20-315 Owner’s Manual Owner’s Manual Cat. No. 20-315 PRO-82 200-Channel VHF/Air/UHF Handheld Scanner Please read before using this equipment. FEATURES Your new RadioShack PRO-82 200 Channel VHF/Air/UHF Handheld Scanner lets you scan conventional transmissions, and is preprogrammed with search banks for convenience. By pressing a single button, you can quickly search those frequencies most commonly used by public service and other agencies without tedious and complicated programming.
0-315 Owner’s Manual Weather Alert — the scanner automatically sounds an alert when it receives a weather emergency signal, providing more complete information about weather conditions in your immediate area. Wired Programming — you can connect your scanner to a personal computer and program frequencies into it using an optional cable and software. Note: You can get the cable, software, and additional information about using your personal computer to program your scanner from your local RadioShack store.
20-315 Owner’s Manual Band, UHF Standard Band, UHF “T” Band Note: See “Specifications” on Page 50 for more information about the scanner’s frequency steps. © 2002 Tandy Corporation. All Rights Reserved. RadioShack and Adaptaplug are registered trademarks used by RadioShack Corporation. HyperSearch and HyperScan are trademarks used by RadioShack Corporation.
20-315 Owner’s Manual Scanning is a fun and interesting hobby. You can hear police and fire departments, ambulance services, government agencies, private companies, amateur radio services, aircraft, and military operations. It is legal to listen to almost every transmission your scanner can receive. However, there are some electronic and wire communications that are illegal to intentionally intercept.
20-315 Owner’s Manual Channel Storage Banks .............................................. 13 OneTouch Banks ............................................................. 14 Operation ............................................................................. 17 Turning On the Scanner/Setting Volume and Squelch .... 17 Storing Known Frequencies into Channels ..................... 17 Finding and Storing Active Frequencies ......................... 18 Searching the One Touch Banks .........................
20-315 Owner’s Manual Guide to Frequencies ...................................................... 29 National Weather Frequencies .................................... 29 Birdie Frequencies ...................................................... 29 Guide to the Action Bands .............................................. 30 Typical Band Usage (MHz) ......................................... 30 Primary Usage ............................................................. 30 Band Allocation .......................
20-315 Owner’s Manual and best performance, we recommend alkaline batteries, available at your local RadioShack store. You can use either the supplied non-rechargeable battery holder (black), or the supplied rechargeable battery holder (yellow). If you use the rechargeable battery holder, we recommend RadioShack nickel-metal hydride (Ni-MH) batteries. Warning: Never install non-rechargeable batteries in the rechargeable yellow battery holder.
20-315 Owner’s Manual Warning: Always dispose of old batteries promptly and properly. Do not burn or bury them. Caution: If you do not plan to use the scanner with batteries for a month or more, remove the batteries. Batteries can leak chemicals that can destroy electronic parts. CHARGING RECHARGEABLE BATTERIES Your scanner has a built-in charging circuit that lets you charge nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) or nickel cadmium (Ni-CD) rechargeable batteries (not supplied) while they are in the scanner.
20-315 Owner’s Manual Using an adapter that does not meet these specifications could damage the scanner or the adapter. • Always connect the AC adapter to the scanner before you connect it to AC power. When you finish, disconnect the adapter from AC power before you disconnect it from the scanner. To power the scanner using an AC adapter, attach the Adaptaplug to the AC adapter so the tip reads positive (+), then insert the Adaptaplug into the scanner’s PWR DC 9V jack.
20-315 Owner’s Manual Connecting an Outdoor Antenna The antenna connector on your scanner makes it easy to use the scanner with a variety of antennas, such as an external mobile antenna or outdoor base station antenna. Your local RadioShack store sells a variety of antennas. Always use 50 Ohm coaxial cable, such as RG-58 or RG-8, to connect an outdoor antenna. For lengths over 50 feet, use RG-8 low-loss dielectric coaxial cable.
20-315 Owner’s Manual Traffic Safety • Do not wear an earphone or headphones while you drive a vehicle or ride a bicycle. This can create a traffic hazrd and can be illegal in some areas. Even though some earphones and headphones let you hear some outside sounds when you listen at normal levels, they still can present a traffic hazard.
