Radio Shack Pro-71 manual

Cat. No. 20-311A OWNER’S MANUAL PRO-71 VHF/UHF/Air Handheld Scanner Please rea d before us ing this equipme nt. 20-311a.fm Page 1 Friday, February 12, 1999 4:51 PM[...]

2  1999 Tand y Corporatio n. All Rights Reserved. RadioShack is a registe red tradema rk used by Tandy Corpo ration. FEA TURES Your new Rad ioShack PRO -71 VHF/UHF/Air Han dheld Scan ner lets you in on all t he action ! This s canner g ives yo u direct access to 23,000 exciti ng frequencies that include p olice depa rtment, fire d epartment, amb[...]

3 Your sc anner ca n receive all of the se bands: In addit ion, your scann er is preprogram med with the foll owing weat her service chan nels: This Ow ner’s Manual also incl udes the se ction “A Guide to the A ction Bands,” w hich lets y ou target servic es in your are a by givin g you fre- quency ra nges to se arch. You ca n then store a ny[...]

4 FCC NO TICE Your scann er might cause TV or radio interference even when it is op- erati ng properly. To determine whether your sc anner is ca using the in - terferenc e, turn o ff your scanner. If the interferenc e goes away, y our scanne r is causin g it. Try to eliminate t he interfere nce by: • mov ing y our scanner a wa y from the rec eiv [...]

5 This sc anner has been de signed to prevent reception of illegal trans- missio ns. This is done to co mply with th e legal req uirement th at scan- ners be manu fact ured so as to not be easil y modi fiable to pick up those transmis si ons . D o no t ope n yo ur s can ne r’s c as e to m ak e an y modific a- tions tha t co ul d al lo w it to pi [...]

6 CONTEN TS Preparation . ................. ................. ................ ................. ................. .. 8 P ow er Sources ............ ................. ................. ................. ............. 8 Install ing Batteries ........................ ................. ................. ............. 8 Impor tant Inf ormation About th[...]

7 A General Guid e to Scanning .............. ................. ................ ......... 30 Guide to F reque ncies ...................... ................. ................ ......... 30 National W eather F requenc ies .................. ................ ......... 30 Canadian W eather F requencie s ................ ...................... ... 30 Gu[...]

8 PREPARATION P OWER SOUR CES You can power yo ur scanner fro m any of thre e sources: • int er na l ba tter i es • standard A C po wer (usin g an optiona l A C adapter) • v eh icle battery pow er (usi ng an optional DC adapter ) INSTALLING BATTERIES Your scan ner requires 4 AA batte ries (not supplied) fo r power. For the best p erforma nce [...]

9 2. Install two batteries in the compartment an d two in the co v er as indicate d by the polarity symbol s (+ and –) marked in side each loca tion. 3. Replac e the co ver . When BATT.Lo flashes and the sc anner b eep s ever y 15 s econds , im- mediate ly replace o r rechar ge all four ba tteries. Cautions: • If yo u do not plan to use the sca[...]

10 The PO W ER jack powers the scanner an d disconnec ts the inte rnal bat- teries. You can use this jack to connect an exter nal power sourc e (AC or DC ad apter), regard less of the type of ba tteries yo u install. The CHARGE jack suppli es power to operate the scan ner and also charges the interna l batteries. U se the CHARGE jack only when you [...]

11 Cautions: • Y ou must u se an A C adapter that s upplies 9 volts and deliv ers at least 300 mA. Its cente r tip mus t be set to nega tiv e and its pl ug must fit the scanner’ s PO WE R jac k. The reco mmended adapter meets thes e specific ations . Using an adapte r that does not meet thes e spe cif ic ati ons c o uld d ama ge the sc anne r o[...]

12 4. Plug th e other e nd of th e adapte r into y our v ehicle’ s cigarette - lighter s oc ket. Note: If t he scanner do es not operate prop erly when you us e a DC adapter, un plug the adapt er from the cigarette-lig hter socket and clean the soc ket to remov e ashes and other debri s. CHARGING NIC KEL-CADMIUM BATTERIES The sc anner h as a b ui[...]

