RadioShack Pro 2069 Mobile Base Scanner Reciever Owners Manual

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Beyond the Basics
listening to the weather band
The FCC (Federal Communications Commission) has 
allocated channels for use by the National Oceanic and 
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Regulatory agencies in 
other countries have also allocated channels for use by their 
weather reporting authorities.
NOAA and your local weather reporting authority broadcast 
your local forecast and regional weather information on one 
or more of these channels.
1.  To hear your local forecast and regional weather 
information, press WX. Your scanner scans through the 
weather band, and then stops on the fi rst active weather 
frequency.
2. Repeatedly press WX to fi nd the strongest weather 
frequency for your location.
3.  If necessary, press ATT to attenuate a weather channel if it 
is receiving interference.
same standby mode
The National Weather Service precedes each weather alert 
with a digitally encoded SAME (Specifi c Area Message 
Encoding) signal. Then, a 1050 Hz tone. The SAME signal 
includes a FIPS (Federal Information Processing Standard) 
area code, and an event code that corresponds with the 
type of alert being sent. You can confi gure your scanner 
to operate in SAME Standby mode, where it monitors a 
selected weather radio station for SAME alerts for areas you 
specify. You can program your scanner with up to 10 FIPS 
codes for the areas you desire. The National Weather Service 
maintains a current list of FIPS codes at http://www.nws.
noaa.gov/nwr/.
1. Repeatedly press WX until you identify the weather station  
						

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Beyond the Basics
with the strongest signal for your location.
2. Press FUNC, PROG to access the FIPS code entry table.
3. Repeatedly press 
e or d to select the desired FIPS code 
storage location.
4.  Use the numeric keys to enter the desired FIPS code, then 
press ENT to store the code. Press TEXT to label the code 
entry, if desired. Repeat this step for each FIPS code you 
want to store.
5. Press L/OUT to lock out or enable specifi c FIPS entries.
6. Press WX to exit the FIPS code entry table.
• Press WX, then 0-9 to quickly review stored FIPS codes. 
Press L/OUT to toggle lockout status.
•  Your scanner can also detect the 1050 Hz weather alert 
tone when a weather channel is set as the priority channel 
and weather priority operation is enabled. In this mode all 
alerts are received. FIPS settings are ignored.
•  The scanner sounds an alert or beep when it receives the 
SAME code. If you do not stop the alert (or beep) for fi ve 
minutes, the alert stops and the scanner beeps every ten 
seconds. If the scanner receives a new message after fi ve 
minutes, it sounds the alert or beep. To stop the sound 
and ready the scanner to receive a new alert signal before 
the fi ve minute time out, press any key except DIM.
7. Press FUNC, WX to turn on SAME standby. The scanner 
monitors the selected weather radio station for alerts with 
FIPS codes that match the codes you entered in the FIPS 
entry table. To exit SAME standby, press FUNC, WX.
testing weather alert
To test the SAME weather alert alarm, hold down WX for  
						

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Beyond the Basics
about two seconds while SAME Standby is active. The 
display indicates the type of message, and the scanner 
sounds the alarm associated with that type of message. The 
alarm sound changes automatically every three seconds. 
Press any key except DIM to end the alarm demonstration 
mode.
using delay
You can confi gure your conventional, non-trunked channels 
for a two second delay to avoid missing reply traffi c on the 
same channel. When delay is set for a conventional channel, 
the scanner will pause for reply traffi c before resuming the 
scan operation. To toggle the delay setting for a channel, 
press ./DELAY.
•  Delay is automatically set as the default for each channel 
when you turn on the scanner.
•  Delay operates differently when monitoring trunked 
radio systems. For more information, see “Trunked Delay 
Function”.
locking out channels/frequencies
You can lock out channels to force the scanner to skip 
and ignore any traffi c while scanning. While searching, 
you can lock out up to 50 frequencies to skip undesired 
transmissions.
locking out channels
To lock out a channel while scanning, press L/OUT when the 
scanner stops on the channel.
To lock out a channel manually, select the channel then press 
L/OUT so L appears in the scanner’s display. 
						

