You Know You are Old Scanner Listener When.....

[CrabbyMilton]

Yep. that was my first.

 

[chill30240]

This was my first ever. . . and only had to buy 2 crystals and got everything in my county. Those were the days.

 

[KK4JUG]

Chill, I had one of those. It worked pretty well. If I remember correctly, it ate up batteries, though.

 

[chill30240]

Chill, I had one of those. It worked pretty well. If I remember correctly, it ate up batteries, though.

Yes sir that's correct. I finally bought an DC adapter and cut way back on my battery usage.

 

[nacsr]

Here was my first, wish I remembered what I did with her?



View attachment 70391[/QUOTE

Still have mine.

 

[chill30240]

I can't remember what ever happened to my first one either.

 

[Alexander256]

I've been listening to scanners for 60+ years with my 1st. radio was a analog "tune able'. Good old simple programming vs today. At least at my age.

 

[mule1075]

My 1st still in use everyday.

 

[n1das]

My 1st still in use everyday.

Is that a Regency H604? I had one of those in the early 1980s. I made a couple of mods to it.

I changed a 0.22uF cap to 1uF in the squelch circuit to lengthen the RC time constant to get rid of the tendency to chatter at the threshold. The cap value could be as high as 2.2uF without issues with scanning however it created an annoyingly long squelch tail. A 1uF cap worked well. The design used an MC3357 FM IF chip, IIRC.

My other complaint was low audio output compared to good Part 90 handheld radios. This was fixed by adding a 2.2uF cap between pins 1 and 8 on the LM386 audio amp chip to increase the audio amp's voltage gain. Adding a cap between pins 1 and 8 is straight from the LM386 datasheet.

I got a LOT of use out of my H604 during the early 1980s. I later replaced it with a Regency HX1000 scanner in 1985. I loved the HX1000, even with the few quirks that it had. I also improved the audio output from the HX1000 too.

You know you are an old time scanner listener when you remember the mods you did to your early scanners.




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[mule1075]

Is that a Regency H604? I had one of those in the early 1980s. I made a couple of mods to it.

I changed a 0.22uF cap to 1uF in the squelch circuit to lengthen the RC time constant to get rid of the tendency to chatter at the threshold. The cap value could be as high as 2.2uF without issues with scanning however it created an annoyingly long squelch tail. A 1uF cap worked well. The design used an MC3357 FM IF chip, IIRC.

My other complaint was low audio output compared to good Part 90 handheld radios. This was fixed by adding a 2.2uF cap between pins 1 and 8 on the LM386 audio amp chip to increase the audio amp's voltage gain. Adding a cap between pins 1 and 8 is straight from the LM386 datasheet.

I got a LOT of use out of my H604 during the early 1980s. I later replaced it with a Regency HX1000 scanner in 1985. I loved the HX1000, even with the few quirks that it had. I also improved the audio output from the HX1000 too.

You know you are an old time scanner listener when you remember the mods you did to your early scanners.




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No that is the replacement of the 604. That is a hx650 amazing how well it still receives I take it apart every so often and blow out the dust.

 

[poltergeisty]

My very first real scanner was like that. I was so desperate for one I looked and looked for a job back in high school to buy one. Finally one day during the Summer my friend calls me asking if I wanted a job weeding beets. I said SURE! Well, I tolled in fields as far as the eye can see in the hot Summer sun like an illegal immigrant. In fact, there were immigrants out there as well. When I was payed I only had about $80 and so I went to the pawn shop and bought a ten channel "digital" LED handheld. I took it everywhere even while I went fishing listening to PD dispatch and fire/EMS. The damn pawn shop charged me some $50 for that old thing. This was circa '97.

 

[n1das]

No that is the replacement of the 604. That is a hx650 amazing how well it still receives I take it apart every so often and blow out the dust.

I remember the HX650 but I never owned one. The HX1000 was my first programmable handheld scanner and I haven't owned a "rock bound" handheld scanner since.


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[Phoenix805]

This was my first ever. . . and only had to buy 2 crystals and got everything in my county. Those were the days.

View attachment 70416

I never did buy one of these early models but I sure do remember drooling over the radio shack catalogs wishing I could afford one. But at the time I was a newlywed and needed my money for more important things.

 

[Paysonscanner]

This was my first ever. . . and only had to buy 2 crystals and got everything in my county. Those were the days.

View attachment 70416

Hubby bought one of those when we were newlyweds. He was a civil engineer and tried to take it out on the jobs. He lost several antennas cause it hardly clicked into the socket. It came out when it was gently bumped. This bummed him out. He didn't have any choice but to keep it inside. It wasn't very durable and fell apart as I remember. I think the first programmable handheld was the Pro-30. It was far more durable and we had it for years until the display failed. Then Bearcat came out with a programmable handheld with the 800 MHz band and 10 banks of 10 channels or was it 20? We would write up programs for trips we took and it took awhile to program 200 frequencies when we traveled far or crossed a state line. "Reprogramming" was done with a eraser and pencil, followed by actually putting in the new frequencies. You had to carry the sheets with you because the display didn't have an alpha display. Of course, once we used a program for awhile we memorized the use of the frequencies. We had a scanner in the emergency room of the small rural hospital I worked in. When we heard some type of accident we would try to get a jump on it by getting ready. We usually got someone's hand me down, like an older scanner the fire department had.

 

[w4amp]

You knew how to change crystal frequency with a whetstone.

 

[CrabbyMilton]

You bragged to everybody that you could get the weather 24/7 without TV or commercial radio.
Now, thanks to the internet, everybody can do that but NOAA weather radio will always have a place in my heart.

 

[trentbob]

You bragged to everybody that you could get the weather 24/7 without TV or commercial radio.
Now, thanks to the internet, everybody can do that but NOAA weather radio will always have a place in my heart.

Milt I also enjoyed NOAA Weather Radio since getting my patrolman Pro 1 as seen above. I also enjoyed NOAA Weather Radio to use to test various antennas on VHF High.

 

[trentbob]

This was my first ever. . . and only had to buy 2 crystals and got everything in my county. Those were the days.

View attachment 70416

Yep I remember this radio. Nice unit but the antenna kept popping out but if I remember it also had an antenna that was just a thin black wire I would assume about 15 in Long that you can hang outside of your pocket. Very cool, the rubber duck always popped out of the plug.

 

[n1das]

My first scanner was a Heathkit GR-1132 VHF-Lo/Hi/UHF 8-channel crystal scanner which I built myself in 1977.

My first handheld during that time was a Realistic Patrolman Mini VHF-Hi tuneable receiver. $17.95 at RadioShack on a high schooler's budget. I eventually broke the original telescoping whip antenna and hand wound my own VHF rubber ducky antenna replacement for it. The homebrewed antenna worked well and I later replaced it with a commercially made VHF rubber ducky antenna. I got a lot of use out of that receiver before replacing it with a Regency H604 scanner.


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[6079smithw]

Here was my first, wish I remembered what I did with her?



View attachment 70391

I bought a PRO-2 in 1969 with a 45.98 crystal for New Britain (CT) PD. That was almost 2 weeks' salary if I remember correctly!