20-315 Owner’s Manual transmission ends. A LOOK AT THE KEYPAD Here is a brief overview of your scanner’s keys and their functions. MAR Lets you seearch the scanner’s preprogrammed marine band. FD/PD Lets you search the scanner’s preprogrammed fire/police band. AIR Lets you search the scanner’s preprogrammed aircraft band. HAM Lets you search the scanner’s preprogrammed amateur radio band. WX Lets you search the scanner’s preprogrammed 7 weather channels.
20-315 Owner’s Manual WX Indicates that the scanner is searching the weather channels. FD/PD Indicates that the scanner is searching the fire/police bank. AIR Indicates that the scanner is searching the aircraft bank. HAM Indicates that the scanner is searching the amateur radio bank. ^/v Indicates the search or scan direction. CH Appears with digits (1–200) or P to show which channel the scanner is tuned to. B Appears when the batteries are low.
20-315 Owner’s Manual WirEd Appears when you set the scanner to its wired programming mode to program frequencies into it. UNDERSTANDING BANKS Channel Storage Banks A bank is a storage area for a group of channels. Channels are storage areas for freequencies. Whereas a channel can only contain one frequency, a bank can hold numerous channels.
20-315 Owner’s Manual 2 3 45.880 – 45.900 – 45.940–46.060 40 46.080–46.500 20 153.770–154.130 60 154.145–154.445 15 154.650–154.950 15 155.010–155.370 60 155.415–155.700 15 155.730–156.210 60 158.730–159.210 60 166.250 – 170.150 – 453.0375–453.9625 12.5 458.0375–458.9625 12.5 460.0125–460.6375 12.5 465.0125–465.6375 12.5 Air Frequency Range (MHz) Step (kHz) 108.000–136.9875 12.5 Amateur Radio Group Frequency Range (MHz) Step (kHz) 1 29.000–29.700 5 2 50.
20-315 Owner’s Manual 08 156.4000 09 156.4500 10 156.5000 11 156.5500 12 156.6000 13 156.6500 14 156.7000 15 156.7500 16 156.8000 17 156.8500 18 156.9000 19 156.9500 20 157.0000/161.6000 21 157.0500 22 157.1000 23 157.1500 24 157.2000/161.8000 25 157.2500/161.8500 26 157.3000/161.9000 27 157.3500/161.9500 28 157.4000/162.0000 63 156.1750 64 156.2250/160.8250 65 156.2750 66 156.3250 67 156.3750 68 156.4250 69 156.4750 70 156.5250 71 156.
20-315 Owner’s Manual 80 157.0250 81 157.0750 82 157.1250 83 157.1750 84 157.2250/161.8250 85 157.2750/161.8750 86 157.3250/161.9250 87 157.3750/161.9750 88 157.4250 Note: Both frequencies (transmission and reception) are shown for marine channels used for duplex transmission. OPERATION TURNING ON SQUELCH THE SCANNER/SETTING VOLUME AND 1. Turn SQUELCH until the indicator points to MIN before you turn on the scanner. 2.
20-315 Owner’s Manual Follow these steps to store frequencies into channels. 1. Press PGM, then PGM appears. Enter the channel number (1–200) where you want to store a frequency, then press PGM again. 2. Use the number keys and • to enter the frequency (including the decimal point) you want to store. 3. Press ENT to store the frequency into the channel. Notes: • If you made a mistake in Step 2, Error appears and the scanner beeps three times when you press ENT. Simply start again from Step 2.
20-315 Owner’s Manual 1. Press FD/PD or AIR or HAM. FIrE POLICE or AIr or HAM appears. After about 2 seconds, the scanner starts search. Notes: • To reverse the search direction at any time, hold down ^ or v for about 1 second. • To search up or down the band in small increments, repeatedly press ^ or v . (See “One Touch Search Banks” on Page 14 for frequency steps). • To pause the search while receiving a signal, press ^ or v. To resume searching, hold down ^ or v.
