UPMan question

[jrl44430]

I have a Uniden BC 004 preamp. Any idea what the gain is?

 

[UPMan]

Never even heard of it.

 

[jrl44430]

It is probably from the late 70's or later. Ultra wide band RF receiver pre-amp freq 25Mhz--1 Ghz part number BC 004 Uniden America Corp made in the Philippines. I bought it new but can't find the box. It took power from the scanner plug and plugged back in the scanner. Has a bypass switch and a BNC input jack and a short cable to plug into the scanner.

 

[trp2525]

It is probably from the late 70's or later. Ultra wide band RF receiver pre-amp freq 25Mhz--1 Ghz part number BC 004 Uniden America Corp made in the Philippines. I bought it new but can't find the box. It took power from the scanner plug and plugged back in the scanner. Has a bypass switch and a BNC input jack and a short cable to plug into the scanner.

I have a VERY SIMILAR unit to what you are describing that I just very recently found in a drawer and it was in its original box with the instruction sheet. I don't know if I ever used it after I purchased it as it was still wrapped in the bubble wrap in the box when I found it.

Mine was not marketed/sold under the Uniden name but I believe that I purchased it from Scanner World in Albany, New York. The exact labeling on the box is "RF RECEIVER PRE-AMP PART No. 950 PRE-AMP" and "MADE IN TAIWAN R.O.C." The label on the pre-amp itself states "RF RECEIVER PRE-AMP FREQ. RANGE: 25MHz-1GHz PART NO. 950 PRE-AMP 12VDC MADE IN TAIWAN R.O.C."

Just like your Uniden unit mine has an on/off bypass switch on the top of the box and is powered by the 12VDC coming from the scanner power adapter. It then has a short power cable coming from the pre-amp to plug into the scanner's 12VDC power input jack. The only difference with my unit compared to yours (maybe because mine is older?) is that it has Motorola connectors in and out instead of BNC connectors. The serial number on my unit is "83000xxx" so I am assuming it was manufactured in 1983 (wow 34 years ago!).

Unfortunately the instruction manual does not list any specs on the unit at all or who exactly manufactured the unit. This same exact unit may have been sold under more than one brand name (or no brand name in my case). The "manual" simply shows you how to hook the unit up to your antenna and scanner.

I might give this a try with my 996XT for an 800 MHz P25 simulcast system that I am having some difficulty with but I'm wondering if it will overload the front end of the scanner (not knowing what the gain is on this pre-amp or for that matter the noise figure). I'm also going to have to dig out some of my old Motorola adapters to hook this up to a scanner with a modern BNC connector. Ah how things have changed over the years!

 

[jfr454]

I bought this in 1993 and used it on my BC950XLT scanner as a mobile unit in my truck. SN also began with 83.
Worked great, no overloading issues.

 

[buddrousa]

There was an option for a 004 preamp for my BC8500xlt but no gain was ever listed.