Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site brl-tgr.ARPA 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