I worked at Uniden for over ten years and remember this.vintage scanner. When I started at Uniden in 1996, they let me take the scanner home and it worked just fine. Of course that was before every thing went digital. Enjoyed the video.

Yes, they sure do bring back good memories, I can remember drooling over this scanner when it was on the shelf new at our local Wards store. When I was a kid, my folks actually liked hearing the scanners I had set up, they got hooked on listening to them too so my scanner was on 24/7 at low volume. Thanks Davy for the comment! Glad you enjoy the videos.

dang! I have my Bearcat III from 1974, you reminded me to dig it up and fire it up and show it on youtube! It has vhf lowband and highband modules. I remember audio was very high quality.

Wow!! Talk about memories. When I was a kid, my father bought that same exact model. As a kid I played with it more than he did. I LOVED IT! Unfortunately they don't pick up much anymore. Most police, and fire went to digital, trunking systems. What's strange though...AS TECHNOLOGY PROGRESSED...THE RECEPTION ON THE SCANNERS GOT WORSE. That Bearcat IV was better than ALL of them!!

Nice job,reviewing it was interesting to hear your knowledge.

Just bought a Bearcat III on EBay. Brings back lots of memories. Just ordered crystals for it now!

Larry, just ran across your video and enjoyed it. I have a BCatIV that has been sitting on a shelf for ??years. Watching this has inspired me to get it down, check it out and put it back into service. Thanks for the inspiration. 73 de NE4TM

Oh yes, I remember the Plectrons also. Sounds like you got a great deal on that Bearcat, great to hear. Good radio built very well!

Made in Cumberland Indiana and hand wired point to point chassis. Sure won’t see that any more. These old units are great for listening to the railroad VHF band 160.200 to 161.600 provided you can find the crystals. My dad had one similar to this that had two antennas: one for VHF and one for UHF. He used that unit for 25 years at least.

KB3YTV and I love watching your videos from Penn State! I think you look a lot like Michael Anthony from van halen lol nice videos. very fun to watch

My grandfather had something similar. Wish I still had it.

Usually replacement telescopic antennas can be found with a little searching, many are kind of a general replacement type. I think Radio Shack even used to have them but not sure if they still do or not these days. If you take the cover off, you can see if there are any crystals, they will have the frequency printed on them and you will see the sockets on the board they plug into, might be a few in there and maybe a few empty sockets.

Thanks for the video Larry. We had one of these sitting around unused in the newsroom. Thanks to you I learned how to open it up and check the crystals. Thankfully New Haven PD hasn't gone digital yet. Fire went to the 800 mhz band a while ago.

Yes, it does look in good shape. I have one but not as clean. Thanks for sharing. Tom

wow my dad had that one.thats amazing what memories that brings back.i bet i even have an old picture of him w/it somewhere around.well thanks for the memories. 73,KB3YJO ps-my mom always hated the scanner hahaha. they are both deseased RIP.

So after almost a year, a guy on ebay had a crystal that was very close to the 460.0625 (paging freq that broadcasts my local EMS). Now my Bearcat IV has a new life!

That,s ok. I'll have to wait for the flea markets and yard sales to start. I probly will find another bearcat there. thanks and God bless. Keep up the good work.

Yes, that retro stuff is going up again in price all the time! I enjoy playing around with all of it though, new and old. Thanks for the comment!

good radio. I two of the BC 3's never had the BC4

I have several old Electra/Bearcats incuding a II-H, III H/U, and IV crystal models, and the first crystal-less programmable 101 model. I also have several of the BC300 which was without doubt the best offering from Electra before Uniden took them over and still a great scanner today. All of them work perfectly. Old analog scanners are cheap to collect, not too many people want them.

I have one similar to it.I need to get the proper crystals for my area.It has the 162.55 MHz crystal for the weather service.I live here on the southwestern Oregon coast.Mine works beautifully;I got it off of ebay for $10.00.

I just acquired this for a yard sale.

Just pulled my mid 70's Bearcat IV scanner out of storage and fired it up. Works like the day I bought it! All crystals still receive transmissions perfectly. Great for when I am working at home and need some background noise. Location - Pgh, PA.

Thanks Tom, yes, it is in very good condition, just a few aged components I guess, lol. Seems to work fine but I may replace some of the electrolytic caps maybe if I decide to use it some, or it may just sit for a while to look at among the other radios.

These are great old scanners. I picked one up at a local hamfest in mint condition for $20. I'm having a hard time finding the 10.8IF x-tals tho. Thankfully, everything in my area is still analog.

My grandparents had one back in the 1970s and 1980s.

I had a bearcat 3 back about 50 yrs. ago it was vhf high & low , I think when you bought it from woolco dept. it came with 6 crystals & then you purchased the others . the local police dept. switched to uhf & the local tv shop sold you a board that could convert it over too uhf

The public service channels I am referring to are police, fire, ambulance and local utilities, that type of thing. Business communications can also be heard if wanted. 150 Mhz range on VHF is common and 450 on UHF. Low band is not used that often these days but 30-50 Mhz there.

Thanks, I am sure I could get crystals for any weather channel if I wanted to, there are crystal manufacturer companies that can pretty much cut the crystal for whatever you want. I don't have a need for it since I have so many radios that will already receive that though, lol. But if you have a need for one I would think you could get one by doing some searching online.

Just got one of these and it is in great condition. I am only able to receive the weather on it though.

I bought one of these brand new in 1977. Crystals always started drift off frequency after a couple years. You can still get crystal at a couple ham sites for about $6 each. As long as you an get it for free or near free, it's an interesting historical piece, but it's gonna run you $48 to crystal it out, assuming you can receive any non-digital transmissions other than ham or NWS frequencies. I'm lucky that 99% of the transmissions in my area are still high band analog, and usually repeaters. The downside is that it's single conversion with a front end as wide as a barn door. I live in a small town without too much RF pollution so it's OK here. If you live in a city the cross modulation will drive you nuts.

