Back in the Mid 1970’s crystal scanners ruled the roost. While programmable scanners like the Tennelec MS1 were starting to become available, crystal receivers were still king. Programmable scanners were hard to use and program, expensive and temperamental. It wasn’t until 1980 or so when the BC210 came out that programmable scanners were really going mainstream.
Most crystal scanners then were 4 or 8 channels, there were a few 10 and even 16 channel units. 4 to 8 channels were sufficient for most locations and higher capacity scanners were luxury items. I remember getting a Bearcat 4/6 scanner in the early 80’s, 6 channels in a handheld was amazing at the time.
I was running a couple 8-channel scanners in my car and at home then, as I needed more channels than a single scanner could hold. I had one for rail channels and the other for the local fire and police as well as the state police. Between them, a CB and a kick-ass stereo the space in the car was getting full. I looked at a couple options. Robyn had a 16-channel scanner but it was too tall for my car’s space. I wanted to stick with Regency as I already had most of the crystals I would need. A Bearcat would need new crystals and that would add more expense.
I stopped by one of my favorite haunts, Olsen Electronics in Hoffman Estates, IL (see previous episodes of Scanner Tales for more on that). On display was a brand-new Regency ACT-R20/6. This was a wide and lean machine, with a long row of red LED’s, white lockout switches and sliders for power, volume, and squelch. I was in heaven it seemed, this was just the right height to fit in my car, the width was not an issue, but the depth might be. I decided to try it and see of it would fit, if not then it would live in the house.
I bought the only one they had in stock other than the display unit. I also bought a few crystals for frequencies I didn’t already have and made a beeline for home. When I got home I opened the box then opened the scanner itself to install the crystals. Now I got confused; there were jumper wires alongside each crystal socket. I had no clue what was going on so I did the one thing that adult males are never supposed to do: open the manual.
The manual explained in detail exactly how to arrange the jumpers and crystals, but I had difficulty understanding what they were talking about. I knew too much about scanners for this to make any sense, I think I was trying to get too far ahead of myself, and the instructions seemed clear as mud. I asked my roommate to check it out as he was a lot less techy than I, I figured he would have less unlearning to do to understand it. Turns out I was right!
The ACT-R230/6 had 20 channels of course but also 6 band ranges. 2 were for Low-VHF (30-38 and 38-50), 2 for VHF-High (148-160 and 160-174) and 2 for UHF (450-480 and 480-512). One had to group the channels in a given band range together and jumper each successive channel within that range to the next channel. The first channel in the group would have its jumper go to the proper Band Selector pin, then all the channels in that group would be jumpered to the previous channel in the group. In my case I had a half dozen low-band 42.xx MHz. channels, so Channel 1 would be connected to the “Band 2 (38-50)” pin, and Channel 2 would be jumpered to Channel 1, then Channel 3 to Channel 2 and so one. Then I had 6 channels in “Band 3 (148-160)” so Channel 7 was connected to that band pin, and Channel 8 jumpered to 7 and so on. Next were 6 rail channels, the first of which was connected to Band 4 (160-174) and last a couple of the new T-Band channels connected to “Band 5 (450-480)”.
Then one had to be sure to put the crystals in the proper slots. There was a row for VHF (all 4 ranges) and a row for UHF (both ranges). The pins were evenly spaced so it was easy to put a crystal with one pin in a VHF slot and the other in a UHF.
It took a few attempts to get it all set up properly. It required planning and playing with jumper wires. After getting all the crystals in the proper order, in the proper slots, with the jumpers all properly placed I was ready to go, or so I thought. Turns out I broke off not one but three of the jumper wires in the multitude of getting them all set up. That was probably the worst weak spot of the radio, these were relatively small gauge wires and the little crimped pins were fragile. I had to go to RadioShack and buy a soldering iron and solder to get them fixed.
