Scanner for 11-Meter

[Slowmover]

The UNIDEN 885 Hybrid CB Radio & Scanner (sitting at the house) is another option to try.

Can’t remember if it’ll scan AM, but as it is something of an upgrade (digital vs analog plus with supplied GPS locator) to the Bearcat bc355, looks like I’ll need to pack it for the next trip out.

Things stand here:

1). Antenna (type & location)
2). RF noise reduction

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[Slowmover]

I was gonna suggest putting a dummy load on a switch for "local" stuff

Expand that, please. Specifics.
Thx

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[Slowmover]

Got a few days off starting late today. Will re-mount radio gear to avoid coax cross-over, and will try to figure receiver performance of scanner vs 980.

Both are “noisy”.

Will put the 885 into the mix, also.

Coax to an outside antenna is the issue. Don’t have a good way to run it. Will have to convince myself that trouble is worth undertaking.

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[Shadetree Mechanic]

There should be a way to delete unwanted channels in a scanner? Or set it to skip channels like ch6 maybe. With a CB you are stuck with all the channels to scan.

 

[Slowmover]

There should be a way to delete unwanted channels in a scanner? Or set it to skip channels like ch6 maybe. With a CB you are stuck with all the channels to scan.

Yes.

 

[Slowmover]

So, got past the UPS Store coming into town (hey, six hours after arriving home — One-Ton A/C unit working great — the indoor temp is down 26-degrees to 81F in my 300-s/f! Must be August ), picked up the:

1). TRAM Nighthawk 42’ Base-load CB whip.

2). MFJ-310 Window adaptor.

I’d accidentally bought some wrong-type BNC adaptors from FAMOUS NATIONWIDE T-Bone Technology of Houston, TX (if you’ve ever heard long-distance skip the past ten years I can practically guarantee that you’ve heard him on AM-19. I’ve heard him Maine to Montana), that are going to work out for this project.

Or not. (Ha!)

I seriously doubt there’s better audio from a 148 than what he’s got.
And he’s mobile from a pickemup.

The truck driver friend I’d helped set up a longer antenna (get it over the trailer) and given an SWR meter to better use from his 6666 sent me a text he was hearing ol’ T-Bone a dozen miles away. Couldn’t get him at all, earlier, unless almost on top of his usual location. “Yup”, I replied, “and you’ll pick him up at 15-20/miles from E or W coming down US59 in Cleveland or IH10 in Katy as I do when you get that WM DSP Speaker!”

T-Bone loves to make a 29 talk. And he can. There’s a real crowd on-air of him & his customers on AM-19 a good number of evenings. Mans’ got the gift of conversation on-air. Literally no one better.

So, I figure there’s more of it out there than strictly on AM-19.
I just haven’t found it.

Yet.

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[Slowmover]

Got the 41” Tram out on the window-ledge. Gear straight above me for now (Velcro & some hope).

Picked up an old guy on AM-28. Cataract-town discussion. Heading towards Sinus-ville, and Prostate Hill is just out ahead. The little scanner picked up the faint signal of whom he was speaking with better than the DX-86V
(as system presently configured).

Couldn’t actually hear the other guy, but it was obvious someone seeking.

Have to pull apart the CB rig all over again (30th time? 40th?) to clean up coax & power runs (make shorter). Had swapped back to the PROCOMM Quad Wraps, but they just can’t take tree whacks.

Time to put the W2000s on 5” shafts versus the 10”. Xtra-long whips to install.

Getting a dedicated CB antenna outside the window on the MFJ-310 is a wiener. A short piece of coax with adapter run to the spot mirror-mount works well enough.

Progress, not perfection.

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[Slowmover]

With a different BNC adapter I’ll try the U980 at some future point.

 

[Slowmover]

You're onto something there S.M., I'm familiar with what you're referring to so I'm all ears to any responses.

Sitting waiting on dispatch (big radio on AM-19, little radio scanning 25-28 MHz), I’m picking up random transmissions well past daylight on the scanner. Parked on IH-4.

Not that many (and I can’t read scanner without moving it), but there’s a decent sample given I’m jammed between two other dry-van haulers.

The DX-86v IS better on whatever channel, but not terribly so. I’m pleased the scanner receives CB this well.

Were I at Petro-Amarillo, it’d be quite busy, I suspect.

(The antenna location needs to be changed).

Edit: end of this same day saw me run IH95 from Cocoa Beach, FL north to Savannah, GA . The TRAM Nighthawk consistently picks up traffic 1.5 to 3.0 miles ahead and less behind. Huge difference from the 100-yards with the supplier interior glass antenna.

