RadioShack Pro 74 Vhf Uhf Race Scanner Reciever Owners Manual

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USING THE PRO-74 AT THE RACES
The PRO-74 is specially designed to help you listen to communications
at auto races. Drivers and their pit crews and corner watchers, pace
car drivers, security officers, emergency personnel, track officials, and
representatives of governing organizations such as NASCAR, SCCA,
and NHRA all use radios to communicate with each other during a
race. You might also hear transmissions from the news media and re-
porters, local police departments, and paramedics and doctors at the
local hospital. You can even listen to broadcasts by parking lot employ-
ees at the track, so you can find the best possible parking place when
you arrive.
The scanner’s quick-track memory lets you store a car number and fre-
quency in each of the scanner’s channels, associate one or more fre-
quencies stored in channels with a car number, and recall any
frequencies associated with that car number by entering the number.
You can store one car number by itself, one car number and frequency,
or one frequency by itself in each channel (for up to 100 car numbers
and frequencies).
For example, if you want to listen to communications between the driv-
er of car number 24 and that driver’s pit crew, find all the frequencies
used by the driver’s team by using the steps in “Searching the Service
Banks” on Page 25, using the supplied frequency guide, “Searching
from a Selected Frequency” on Page 26, or using frequencies you al-
ready know, then store a car number and the frequencies associated
with that car number in the scanner’s channels. Then, you can display
the car number as you scan those frequencies by using the information
in “Scanning by Car Number” on Page 33.
STORING A CAR NUMBER AND FREQUENCY
You can store a car number and frequency in each of the scanner’s
channels, and you can recall any frequencies associated with the car
number by entering the number. You can store one car number in each
channel (for up to 100 car numbers).
Note:
 After you store a car number and a frequency, you can store ad-
ditional frequencies then associate those frequencies with the same
car number. See “Adding Frequencies to a Car Number” on Page 32.
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Follow these steps to store a car number and frequency.
1. Press 
MAN then RACE. RACE and Car No?--- appears.
2. Enter the car number. If the number is one or two digits, enter the
number, then press 
RACE. If the number is three digits, enter the
number only. The car number and 
---.
--- appear.
Notes: 
• If you add one or more leading zeros to a single-digit car num-
ber, your scanner recognizes them as different car numbers.
For example, you can enter 
5 for one car number, 05 for
another car number, and 
005 for another car number.
• To clear the display, press 
CLEAR/• before you press RACE.
3. Enter the frequency (including the decimal point) you want to
associate with the car number by using the number keys and
CLEAR/•.
4. Press 
E to store the frequency. The car number and frequency are
stored in the first available channel.
Adding Frequencies to a Car Number
Follow these steps to 
select a car number then 
associate additional fre-
quencies with that car number.
1. Press 
MAN then RACE. RACE and Car No?--- appears.
2. Enter the car number. If the number is one or two digits, enter the
number, then press 
RACE. If the number is three digits, just enter
the number. The car number and the first frequency associated
with that number appears.
3. Repeatedly press s or t until 
---.--- appears.
4. Enter the frequency (including the decimal point) you want to
associate with the displayed car number by using the number keys
and 
CLEAR/•.
5. Press 
E to store the frequency. The frequency is associated with
the car number you entered.
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Viewing Frequencies Associated with a Car Number
After you store a car number and associate frequencies with that num-
ber, you can view all frequencies associated with the number.
1. Press 
MAN then RACE. RACE and Car No?--- appears.
2. Enter the car number. If the number is one or two digits, enter the
number, then press 
RACE. If the number is three digits, just enter
the number. One of the frequencies associated with the car num-
ber appears.
3. Repeatedly press s or t to view each of the frequencies associated
with the car number you entered. When you have viewed all the
frequencies, the display shows 
---.---. 
Deleting a Frequency from a Car Number
1. Recall the car number.
2. Repeatedly press s or t until the frequency you want to delete
appears.
3. Hold down 
DEL for about 1 second. The scanner beeps and the
frequency disappears.