After a couple days of this I was just about ready to toss in the towel but once my roommate helped out I got it working. Once I did it worked great! I found that it worked really well on low band, I would pick up all kinds of skip from California and the East Coast on the 42 MHz. State Police channels. The VHF high band was awesome as well, much better than the older radios I had. It was less than awesome on UHF however. It worked OK but I would be out of range in a much shorter distance than VHF.
About a month or so later I decided to get another and went back to Olsen They sold me the display model for a discount and even left in the crystals they had in it. This added to my stockpile of crystals but I still needed to get more to cover the channels I wanted. I added a few of the 33 MHz. fire channels, even though they were not used in my area I enjoyed listening to L.A. County Fire when skip rolled in.
I ran these as my main car and home scanners for a couple years they were eventually replaced by a BC20/20 in the car and a BC250 in the house. During the ACT-R20/6’s life I also had an RCA 16S400, but that one has a story of its own coming up. I did keep the big Regency’s around for a few more years after I transitioned to programmable scanners, I had too much money invested in them and they still worked just fine. Their last job was to monitor the local fire and mutual aid channels as I was on the local FD at the time. One of my girlfriends at the time liked to list to it so I loaned one to her and never got it back after we broke up. The remaining one disappeared during a move, I suspect it fell off the back of the mover’s truck. I did buy one at a hamfest years later for grins and giggles but never got around to trying it out. By then I had no crystals other than the ones in my replacement 8-channel Regency TMR-8H that I bought and set up for nostalgia’s sake.
The ACT-R20/6 was a great receiver but it was not without its flaws. Besides the confusing jumper setting process the slid controls for the volume and squelch were problematic, especially on the one installed in the car. They seemed to loosen up over time and got noisy (on the volume control) or the squelch opened randomly. I was able to fix them when this happened but that required some pretty serious disassembly to do so. They had typical Regency audio, a little tinny but perfectly readable.
These were a more evolutionary scanner than revolutionary. They pretty much just took the guts of the existing line and expanded the capacity. They retained a lot of the design cues of the 60’s TMR series with a larger case and LEDs replacing the incandescent bulbs. Even though, it was a cool radio and my last crystal scanner in daily use.
Most crystal scanners then were 4 or 8 channels, there were a few 10 and even 16 channel units. 4 to 8 channels were sufficient for most locations and higher capacity scanners were luxury items. I remember getting a Bearcat 4/6 scanner in the early 80’s, 6 channels in a handheld was amazing at the time.
I was running a couple 8-channel scanners in my car and at home then, as I needed more channels than a single scanner could hold. I had one for rail channels and the other for the local fire and police as well as the state police. Between them, a CB and a kick-ass stereo the space in the car was getting full. I looked at a couple options. Robyn had a 16-channel scanner but it was too tall for my car’s space. I wanted to stick with Regency as I already had most of the crystals I would need. A Bearcat would need new crystals and that would add more expense.
I stopped by one of my favorite haunts, Olsen Electronics in Hoffman Estates, IL (see previous episodes of Scanner Tales for more on that). On display was a brand-new Regency ACT-R20/6. This was a wide and lean machine, with a long row of red LED’s, white lockout switches and sliders for power, volume, and squelch. I was in heaven it seemed, this was just the right height to fit in my car, the width was not an issue, but the depth might be. I decided to try it and see of it would fit, if not then it would live in the house.
I bought the only one they had in stock other than the display unit. I also bought a few crystals for frequencies I didn’t already have and made a beeline for home. When I got home I opened the box then opened the scanner itself to install the crystals. Now I got confused; there were jumper wires alongside each crystal socket. I had no clue what was going on so I did the one thing that adult males are never supposed to do: open the manual.
The manual explained in detail exactly how to arrange the jumpers and crystals, but I had difficulty understanding what they were talking about. I knew too much about scanners for this to make any sense, I think I was trying to get too far ahead of myself, and the instructions seemed clear as mud. I asked my roommate to check it out as he was a lot less techy than I, I figured he would have less unlearning to do to understand it. Turns out I was right!