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Beyond the Basics
You can still manually select and monitor locked-out 
channels.
Locking out a channel with an active trunking control channel 
will disable monitoring of that trunking system.
To remove the lockout from a channel, manually select the 
channel and press L/OUT so L disappears.
To review all locked out channels, press MAN. Then, 
repeatedly press FUNC, L/OUT. The scanner advances to the 
next locked out channel each time you press FUNC, L/OUT.
locking out frequencies
To lock out a frequency during a search, press L/OUT when the 
scanner stops on that frequency. The scanner locks out the 
frequency and continues searching.
• You can lock out as many as 50 frequencies in each search 
bank. If you try to lock out more, Memory full! appears, 
and you will be unable to lock out any more frequencies 
until you clear some. See “Clearing Locked-Out Search 
Frequencies”.
• If you lock out all frequencies in one search bank and only 
this search bank is activated, All ranges Locked out! appears 
and the scanner will not search.
reviewing locked-out search frequencies
To review the frequencies within a search bank that you 
locked out:
1. Press SRCH to set search mode, and select the desired 
search bank to review its locked out frequencies.
2. Press FUNC and then L/OUT. The last locked-out frequency 
and Lockout list appear. Press 
e or d to scroll through the 
list. The locked-out number and the total locked-out 
number also appears as L/O XX of YY. (The tenth of twenty 
 NoteNote
 NoteNote 
						

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Beyond the Basics
fi ve locked out frequency appear as L/O 10 of 25). If the 
search bank has no locked-out frequencies, Empty. Lockout 
list appears in the scanner’s display. Press SRCH to cancel 
reviewing locked-out frequencies.
clearing locked-out search frequencies
To clear a locked-out frequency, select that frequency (see 
“Reviewing Locked-Out Search Frequencies”), and then press 
CLEAR. If all locked-out frequencies are cleared in a search 
bank, Empty. Lockout list appears.
clearing locked-out frequencies
in search banks
1. Press SRCH.
2.  Select the search bank where you want to clear all locked-
out frequencies.
3. Press FUNC, L/OUT. Lockout list appears.
4. Press FUNC, 6. Confi rm list clear? 1=YES Press other key for NO 
appears. Press 1 to clear all locked-out frequencies. List 
cleared briefl y appears. 
5.  To cancel clear, press any key other than 1.
changing the receive mode
The scanner defaults to the commonly used AM or 
FM/Digital receive mode for each frequency range. The 
preset mode is correct in most cases; however, some 
amateur radio transmissions and trunked systems do 
not operate in the preset mode. If you try to listen to a 
transmission when the scanner is not set to the correct 
receive mode, the transmission might sound weak or 
distorted. 
						

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Beyond the Basics
To change the receive mode, repeatedly press MODE. The 
receive mode changes as follows:
AM confi gures an AM channel.
FM/DIGITAL confi gures an FM/Digital channel.
CT confi gures a CTCSS channel.
DC confi gures a DCS channel.
MO confi gures a MO channel for analog or 
digital Motorola trunking system channels, 
or APCO-25 trunking system channels.
ED confi gures an ED channel for EDACS 
trunking system channels.
MO and ED modes are not available when performing service 
searches, limit searches and the TUNE function.
using attenuator
To reduce interference or noise caused by strong signals, 
you can reduce the scanner’s sensitivity with the attenuator. 
There are two attenuator modes in your scanner. Normal 
attenuator mode allows you to set the attenuator on a 
per-channel basis. Normal mode is useful when individual 
channels are found to be prone to interference. Global 
attenuator mode applies attenuation to every channel in the 
scanner, and overrides any normal mode attenuator settings 
that you may have entered.
To assign attenuation to a channel in the scanner, press 
ATT when the scanner is stopped on a channel, or manually 
navigate to a channel. A appears on the top of the display. 
Press ATT again to turn attenuation off.
To assign attenuation to a search bank, press ATT while 
searching. Attenuation will be applied to the active search 
bank, or search group within a search bank. Press ATT again 
to turn attenuation off. 
						