13 CONNECTING THE ANTENNA Follow the se steps to attac h the sup plied fle xible antenna t o the connector on t he top of y ou r sc an - ner. 1. Align the slo ts around t he antenna’ s conn ec- tor with the tabs on th e jack . 2. Press the antenna do wn ov er the jack and rotate th e antenna’ s bas e cloc kwise un til it locks in to pl ace. Con[...]

14 CONNECTING AN EARPHO NE/ HEADPHONES For priva te listeni ng, you can plug an earphone or mono he adphones (not suppl ied) with a 1 / 8 -inch (3 .5-mm) pl ug (s uc h a s Cat. No. 33 -177 o r 20-210) in to the jack on top of your sc anner. This automatic ally dis - conne cts th e inte rnal spea ke r. Listening Saf el y To pr otect you r hearing, f[...]

15 CONNECTING AN EXTE NSION SPEAKER In a noisy are a, an optiona l extensio n speaker (s uch as RadioS hack Cat. No. 21 -549) or an ampl ified spea ker (such as RadioShack Cat. No. 21-54 1), positioned in the right place, m ight provide mo re comfort- able lis tening. Plu g the speaker ca ble’s 1 / 8 -inch (3.5 m m) mini- plug into your sc anner?[...]

16 UNDERSTANDING Y OUR SCAN NER A LOOK AT THE KEYPAD Your sca nner’s key s might se em confu sing at first , but this informat ion should help you understan d each k ey’s fun ction. SCAN — scans t hrough the programm ed channe ls. MANU AL — stops sca nning an d lets you directly enter a c hannel n um- ber. LOCK OUT/S/S — lets y ou lo ck o[...]

17 for examp le) sh ows the c hannels that make up a me mory ban k. In ad- dition, th e keypad h as differe nt functi ons in man ual mode, s can mode, and progra m mode. See “Ba nks and Memories ” on Page 19. A LOOK AT THE DISP LA Y The displ ay has sev eral indic ators that s how the sca nner’s cur rent op- erating mode. A qui ck look at the[...]

18 PRI — app ears when you sele ct the prio rity featur e. L/O — appears wh en you manuall y select a loc ked-out ch annel, or during a se arch hold w he n the fre que nc y is sto r ed in sea r ch sk ip mem - ory. WX — appea rs when you scan the preprogramm ed weather c hannels. ▼ and ▲ — ind ic ate the se arc h direc tio n. SRCH — ap[...]

19 BANKS AND MEMO RIES Your sc anner can s tore up to 110 frequen cies . You store each fre quen- cy in eith er a memory ca lled a cha nnel, or a temporary mem ory call ed a monito r memory . This sca nner has 100 chan nels and ten moni tor memor ies. CHANNEL-STORAGE BA NKS To make it e asier to iden tify and sel ect the channe ls you want to list [...]

20 OPERATIO N T UR NING ON THE SCANNER AND SETTING SQUELCH 1. Mak e sure t hat SQUELCH is turned fully counterc lockwi se bef ore y ou turn on the scanne r . 2. T ur n VO L U M E clock wise unti l yo u hear a hi ssing s ound. 3. T ur n SQUE LCH cloc kwise, just unti l the his sing sound stops . Note: If y ou wan t to lis ten to a weak or distant st[...]

21 4. Press E ( WX ) to store the fr equ enc y . Notes: • If yo u entered an inco rrect freq uency in Step 3, Error appea rs and the s canner beeps three tim es. St ar t again from Ste p 3. • Y our scanner au tomatically rounds the entered frequenc y to the nearest v alid frequen cy . Fo r e xa mple , if y ou enter a frequen cy of 151.473, you [...]

