RadioShack Pro 2050 Trunk Track Home Scanner Owners Manual

							21
SPECIAL FEATURES
DELAY
Many agencies use a two-way radio
system that might have a period of 2
or more seconds between a query and
a reply. To keep from missing a reply,
you can program a 2-second delay
into any channel or frequency. The
scanner continues to monitor the fre-
quency for 2 seconds after the trans-
mission stops before resuming
scanning or searching.
To program a 2-second delay:
• If the scanner is scanning chan-
nel-storage banks and stops on
an active channel where you want
to store a delay, quickly press
DELAY before scanning resumes.
DELAY appears.
• If the desired channel is not
selected, manually select the
channel, then press 
DELAY.
DELAY appears.
• If the scanner is searching, press
DELAY. DELAY appears and the
scanner automatically adds a 2-
second delay to every transmis-
sion it stops on in that band or
limit range.To turn off the 2-second delay, press
DELAY while the scanner is monitoring
the channel or searching service
banks or limit ranges. 
DELAY disap-
pears.
TURNING CHANNEL-
STORAGE BANKS ON 
AND OFF
You can turn each channel-storage
bank on and off. When you turn off a
bank, the scanner does not scan any
of the 30 channels in that bank.
While scanning, press the number key
that corresponds to the bank you want
to turn on or off. If the bank number is
on, the bank is turned on and the
scanner scans all channels within that
bank that are not locked out. If the
bank number is off, the scanner does
not scan any of the channels within
that bank.
Notes:
• You can manually select any
channel within a bank, even if that
bank is turned off.
• You cannot turn off all banks. One
bank is always active.
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							22
LOCKING OUT 
CHANNELS AND 
FREQUENCIES
You can scan existing channels or
search frequencies faster by locking
out channels or frequencies that have
a continuous transmission, such as a
weather channel.
Note:
 If you just want to skip over a
lengthy transmission (such as a mo-
dem signal), see “Skipping Data Sig-
nals” on Page 23.
Locking Out Channels
To lock out a channel while scanning,
press 
L/O when the scanner stops on
the channel. To lock out a channel
manually, select the channel and
press 
L/O until L/O appears.
Note:
 You can still manually select
locked-out channels.
To remove the lockout from a channel,
select the channel and press 
L/O until
L/O disappears.
To remove the lockout from all chan-
nels in the channel-storage banks that
are turned on, press 
MANUAL to stop
scanning, then hold down L/O until the
scanner beeps twice.
Locking Out Frequencies
To lock out a frequency during a limit
search or service bank search, press
L/O when the scanner stops on the
frequency. The scanner locks out the
frequency, then continues searching.
To lock out a frequency manually, se-
lect the frequency and press 
L/O until
L/O appears.
Notes:
• The scanner does not display
locked-out frequencies during a
search.
•
L/O appears when you select a
locked-out frequency.
• You can lock out up to 50 frequen-
cies during a limit search and 20
during a service bank search. If
you try to lock out more frequen-
cies, the first locked-out frequency
is automatically unlocked.
To remove the lockout from a fre-
quency, select the frequency then
press 
L/O. L/O disappears.
To remove the lockout from all fre-
quencies, while searching, press
HOLD then hold down L/O until the
scanner beeps twice (about 2 sec-
onds).
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							23
TURNING THE KEY TONE 
ON AND OFF
To turn the key tone off, turn off the
scanner. Then, while holding down
L/O/SKIP, turn on the scanner. OF
bEEP
 appears.
To turn the key tone back on, repeat
the above procedure. 
oN bEEP ap-
pears.
CHANGING SEARCH 
SPEEDS
The PRO-2050 has two search
speeds for a limit search.
To switch between the normal and Hy-
perSearch speeds, during a limit
search, press 
SPEED. SEARCH flash-
es during HyperSearch.
Note: 
You can use HyperSearch only
in the 5 kHz step bands (29–54 MHz
and 137–174 MHz). 
Normal Search HyperSearch
100 steps/second 300 steps/second
SKIPPING DATA 
SIGNALS
You can set the scanner so it skips
nonmodulated or data signals (such
as modem transmissions) during a
scan or search.