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Beyond the Basics
•  The attenuator is very effective at reducing strong signal 
overload interference when using the scanner in areas 
close to cellular telephone transmitting facilities.
•  If you turn on the attenuator, the scanner might not receive 
weak signals.
•  Activating the normal attenuator mode on a Motorola 
or APCO Project 25 trunking control channel applies 
attenuation to all calls received on that trunking system. 
You can press ATT during a trunking call or while manually 
tuned to a system control channel to toggle attenuation on 
or off for the trunking system.
global attenuator
1. Press FUNC, ATT to set the attenuator to global mode. 
Global ATT appears for two seconds, and then ATT- appears.
2. Press ATT to activate the attenuator. ATTon appears on 
the bottom of the display. When the scanner stops on a 
channel, a appears on the top of the display. 
3. Press ATT to toggle global attenuation off. ATT- appears on 
the bottom line of the display while scanning.
4. Press FUNC and then ATT again to turn off the global 
attenuation mode. Normal ATT appears on the bottom line 
for about two seconds.
turning the key tone on or off
Each time you press a scanner key, a tone sounds. You can 
turn the scanner’s key tone off or on.
1.  To turn the scanner off, turn VOL OFF/MAX counterclockwise 
until it clicks.
2.  To turn the scanner on, turn VOL OFF/MAX clockwise. Welcome 
To Digital Trunking appears on the display. 
						

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Beyond the Basics
3. Press 1 to turn on the key tone while the message is still 
on the display. Press 2 to turn it off.
using the dimmer
Repeatedly press DIM to adjust the brightness of the display 
backlight to Dark, Light Off, or Light.
changing the display contrast
1. Press MAN. 
2. Press FUNC, 9. 
3. Press 
e or d to adjust the contrast.
4. Press ENT to confi rm the display contrast level. 
						

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Beyond the Basics
virtual scanner
The PRO-2096 V-Scanner (Virtual Scanner) feature allows you 
to edit, store, recall and use up to eleven full sets of scanner 
memory profi les. With V-Scanner, it is possible to create 
separate scanner memory profi les for different areas you visit 
or for different ways that you use the scanner.
Your scanner contains two types of storage memory. Working 
memory is the memory that your scanner uses while you 
are programming, cloning, or using your scanner. V-Scanner 
memory is the memory that your scanner uses to store 
saved confi gurations in V-Scanner folders for later recall and 
use. Your scanner features ten V-Scanner folders (0-9) for 
confi guration storage. An additional “scratchpad” V-Scanner 
folder can be accessed with the decimal point (.) key and is 
indicated in the display with the “#” symbol. The scratchpad 
folder offers a convenient location to temporarily store the 
contents of working memory when managing the V-Scanner 
memory.
Working with V-Scanner folders is much like working with 
computer application fi les, such as spreadsheets and word 
processing documents. Any programming changes you 
make to the scanner’s working memory can be saved to 
one of the ten V-Scanner folders, or the scratchpad folder. 
When you save working memory to a V-Scanner folder, all 
settings contained in working memory are saved, including 
channels, talkgroups, lockout status, contrast settings, etc. 
Previously saved V-Scanner folders can be recalled and 
loaded into working memory. You can also erase the contents 
of V-Scanner folders, or move the contents of one folder to 
another using working memory. V-Scanner folder names are 
stored in Line 4 from the Welcome screen that appears when 
you fi rst power on the scanner. You can change the contents 
of line 4 from the current working memory confi guration. 
This information is saved when you store the V-Scanner. 
						

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Beyond the Basics
Follow these steps to edit the V-Scanner name stored in Line 
4 of the Welcome screen:
1. Press PROG.
2. Press FUNC, TEXT. The following text appears on the display:
P708---D-+CT
Welcome Ln-4
3.  Use standard text entry procedures to enter a V-Scanner 
name, up to 12 characters long. Press ENT when fi nished. 
Refer to the “Text Input Chart” on Page 69 for more 
information on text entry.
You can only change the name of a V-Scanner while it is 
loaded into working memory. It is not possible to change the 
V-Scanner folder name from the V-Scanner menus. Always 
press FUNC, TEXT while in program mode to assign a V-Scanner 
folder name to the current working memory. This name 
will be stored with the V-Scanner when it is saved, and will 
appear while you are performing V-Scanner operations. If 
you press TEXT while in a V-Scanner operations menu, you 
will be prompted to use FUNC,TEXT while in program mode to 
assign or change the name of the V-Scanner folder.
using V-scanner
1. Press PROG
2. Press FUNC, PROG. The following text appears:
V-Scanner
1-SAVE 3-DEL
2-LOAD S-CLN
CLR to EXIT
3.  Select the option that you wish to execute.