Path: utzoo!yunexus!geac!syntron!jtsv16!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!amdcad!diablo!phil
From: phil@diablo.amd.com (Phil Ngai)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Subject: Re: economical to modify a scanner radio ?
Message-ID: <23369@amdcad.AMD.COM>
Date: 25 Oct 88 17:38:02 GMT
Article-I.D.: amdcad.23369
References: <2030@spdcc.COM>
Sender: news@amdcad.AMD.COM
Reply-To: phil@diablo.AMD.COM (Phil Ngai)
Organization: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Sunnyvale CA
Lines: 20

In article <2030@spdcc.COM> eli@spdcc.UUCP (Steve Elias) writes:
|the modification i'm interested in is one which would turn a 'normal'
|(cheap!) scanner radio that picks up police & fire broadcasts --
|... into a scanner which would pick up air band broadcasts as well as or
|instead of one of the other bands.

I would guess that one issue would be the public safety services all
seem to use FM (even Highway Patrol at 42 MHz) but aircraft tend to
use AM. (would anyone care to explain why?) So if your scanner doesn't
have an AM demodulator in it, the conversion would not be easy. 

Anyway, perhaps I got a defective one, but my RS scanner is MUCH less
sensitive than my new Uniden BC-205. I could never pick up Highway
Patrol with the RS but can do it easily with the Uniden. Plus I have
200 channels and 800 MHz coverage. 

"In the West, to waste water is not to consume it, to let it flow unimpeded 
and undiverted down rivers. Use of water is, by definition, beneficial use."
(from _Cadillac Desert_)
Phil Ngai, {ucbvax,decwrl,allegra}!amdcad!phil or phil@amd.com