Albrecht AE180H User Guide

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AE180H

100-Channel

Programmable

Twin Turbo

Hand-Held

Sports

Scanner

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OPERATING GUIDE

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Precautions

Before you use this scanner, please read and observe the following:

WARNING!

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Albrecht DOES NOT represent this unit to be waterproof.
To reduce the risk of fire or electrical shock, DO NOT
expose this unit to rain or moisture.

IMPORTANT!

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Be sure to use only the supplied earphone, or a stereo
headset of the proper impedance (32W). Use of an
incorrect earphone or other impedance may be
potentially hazardous to your hearing.

WARNING:

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Set the Volume to a comfortable audio level coming
from the speaker before plugging in the supplied
earphone or a stereo headset of the proper impedance
(32W). Otherwise you might experience some
discomfort or possible hearing damage if the Volume
suddenly becomes too loud because of the Volume
Control or Squelch Control setting. This may be
particularly true of the type of earphone that is placed in
the ear canal.

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NICKEL-CADMIUM BATTERY WARNING

·

This equipment contains a Nickel-Cadmium Battery.

·

Cadmium is a chemical known to cause cancer.

·

The Nickel-Cadmium Battery contained in this
equipment may explode if disposed of in a fire.

·

Do not short circuit the battery.

·

Do not charge the Nickel-Cadmium Battery used in
this equipment with any other AC Adapter/Charger
other than the one designed to charge this battery
(AD-235). Using another charger may damage the
battery, or cause the battery to explode.

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NICKEL-CADMIUM BATTERY DISPOSAL

Nickel-Cadmium Batteries Must Be Disposed Of Properly.

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Contents

About Your New AE180H

What is Scanning?
What is Searching?
Types of Communication
Where to Obtain More Information
Unpacking

Feature Highlights

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Controls and Indicators

Top View
Front View

Setup

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Charging the Battery Pack
Mounting the Flexible Antenna
Installing the Belt Clip
Using the Earphone

Operation Overview

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10

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11
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Programming Channels ........................14

Programming By Manual Entry ..................14

Deleting a Stored Frequency ....................15

Programming SEARCH .......................15

Programming Channels with Alpha Characters......16

Alert Beep Setting ............................17

Scanning ....................................18

Bank Scanning ..............................18

Priority Scan ................................19

Delay ......................................19

Locking Out Channels
Looking for “Locked Out” Channels

Searching

Band Search
Limit Search

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Search Skip Frequency

Care and Maintenance

Replacing the Battery Pack
Location
Cleaning
Birdies

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Proper Care of Your Scanner

Optional Accessories and Replacement Parts
Troubleshooting
Technical Specifications
Declaration of Confomity

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About Your New AE180H

The AE180H is a brand new state-of-the-art information
radio with automatic scanning capabilities. It can store
frequencies such as sporting events, police,
fire/emergency, and other communications into 10 banks of
10 channels each. Please be aware that restrictions apply
on monitoring of non-public services. Respect national laws
protecting privacy!

With the AE180H, you can do a fast search for active
frequencies on all 13 preprogrammed bands. In the VHF
bands with 5 kHz spacing and on all 100 stored channels
you can also use the super fast Turbo Search Mode!

What is Scanning?

Unlike standard AM or FM radio stations, most two-way
communications do not transmit continuously. The AE180H
scans programmed
channels per second until it finds an active frequency.

Scanning stops on an active frequency, and remains on
that channel as long as the transmission continues. When
the transmission ends, the scanning cycle resumes until
another transmission is received. Or, you can select an
optional Delay so the scanner stays on the channel for 2
more seconds after the transmission stops, waiting for
another transmission, before resuming scanning.

While the AE180H is scanning channels it is in “SCAN
Mode”. When you stop the scanning with , it is in
“MANUAL Mode”.

channels at the rate of nearly 100

What is Searching?