The OVERSIZE loads being moved were the reference. Passenger vehicles usually with a mag mount on the roof.

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[Slowmover]

SPEAKER CHOICE

After some highway time where an S-Meter can be used as a location device, the receiver of the bc355 can be called good (“adequate”, in the old-fashioned sense), but my use of a Uniden ESP-20 External Speaker (to 20W) is a bust.

Elsewhere I have referred to this as a BC20 or BC23 which it isn’t. That pair are internally-amplified (Speaker has two cables: Audio & Power) and this one isn’t.

This Bearcat Scanner needs an externally-amplified speaker to keep audio legibility higher (speaker not driven to distortion) as mobile use with window cracked, main radio operating and stereo playing it isn’t up to the task.

Parked, it is okay. (Just)

I’ll need an adaptor to run the West Mountain Radio ClearSpeech DSP Speaker with the bc355, but that experiment will be to rate another amplified speaker as to quality.

My experience with the Uniden Bearcat 885 Hybrid Scanner/CB showed me that the WM RADIO speaker needs different audio settings for CB versus Scanner. It’s still the ideal.

I also haven’t yet tried any ferrite noise abatement on the Scanner & it’s gear.

Part of R&R on the main radio is custom-lengths for DC Power to devices requiring them. I’m up to 4 + 1 and with Scanner & Amplified Speaker it’s 6 + 1 (the +1 being the main feed).

The little SOTABEAM box (from DX-E) has (4) outlets.
With Power attached, that leaves (3) open.
With (6) devices needing power.

1). The KL203p gets a dedicated, so now it’s (5) from (3) remaining
2). The DX86V also receives dedicated; now, (4) from (2) remaining.
3). Both speakers twinned; now (2) from (1) remaining.
4). Tuner lamp + Scanner from last open outlet.

Having the Anderson PowerPole kit along makes for fairly quick fabrication; the difficulty lays in correct length where shortest distance butts heads with routing.

 

[Slowmover]

Looking at mobile, amplified external speakers (optimized for voice):

1. Uniden bc23a has an auto-off after 25-seconds (who would want this in any application?). About $50

2. MFJ-383 looks attractive but found no reviews I liked. $40

3. West Mountain Radio PwrSpkr is the non-DSP sibling of the ClrSpch unit; about $80.

Plugged the scanner audio output into the ClrSpch unit (filter off) and zero question of an enormous audio upgrade.

4). Motorola. A number of choices here with which I’m unfamiliar. Descriptions include ability to hear TX from outside vehicle.

Any comments on experience using amplified Motorola speakers would be appreciated.

Given that $80 is a worthwhile expenditure (higher possible) as I see the value.

My experience with the UNIDEN 885 Hybrid Scanner/CB was that use of a DSP Speaker called for different settings from CB to other bands scanned. Not bad, just not called for.


Edit: (More about use underway). Am at one of the nations trucking crossroads, Carlisle, PA. Several Interstates come together.

Having locked out AM-19 there are a couple other busy channels this morning on “CB” (no other scans active). I won’t say it’s distracting, but it’s getting there.

Obviously, it’s easy to turn one or the other (or both) down/off. Same as with a single radio. Or the stereo, etc.

I’ve made this note as:

A. Very heavy truck traffic volume.
B. A preponderance of good-sounding radios (audio + distance).
C. Drivers intelligent enough to decipher road conditions and transmit same to other drivers similarly interested & equipped.

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[Slowmover]

Back home today.

Can work with one of these dug from stash (Scan on U980).
Runs off PA jack.

Cobra High Gear
S-500 Speaker
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[Slowmover]

Am also going to test one of the KES-5 Kenwood speakers received this past week just to see what sensitivity (SPL) is like.

The Pete is going to get a double radio-stack installed on a deep (tall) mount. Make a U980 into, “the scanner”.

One of the really stupid phrases I hear from behind the face diapers is, that, this is all going to go away after the election.

No, it isn’t.

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[Slowmover]

Citizens Band does come into its own where some (or many) are mobile in the local net (CB Radio is a net draped over an area).

Having more than one radio (at hand) makes sense, even if it does
no more than, to listen.

Having beyond that a way to scan all possible channels, makes yet more sense.

120-channels.

To key down on one or more channels to disrupt service
is to paint on ones self a bullseye.

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[Slowmover]

Haven’t updated this in awhile as pulled scanner out for a couple of trips while focusing on the performance of the CB stack.

Am bringing along the 885 and will using it with the 980.

Updates to come.