Bearcat 210

[dcg729]

Going thru some old boxes and discovered my first nice scanner a 210 purchased in maybe 1978, Has been used as mobile then home unit and lastly in a store where it ran 24/7 for years only off if power failed. I noticed the memory battery cover button has disappeared
but it fired right up and sounds better then any of my current newer units,,lol,,any ideas on finding this button about the size of a dime and screws in the back????Holds what appears to be a watch battery in place. ??

 

[pinetree]

If my memory is correct the button was just plastic and the battery contacts were in the unit itself. The battery was to keep memory in case power failed. I cant remember the battery number was but the my radio is around somewhere if you cant find it.

 

[pinetree]

After I posted I located a site that might help you.
http://www.uvm.edu/~swarley/bc210.htm

 

[dcg729]

Wow that was way over my simple head, Thanks for the reply. DCG

 

[michaelsbus]

Do what I did: get a single AA battery holder, rivet it to the back panel and solder to the old battery holder's contacts on PCB. Just observe polarity.

 

[DanHenry]

Eveready 393 battery, $3.49 at RS

Pinetree,

Thanks for the link above that included a PDF version of the Bearcat 210 user manual. The 210 was my first "digital" scanner back around 1980 or 1981. It served me well 24/7 until I donated it to a friend to get him started in the hobby in 1989.

Approx. 560 KB user manual:
http://www.uvm.edu/~swarley/bc210.pdf

dcg729,

"Replace the battery with Mallory 10L123, Ray-O-Vac RW48, or Eveready 393."

The 393 battery is available from Radio Shack and most stores that sell watch batteries. The photo in the manual shows that the button just holds the battery in place. You could rig something to keep it pressed in or install another battery holder.

RS link:
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062093&cp

-Dan

 

[rolmtech]

210

After I posted I located a site that might help you.
BC210 Conversion for Noaa Satellites

thanks for the link. just what I needed!

 

[KB7MIB]

Wirelessly posted (Opera/9.80 (BREW; Opera Mini/6.0.3/27.2338; U; en) Presto/2.8.119 320X240 LG VN530)

I've got a 210 as well. It was my Dad's, from when he was a fire police officer in PA. (He had a crystal controlled Regency and a dip switch programmed one as well.)
The 210 doesn't work correctly anymore, and I'm doubtful it would be repairable.
It won't take a direct frequency entry any longer. If you program a frequency, and hit Enter, it'll show some completely different frequency. If you continue to press Enter, the frequency continues to change, until it happens to show some frequency that is out of the scanner's range, then it'll show an error. You have to set the frequency as the upper and lower search limit, wait for a transmission, then hit Hold.
Even when all the memories are programmed, it will randomly shift the contents of the memories up a couple of channels. For example, channels 1-10 would end up on channels 3-2.
I wish it still worked though, for sentimental reasons.
(Yes, I know this is a 2006 thread that just got revived. Couldn't help myself.)