The AE180H can search each of 13 preprogrammed bands
to find active frequencies. This is different from scanning,
because you can search for frequencies that have not been
programmed into your AE180H. You can also search
within the range of frequencies you have programmed
before. You can set the direction of searching as well as
the speed. The Turbo Search feature, new for Albrecht
scanners, can search VHF bands at up to 3 times the
normal speed.

When the AE180H is searching for active frequencies, it is
in “SEARCH Mode” or “TURBO SEARCH Mode”. When
you stop the search with , it is in “SEARCH HOLD
Mode”. With both Turbo Scan and Turbo Search, your
AE180H is truly a Twin Turbo Scanner.

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Types of Communication

You will be able to monitor communication such as:

Automobile, boat, and marathon races

»

Sports and cultural events (e.g. Security staff)

»

Traffic information

»

Police and fire department (including rescue, in most

»

countries monitoring not allowed!)
Land transportation, such as trucking firms, buses,

»

taxis, tow trucks, and railroads
Marine and amateur radio.

»

Aircraft

»

Analogue cordless phones (in most countries listening

»

not allowed)

And many more in the following 13 Bands:

RANGE

(MHz)

25.0000-84.0100 5

84.0150-87.2550 20 with 15

108.0000-136.9916 12.5/8.33

137.0000-143.9950 5

144.0000-145.9875 12.5

146.0000-155.9900 10

156.0000-162.0250 12.5

162.0300-173.9900 10

406.0000-439.9875 12.5

440.0000-449.9875 12.5

450.0000-469.9900 10

470.0000-512.0000 12.5

806.0000-960.0000 12.5

STEP

(kHz)

kHz offset

selectable

BAND SUBJECT

FM VHF Low PMR Band
FM VHF Low PMR &

Police Band

AM Aircraft

FM Military Land Mobile
FM 2 Meter Amateur Band
FM VHF High Band
FM VHF Marine Band
FM VHF High PMR &

Police Band

F M UHF Low Band
F M UHF Pager &PMR Band
FM UHF Standard

PMR Band

FM UHF “T” Band

(non-Europe)

FM SRD and Cordless

Phone Band

Where to Obtain More Information

Detailed information about frequency tables can be
obtained from various scanner magazines, internet and
book stores, as well as from contents for the radio
enthusiasts. See also information on
www.hobbyradio.de

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Unpacking

Carefully check the contents against this list:

AE180H Twin Turbo Sports Scanner

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Rubber Antenna

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AC Adapter/Charger (AD-235)

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Earphone

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Belt Clip with 2 Screws

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Battery (BP-180)

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This Operating Guide

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Nickel-Cadmium Battery Disposal Notice

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Please read this Operating Guide thoroughly before
operating the scanner.

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Feature Highlights

Twin Turbo Scan & Search —This lightning-fast

◆

technology enables the AE180H to scan nearly 100
channels per second. Search speed is selectable
between 100 and 300 steps per second. (300 steps
per second only in bands with 5 kHz steps.) Because
the frequency coverage is so large (see previous
section for band listing), very fast scanning and
searching are essential. That is why we combined our
latest technology — Twin Turbo — into the AE180H.

100 Channels You can program each of these

◆

memory channels to store one frequency.

13 Bands, 10 Banks Includes 13 Bands, with

◆

Aircraft and 800 MHz. 10 Banks of 10 channels each
are useful for storing similar frequencies in order to
maintain faster scanning cycles.

25 MHz - 960 MHz Indicates the range of

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frequencies that can be searched within the bands of
your scanner.

Note: The frequency coverage is not totally

(

continuous from 25.0 MHz to 960 MHz.)

10 Priority Channels You can assign

◆

Channel in each Bank. Assigning priority channels
allows you to keep track of activity on your most
important channel(s) while monitoring other channels
for transmissions. (Priority Channels are initially set in
the first channel in each Bank.)

◆

Memory Backup The stored channels are retained
in memory permanently.

◆

Programmable Alpha Characters You can program
up to 100 channels with alphabetical characters for
easy reference.

◆

Band Search You can search within the
preprogrammed bands.

◆

Limit Search You can search within a specific range
of frequencies.