SCANNING BY CAR NUMBER
Once you store car numbers into channels, you can set the scanner so
it displays the car numbers you assigned to the channels as it scans
them.
To scan by car number, repeatedly press 
RACE until BANK and RACE
appear, then press SCAN. As the scanner scans channels, the car
numbers you stored appear in the order you stored them into their
channels, from the lowest to the highest channel. 
Notes:
 
• If no car number is assigned to a channel, 
--- appears instead of
the car number.
•If 
SQUELCH is adjusted so you always hear a hissing sound, the
scanner does not scan properly.
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FINDING WHAT CAR NUMBERS ARE IN 
WHAT CHANNELS
If you are listening to a channel and want to know what car number you
are hearing, simply press 
RACE twice. If a car number has been asso-
ciated with this frequency, the car number and frequency appear.
Press 
RACE twice to return to normal channel listening.
To see what car numbers are stored, press 
MAN then RACE, then re-
peatedly press  . The car numbers (from lowest channel number
to highest) show.
DATA
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SPECIAL FEATURES
TURNING MEMORY BANKS ON AND OFF
You can turn each memory bank on and off. When you turn off a bank,
the scanner does not scan any of the 10 channels in that bank.
While scanning, press the number key that corresponds to the bank
you want to turn on or off. When 
BANK appears, the scanner scans all
the channels within the displayed banks that are not locked out (see
“Locking Out Channels”).
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 must always be active.
LOCKING OUT CHANNELS
You can increase the scanning speed by locking out channels that
have a continuous transmission, such as a weather channel. To lock
out a channel, manually select the channel, then press 
L-OUT so L/O
appears. You can still manually select locked out channels.
To remove the lockout from a channel, manually select the channel
and press 
L-OUT so L/O disappears from the display. Or, to unlock all
channels or frequencies in the banks that are turned on, press 
MAN to
stop scanning, then hold down 
L-OUT until the scanner beeps twice.
Note:
 If you select a weather frequency by pressing 
WX and then lock
out that frequency, the scanner stores the frequency in its search skip
memory. Follow the steps under “Search Skip Memory” on Page 27 to
remove the lockout from the weather frequency.
PRIORITY
The priority feature lets you scan through channels and still not miss
important or interesting calls on specific channels. You can program
one channel in each bank as a priority channel (for up to a total of 10
priority channels). If the priority feature is turned on, as the scanner
scans a bank, the scanner checks that bank’s priority channel every 2
seconds for activity.
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The scanner automatically designates each banks first channel as its
priority channel. Follow these steps to select a different channel as the
priority channel.
1. Press 
PROG.
2. Enter the channel number you want to select as the priority chan-
nel, then press 
PRIORITY.   appears to the right of the channel
number.
3. Repeat Steps 1–2 for the channel in each bank you want to pro-
gram as a priority channel.
To confirm all priority channel numbers, press 
PROG, then repeatedly
press 
PRIORITY to step through the priority channels.
To turn on the priority feature, press 
PRIORITY during scanning. PRI
appears.
To turn off the priority feature, press 
PRIORITY again. PRI disappears.
Notes:
• The priority feature must be turned off to use the data skip feature
(see “Skipping Data Signals” on Page 39).
• You can lock out priority
channels. If you lock out all
priority channels, 
and   appear when you turn
on the priority feature.
P
RACEMA NPROGBANDSCAN
HOLDDATA1231-1011-20 21-30
H/SS/S45631-40 41-50
51-60PRIORITYL-O UT
DEL78
961-70 71-80
81-90
0E91-100KEYLOCKCLEARWX
BANK5
PGMMHzCHP
LOC OUtP
BANK1
MANL/OCHP
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USING THE KEYLOCK
Once you set up and store channels into your scanner, you can protect
it from accidental changes by turning on the keylock feature. When
locked, the only controls that operate are 
SCAN, MAN, KEYLOCK/,
VOLUME, and SQUELCH. 