Note: Since data signals are not gen-
erally found in the air band, this fea-
ture does not work in the air service
bank.
To turn on the data skip feature, be
sure the priority feature is turned off
(see “Priority” on Page 24), then press
DATA. DATA appears. To turn off the
feature, press 
DATA again. DATA dis-
appears.
TRUNK TRACKING
Your scanner is designed to track
transmissions on Motorola Type I,
Type II, and hybrid analog trunking
systems, which are extensively used
in 800 MHz communications. Remem-
ber these important points when track-
ing transmissions:
• Your scanner monitors Type II
systems by default. However, you
can change this if the system in
your area is different (see “Types
of Trunking Systems” on this page
and “Scanning Type I and Hybrid
Trunked Systems” on Page 33 for
more information).
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							24
PRIORITY
The priority feature lets you scan
through channels and still not miss im-
portant or interesting calls on specific
channels. You can program one
stored channel in each bank as a pri-
ority channel (for up to a total of 10
stored channels). As the scanner
scans the bank, if the priority feature is
turned on, the scanner checks the pri-
ority channel for activity every 2 sec-
onds.
The scanner automatically desig-
nates each banks first channel as its
priority channel. Follow these steps to
select a different channel as the priori-
ty channel for a bank.
1. Press 
MANUAL.
2. Enter the channel number you
want to select as the priority chan-
nel, then press 
MANUAL again.
3. Hold down 
PRIORITY until the
scanner beeps twice. 
 appears
to the right of the channel number.
4. Repeat Steps 2–3 for the channel
in each bank you want to program
as a priority channel.To turn on the priority feature, press
PRIORITY during scanning. PRI ap-
pears. As you scan the bank, the
scanner checks the bank’s priority
channel every 2 seconds in each bank
that is turned on, starting from the low-
est to the highest-numbered priority
channel.
To turn off the priority feature, press
PRIORITY. PRI disappears.
Notes:
• The priority feature must be
turned off to use the data skip fea-
ture (see “Skipping Data Signals”
on Page 23).
• You can lock out priority channels.
If you lock out all priority channels,
 
CH Loc Out appears when
you turn on the priority feature.
P
P
• Your scanner cannot track trans-
missions on non-Motorola trunking
systems.
• Your scanner tracks an 800 MHz
trunked system 
or scans frequen-
cies in conventional mode, but it
cannot do both at the same time.
• The frequencies for many of the
800 MHz public safety systems are
listed in the separate “National
Public Safety Trunked System Fre-
quency Guide” included with your
PRO-2050.
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							25
TYPES OF TRUNKING 
SYSTEMS
Your trunk tracking scanner can moni-
tor two basic types of systems — 
Type
I
 and Type II. Instead of selecting a
specific frequency to transmit on, a
trunked system chooses one of sever-
al frequencies in a 2-way radio user’s
talk group when that user presses
PTT (push to talk). Thus, trunking sys-
tems allocate a few frequencies
among many different users, but the
way Type I and Type II systems do
this is slightly different. One important
distinction between these systems is
the amount of data transmitted by
each radio when its PTT button is
pressed. In a Type I system, the ra-
dio’s ID and its current affiliation (the
trunk system it belongs to) are both
transmitted. In a Type II system, only
the radio’s ID is transmitted. 
Why the difference? In Type I sys-
tems, each radio in the trunk group in-
dividually transmits its own affiliation,
while the trunk system maintains a da-
tabase that determines each radios
affiliation(s) in Type II systems. 
Another difference between the sys-
tems is that Type I systems are ar-
ranged in a fleet-subfleet hierarchy.
For example, it is possible for a city
using a Type I system to designate 4
fleets, each with 8 subfleets.
The fleets might be the police depart-
ment, the fire department, utilities, and
city administration. The police might
decide to further divide its fleet intosubfleets such as dispatch, tactical
operations, detectives, north, south,
east and west side patrols, and super-
visors. All the available police radios
would then be assigned to one of the
police subfleets, letting the police cen-
tralize their communications and con-
trol the type of users on a single
system. Determining the exact fleet-
subfleet hierarchy for a particular area
is referred to as 
fleet map program-
ming
.