-315 Owner’s Manual Note: You can use the scanner’s delay feature while using tune. 1. Press SCAN/MAN, until MAN appears. 2. Enter the desired channel number you want to use as a starting point for the tune. Then press SCAN/MAN again. 3. Press TUNE/CLEAR to start tune. -t- appears on the display. 4. Hold down ^ or v for about 1 second to tune up or down. The scanner displays ^ or v and start tune. Notes: • To reverse the tune direction at any time, hold down ^ or v for about 1 second.
20-315 Owner’s Manual To set the scanner to continuously scan through all channels with stored frequencies, simply pressing SCAN until SCAN and ^ appear, then the scanner begins to rapidly scan until it finds an active frequency. If the scanner finds an active frequency, it stops and displays that channel and frequency number, then it automatically begins scanning again when the transmission on that frequency ends. Notes: • To reverse the scanning direction, press ^ or v.
20-315 Owner’s Manual You can continuously monitor a specific channel without scanning. This is useful if you hear an emergency transmission on a channel and do not want to miss any details — even though there might be periods of silence — or if you simply want to monitor that channel. Follow these steps to manually select a channel. 1. Pressing SCAN/MAN until MAN appears. 2. Enter the channel number (1–200). 3. Press SCAN/MAN again.
20-315 Owner’s Manual LISTENING TO THE WEATHER BAND To hear your local forecast and regional weather information, press WX. Your scanner begins to scan through the weather band. Your scanner should stop within a few seconds on your local weather broadcast. If the broadcast is weak, you can press WX again to resume scanning. Channel Frequency (MHz) 1 162.400 2 162.425 3 162.450 4 162.475 5 162.500 6 162.525 7 162.
20-315 Owner’s Manual WIRED PROGRAMMING 1. Turn off the scanner. 2. Connect the scanner to the PC using a PC cable. 3. While pressing ENT and 9, turn on the scanner. PGM and WirEd appear. Then send the data from the PC. StArt and the data being received by the scanner appears in the order it is received. Notes: • If the scanner receives no data from the PC for more than 20 seconds or if you press any key, wired programming stops.
20-315 Owner’s Manual If you want to scan the fire/police, air, or ham channels, press one touch search key (FD/PD, AIR, or HAM) then press SCAN/MAN while FIrE/POliCE, AIr, or HAM appears on the display. For example, you press HAM then press SCAN/MAN, the scanner scans only channel bank 7 and 8 and HAM appears on the display. DELAY Many agencies use a two-way radio system that has a period of several seconds between a query and a reply.
20-315 Owner’s Manual To remove the lockout from a channel, manually select that channel again, then press L/O/L/O RVW until L/O disappears. Notes: • Your scanner automatically locks out empty channels. • You can still manually select locked-out channels. Locking Out Frequencies To lock out a frequency during a one touch search or tune, press L/O/L/O RVW when the scanner stops on that frequency. The scanner locks out the frequency then continues searching.
20-315 Owner’s Manual in a one touch bank. Or, if you do not want to clear the lockouts, press TUNE/CLEAR. Removing Lockouts From All Frequencies 1. Hold down L/O L/O RVW for about 2 seconds during a search of tune. L-r appears. 2. While holding down TUNE/CLEAR, press L/O L/O RVW. Flo ALL-CL appears. 3. Press ENT. The scanner clears any lockouts from all frequencies (except in the marine bank). Or, if you do not want to clear the lockouts, press TUNE/CLEAR.
20-315 Owner’s Manual period of time. To turn it off, press both PGM and (light/key symbol), or press (light/key symbol). TURNING THE KEY TONE ON AND OFF The scanner is preset to sound a tone each time you press one of its keys (except (light/key symbol)). You can turn the key tone off or back on. 1. If the scanner is on, turn VOLUME counterclockwise until it clicks to turn the it off. 2. While you hold down 2 and ENT, turn on the scanner. 3. When oFF tonE or on tonE appear, release 2 and ENT.
