RadioShack PRO-28 - Manuals

5 SCANNING LEGALLY Your scanner covers frequencies used by many different groups includ-ing police and fire departments, ambulance services, government agen-cies, private companies, amateur radio services, military operations,pager services, and wireline (telephone and telegraph) service provid-ers....

6 CONTENTS Preparation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Power Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8Using Internal Batteries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8...

8 PREPARATION POWER SOURCES You can power your scanner from any of three sources: • Internal batteries (not supplied) • Standard AC power (using an optional AC adapter) • Vehicle battery power (using an optional DC adapter) USING INTERNAL BATTERIES You can power your scanner with four AA batteries. ...

10 The POWER jack powers the scanner and disconnects the internal bat- teries. You can use this jack to connect an external power source (ACadapter or DC power cord) regardless of the type of batteries you install. The CHARGE jack supplies power to operate the scanner and also charges the internal b...

12 USING VEHICLE BATTERY POWER You can power the scanner from your vehicle’s cigarette lighter socketwith an optional DC cigarette lighter power cord (such as Cat. No. 270-1533). Cautions: • The recommended DC power cord supplies 12 volts and deliversat least 200 milliamps. Its center tip is set to ...

13 • If the scanner does not operate properly when you use a DC power cord, unplug the power cord from the cigarette lightersocket and clean the socket to remove ashes and debris. If itstill does not operate properly, check the fuse in the power cord. CHARGING NICKEL-CADMIUM BATTERIES The scanner ha...

14 CONNECTING THE ANTENNA Follow these steps to attach the supplied flexible antenna to the connec-tor on the top of your scanner. 1. Align the slots around the antenna’s connector with the tabs on the jack. 2. Press the antenna down over the jack and rotate the antenna’s base clockwise until it loc...

15 CONNECTING AN EARPHONE/HEADPHONES For private listening, you can plug an earphone or mono headphones(such as Radio Shack Cat. No. 33-175 or 20-210) into the jack on top of your scanner. This automatically disconnects the internal speaker. Listening Safely To protect your hearing, follow these gui...

17 UNDERSTANDING YOUR SCANNER A LOOK AT THE KEYPAD Your scanner’s keys might seem confusing at first, but this informationshould help you understand each key’s function. SCAN — scans through the stored channels. MANUAL — stops scanning and lets you directly enter a channel num- ber or frequency. DEL...

18 A LOOK AT THE DISPLAY The display has several indicators that show the scanner’s current op-erating mode. A quick look at the display will help you understand howto operate your scanner. SRCH — appears during a band search ( b also appears) or a direct search ( d also appears). SCAN — appears whe...

20 OPERATION TURNING ON THE SCANNER AND SETTING SQUELCH 1. Turn SQUELCH fully clockwise. 2. Turn VOLUME/OFF clockwise until it clicks. The scanner automati- cally scans the 30 channels. Note: The first time you turn on the scanner, the channels mightnot have any frequencies stored in them, but the s...

21 5. Slowly turn SQUELCH counterclockwise until you hear a hissing sound. 6. Adjust VOLUME/OFF to a comfortable listening level. 7. Slowly turn SQUELCH clockwise until the hissing sound stops. Note: If you want to listen to a weak or distant station, turn SQUELCH counterclockwise to increase receiv...

22 Notes: • If you make a mistake in Step 2, Error appears on the display and the scanner beeps three times. Simply start again fromStep 2. • Your scanner automatically rounds the entered frequency to the nearest valid frequency. For example, if you try to enter a fre-quency of 151.473, your scanner...

23 3. To change the search direction, press t to search downward or s to search upward. b , SRCH , and t or s appear on the display. 4. When the scanner stops on an active frequency, you can do one of the following: • To store the displayed frequency into the monitor memory, press MON/0 . MON appear...

24 • To hold the frequency, press HOLD/BAND. h appears on the dis- play. To continue the search, press and hold t or s for about 1second. Notes: • If you want to step through the frequencies while h is displayed, press t or s. • If you tune to a search skip frequency, L appears on the dis- play (see...

25 LISTENING TO THE MONITOR MEMORY The scanner has one monitor memory. You can use this memory totemporarily store a frequency while you decide whether to store it into achannel. This is handy for quickly storing an active frequency when yousearch through an entire band. Once you have temporarily st...

26 4. Press MON/0 . The entered frequency appears, and the channel number starts flashing. 5. Press WX/E . The scanner stores the frequency into the selected channel, and the channel number stops flashing. SCANNING THE STORED CHANNELS To scan the stored channels, press SCAN . Your scanner then scans...

27 To turn off the 2-second delay on any active channel, press DELAY again while the channel number is displayed. D disappears from the display. Locking Out Channels You can increase the effective scanning speed by locking out individualchannels that have a continuous transmission, such as a weather...

29 A GENERAL GUIDE TO SCANNING Reception of the frequencies covered by your scanner is mainly “line-of-sight.” That means you usually cannot hear stations that are beyond thehorizon. GUIDE TO FREQUENCIES National Weather Frequencies * Not preprogrammed in this scanner. Birdie Frequencies Every scann...

30 GUIDE TO THE ACTION BANDS Typical Band Usage Primary Usage As a general rule, most of the radio activity is concentrated on the fol-lowing frequencies: VHF Band UHF Band Note: Remote control stations and mobile units operate at 5 MHz higherthan their associated base stations and relay repeater un...

31 Specified Intervals Frequencies in different bands are accessible only at specific intervals.For example: BAND ALLOCATION To help decide which frequency ranges to scan, use the following listingof the typical services that use the frequencies your scanner receives.These frequencies are subject to...

35 AVOIDING IMAGE FREQUENCIES You might discover one of your regular stations on another frequencythat is not listed. It might be what is known as an image frequency. Forexample, you might find a service that regularly uses a frequency of453.075 also on 474.675. To see if it is an image, do a little...

36 TROUBLESHOOTING If you have problems, here are some suggestions that might help. Ifnone of these suggestions help, take your scanner to your local RadioShack store for assistance. PROBLEM POSSIBLE CAUSE REMEDY Keys do not work or display changes at random. Undetermined error. Reset the scanner (s...

37 RESETTING THE SCANNER If the scanner’s display locks up or does not work properly after you con-nect power, you might have to reset the scanner. Caution: This procedure clears all the information you have pro-grammed into the scanner. Before you reset the scanner, try turning itoff and on to see ...

38 CARE AND MAINTENANCE Your Radio Shack PRO-28 30 Channel Direct Entry ProgrammableScanner is an example of superior design and craftsmanship. The fol-lowing suggestions will help you care for your scanner so you can enjoyit for years. Keep the scanner dry. If it gets wet, wipe it dry immedi-ately....

39 SPECIFICATIONS Frequency Coverage: 29–54 MHz (in 5 kHz steps) 137–174 MHz (in 5 kHz steps) 406–512 MHz (in 12.5 kHz steps) Channels of Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 channels Sensitivity: (FM: 20 dB S/N at 3 kHz deviation): 29–54 MHz . . . . . . . . . . . . . ....

RADIO SHACK A Division of Tandy Corporation Fort Worth, Texas 76102 UBZZ01255ZZ 9A7 Printed in the Philippines Limited One-Year Warranty This product is warranted by Radio Shack against manufacturing defects in materialand workmanship under normal use for one (1) year from the date of purchase fromR...