[Boatanchors] Highway Patrol et al on an SP-600

[Philip Atchley]

Hi All,

Today I've been playing around with the top band on the SP-600.  I'd played 
with this band on previous SP-600's, but this is the first time I really did 
any listening on this one.  A few notes here.

1.  This is the set that I still need to replace the Temp Comp capacitors in 
the front end of, so tuning doesn't "stay put" very long at 42MC ;-)
2.  I don't have a "dedicated" antenna for the 6 meter band, but the Hustler 
6BTV seems to be my best antenna for this band.
3.  A fair number of baby monitors, old cordless phones etc were heard along 
with the California Highway Patrol around 42.7MC (as close as I can tell). 
The last was the most interesting, though baby monitors around 49MC can be 
interesting if you like to "eavesdrop".  People don't realize that they 
broadcast everything going on 24/7.
4.  The sensitivity of the SP-600 isn't the "greatest" up there, certainly not 
up to the standard of modern gear.  HOWEVER, my homebrewed multi-coupler with 
the 2 stage JFET tunable preamp (tunes <100KC through >55MC) helps a GREAT 
deal.
5.  Slope detection works OK, but a "true" FM detector would be MUCH better. 
Better yet would be an FM detector with AFC back to the local oscillator.

Hmm, I'll bet it wouldn't be hard to sneak a small circuit board with a 
"single chip" FM detector under the chassis of this big ol' beast.  That AFC 
could also be used to stabilize regular AM signals.  Oops, there goes Phil 
with his blasphemy again, trying to make a modern ricebox out of his grand old 
boatanchor 8^(  Of course it could be done "outboard", using the 455KC IF 
output jack and routing the audio back into the "Diode loop".

73 de Phil,  KO6BB
SWL QSL GALLERY: http://photobucket.com/albums/y123/KO6BB/
THE BEACONEER'S LAIR:    http://www.geocities.com/ko6bb/
Merced, Central California, 37.3N  120.48W  CM97sh