RadioShack PRO-72 - Manual

7 CONTENTS Preparation .................................................................. 9 Power Sources ...................................................... 9 Using Batteries ............................................... 9Using Standard AC Power ............................ 12Using Vehicle Bat...

9 PREPARATION POWER SOURCES You can power your scanner from any of four sources: • Internal batteries (not supplied) with the provided battery holder • A rechargeable scanner battery pack (not supplied) • Standard AC power (using an optional AC adapter) • Vehicle battery power (using an optional DC ...

11 3. If you are installing individual batteries, insert six AA batteries in the battery holder as indicated by thepolarity symbols (+ and –) marked on the batteryholder. 4. Slide the battery holder or battery pack into the com- partment as shown. Caution: The battery holder or battery pack fits onl...

12 Using Standard AC Power To power the scanner from AC power, you need an ACadapter (Cat. No. 273-1665). Cautions: • You must use an AC adapter that supplies 9 volts anddelivers at least 200 milliamps. Its center tip must beset to negative, and its barrel plug must correctly fitthe scanner’s PWR/DC...

13 Using Vehicle Battery Power To power the scanner from your vehicle’s cigarette-lightersocket, you need a DC adapter (Cat. No. 270-1560). Cautions: • You must use a DC adapter that supplies 9 volts and delivers at least 200 milliamps. Its center tip must beset to negative, and its plug must correc...

14 Notes: • Mobile use of this scanner is unlawful or requires apermit in some areas. Check the laws in your area. • If the scanner does not operate properly when youconnect a DC adapter, unplug the adapter from thecigarette-lighter socket and clean the socket toremove ashes and other debris. Chargi...

15 Important! At the end of a rechargeable battery pack’suseful life, it must be recycled or disposed of properly.Contact your local, county, or state hazardous wastemanagement authorities for information on recycling ordisposal programs in your area. Some options that mightbe available are: municip...

16 Connecting an Optional Antenna The ANT jack on the top of the scanner makes it easy to use the scanner with a variety of antennas. Instead of thesupplied antenna, you can attach a different one, such asan external mobile antenna or outdoor base station anten-na. Your local RadioShack store sells ...

17 Listening Safely To protect your hearing, follow these guidelines when youuse an earphone or headphones: • Do not listen at extremely high volume levels. Extended high-volume listening can lead to perma-nent hearing loss. • Set the volume to the lowest setting before you begin listening. After yo...

18 CONNECTING AN EXTENSION SPEAKER In a noisy area, an extension speaker (Cat. No. 21-549) oran amplified speaker (Cat. No. 21-541) might providemore comfortable listening. Plug the speaker cable’s 1 / 8 -inch plug into your scanner’s jack. USING THE BELT CLIP You can use the belt clip for hands-fre...

19 YOUR SCANNER Once you understand a few simple terms we use in thismanual and familiarize yourself with your scanner’s fea-tures, you can put the scanner to work for you. You simplydetermine the communications you want to receive, thenset the scanner to scan those frequencies. A frequency is the t...

20 A LOOK AT THE KEYPAD Your scanner’s keys might seem confusing at first, but thisinformation should help you understand each key’s func-tion. WX — scans through the preprogrammed weather chan- nels. BAND — selects a preprogrammed search band. SCAN — scans through the programmed channels. MANUAL — ...

21 — locks/unlocks the keypad to prevent accidental en- tries. LIGHT — turns on/off the display’s backlight. Number Keys — use these keys to enter the numbers fora channel or frequency. MON/ 0 — enters a zero or accesses the monitor memory. DLY/ • (delay/decimal point) — programs a 2-second delay fo...

22 A LOOK AT THE DISPLAY The display has indicators that show the scanner’s currentoperation. MAN — appears when you manually select a channel. SCAN — appears when you scan channels. WX — appears when you scan or manually search the pre- programmed weather channels. MON — appears when you listen to ...

24 UNDERSTANDING BANDS/MONITOR MEMORY Search Bands Your scanner can tune over 32,000 different frequencies.Many of these frequencies are grouped within permanentmemory locations called search bands. Note: The actual search range of Band 9 is 806 – 824 MHz, 849 – 869 MHz, and 894 – 960 MHz. The scann...

25 You can search these bands to quickly find active frequen-cies you might want to store into the scanner’s channels.For example, if you wanted to search for transmissions be-tween amateur radio operators, you could search only thesearch bands where you are most likely to hear the trans-missions (B...

26 OPERATION TURNING ON THE SCANNER/ SETTING VOLUME AND SQUELCH Note: Make sure the scanner’s antenna is connected be-fore you turn it on. 1. Turn SQUELCH fully counterclockwise. 2. Turn VOLUME clockwise until it clicks and you hear a hissing sound. 3. Turn SQUELCH clockwise until the hissing sound ...

27 • If you have not stored frequencies into any channels (see “Storing Active Frequencies” on Page 27), thescanner does not scan. STORING ACTIVE FREQUENCIES You can manually store frequencies you already know intothe scanner’s channels. You can also store frequenciesyou found using band search dire...

28 2. Use the number keys to enter the channel number where you want to store the frequency, then press PGM again. Or, repeatedly press PGM until the desired channel number appears. 3. Use the number keys and DLY/ • to enter the fre- quency (including the decimal point) you want tostore into that ch...

29 Band Search If you do not know of a frequency to store, you can searchyour scanner’s preprogrammed search bands (see“Search Bands” on Page 24) for active frequencies, thenstore any that you find into your scanner’s channels. Follow these steps to search for and store active frequen-cies using ban...

31 Direct Search You can search up or down from the currently displayedfrequency and store the frequency into the monitor mem-ory. 1. Press MANUAL or PGM , then use the number keys and DLY/ • to enter the frequency where you want to start the search. Note: To start from a frequency already stored in...