The disadvantage of a Type I system
is that the brief burst of data sent
when a user transmits must contain
the radio’s ID and its fleet and sub-
fleet. This is three times the amount of
data a Type II system radio sends.
Since the data capacity of Type I sys-
tems is limited and the amount of data
increases with each user, Type I sys-
tems usually accommodate fewer us-
ers than Type II systems. Never-
theless, Type I systems are still in use.
There are also 
hybrid systems which
are a combination of both Type I and
Type II. Your scanner defaults to mon-
itor Type II systems, but you can
change to Type I or a hybrid of Type I
and Type II systems by selecting a
preprogrammed fleet map or creating
a custom fleet map for your area (see
“Scanning Type I and Hybrid Trunked
Systems” on Page 33).
You do not need to determine the
fleet-subfleet hierarchy for Type II sys-
tems unless you are tracking hybrid
systems that contain both Type I and
Type II systems.
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							26
SETTING THE SCANNER 
TO THE TRUNK 
TRACKING MODE
Press TRUNK to switch between the
scanner’s conventional and trunk
tracking modes.
SETTING SQUELCH FOR 
THE TRUNK TRACKING 
MODE
Your scanner’s squelch setting is au-
tomatically adjusted in the trunking
mode, which means you do not need
to manually adjust squelch while
tracking trunked transmissions. How-
ever, the squelch setting can affect
how fast your scanner acquires the
data channel, and, in some instances,
can prevent your scanner from acquir-
ing the data channel at all.
We recommend you set 
SQUELCH to
this position before selecting a trunked
bank.Note:
 You can change this setting, if
necessary, to provide better perfor-
mance in your area.
PROGRAMMING 
TRUNKED 
FREQUENCIES
Before you program your scanner to
track a trunked system, consider the
following:
• Valid trunked system frequencies
range from 851.0000–868.9875 in
12.5 kHz steps.
• You can use any of your scanner’s
banks as either a trunk tracking
bank or conventional scanning
bank, but you cannot mix the two. 
• The scanner only scans one
trunked system at a time. Al-
though you can store frequencies
for more than one trunked system
in one of your scanner ’s banks,
the scanner only scans the fre-
quencies associated with the first
data channel it finds.
Before scanning a trunked system’s
transmissions, you must store the
trunked system’s frequencies in one of
the banks in your scanner by following
these steps.
1. Hold down TRUNK until the scanner
beeps twice. 
BANK, TRUNK, and
the bank numbers flash.
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							27 2. Select the bank you want to store
the trunked system’s frequencies
in by pressing a number key. The
scanner automatically selects the
first channel in the bank.
3. Use the number keys to enter the
trunked system’s frequencies,
then press 
E.
4.
Note: If you entered an invalid fre-
quency in Step 3, the scanner
beeps, the channel number
flashes and 
Error appears. If
this happens, press 
CLEAR to
clear the frequency, then repeat
Step 3.
5. Press either 
MANUAL or s to
select the next channel in the
bank.6. Repeat Steps 3 and 4 until all fre-
quencies have been entered.
SCANNING A TRUNKED 
BANK
You can scan one trunked bank at a
time. Once you have stored frequen-
cies for a trunked system in one or
more of the 10 available banks and
you are scanning non-trunked fre-
quencies, follow these steps to begin
trunk scanning.
1. Press 
TRUNK. The indicators for
all banks flash.
2. Use the number keys to enter the
number for the trunked bank you
want to scan, then press 
SEARCH
to begin searching for the trunk’s
data channel (the channel that
controls the trunk). 
SEARCH
flashes as the scanner searches
for a data channel. When the
scanner finds it, it begins trunk
tracking. 
If you entered all of the trunk’s fre-
quencies, you should be able to
follow conversations between
broadcasters even when they
change frequencies. IDs, which
represent different service groups,
appear.
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							28
Note: To see the bank currently in
use for about 5 seconds, press
DATA while in the trunk tracking
mode.
3. To return to conventional scan-
ning, press 
TRUNK again.