The ACT-R230/6 had 20 channels of course but also 6 band ranges. 2 were for Low-VHF (30-38 and 38-50), 2 for VHF-High (148-160 and 160-174) and 2 for UHF (450-480 and 480-512). One had to group the channels in a given band range together and jumper each successive channel within that range to the next channel. The first channel in the group would have its jumper go to the proper Band Selector pin, then all the channels in that group would be jumpered to the previous channel in the group. In my case I had a half dozen low-band 42.xx MHz. channels, so Channel 1 would be connected to the “Band 2 (38-50)” pin, and Channel 2 would be jumpered to Channel 1, then Channel 3 to Channel 2 and so one. Then I had 6 channels in “Band 3 (148-160)” so Channel 7 was connected to that band pin, and Channel 8 jumpered to 7 and so on. Next were 6 rail channels, the first of which was connected to Band 4 (160-174) and last a couple of the new T-Band channels connected to “Band 5 (450-480)”.
Then one had to be sure to put the crystals in the proper slots. There was a row for VHF (all 4 ranges) and a row for UHF (both ranges). The pins were evenly spaced so it was easy to put a crystal with one pin in a VHF slot and the other in a UHF.
It took a few attempts to get it all set up properly. It required planning and playing with jumper wires. After getting all the crystals in the proper order, in the proper slots, with the jumpers all properly placed I was ready to go, or so I thought. Turns out I broke off not one but three of the jumper wires in the multitude of getting them all set up. That was probably the worst weak spot of the radio, these were relatively small gauge wires and the little crimped pins were fragile. I had to go to RadioShack and buy a soldering iron and solder to get them fixed.
After a couple days of this I was just about ready to toss in the towel but once my roommate helped out I got it working. Once I did it worked great! I found that it worked really well on low band, I would pick up all kinds of skip from California and the East Coast on the 42 MHz. State Police channels. The VHF high band was awesome as well, much better than the older radios I had. It was less than awesome on UHF however. It worked OK but I would be out of range in a much shorter distance than VHF.
About a month or so later I decided to get another and went back to Olsen They sold me the display model for a discount and even left in the crystals they had in it. This added to my stockpile of crystals but I still needed to get more to cover the channels I wanted. I added a few of the 33 MHz. fire channels, even though they were not used in my area I enjoyed listening to L.A. County Fire when skip rolled in.
I ran these as my main car and home scanners for a couple years they were eventually replaced by a BC20/20 in the car and a BC250 in the house. During the ACT-R20/6’s life I also had an RCA 16S400, but that one has a story of its own coming up. I did keep the big Regency’s around for a few more years after I transitioned to programmable scanners, I had too much money invested in them and they still worked just fine. Their last job was to monitor the local fire and mutual aid channels as I was on the local FD at the time. One of my girlfriends at the time liked to list to it so I loaned one to her and never got it back after we broke up. The remaining one disappeared during a move, I suspect it fell off the back of the mover’s truck. I did buy one at a hamfest years later for grins and giggles but never got around to trying it out. By then I had no crystals other than the ones in my replacement 8-channel Regency TMR-8H that I bought and set up for nostalgia’s sake.
The ACT-R20/6 was a great receiver but it was not without its flaws. Besides the confusing jumper setting process the slid controls for the volume and squelch were problematic, especially on the one installed in the car. They seemed to loosen up over time and got noisy (on the volume control) or the squelch opened randomly. I was able to fix them when this happened but that required some pretty serious disassembly to do so. They had typical Regency audio, a little tinny but perfectly readable.
These were a more evolutionary scanner than revolutionary. They pretty much just took the guts of the existing line and expanded the capacity. They retained a lot of the design cues of the 60’s TMR series with a larger case and LEDs replacing the incandescent bulbs. Even though, it was a cool radio and my last crystal scanner in daily use.