22 Limit Sear ch A limit search l ets you search fo r active freq uencies between upper and low er limit s that yo u set. -L- app ears durin g a limi t search. When you ar e in th e searc h mode, MON appe ars and th e flashi ng num- ber at the to p of th e dis play in dic ates th e cur ren tly sel ect ed moni tor memory . Once you have stored a fre[...]

23 Notes: • Y ou ca n press ▼ or ▲ whi le -H- appea rs to step through the frequenc ies to ward the upper or l ower limits . • If y ou tune to a sea rch ski p frequ ency , L/O a ppears (see “Se ar ch Sk ip Memo r y” on P a ge 27 ) Direct Sear ch When you listen to a channel , you can s earch up o r down from the dis- played f requenc y.[...]

24 LISTENING TO MONITOR MEMORIES Once y ou have sto red frequen cies into monitor memor ies using a di- rect or l imit se arch, you c an listen to the mon itor memorie s by press ing MANU AL , MON , then the num ber for th e monitor m emory you want to listen to . Use the 1 – 9 numb er keys for me mories 1–9, and 0 for me mo- ry 10. MO V ING A [...]

25 MANUALLY SELECTING A CHANNEL You can c ontin uousl y mon itor a speci fic c hanne l wit hout s canni ng. Thi s is usefu l if you h ear an eme rgency bro adcast o n a chann el and do n ot want to mis s any details — even thoug h there might be periods of si- lence — o r if yo u want to mo nitor a sp ecific c hannel. Follow these ste ps to man[...]

26 SPECIAL F EATURES USING THE K EYLOC K Once yo u program your sc anner, you ca n protect it from ac cidental progra m changes by turning on the k eylock fe ature. In this m ode, the only co ntrols tha t operate are SCAN , MANU AL , KEY LOCK () , VO L - UME , and SQUELC H . Note: Turning on t he keylo ck does no t prevent t he scann er from sc an-[...]

27 T URNING CHANNEL-STORAGE BANKS ON AND OFF You can turn ea ch channel-s torage bank on and off. When you tu rn off a bank , the s canner d oes not scan a ny of the 10 channels in tha t bank. While sc anning, pre ss the numb er key corre sponding to the bank you want to turn on or off. (Press 0 to sel ect bank 10). If the memory ban k indicato r i[...]

28 Notes: • If y ou prog ram more than 2 0 skip f requ encie s , each ne w f requen cy repl aces one you sto red ea r lier, star ti ng f rom th e firs t stor ed fr e- quen cy . • Y ou can sel ect a ski pped freque ncy by usin g ▼ or ▲ when the scanne r is holding . L/O appears when you s elect a skipp ed fre- quen cy . PRIORITY You can sc a[...]

29 LISTENING TO THE WEATHER BAND The FCC (Fed eral Comm unications Commiss ion) has all ocated 11 channel s fo r use by the N at ion al O c ean ic and Atmosph eri c Adm in is tra- tion (NOAA). We have prep rogrammed your sc anner with the sev en frequenc ies most common ly used by NOAA. To hear y our local forecast and regional weather info rmation[...]

30 A GENERAL GUIDE TO SCANNING Recep tion of t he frequen cies co vered by your scanner is main ly “line- of-si ght.” That m eans you usu ally can not hear stations t hat are bey ond the ho rizo n. During the summer months, you might be able to hear stati ons in the 30–50 M Hz rang e located several h undred or e ven thousan ds of mil es away[...]

31 Bir die Frequenci es Every sc anner has birdie freq uencies . Birdies a re signals created in- side the scanner’s re ceiver. Th ese operatin g frequenc ies might in ter- fere wit h broad casts on the same fre quencies . If you p rogram one of these f requencie s, you hear only n oise on that fr equency. If t he inter- ferenc e is not severe, y[...]

