bc 210 scanner problem

[rebelpride]

I have a bearcat 210 scanner. Old skool scanner a friend of mine gave it to me not too long ago. It cuts on an off, the squelch works, the keypad works and it has the antenna. The problem is that when i search frequencies it finds a signal but I never hear anything. When i search for one it just makes no noise what so ever. If someone could tell me what they think is wrong id be really glad to hear it.

[231]

Being you've not had any responses yet, I'll take a stab at it...albeit probably not a very good one.

If I were to guess I'd say dirty switches, pots, and maybe even a loose board might be part of the problem. Over time sometimes things work loose with the heating (expanding) and cooling (contracting), not to mention moving things around a getting dropped, etc. It might be worth a look inside to see what you see. Tighten all the board screws and maybe look for things out of the ordinary?

I had a friend of mine fix my Dad's old Sangean SWL radio a few months ago. My Dad passed away several years ago and it was his passion listening to this radio. So I really wanted it working, just because it makes me think of the times he and I spent listening to the shows he loved together. But it did similar things to what you just described in scan mode, and honestly if had been a free radio that had no sentimental value, I would have dug into it. But needless to say, it does. So I had a pro do it, and all he did was clean the switches and tighten the boards. It works great now!

So I may be way off base here, but if it's not working now, what do you have to lose?

Just a thought anyway.

[rebelpride]

10-4 man I hear that. But i just literally got it straight I think I read the manual wrong that i got offline lol. Tiny print dont help but dude this is a old scanner i think from the late 70s early 80s but its fine now but...I wanna make it mobile so could you give me some ideas on mobile antennas? You cant just use a normal cb antenna can you?

[231]

Well I'm sure to some extent all of our sponsors (located at the bottom of every page) would carry some, but TheRadioCompany looks to have a few. Being most of the stuff your scanner is listening to is VHF/UHF I'd say just about any of the mobile ones would be an improvement over the rubber ducky antennas.

[Sporty Mike]

I too recently accuired a Bearcat 210 XL, it came with the original owners manual and sales receipt. It was purchased from a TV shop in Sep.1985. It comes on Squelch and Volume works, but only some of the keypad seems to work. The manual function dosen't seem to work nor does the scan, but if you turn down the squelch and it stops on a channel, it always says the same freq. 985.2500 odd as I didn't think scanners of that time went that high anyway?? And when it's scanning, the digital readout just sweeps by 0's was this the normal display for these while in scan mode. I took it apart yesterday, but it seemed to be pretty clean, and everything looked in place. Although I didn't go as far as to take the keyboard board apart....I might try it again, going deeper into it.


Mike