You can find crystals for scanners still out there, just search the term "buy scanner crystals" or just "scanner crystals in your search engine and you should find a lot of good info, I saw a lot on there covering many models of scanners. As far as the aircraft scanner, I don't remember off hand if there was a crystal version that came out for that or not, I know the programmable ones all had aircraft.

Yes, it should work fine, I hear crystals are very expensive these days though. They may have went to the new narrow band requirement but should still work fine, you might just have to turn the volume up just a touch higher.

Most around here are now APCO P25 also, I have a Uniden Home Patrol for that and stream to internet, they are not in encryption unless they have something they need to say in private around here. Also, for the time being, they are simulcasting fire on the old VHF channel yet since there are several depts in the county and there are so many pagers using the VHF yet for the pages. Eventually it will all be switched over I think. All of MN here is supposed to change over, that is the plan.

Is there a way of adding a better antenna to this scanner? I have a model 3 was my grandmother's. I'd like to be able to get a much better signal with a indoor wire antenna or possibly a through the glass mount on my bay window.

No idea for sure, but I know a lot of the classic equipment is bringing good prices on ebay it seems. Especially if working and good condition.

Very good video, I liked it. I picked up a working one for a few bucks and it is loaded with crystals already. Can you explain how someone would calculate the value of the capacitor used to change those frequencies?

With an Antenna analyzer and variable capacitor can you replace the crystals in the bearcat scanner with the capacitor turned to the frequency you want in stead of purchasing crystals?

QuartlSlab cystals here in the UK have plenty of stock cystals, They'll cut a rock to your specifications too.

What do public service transmissions transmit? Apart from weather. What frequencies are typical for public service transmissions?

WRT public service I noticed around here the cops went all trunked digital, but fire is still in the 150MHz range. So apparently fire in this city doesn't rate like the cops do. But that's ok, the cops all have APCO P25 radios and it's pretty easy to knock them out of encryption mode.

Im buying one of these today except its the bearcat 3 not 4

Thanks for the great video! Could you get crystals that would receive NOAA weather? I did not think so but I own any vintage scanners! Thanks again!!

The very first Scanner radio I ever bought was a Electra Bearcat IV. It was built on May 16, 1975, and I purchased this radio as New Old Stock in 1995 from a local Farm Supply and Hardware Store for $15.95. It came pre-crystaled out of the box for the local Highway Patrol stations and one station for the County Sheriff. I still use it to this day for road conditions and severe weather monitoring. The radio I still use to monitor the Fire Dept is a Plectron reciever.

Radio ham guy, just bought one of these and it won't power up opened it very clean inside nothing obvious transformer inside feels hot and has slight odor would the heat be sign its bad? Thanks

Who works on them? I have one that needs to be repaired. Is the Craig for channel portable scanner?

Just found one just wanted to know whats the use for it .. set up for. A garage sale.

Does anyone know of any place where I could get Crystals for the radio?

You would want to do a little research in your area to see what frequencies are used and what modes, a lot of areas are now using digital signals and you would need a scanner capable of that, in some areas that is not of concern. So would be best to find out what is used in your area from someone local to start with I guess. There are a lot of good scanners out there though in all price ranges. Hand held and desk type also.

Mine don't have switchs inside for the crystals

I also have a Bearcat IV. The only frequency in my area that has not gone digital is a first responder paging frequency of 460.0625. I believe this is a norrow band communication. If I can find a crystal for this frequency, would it work in my Bearcat? 73-N2PTF

It is now 99% unless now. Many place have going digital monthly since early 1990. My area are all digital now. Remember, most drive-in food place still using old analog. They are mosly less than 5 watt (mostly 3 watt). There range are very, very limit.

old school...

I have one of those but speaker is shot. How much do you think these are worth being Antiques

i saw one like that on ebay for like $40 last night

I need a power cord for that scan

I think you got them lights going too fast. Did you "turbo charge" it somehow?

Just fyi...Bearcats have IF of 10.Mhz, RadioShack and Regency are 10.7 Mhz. Why dunno. But that made a diff if you mixed the Crystal's up. The ones operating on 10.7 will sound scratchy, or low vol, ,

i heard of crystals, what where they for??

does anyone have the codes for this scanner

Mine is 5-1-78

lol good ole mom ,,who doesnt like to hear the action,,haha??

Does he repair police scanners

no phase lock loop with this scanner.....

can you get Christmas anymore

Mine won't pick up nothing got one just like this prob sell it

Technology marches on. I suspect AM/FM radio will be dead within a few decades as everything transitions to the internet

Not true. It's completely dependent on your location. Numerous small municipalities still are & will always be analog. There is no benefit for a small town or community to go digital when analog does everything they need.

Hi, Larry Just tuned in. Awesome info. I just picked up an electra bearcat lV at a thrift store in excellent condition. But I need an antenna , Im not able to find one with the screw on the bottom of the antenna. Most are side screws. I checked radio shack and local stores but no luck. Can you help me out Thank you and God Bless Gerry Roy MODEL BC mfg 11/1/77 serial no. 424560

I love your videos Larry, but god damn we need to get you a better camera. This is awful!

whole video out of focus :(

What is the point of this video? Its just an old obsolete scanner .$2 at any yard sale. Over it!

KB3YTV and I love watching your videos from Penn State! I think you look a lot like Michael Anthony from van halen lol nice videos. very fun to watch

Was there a model that does VHF 118-136 Mhz in AM.And where can you order crystals these days?