To turn on the keylock, hold down 
KEYLOCK until K/L appears. To turn
it off, hold down 
KEYLOCK until K/L disappears.
USING THE DISPLAY BACKLIGHT
You can turn on the display backlight for easy viewing at night. Press
 to turn it on for 15 seconds. To turn it off before 15 seconds
elapse, press the button again.
CHANGING SEARCH SPEEDS
The PRO-74 has two search speeds.
To switch between normal and Hypersearch speeds, during a service
bank or direct search, press 
H/S. HYPER appears during Hypersearch. Normal Search Hypersearch
100 steps/second 300 steps/second
BANK1K/L
PGMMHzCHP
RACEMA NPR OG
BAND
SCAN
HOLDDATA12
31-10
11-2021-30
H/S
S/S45631-40
41-50 51-60PRIORITYL-OUT
DEL78
961-70 71- 80 81- 90
0E91-100KEYLOCKCLEARWX
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Notes: 
• You can use Hypersearch only in the 5 kHz step bands (29–54
MHz and 137–174 MHz.
• Since the marine service bank is not in one of the 5 kHz step
bands, you cannot use Hypersearch in the marine service bank.
TURNING THE KEY TONE OFF/ON
Your scanner comes set so each time you press a key, you hear a
tone. To turn off the key tone, follow these steps.
1. Turn off the scanner.
2. While holding down 
L-OUT/S/S, turn on the scanner. OFF bEEP
appears for about 3 seconds.
To turn the key tone back on, repeat these steps so 
on bEEP appears.
TURNING THE BATTERY SAVE FUNCTION 
OFF/ON
To save battery power when a channel is manually selected or when
you are programming the scanner, the scanner has a battery save
function which automatically sets the scanner to a standby mode if no
button is pressed for 5 seconds when no signal is detected, and sets
the scanner back to full power mode when it detects a button press or
receives a signal. The battery save function is set to 
on at the factory,
but you can change it.   appears when the function is active.
Note: If priority is turned on, the battery save function does not work
even if a channel is manually selected.
To turn the battery save function off or back on, turn off the scanner,
then hold down 
PRIORITY/H/S and turn on the scanner. OFF SAVE or
on SAVE briefly appears.
RACEMA NPR OGBAND
SCAN
HOLDDATA12
31- 1011-2021-30
H/SS/S45631-40
41-50 51-60PRIORITYL-OUT
DEL78
961-70 71- 80 81-90
0E91-100K EYL OC K C L EA RWX
S
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SKIPPING DATA SIGNALS
You can set the scanner so it skips nonmodulated or data signals (such
as modem transmissions) during a search or scan. 
Note:
 Since data signals are not generally found in the air band, this
feature does not work in the air band. 
To turn on the data skip feature, press  .   appears. To turn
off the feature, press   again.   disappears.
DATADATADATADATA
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A GENERAL GUIDE TO SCANNING
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
Canadian Weather Frequencies
Note: 
The Canadian frequencies are not preprogrammed in this scan-
ner, but you can manually search or store them.
VHF FM Marine Frequencies
162.400 162.475 162.525
162.425 162.500 162.550
162.450
161.650 161.775 163.275
Chan-
nel 
No.Frequency Chan-
nel 
No.Frequency
Ship Shore Ship Shore
6 156.3000 156.3000 64 156.2550 156.2550
7 156.3500 156.3500 65 156.2750 156.2750
8 156.4000 156.4000 66 156.3250 156.3250
9 156.4500 156.4500 67 156.3750 156.3750
10 156.5000 156.5000 68 156.4250 156.4250
11 156.5500 156.5500 69 156.4750 156.4750
12 156.6000 156.6000 70 156.5250 156.5250
13 156.6500 156.6500 71 156.5750 156.5750
14 156.7000 156.7000 72 156.6250 156.6250
15 156.7500 156.7500 73 156.6750 156.6750
16 156.8000 156.8000 74 156.7250 156.7250
17 156.8500 156.8500 77 156.8750 156.8750
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