Scanners from 1980s
- Thread starter zerg901
- Start date
- Status
joewayne
Member
Thank you for the link!!
Interesting that the BC-210, the BC-250, the BC-300, and others weren't mentioned.
zzdiesel
Member
Good story from bygone days!
The Regency HX 1000 was also from that era and one of the best scanners I have owned. 20 frequency slots were more than enough for most areas, programming was easy, and receive performance was very good. It went to Disney World with our family in the 1980's and the ride operators were very willing to give me their frequencies and discuss how the radios were used in the park.
marksmith
Member
They came along later
They came along earlier. Late 70’s or so.
bb911
Member
Those were the days. The FBI, DEA, and Sec Serv, and others were mostly "in the clear". Electra (Bearcat) hadn't yet sold out to Uniden. CHP had Regency M-100s or M-400s in more than a few of their cars. And the BC-250, BC200xlt handheld, and BC- 300 were tops in the mid 80s.
I’ve still got my BC200xlt. I had it unlocked back in the day, and could listen to cellphone conversations. Those were the days.
Still have many crystal controlled scanners that were used for rural fire and police traffic listening. However, for me, it was the Pro-2006 in the 1990's that gave me a lot more perspective. Living in high density housing, with cordless phones proliferating the 49 MHz band. Interesting read. I still use old scanners to test radios or monitor a radio under test. Very easy to program, and mostly I am dealing with VHF or UHF. Even in my local area of the Pacific Northwest, there is still a lot that remains analog.
bb911
Member
I recall the first cordless phones that appeared for home use. 49MHz and the upper end of the AM radio band were utilized. I don't recall which was the base freq.
TailGator911
Silent Key/KF4ANC
Usually in the 46mhz range, I believe.
Base was 1.7MHz; handsets 49.
- Joined
- Feb 22, 2007
- Messages
- 6,331
I had the first version of The Bearcat 100 that is pictured in the article and it was made by the Electra company in Cumberland Indiana. It was before 1983 that the Bearcat 100 came out. It was the first handheld keyboard programmable scanner. When Uniden bought out Electra they made improvements on this radio in 1983.
The first version had a loose battery compartment that had to be shored up with duct tape and did indeed have very low volume. The Bearcat 210 of which I owned several including one of the ones that caught on fire LOL. Basically sparked and smoked. That radio was made by The Electra Company. The models that followed were made by Uniden. I'm going to say it was the late 70s that the first Bearcat 100 came out around the same time as the Bearcat 210. Long time ago
Radio Shack had their first base
programmable radio made by GRE introduced in 1978 and I had one of them too.
The first version had a loose battery compartment that had to be shored up with duct tape and did indeed have very low volume. The Bearcat 210 of which I owned several including one of the ones that caught on fire LOL. Basically sparked and smoked. That radio was made by The Electra Company. The models that followed were made by Uniden. I'm going to say it was the late 70s that the first Bearcat 100 came out around the same time as the Bearcat 210. Long time ago
Radio Shack had their first base
programmable radio made by GRE introduced in 1978 and I had one of them too.
Last edited:
- Joined
- Feb 22, 2007
- Messages
- 6,331
I bought the Electra Bearcat 101 programmable scanner in late 1974. It wasn't keyboard and used the tabs and the book of codes and that was $399.99 at Lafayette Electronics. That is calculated to be $1,900 in today's money and I would have paid more.
Last edited:
Yep! I've seen quite a few posts here moaning about how expensive the SDS scanners are, but just like many other electronics over the decades, scanner prices are significantly less today than they once were.
- Joined
- Feb 22, 2007
- Messages
- 6,331
You know I would have paid more for a programmable scanner in 1975. It was worth it and I also had to buy an AC converter for the car which in those days was bigger than a breadbox LOL
The Electra Bearcat 101 programmable Scanner had 16 channels and I mounted it in my car but it was a c only so I had the converter on the floor in the back of my driver seat and I could just reach back and toggle the converter on and off. It was also a mot pin so I replaced my car antenna with a long telescopic radio antenna and just unplugged the antenna from my car radio and plugged it into the 101. Those were the days. It was mostly VHF low-band and VHF High repeaters.
The Electra Bearcat 101 programmable Scanner had 16 channels and I mounted it in my car but it was a c only so I had the converter on the floor in the back of my driver seat and I could just reach back and toggle the converter on and off. It was also a mot pin so I replaced my car antenna with a long telescopic radio antenna and just unplugged the antenna from my car radio and plugged it into the 101. Those were the days. It was mostly VHF low-band and VHF High repeaters.
- Joined
- Feb 22, 2007
- Messages
- 6,331
Yep I had the GRE Pro 2004 in the late 80s and all you had to do was cut a diode and you could hear cell phone conversations even though it wasn't trunked there were so few you could follow the conversation. We know what they were like sometimes LOL
The first cell phones we used at that time where those big bricks. Then we got the Motorola flip phones that when you put the black leather case on them they look like a shoe so we called them the shoe phone.
You know what is really cool. Our phone numbers at that time were specially assigned numbers and my last 4 digits were 2550 deliberately so it could be remembered easily. When I retired some 30 years later they let me take my number with me and it is still the same number I use today on my smartphone. Very cool.
Last edited:
- Status
Similar threads
