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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!floyd!cmcl2!seismo!brl-tgr!wmartin
From: wmartin@brl-tgr.ARPA (Will Martin )
Newsgroups: net.ham-radio
Subject: Re: Scanner Info Wanted
Message-ID: <3054@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Date: Tue, 19-Jun-84 14:59:17 EDT
Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.3054
Posted: Tue Jun 19 14:59:17 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 21-Jun-84 05:43:47 EDT
References: <369@hou2a.UUCP>
Organization: Ballistics Research Lab
Lines: 75

I own a couple different Regency scanners, and have bought and tried
another model Regency before giving it to a relative. A co-worker
has a Regency which he has discussed with me. I have had a Bearcat
crystal scanner and have read some discussions of Bearcat programmables.
The other brands to keep in mind are JIL and Radio Shack. Regency,
Bearcat, and JIL are all available from discounters and mailorder
houses, both true wholesalers and quasi-wholesalers (ones who act
like wholesalers but happily sell to anyone, even without a business
name), so list prices on all these are meaningless and you should
either buy strictly by price comparisons (and be prepared to handle
any warranty repairs or problems yourself), or resign yourself to
paying more at a local dealer to have someone to handle problems or
complaints.

Because of the easy availability of lower-priced models in these three
brands, I have never paid attention to Radio Shack, as you have to pay
either a fixed price or catch these on sale, and even on sale they are
more than the others.

OK, enough intro. My Regency models have all worked fine. All were
bought from wholesalers by mail-order, and worked OK out-of-the-box.
The models were the K500, K100, and ACT-W-10 with Digital Frequency
Selector. All of these are now discontinued. THe K500 has a bunch
of pre-programmed frequencies, 40 user-programmable channels, and
various features. The K100 is similar with fewer goodies. The other
is an unusual model which uses metal combs plugged into sockets
on the rear panel which short out a diode matrix for frequency
programming, and also an external box with switches to select
the frequency for one memory. The K500 & K100 are plagued with
a number of birdies, spurious oscillator frequencies which behave
like an unmodulated carrier and interrupt searches and prevent
reception on those frequencies. Those birdies are my main gripe with
these programmable Regency models. I believe newer models have
improved this condition, but I know no details.

The co-worker's Regency (I believe an M400) has been back and forth
to the factory for repeated repair of a bad membrane keypad. My
K500 has a similar keypad but worked fine. I don't know if it
is a "lemon" situation or a difference in subassembly design.

I have read comments regarding the programmable Bearcats in the
newsletter of the International DXers Club of San Diego, written
by the late Larry Brookwell. (This club is now in limbo following
Larry's death in December 83.) Larry had a couple Bearcat models
and talked with dealers, and reported a seeming tendency to
unreliability. His were back for repair repeatedly, and he reported
that dealers said this was common. The crystal Bearcat I had I gave
to my mother after getting my first programmable; the audio on it
was never clear enough to suit me. I believe that the crystals
might have aged or been cut slightly off-frequency.

The JIL models have wide frequency coverage, but I believe they all
use external plug-transformer power supplies, which I dislike. I have
no info on their performance or reliability.

Based on the above, I continue to recommend Regency. I may buy a
Bearcat if I could get a big enough bargain, though, just to
try the different design and approach. None of my scanners have
the aircraft band, and I would like to have this. However, I do
not think that it is as popular as the other ranges, for several
reasons. 1) It is AM, not FM, which adds circuitry and cost to
the scanners that have it; 2) Unless you are an aviator or
aviation buff or live near an airport, there is little to be
heard except aircraft in flight, which transmit briefly on
many different frequencies and who seldom say anything interesting,
unless you luck out in hearing a skyjack or disaster. However,
having that band is necessary to using scanner accessories, such as 
the "Globe-Scan" shortwave converter, which lets you use your
scanner as a digital-readout shortwave receiver, or the "Scanverter"
which converts the military UHF 200-400 MHz range to the aircraft
band. (Both of these are from Grove Enterprises.)

Whew! Hope the above was of interest!

Will