Hint: While scanning, you will not
know exactly whom the IDs are as-
signed to until you listen awhile or until
you locate ID lists in frequency guides
or on internet sites such as
www.trunkscanner.com. Within a few
minutes, you can usually figure out if
what you are listening to is a police,
fire, or emergency medical 2-way ra-
dio user. Other IDs might take some
time, but determining whom each ID
represents is half the fun of trunk
tracking!
Monitoring an Active ID
When the scanner stops on a trans-
mission, you can hold the scanner on
that transmission. 
1. Press 
HOLD. HOLD appears and
the scanner stays on the current
ID.
2. If you want to listen to a different
ID, use the number keys to enterthe ID you want to hold. 
LIST 1
appears
3. Press 
HOLD again. HOLD flashes
and the scanner monitors that ID.
4. When you want to stop the hold
and resume searching for a data
channel so you can continue trunk
tracking, press 
SEARCH.
Note: You can also follow these steps
to hold on an ID while scanning a scan
list. See “Scan Lists” on Page 31.
Locking Out IDs
As with conventional scanning, it is
possible to lock out unwanted traffic.
This is particularly important in trunk-
ed systems because signals you can-
not listen to (such as water meters,
door alarms, traffic signals, and en-
crypted signals) are assigned IDs just
like other users. You can have up to
100 IDs locked out at one time.
Note: If you lock out an ID while
searching, it is also locked out of the
scan list(s). See “Scan Lists” on
Page 31.
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							29
To lock out an ID, press L/O when the
ID appears.
The ID is locked out, and the next ac-
tive ID appears.
Unlocking a Single ID
1. Hold down L/O until you hear two
short beeps.
2. Repeatedly press t or s to select
the ID you want to unlock.
3. Press 
L/O.
The ID is unlocked and the next
locked ID appears.
4. Press 
SEARCH to continue the
scanner’s previous function.
Unlocking All IDs
Hold down L/O until you hear two short
beeps. Then press 
E to unlock all the
IDs at once.­ The scanner beeps
twice.
Note: When you unlock all the IDs,
the scan list mode appears. Press
SCAN to scan the IDs stored in your
scan lists or press 
SEARCH to contin-
ue the scanner’s previous function.
For more information about scan lists,
see “Scan Lists” on Page 31.
Using Trunk Tracking Scan 
Delay
Many trunked systems have a period
of 2 or more seconds between a query
and a reply. You can program a 5-
second delay so the scanner holds on
an ID for 5 seconds to wait for a reply.
The scanner continues to monitor the
frequency for 5 seconds after the
transmission stops before resuming
scanning.
Press 
DELAY to turn trunk tracking
scan delay on or off. 
DELAY appears
when trunk tracking scan delay is set.
Note: If you consistently miss re-
sponses even with trunk tracking scan
delay set, you might need to change
the default system type or the fleet
map you are using. See “Scanning
Type I and Hybrid Trunked Systems”
on Page 33.
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							30
Monitoring IDs
You can use your scanner’s display to
monitor the frequencies in a trunked
system for activity. You cannot hear
conversations in this mode, but this is
an excellent way to determine which
talk groups are the most active. To set
the scanner to monitor IDs, hold down
SEARCH until the scanner beeps
twice. 
SEARCH flashes, and all active
talk group IDs appear in succession.
To stop monitoring IDs, press
SEARCH again.
Note: When you monitor IDs, locked-
out IDs also appear.
CHANNEL ACTIVITY 
INDICATORS
Your scanner has 30 channel activity
indicators (bars) which show the activ-
ity taking place on a trunked system.
You can see how many frequencies
are being used and generally monitor
how much communication traffic is oc-
curring.Each frequency you store in a trunking
bank has a corresponding activity indi-
cator.
• The indicator that remains on
steadily even when there are no
current transmissions represents
the frequency being used as the
data channel.
• The indicator that flashes when an
ID appears represents the fre-
quency being used by the radio
you are currently hearing.
• If an indicator turns on but you do
not hear a conversation, the chan-
nel is probably being used for a
telephone interconnect call or a
private call, or the indicator might
be a locked-out ID. Your scanner
does not monitor these types of
calls.
• If the scanner is holding on an ID
which is not active, the other activ-
ity indicators turn on and off as
other groups use the system.
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