20-315 Owner’s Manual transmission 21.4 MHz above or below the tuned frequency. This is rare, and the image signal is usually cleared whenever there is a transmission on the actual frequency. RESETTING/INITIALIZING THE SCANNER If the scanner’s display locks up or does not work properly after you connect a power source, you might need to reset or initialize the scanner. Important: If you have problems, first try to reset the scanner (see “Resetting the Scanner” on Page 29).
20-315 Owner’s Manual Reception of the frequencies covered by your scanner is mainly “line-of-sight.” That means you usually cannot hear stations that are beyond the horizon. GUIDE TO FREQUENCIES National Weather Frequencies 162.400 162.425 162.450 162.500 162.525 162.550 162.475 Birdie Frequencies Every scanner has birdie frequencies. Birdies are signals created inside the scanner’s receiver. These operating frequencies might interfere with transmissions on the same frequencies.
20-315 Owner’s Manual U.S. Government 406.00–420.00 70-Centimeter Amateur 420.00–450.00 Low Range 450.00–470.00 FM-TV Audio Broadcast, Wide Band 470.00–512.00 Primary Usage As a general rule, most of the radio activity is concentrated on the following frequencies: VHF Band Activities Frequencies (MHz) 2-Meter Amateur Band 144.000–148.000 Government, Police, and Fire 153.785–155.980 Emergency Services 158.730–159.460 Railroad 160.000–161.
20-315 Owner’s Manual AIR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Aircraft BIFC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Boise (ID) Interagency Fire Cache BUS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Business CAP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Civil Air Patrol CCA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
20-315 Owner’s Manual (Trucks, Tow Trucks, Buses, Railroad, Other) TSB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Trunked Systems TVn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . FM-TV Audio Broadcast USXX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Government Classified UTIL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Power & Water Utilities WTHR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
20-315 Owner’s Manual Aircraft Band (108–136 MHz) 108.000–121.490 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . AIR 121.500 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . AIR Emergency 121.510–136.000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . AIR U.S. Government Band (137–144 MHz) 137.000–144.000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . GOVT, MIL 2-Meter Amateur Band (144–148 MHz) 144.000–148.
20-315 Owner’s Manual 162.5625–162.6375 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . GOVT, MIL, USXX 162.6625 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MED 162.6875–163.225 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . GOVT, MIL, USXX 163.250 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MED 163.275–166.225 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . GOVT, MIL, USXX 166.250 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
20-315 Owner’s Manual 462.550–462.925 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . GMR, BUS 462.9375–463.1875 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MED 463.200–467.925 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BUS FM-TV Audio Broadcast, UHF Wide Band (470–512 MHz) (Channels 14 through 20 in 6 MHz steps) 475.750 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Channel 14 481.750 . . . . . . . . .
20-315 Owner’s Manual ___________________________________________________________________________________ PROBLEM POSSIBLE CAUSE REMEDY ___________________________________________________________________________________ _Scanner is totally inoperative. The AC or DC adapter is not connected. Be sure the adapter’s barrel plug is fully inserted into the PWR jack. __________________________________________________________________ The batteries are dead.
20-315 Owner’s Manual CARE AND MAINTENANCE Your RadioShack PRO-82 200 Channel VHF/Air/UHF Hand-Held Scanner is an example of superior design and craftsmanship. The following suggestions will help you care for your scanner so you can enjoy it for years. Keep the scanner dry. If it gets wet, wipe it dry immediately. Liquids might contain minerals that can corrode the electronic circuits. Use and store the scanner only in normal temperature environments.
20-315 Owner’s Manual Amateur Radio/Government ...... 380–450 (in 12.5 kHz steps) UHF Standard ............................ 450–470 (in 12.5 kHz steps) UHF “T” ...................................... 470–512 (in 12.5 kHz steps) Channels of Operation ...... 200 channels/20 monitor memories Sensitivity (20 dB S/N): 29–54 MHz .................................................................... 0.5 µV 108–136.9875 MHz ....................................................... 1.0 µV 137–174 MHz ...................
20-315 Owner’s Manual (220 g) Supplied Accessories ......................... Antenna, Battery Holder, Rechargeable Battery Holder Specifications are typical; individual units might vary. Specifications are subject to change and improvement without notice.