32 MOVING A FREQUENCY FROM THE MONITOR MEMORY TO A CHANNEL 1. Press MANUAL , enter the channel number where you want to store the frequency, then press PGM . PGM , the frequency number or 000.0000 , and the selected channel number appear. 2. Press MON . MON and the frequency appear and the channel n...

33 SCANNING THE CHANNELS To begin scanning channels or to start scanning again af-ter monitoring a specific channel, press SCAN . SCAN and appear, and the scanner begins to rapidly scan upward until it finds an active frequency. If the scanner finds an active frequency, it stops and dis-plays that c...

34 LISTENING TO THE MONITOR MEMORY To listen to the frequency stored in the monitor memory,press MANUAL then MON . MAN , MON , and the frequency stored in the monitor memory appear. CLEARING A CHANNEL 1. Press MANUAL . 2. Use the number keys to enter the channel number containing the frequency you w...

35 LISTENING TO A WEATHER BAND The FCC (Federal Communications Commission) has al-located channels for use by the National Oceanic and At-mospheric Administration (NOAA). Regulatory agenciesin other countries have also allocated channels for use bytheir weather reporting authorities. Your local weat...

36 SPECIAL FEATURES DELAY M any agenci es use a two-way radi o system that m ighthave a pause of several seconds between a query anda repl y. To avoi d m issing a repl y, you can program a2-second delay into any of your scanner’s channels.Then, when the scanner stops on the channel, DELAY appears an...

37 To remove the lockout from a channel, manually select thechannel then press L-OUT until L/O disappears. Notes: • You can still manually select locked-out channels. • Your scanner automatically locks out empty chan- nels. USING THE DISPLAY BACKLIGHT You can turn on the display’s backlight for easy...

38 TURNING THE KEY TONE ON AND OFF Each time you press any of the scanner’s keys (except and LIGHT ), the scanner sounds a tone. Follow these steps to turn the scanner’s key tone off orback on. 1. If the scanner is on, turn VOLUME counterclockwise until it clicks to turn it off. 2. While you hold do...

39 A GENERAL GUIDE TO SCANNING Reception of the frequencies covered by your scanner ismainly “line-of-sight.” That means you usually cannot hearstations that are beyond the horizon. GUIDE TO FREQUENCIES US Weather Frequencies Other Weather Frequencies Ham Radio Frequencies Ham radio operators often ...

40 Birdie Frequencies Every scanner has bi rdie frequencies. Birdies are sig-nals created inside the scanner’s receiver. These operat-ing frequencies might interfere with broadcasts on thesame frequencies. If you program one of these frequen-cies, you hear only noise on that frequency. If the interf...

41 GUIDE TO THE ACTION BANDS United States Broadcast Bands In the United States, there are several broadcast bands.The standard AM and FM bands are probably the most wellknown. There are also four television audio broadcastbands — the lower three transmit on the VHF band andthe fourth transmits on t...

42 Primary Usage As a general rule, most of the radio activity is concentratedon the following frequencies: VHF Band UHF Band Note: Remote control stations and mobile units operateat 5 MHz higher than their associated base stations andrelay repeater units. Activities Frequencies Government, Police, ...

43 SPECIFIED INTERVALS Frequencies in different bands are accessible only at spe-cific intervals. For example: BAND ALLOCATION To help decide which frequency ranges to scan, use thefollowing listing of the typical services that use the fre-quencies your scanner receives. These frequencies aresubject...

47 Public Safety Band — Locally Assigned866.0125–868.9875 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PSB 33-Centimeter Amateur Band902.0000–928.0000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HAM Private Trunked935.0125–939.9875 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ....

48 TROUBLESHOOTING If your scanner is not working as it should, these sugges-tions might help you eliminate the problem. If the scannerstill does not operate properly, take it to your local Ra-dioShack store for assistance. Problem Possible Causes Remedies The scanner does not work at all. The AC or...

50 RESETTING/INITIALIZING THE SCANNER If the scanner’s display locks up or does not work properlyafter you connect a power source, you might need to resetor initialize it. Important: If you have problems, first try to reset thescanner. If that does not work, you can initialize the scan-ner; however,...

51 Initializing the Scanner Important: This procedure clears all frequencies youstored in the scanner’s memory and initializes the scannerto its default settings. Initialize the scanner only when youare sure the scanner is not working properly. 1. Turn off the scanner, then turn it on again. 2. Whil...

52 CARE AND MAINTENANCE Your RadioShack PRO-72 50-Channel Portable Scanneris an example of superior design and craftsmanship. Thefollowing suggestions will help you care for your scannerso you can enjoy it for years. Keep the scanner dry. If it gets wet, wipeit dry immediately. Liquids might contain...

54 SPECIFICATIONS Frequency Coverage: Ham .............................. 29–30 MHz (5.0 kHz steps)VHF Lo ......................... 30–50 MHz (5.0 kHz steps)Ham .............................. 50–54 MHz (5.0 kHz steps)Government .............. 137–144 MHz (5.0 kHz steps)Ham .......................... ...

55 Squelch Sensitivity: Threshold ...................................... Less than 1.0 µ V Tight ................................................. (S+N)/N 25 dB Antenna Impedance ......................................... 50 Ohms Audio Output Power (10% THD) ......... 200 mW Nominal Built-in Speaker ...

RadioShack A Division of Tandy Corporation Fort Worth, Texas 76102 GE-97-D-2429 4A7 Printed in Hong Kong Limited One-Year Warranty This product is warranted by RadioShack against manufacturing defects inmaterial and workmanship under normal use for one (1) year from the date ofpurchase from RadioSha...