Don’t forget Communication Electronics in Ann Arbor.
Scanners from 1980s
- Thread starter zerg901
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I used to buy from them... They carried alot of different brands... Kind of bummed when they shutdown...
danesgs
Member
Electronic Equipment Bank in Vienna, VA
They mainly sold scanners and SWL gear. The owner went to jail for some sort of fraud case against the Uncle Sam I think.
TailGator911
Silent Key/KF4ANC
I remember that place. I still have an HT stand from them, it was white with a coax jumper fixture on it, green felt for a skid pad. Had lights on it for power. It's in the barn graveyard somewhere. lol They were in Vienna, VA I do remember that. I bought a few things from them. Good company.
I have on hand an ancient Midland crystal controlled scanner. It came with 2 antennas, one for VHF one for UHF.
When last I checked it still worked. It is a tank. I believe I bought it used from a co-worker in the late '70's.
Looking at it is like seeing a telephone booth these days.
When last I checked it still worked. It is a tank. I believe I bought it used from a co-worker in the late '70's.
Looking at it is like seeing a telephone booth these days.
My first scanner was a Regency Touch K500. It had pre-programmed police, fire, ambulance and weather for the USA, plus 40 programmable channels.
The police band in Ontario Canada was (and still is) 138 to 144MHz. The K500's VHF started at 144, but if you pressed the decimal point before entering the frequency you could program in 136 to 144 MHz.
My first handheld I think it's model was Radio Shack Pro-16 a 16 channel programmable radio.
I also had the 16 channel Uniden Bearcat someone mentioned, I sold it to a tow truck driver because it had a feature designed for old UHF mobile phones to ignore I think 1750Hz tone, but it worked to also ignore the tone on the Metro Toronto police band in 142 MHz. Later they added tone squelch to the system and you just use a scanner with CTCSS squelch add on board.
The good old days
The police band in Ontario Canada was (and still is) 138 to 144MHz. The K500's VHF started at 144, but if you pressed the decimal point before entering the frequency you could program in 136 to 144 MHz.
My first handheld I think it's model was Radio Shack Pro-16 a 16 channel programmable radio.
I also had the 16 channel Uniden Bearcat someone mentioned, I sold it to a tow truck driver because it had a feature designed for old UHF mobile phones to ignore I think 1750Hz tone, but it worked to also ignore the tone on the Metro Toronto police band in 142 MHz. Later they added tone squelch to the system and you just use a scanner with CTCSS squelch add on board.
The good old days
techynyc
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- Jun 19, 2003
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- 47
I have these two working vintage Crystal scanners for sale with 500+ crystals if anyone's interested.
absolutely beautiful 1970's vintage colors.
Gladding Claricon SkyScanner RS-103 - 8 Channels (10.7 If)
This scanner was made under contract in Japan by Matsushita Electric Industrial Co (aka Panasonic). I think it represents the highest quality Scanner radio of its time. Way more circuit boards inside than anything made in USA at the time. The crystal sockets compartment reveals individual dials to tune each crystal to compensate for drift. A feature I've never seen on other radios.
Heathkit MR 1134 Marine Band Scanner - 8 Channels (10.7 If)
PM if you want more info.
absolutely beautiful 1970's vintage colors.
Gladding Claricon SkyScanner RS-103 - 8 Channels (10.7 If)
This scanner was made under contract in Japan by Matsushita Electric Industrial Co (aka Panasonic). I think it represents the highest quality Scanner radio of its time. Way more circuit boards inside than anything made in USA at the time. The crystal sockets compartment reveals individual dials to tune each crystal to compensate for drift. A feature I've never seen on other radios.
Heathkit MR 1134 Marine Band Scanner - 8 Channels (10.7 If)
PM if you want more info.