32 Primary Usage As a genera l rule, most of the radio activ ity is concentra ted on the fol - lowi ng freq uen ci es: VHF Band UHF Band Note: Remote c ont rol stations and mob il e uni ts operate at 5 MHz hi gh - er tha n their as sociated base sta tions an d relay repeat er units. Specified I ntervals Frequ encies in different ba nds are ac cessi[...]

33 ceives. These freq uencies are subjec t to chang e, and might v ary from area to are a. For a more compl ete li sti ng, ref er to t he “Po lic e Call ” availabl e at your local R adioShack s tore. Abbreviatio ns Service s AIR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Aircraft [...]

34 10-Meter Amateur Band — ( 28.0––29.7 MHz) 29.000–29.700 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HAM Very High Frequ ency (VHF) — (30 MHz –300 MHz) Low Band — (29.7–50 MHz — in 5 kHz st eps) 29.700–29.790 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .[...]

35 152.480 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BUS 152.510–152.840 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . TELB 152.870–153.020 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IND , MO V 153.035?[...]

36 452.0375–453.00 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IND , T A XI, TRAN T OW , NEWS 453.0125–453.9875 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .PUB 454.000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . OIL 454.025–454.975 . . .[...]

37 A V O IDING IMAGE FREQUENCIE S You migh t discover one of y our regula r stations o n anothe r frequenc y that is not li sted. It might be wha t is known as a n image frequ ency. For example , you migh t find a serv ice that reg ularly uses a frequency of 431.875 a lso on 474.6 75. To see if it is an i mage, do a little math . Note the ne w freq[...]

38 T ROUBLESHOOTING If yo u have pro blems, here are some suggesti ons wh ich might he lp. If non e of these sugg estions h elp, take your sca nner to your loc al Ra- dioShac k store for as sistanc e. PROBLEM POSSIBLE CA USE REMED Y Scanner i s on b ut will n ot scan. SQUELCH is not adjus ted corr ectly . Adjust SQUEL CH clockwis e. Only o ne chann[...]

39 RESETTING THE SCAN NER If the scann er’s displa y does not work pro perly after yo u install bat ter- ies or c onnect it to power, yo u might have to reset t he scanner. Caution: T his procedure c lears al l the info rmation y ou have p ro- grammed into the scan ner. Before yo u reset the sca nner, try turn ing it off an d on to se e if it beg[...]

40 CARE AND MA IN TENANCE You r Radi oSha ck PRO -71 VHF /UH F /Air Hand held S canne r is a n ex- ample of su perior desi gn and crafts manship . The follow ing sugge s- tions w ill he lp you care for yo ur s ca nne r s o y ou can enjoy it f or years. Keep the s canne r dry . If it gets w et, w ipe it dry im medi - ately. Liquids m ight co ntain m[...]

41 SPECIFIC ATIONS F requency Co ve rage: VHF Lo ..................... ................. ..... 29–50 MHz (in 5.0 kH z steps) 6-Meter Ham . ................. ........... ..... 50–54 MHz (in 5.0 kHz s teps) Aircraft ...................... ......... 108–13 6.975 MHz (in 12.5 kH z steps) VHF/Go ve r nment ................. ...... 137–144 MHz (i[...]

42 Dime nsions (HW D ) ............... ................... 5 3 / 4 × 2 9 / 16 × 1 11 / 16 Inches (147 × 64.5 × 42.5 mm) W eight .......... ................. ................. ................ ................. ......... 7.94 oz (225 g) Specific ation s are ty pical; in divid ual uni ts might v ary. Spe cificati ons are subjec t to chang e and i[...]

43 NO TES 20-311a.fm Page 43 Friday, F ebruary 12, 1 999 4:51 PM[...]

RadioShack A Division of Tandy Corporation Fort Worth, Texas 76102 UBZZ01294ZZ 02A99 Printed in the Philippines Limited O ne-Y ear W arranty This p roduct is warrante d by RadioS hack against manufactur ing defects in ma ter ial and wor kmanship unde r normal use f o r one (1) year from the date of purchase from RadioSh ack company-owned stor es an[...]