RadioShack PRO-66 - 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 power cord) USING INTERNAL BATTERIES You can power your scanner with four AA batterie...

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 RadioShack 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 guid...

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. If you already pro- grammed channels, the scanner automatically scans those chan-nels. 3. Press MANUAL to stop the scanning. The display shows the cur- rent channel....

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 continue the search, press t or s. • 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 fr...

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...

28 LISTENING TO THE WEATHER BAND The FCC (Federal Communications Commission) has allocated 11channels for use by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administra-tion (NOAA). We have preprogrammed your scanner with the seven fre-quencies most commonly used by NOAA (see “National WeatherFrequencies” o...

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 VHF Band (30.00–300.0 MHz) Low Range 29.00–50.00 MHz 6-Meter Amateur 50.00–54.00 MHz U.S. Government 137.00–144.00 MHz 2-Meter Amateur 1...

31 UHF Band Note: Remote control stations and mobile units operate at 5 MHz higherthan their associated base stations and relay repeater units. Specified Intervals Frequencies in different bands are accessible only at specific intervals.For example: BAND ALLOCATION To help decide which frequency ran...

36 TROUBLESHOOTING If you have problems, here are some suggestions that might help. Ifnon e of th ese su gge sti ons h el p, ta ke you r s cann er to your l oca lRadioShack store for assistance. PROBLEM POSSIBLE CAUSE REMEDY Keys do not work or display changes at random. Undetermined error. Reset th...

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 RadioShack PRO-66 50-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 immediately.Li...

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) 806.0000–823.9375 MHz (in 12.5 kHz steps)851.0000–868.9375 MHz (in 12.5 kHz steps) 896.1125–956.0000 MHz (in 12.5 kHz steps) Channels of Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . ....

RadioShack A Division of Tandy Corporation Fort Worth, Texas 76102 UBZZ01259ZZ 1A6 Printed in the Philippines RadioShack Limited Warranty This product is warranted against defects for 1 year from date of purchasefrom RadioShack company-owned stores and authorized RadioShack franchi-sees and dealers....