RadioShack Pro 70 Portable Scanner Reciever Owners Manual

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CLEARING A STORED CHANNEL
If you no longer want a frequency stored in a channel
(and you do not want to replace that frequency with a dif-
ferent one), follow these steps to clear the stored fre-
quency.
1. Select the channel that you want to clear.
2. Press 
PGM. PGM appears on the display.
3. Press 
CLEAR. The frequency number flashes on the
display.
4. Press 
E/L-OUT. L/O (lockout — see “Locking Out
Channels” on Page 32) appears, the channel num-
ber flashes, and the frequency number changes to
000.0000 on the display to indicate the channel is
cleared. 
5. To clear another channel, use the number keys to
enter that channel number (1-50), then press 
PGM
again. Or, repeatedly press PGM until the desired
channel number appears. Then repeat Steps 3-4.
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SPECIAL FEATURES
USING THE KEYLOCK
Once you program your scanner, you can protect it from
accidental program changes by turning on the keylock
feature. When the keypad is locked, the only controls that
operate are 
LIGHT (see “Using the Display Backlight” on
Page 34), 
VOLUME, and SQUELCH.
Note:
 The keylock does not prevent the scanner from
scanning channels or monitoring a single channel, which-
ever feature you last selected.
To turn on the keylock, press and hold   for about 3
seconds until   appears on the display. To turn it off,
press and hold   for about 3 seconds until   disap-
pears from the display.
LOCKING OUT CHANNELS
You can increase the effective scanning speed by locking
out individual channels that have a continuous transmis-
sion, such as a weather channel (see “National Weather
Frequencies” on Page 36) or birdie frequency (see “Birdie
Frequencies” on Page 37). To lock out a channel, select
that channel then press 
E/L-OUT. L/O appears on the dis-
play.
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To remove the lock-out from a channel, select that chan-
nel again, then press 
E/L-OUT so L/O disappears from the
display.
Notes:
• You can manually select locked-out channels.
• Your scanner automatically locks out empty chan-
nels.
USING A 2-SECOND DELAY
Many agencies use a two-way radio system that has a pe-
riod of several seconds between a query and a reply. To
avoid missing a reply, you can program a 2-second delay
into any channel or frequency. When your scanner stops
on a channel or frequency with a programmed delay, 
DE-
LAY
 appears on the display and the scanner continues to
monitor that frequency for 2 seconds after the transmis-
sion stops before resuming scanning.
You can program a 2-second delay in these three ways:
• If the scanner is scanning and stops on an active
channel, quickly press 
./DLY before it continues scan-
ning again.
• If the desired channel is not selected, manually
select the channel, then press 
./DLY.
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• If the scanner is in the search mode, press ./DLY
while the scanner is searching. DELAY appears on
the display and the scanner automatically adds a 2-
second delay to every transmission it stops on.
To turn off the 2-second delay, press 
./DLY while the scan-
ner is monitoring the channel or frequency. 
DELAY disap-
pears from the display.
USING THE DISPLAY BACKLIGHT
You can turn on the display’s backlight for easy viewing in
the dark. Press 
LIGHT to turn on the display light for 5 sec-
onds. To turn off the light before 5 seconds elapse, press
LIGHT again.
LISTENING TO A WEATHER BAND
The FCC (Federal Communications Commission) has al-
located 11 channels for use by the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). NOAA broadcasts
your local forecast and regional weather information on
one or more of these channels. We have programmed
your scanner with 10 of the U.S. frequencies most com-
monly used by NOAA.
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To hear your local forecast and regional weather informa-
tion, simply press 
WX. Your scanner begins to scan
through the weather band, and   and 
WX appear on the
display. To reverse the scanning direction, press   or  .
Your scanner should stop within a few seconds on your lo-
cal weather broadcast. If the broadcast is weak, you can
press   or   again to resume scanning.
Note:
 To manually select a preprogrammed weather
channel, you can:
• repeatedly press 
WX until MAN appears on the dis-
play, then repeatedly press   or   to move forward
or backward through the channels.
• press the number (
0-9) of the channel you want to lis-
ten to.
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A GENERAL SCANNING GUIDE
Reception of the frequencies covered by your scanner is
mainly “line-of-sight.” This means you usually cannot hear
stations that are beyond the horizon.
GUIDE TO FREQUENCIES
National Weather Frequencies
*Not preprogrammed in this scanner, but you can manual-
ly program it.
Ham Radio Frequencies
Ham radio operators often transmit emergency informa-
tion when other means of communication break down.
