"atomicthumbs" ) writes:
I just bought a scondhand one in excelent condition. Does anyone know
if this is a high-end reciever? Also, does anyone know what it would
sell (or sold, seeing as it's analog) for? I got it for $15.

I can't even picture it, but given that it's analog, it's not likely
to be very great.

Or rather, it's not so much that it's analog as that the analog tuning dates
it, to a time when such receivers weren't so great.

The average "police band" receiver from the analog era wasn't particularly
great. They'd have a relatively wide IF passband, and many designs were
just reworked from FM broadcast band designs. They likely had more than
ample sensitivity, especially given that VHF is line of sight only. Tuning
was usually full of backlash, and the tuning scale hardly accurate. They
were generally for non-serious listening "Oh look, I can hear an ambulance"
beause the nature of the "police bands" meant that often the frequencies
were not in constant use, at least away from the big cities, and if you wanted
to hear things you need to be constantly retuning. By the time you were
on to another frequency in use, you'd likely have missed much of the
transmission.

There were exceptions, receivers with an attempt at a better tuning
scale and a good IF filter, but I'm not sure any of the Patrolman's qualified.

For much of the analog era, if you wanted a serious receiver you went to a
crystal controlled receiver. Tended to be more expensive, but it would
also bring a better quality of receiver. You needed a crystal for every
frequency you wanted to tune, which meant you'd only be listening to a few
frequencies, but you could instantly switch between them.

The next step up was receivers with scanning capacity added. These
were still crystal controlled, but circuitry was in place to switch
between the crystals, faster than you could turn a knob. So you'd
miss very little of a transmission.

Those came around in the early seventies, and they did tend to have
good IF selectivity. You'd also pay more than the usual analog tuned
"police band" receiver.

Then in the late seventies, synthesized "police band" receivers came along.
No more crystals, but every desired frequency was there, and instantly
available, with no fussing over tuning. And they were all scanners,
so you could be constantly checking as few or as many frequencies
as you wanted.

Michael