, you can place the speakers as you see fit.
Controls on the 3230 include the power switch, a Mute All button, Speaker Select switches for each radio (these allow you to send the audio from any radio to either speaker or both), a balance control for the right-to-left balance, a master volume control, a Speaker On/Off button (so you can choose to listen thru the headphones, speakers or both), Record controls (to select which radios’ audio is sent to the recorder) as well as a master Record Enable button. Lastly there is also a “Normal/Spatial” Mode switch which allows you to select the Spatial mode to make it easier to pick out what radios are talking. This is done by increasing the amplification of the selected radios to make it sound like they are coming from a centered position relative to the others.
Audio input connections are done via RCA style jacks on the rear panel, one for each radio. There are also RCA jacks for the speakers as well as left and right mixer and amplifier inputs. Recorder audio and control jacks (“Mini” and “Sub-Mini” respectively) as well as a Mute input are also included. The Mute input is an RCA jack and allows one to automatically mute the receivers when a transmitter is activated. Power is via a standard 12VDC coaxial power jack, identical to that used by Uniden scanners.
After a few days I am very happy with the 3230, much more so than I was with the couple of different mixers I have tried. The output audio is very good, on par with that from the radios directly. With my radios mounted in a rack cabinet this improves the overall sound as the audio is now coming from outside the cabinet. It is easy to switch a radio from the right to left speaker or both, or even neither.
There appears to be 2 versions of the NCS-3230. The older one has a grey front panel with orange silk-screened text along to silver handles. The newer version has a black front with white text and no handles. (Mine is the newer version.) It is unknown whether there are any operational or firmware changes between them, the controls and connections appear to be identical.
The NCS-3230 does not have rack-mounting feature. At about 8.5w x 3.5h (inches) in size this would fit in a 2u rack panel if one wanted to have one made. I have had several custom rack panels made by NovexComm over the years and I suppose they could do one for this if I so choose. For now, it lives on the desktop on top of my R8600 next to the cabinet that holds my scanners.
As much as I like the NCS-3230 there are a few things I would choose to do differently if I could:
What is the NCS-3230 and why is it so desirable? Basically, it is a 6-channel audio mixer made specifically for scanners and other receivers. Some of the features include an audio amp that drives two speakers, the ability to send any radio’s audio to either speaker (or both), “Spatial Audio (sort of a virtual speaker placement scheme) and the ability to control and send selected audio to a recorder.
Most scanner users only have one or two scanners, but for those of us that have many dealing with the audio is an issue. Solutions include doing nothing and leaving the audio coming from their speakers, using a set of external speakers or using a mixer. For mixers that are a couple options. Solutions include a production mixer such as the various Behringer’s, surplus communications console mixers like the Zetron Model 27 or the NCS-3230.
Audio mixers, like the Behringer Models 1602, X32 and others, intended for music and production use, work well but can be overly complicated. These tend to produce the most controllable results however. These typically have 8, 16 or 32 inputs, allowing many receivers to be connected. Mixers typically use ¼ inch audio connections for inputs and speaker outputs. They usually also include headphone jacks for private listening.
The Zetron Model 27 is currently popular in the scanning community. A bunch came on the used market over the last couple of years at reasonable prices. These allow 8 receivers to be connected and split to 3 speakers. It includes individual mute controls but the initial connections can be complicated. Once et up however it is easy to operate. These were built for use in dispatch centers and are robust. Wiring is via terminal strips so one would have to make cables or cut the ends of pre-made cables. You could also create jack panels if so inclined. It does have internal speakers, but it does not have a headphone jack. Once levels are set you can control just the overall volume for the up to 4 radios assigned to each speaker or mute individual radios.
The NCS-3230 is the only solution purpose-built for scanners. It can be used with just about any receiver, you just plug in a cable from the unit to the external speaker jack of the radio, adjust the volume of that radio so that the activity light on the unit comes up and move to the next radio.
The NCS-3230 is the easiest to set up and use of the three. While it doesn’t provide the tailoring of the audio quality like a mixer does one really doesn’t need that in a communications system. While it does not include speakers, you can place the speakers as you see fit.
Controls on the 3230 include the power switch, a Mute All button, Speaker Select switches for each radio (these allow you to send the audio from any radio to either speaker or both), a balance control for the right-to-left balance, a master volume control, a Speaker On/Off button (so you can choose to listen thru the headphones, speakers or both), Record controls (to select which radios’ audio is sent to the recorder) as well as a master Record Enable button. Lastly there is also a “Normal/Spatial” Mode switch which allows you to select the Spatial mode to make it easier to pick out what radios are talking. This is done by increasing the amplification of the selected radios to make it sound like they are coming from a centered position relative to the others.
Audio input connections are done via RCA style jacks on the rear panel, one for each radio. There are also RCA jacks for the speakers as well as left and right mixer and amplifier inputs. Recorder audio and control jacks (“Mini” and “Sub-Mini” respectively) as well as a Mute input are also included. The Mute input is an RCA jack and allows one to automatically mute the receivers when a transmitter is activated. Power is via a standard 12VDC coaxial power jack, identical to that used by Uniden scanners.
After a few days I am very happy with the 3230, much more so than I was with the couple of different mixers I have tried. The output audio is very good, on par with that from the radios directly. With my radios mounted in a rack cabinet this improves the overall sound as the audio is now coming from outside the cabinet. It is easy to switch a radio from the right to left speaker or both, or even neither.
There appears to be 2 versions of the NCS-3230. The older one has a grey front panel with orange silk-screened text along to silver handles. The newer version has a black front with white text and no handles. (Mine is the newer version.) It is unknown whether there are any operational or firmware changes between them, the controls and connections appear to be identical.
The NCS-3230 does not have rack-mounting feature. At about 8.5w x 3.5h (inches) in size this would fit in a 2u rack panel if one wanted to have one made. I have had several custom rack panels made by NovexComm over the years and I suppose they could do one for this if I so choose. For now, it lives on the desktop on top of my R8600 next to the cabinet that holds my scanners.
As much as I like the NCS-3230 there are a few things I would choose to do differently if I could:
- First, I would allow 8 radios to be connected instead of just 6. This would match up with the most common multicouplers for all-in-one installations.
- Second, I would change the jacks on the rear panel from RCA to “Mini” (3.5MM) as then one could use cables with the same mono plugs for both ends to go to the radios. Also, most external speakers are equipped with “Mini” plugs.
- Lastly, I would make a rack-mount option that includes a pair of communications speakers.