The following chart shows the frequencies this scanner re-
ceives that Ham radio operators normally use:
Note:
 Your scanner cannot receive AM transmissions on
these bands.161.650 161.775 162.400 162.425
162.440* 162.450 162.475 162.500
162.525 162.550 163.275
Wavelength
(meters)Frequency
(MHz)
10-meter 29.000–29.700
6-meter 50.000–54.000
2-meter 144.000–148.000
70-cm 420.000–450.000
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Birdie Frequencies
Every scanner has birdie frequencies. Birdies are signals
created inside the scanner’s receiver. These operating
frequencies might interfere with broadcasts on the same
frequencies. If you program one of these frequencies, you
hear only noise on that frequency. If the interference is not
severe, you might be able to turn 
SQUELCH clockwise to
cut out the birdie.
The birdie frequencies on this unit to watch for are:
To find the birdies in your scanner, begin by disconnecting
the antenna and moving it away from the receiver. Make
sure that no other nearby radio or TV sets are turned on
near the scanner. Use the search function and scan every
frequency band from its lowest frequency to the highest.
Occasionally, the searching will stop as if it had found a
signal, often without any sound. That is a birdie. Make a
list of all the birdies in your particular scanner for future
reference.
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
well known. There are also four television audio broadcast
bands — the lower three transmit on the VHF band and
the fourth transmits on the UHF band.29.900 30.455 30.735 31.480
32.090 32.530 33.580 38.400
51.200 51.225 140.800 143.430
144.000 147.200 153.600 156.800
160.000 162.200 166.400
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Typical Band Usage
Primary Usage
As a general rule, most of the radio activity is concentrated
on the following frequencies:
VHF BandHF Band (3.00–30.0 MHz)
10-Meter Amateur  29.00–29.70 MHz
High Range 29.70–29.90 MHz
VHF Band (30.00–300.0 MHz)
Low Range 30.00–50.00 MHz
6-Meter Amateur 50.00–54.00 MHz
U.S. Government 137.00–144.00 MHz
2-Meter Amateur 144.00–148.00 MHz
High Range 148.00–174.00 MHz
UHF Band(300.00 MHz–3.0 GHz)
Military Aircraft 380.00–384.00 MHz
U.S. Government 406.00–420.00 MHz
70-Centimeter Amateur 420.00–450.00 MHz
Low Range 450.00–470.00 MHz
FM-TV Audio Broadcast,
Wide Band 470.00–512.00 MHz
Activities Frequencies (MHz)
Government, Police, and Fire 153.785–155.980
Emergency Services 158.730–159.460
Railroad 160.000–161.900
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UHF Band
Note: Remote control stations and mobile units operate at
5 MHz higher than their associated base stations and re-
lay repeater units.
Specified Intervals
Frequencies in different bands are accessible only at spe-
cific intervals. For example:
Note: Your scanner automatically rounds the entered fre-
quency down to the closest valid frequency. For example,
if you try to enter 151.473, your scanner accepts this as
151.470.Activities Frequencies (MHz)
Land-Mobile
“Paired” Frequencies 450.000–470.000
Base Stations 451.025–454.950
Mobile Units 456.025–459.950
Relay Repeater Units 460.025–464.975
Remote Control Stations 465.025–469.975
Frequency Range(s) Specified Interval
29–54 and 137–144 MHz 5.0 kHz steps
380–512 12.5 kHz steps
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BAND ALLOCATION
To help decide which frequency ranges to scan, use the
following listing of the typical services that use the fre-
quencies your scanner receives. These frequencies are
subject to change, and might vary from area to area. For
a more complete listing, refer to 
Police Call Radio Guide
Including Fire and Emergency Services
, available at your
local RadioShack store.
Abbreviations Services
AIR ......................................................................... Aircraft
BIFC............................ Boise (ID) Interagency Fire Cache
BUS ....................................................................Business
CAP ............................................................Civil Air Patrol
CB ............................................................... Citizens Band
CCA ........................................................Common Carrier
CSB .............................................. Conventional Systems
CTSB .............................. Conventional/Trunked Systems
FIRE........................................................ Fire Department
HAM ............................................... Amateur (Ham) Radio
GOVT............................................... Federal Government
GMR .............................................. General Mobile Radio
GTR ....................................................... General Trunked
IND....................................................... Industrial Services
(Manufacturing, Construction, Farming, Forest Products)
MAR .............................................. Military Amateur Radio
MARI ............................................ Maritime Limited Coast
(Coast Guard, Marine telephone,
Shipboard Radio, Private stations)
MARS ................................ Military Affiliate Radio System
MED ....................................Emergency/Medical Services
MIL ................................................................. U.S. Military
MOV................................... Motion Picture/Video Industry
NEW .................................................. New Mobile Narrow
NEWS ....................... Relay Press (Newspaper reporters)
OIL .................................................Oil/Petroleum Industry
POL......................................................Police Department
PUB ..........................................................Public Services
(Public Safety, Local Govt., Forestry Conservation)
PSB.............................................................. Public Safety
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