◆

VFO Search You can search by using the
VFO control.

◆

Alert Beep If the AE180H finds a transmission on a
channel you have preset, it beeps twice.

◆

Auto Light The AE180H can turn on its backlight
automatically when it finds a transmission if this
function is activated.

◆

Attenuator You can attenuate the strength of the
strong signal inputted.

◆

Air Band Step You can select the AIR Band step
from 12.5 kHz to 8.33 kHz.

one

Priority

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Controls and Indicators

Top View

Antenna
Connector

Earphone
Jack

Connect the rubber antenna to the BNC
connector and turn clockwise until it locks.

Plug the supplied

earphone into this jack
for private listening. When the earphone is
connected, the internal speaker is
disconnected.

Note the warning on the Inside Front Cover
and on page 11.

SQUELCH
Control

Adjust this control to set the scan threshold
and to eliminate the background rushing
noise heard in the absence of an incoming
signal. See the Operation Overview
section for adjustment procedures.

ON-OFF/
VOLUME

Use this control to turn the scanner on or
off, and to adjust the volume.

Control

VFO Control Use this control to select channels in

Manual mode, select the band for Band
Search, and select frequencies in
Band/Limit Search mode. You can also
use this to program Alpha
Name characters.

Front View

(Refer to the illustration on page iii)

1. LCD DISPLAY — The liquid crystal display (LCD)
shows the current channel and frequency. It also
displays the mode, status, and bank indicators.

P

A. Priority Channel Indicator —

the scanner stops on a Priority Channel.

appears when

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B. Channel Number — Indicates the current

channel that the scanner is on.

C. Memory Bank Numbers — Each Memory Bank

consists of 10 channels that you can select or
deselect during scanning operation, using the
numeric keypad. When you select a Bank, its
number appears on the display. When you
deselect a Bank, its number disappears from the
display. When you press to stop
scanning, only the Bank of the current
channel appears.

D. Bank Indicator — Appears with the Bank

Numbers (1~10).

E. Frequency Indicator — Indicates the frequency

being received by the scanner, or Alpha
Name, etc.

G. Mode/Function Indicators —

(Only the active
mode(s)/function(s) are displayed during
operation.)

SCAN Indicates SCAN Mode.

SEARCH Indicates SEARCH Mode. Flashes

when in TURBO SEARCH Mode.

PRIORITY Indicates PRIORITY SCAN

is activated.

HOLD Indicates SCAN HOLD or SEARCH

HOLD Mode.

DELAY Indicates DELAY is activated.

L/O In SCAN Mode, indicates the

channel shown is “Locked Out”.
In SEARCH Mode, indicates the
frequency shown is “Locked Out”.

ATT Appears when the Attenuator

function is set.

Indicates the keypad is locked.

Appears when the display mode is
Alpha Name mode.

2. Press to start scanning all programmed
channels that are not locked out. (

SCAN

across the display during scanning.)

moves

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In SCAN or SEARCH Mode, press to stop

3.

HOLD

scanning. (

appears on the display.)
In Manual mode, press to step up
the channel.

4. NUMERIC KEYPAD — Use these keys to program a
channel for scanning. Also use to access a channel
directly with . During SCAN Mode, use these
keys to select or deselect any of the 10 memory
banks. (Only the selected bank indicator(s) appear
on the display.)

You cannot deactivate all 10 banks at the

Note:

same time.

Key Bank Channel

1 1-10

2 11-20

3 21-30

4 31-40

5 41-50

6 51-60

7 61-70

8 71-80

9 81-90

10 91 - 100

5. Press /
Press and hold /
band search. Then press /

BAND

to start Limit search.

BAND

to select the band for

BAND

band search.

6. Press to stop Band serch and Limit search.
Also, press it to move to next higher channel or
frequency. Press and hold to change the
search direction to upper side.

7. In Limit search, input the frequency and press
to program the lower/higher frequency. Press
to stop Band search and Limit search. Also, press it
to move to next lower channel or frequency. Press
and hold to change the search direction to
lower side.

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