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N8LHG
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I owned a pro 2001 brand new, and later sold it to help fund a pro 2004 which I still own. The 2001 (which picture is in this thread) use to have a lot of electronic noise from the speaker when scanning. It was a cool rig, but the electronics were noisy. But they were my first programmable scanners. Even cooler was an old 10 channel crystal RCA 16S400 I bought from a Lazarus furniture store, of all places. The RCA had an odd habit of skipping passed active signals after like a split second of stopping on the signal. It did have an awesome door on the top that you could open and change the crystals on the fly. I use to order the crystals from a company that would cut any frequency you wanted no questions asked. I had quite a collection of crystals in little drawers. I would research local licenses and order the frequency if it caught my eye as interesting. I loved those days of the hobby, things were very simple then. No trunking, digital, or encryption. Just plug in a crystal, set a tiny band switch, and listen.
danesgs
Member
I wrote up a background on the history of scanning 7 years ago.
KJ4DGE
KJ4DGE
In the 1980's I lived in a town home. The attached neighbor was a druggie and he used his cordless phone to buy drugs. I had a BC300 hooked up to a recorder that recorded his cordless calls from in my basement. When I got home I would grab the tape player and my wife & I would listen to his calls. One night we went shopping and I forgot to turn the volume down on the scanner before we left. My neighbor was sitting out on his stoop when we left. He must have heard his wife on the cordless from my basement screen window. The next day he calls me and lets me know it is a federal offense to be wire tapping his phone calls. He calls the phone co. later and says his phone is being wire tapped by his neighbor and he wants to prosecute me to the full extent of the law. The next day after the phone repair guy leaves the neighbor calls his buddy and says the neighbor who was wire tapping my phone must have disconnected the wires as the repair guy couldn't find any wire tap connections and he charged me $55 for the check. I showed my wife in the front of the phone book there was a caveat "people with scanners can listen in on cordless phone calls". I guess the neighbor never bothered to read the front of the phone book - could've saved himself $55.
My first scanner was a Regency ACT-106 10 ch crystal mobile scanner - still works great today. I still have the BC300, but it's packed away.
My first scanner was a Regency ACT-106 10 ch crystal mobile scanner - still works great today. I still have the BC300, but it's packed away.
I only have one 80's model scanner left. I pulled it out of the box a few days ago and found that it fits quite nicely under my right side computer monitor. Since I live out in the toolies, most everything local is still analog, so this thing still does an adequate job!
Oh yeah, the BC-200XLT was an awesome scanner. I carried it everywhere for years, the only reason I stopped was because I got an HT and it was not practical to carry two radios all the time. Now days it's a cellphone in the pocket.
What I don't miss about the 80's vintage scanners is the lack of a computer programming interface, so you have to laboriously key in each channel, plus the displays are frequency only. Over the years, I've made up countless cheat sheets linking channel numbers, frequency and actual agency name. At least the systems back in that time were analog!
Oh man, yep! I made plenty of those lists over the years too, actually it's been about 20 years since I had put that scanner away, but I still remembered three of the frequencies because of all the repetition from back then. Maybe one of the last things I'll remember as dementia sets in is the LPD frequency!
That 800XLT is a great scanner! I didn't get one when they came out but I got one last year and was really impressed by it. I use it for some local fire freqs that are still patched to VHF from the main trunked system.
Who needs a computer interface with a 40 channel scanner! It wasn't until the Pro-2004 that we started saying, "Wait, there must be a better way to do this".
Who needs a computer interface with a 40 channel scanner! It wasn't until the Pro-2004 that we started saying, "Wait, there must be a better way to do this".
jhooten
Member
My first was a JIL SX-100.
Yes, the speaker quality is good, and out in the boonies will not overload the front end like the unit had a reputation of in high population zones with a lot of QRM. Actually I've only programmed six frequencies back into it so far.
Oh man the Realistic 2004 and 2006 series were VERY POPULAR. I remember a guy by the name of Bill Cheek that made a few "MODS" for those units. Back before the Internet I used to hang out on the FidoNet Scanner Radio Forum, good times!
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