I bought a Cobra SR900 at a Pawn Shop

[TURNz]

I found a Cobra SR900 in a Pawnshop for $15. It had the manual and a power supply. Manufacture date is 1990.

Is this a good one? I know it's old as hell. It seems to work fine.

I can't find much info on the web except for some sites selling them or the manuals.

['Doc]

If it works at all, you more than got your money's worth for that price. Is it the absolute most bestest thing since crystal radios? I sort of doubt it. Will it work in most cases? Probably as good as any other scanner, just depends on what you want to listen to and how those services are set up in your area. Higher antennas work better than lower antennas. From there, you're on your own.
- 'Doc

[lucas]

depends where you live too...if your trying to listen to police or in my case RCMP, there are some places that have switch over to a new system (some one will chime in here and tell me what system that is) but in any case you cant listen to them anymore, BUT only in some areas,(yours may not be one of these areas) i know of one here in canada for sure that you cant pick them up and that down in the southern area of nova scotia.

The only reason i have a scanner is for the coast guard, and boats out in the waters around my area here in newfoundland, and once in a while i'll throw in the RCMP freq for a good laugh ...AHAHAHAH

[TURNz]

Ok, so I moved this thing outside last night to listen while we carved pupkins. I input a bunch of new channels that I found. All was working well. Then I moved it back inside. It was unplugged for less than a minute. All channels were lost.

Is there a battery inside that I can change? I am going to open it up tonight and see.

[MoJo]

depends where you live too...if your trying to listen to police or in my case RCMP, there are some places that have switch over to a new system (some one will chime in here and tell me what system that is) but in any case you cant listen to them anymore, BUT only in some areas,(yours may not be one of these areas) i know of one here in canada for sure that you cant pick them up and that down in the southern area of nova scotia.

The only reason i have a scanner is for the coast guard, and boats out in the waters around my area here in newfoundland, and once in a while i'll throw in the RCMP freq for a good laugh ...AHAHAHAH

It's called trunking...

They transmit and receive on different frequencies.

A trunking scanner will pick those up.

['Doc]

Any scanner (or radio) with programmable memories should have a battery in there that will keep those memory chips 'active'. And then there are memory chips that do not require a battery (less common). You might take a look and see if you can find a small battery. If so, then swap the thing for a new one, they do 'retire' when they get old enough. There's also usually a charging or maintenance circuit for those batteries. If the thing was left idle long enough, that circuit is probably okay and the battery just died. Wait and see, sort of.
- 'Doc