RadioShack PRO-405 Owner Manual

20-405 / PRO-405

User’s Guide

Desktop Radio Scanner

Thank you for purchasing your Desktop Radio Scanner from RadioShack. Please read this user’s guide before installing, setting up, and using your new scanner

Contents

Contents
Package Contents...............................................................................................	4
Features..............................................................................................................	4
Understanding Your Scanner.........................................................................................	6
Channel Storage Banks..............................................................................................	6
Service Banks.............................................................................................................	6
Preprogrammed Service Bank Frequencies...................................................................	7
Marine........................................................................................................................	7
Fire/Police..................................................................................................................	8
Aircraft.......................................................................................................................	9
Ham Amateur Radio..................................................................................................	9
FM Broadcast.............................................................................................................	9
Weather Channels.....................................................................................................	9
Understanding the Keypad..........................................................................................	10
Understanding the Display..........................................................................................	12
Additional Display Messages...................................................................................	13
Sub Bank Messages.................................................................................................	13
Setup.................................................................................................................	14
Powering Your Scanner................................................................................................	14
AC Power.................................................................................................................	14
Vehicle Power..........................................................................................................	14
Connecting the Antenna..............................................................................................	15
Connecting an Outdoor Antenna............................................................................	15
Connecting Headphones.............................................................................................	15
Connecting an Extension Speaker...........................................................................	15
Basic Operation................................................................................................	16
Turning on the Scanner and Setting Squelch..............................................................	16
Programming Known Frequencies into Channels........................................................	16
Searching for Active Frequencies................................................................................	17
Tune Search.............................................................................................................	17
Service Bank Search.................................................................................................	17
Storing Found Frequencies into Channels...................................................................	18
Scanning the Stored Channels.....................................................................................	18
Turning Channel-Storage Banks On and Off...........................................................	19
Monitoring a Stored Channel......................................................................................	19
Clearing a Stored Channel......................................................................................	19
Listening to the Marine Bank.......................................................................................	20
Weather Features..............................................................................................	20
Listening to a Weather Channel...................................................................................	20
Weather Alerts.............................................................................................................	21
Receiving All Weather Alerts...................................................................................	21

Receiving Alerts for Specific Areas..........................................................................	21
Testing the Weather Alert and Beep Tone..............................................................	22
Skywarn....................................................................................................................	22
Setting Delay................................................................................................................	23
Locking Out Channels and Frequencies......................................................................	23
Reviewing and Removing Lock-outs........................................................................	24
Using Priority................................................................................................................	25
Turning the Key Tone On and Off................................................................................	25
Advanced Operation........................................................................................	25
Cloning the Programmed Data....................................................................................	25
Programming with a Personal Computer....................................................................	26
Initializing the Scanner.................................................................................................	26
Preprogrammed Frequencies......................................................................................	26
Preprogrammed Frequency Banks..............................................................................	27
Additional Information......................................................................................	31
Troubleshooting...........................................................................................................	31
Birdie Frequencies.......................................................................................................	31
Scanning Legally..........................................................................................................	32
Care..............................................................................................................................	32
Specifications...............................................................................................................	32
Service and Repair.......................................................................................................	34
FCC Notice..................................................................................................................	34
Limited Warranty..........................................................................................................	34

Contents

Features

Package Contents

•Scanner

•Antenna

•AC Adapter

•User’s Guide

•Quick Start Guide

Features

Your new PRO-405 Desktop Scanner lets you scan conventional transmissions and is preprogrammed with search banks of the most common frequencies used by public service agencies. Service Banks are accessed by pressing a onetouch search key—no complicated programming required.

Your new scanner gives you direct access to over 26,000 frequencies, including those used by police and fire departments, FM broadcast, ambulance services, aircraft, and amateur radio services.

Your PRO-405 scanner also has these special features:

Service Banks – easily locate types of calls by searching preprogrammed frequencies in separate marine, fire/police, aircraft, ham, FM broadcast, and weather banks.

Display Backlight – makes the display easy to read in low-light situations.

Lock-out Function – skip over specified channels or frequencies when scanning or searching.

Ten Channel-Storage Banks – group and store 20 channels in each bank (200 total channels).

Tune – tune to new and unlisted frequencies starting from a specified frequency.

SAME/FIPS Weather Alert – displays the weather event and sounds an alert for the specific cities or counties you choose.

Memory Backup – frequencies remain stored in memory for an extended time even without power.

Scan Delay – delays scanning for two seconds before moving to another channel in order to hear replies.

Priority Channel – set the scanner to check one channel every two seconds while scanning.

Data Cloning – transfer the programmed data to another PRO-405 scanner.

Real-time Signal Strength Indicator – shows relative strength of received signals.

Liquid-Crystal Display (LCD) – easy to view and change programming information.

Telescopic Antenna – provides good reception of strong local signals. You can also connect an external antenna for improved reception of distant or weak signals.

Your PRO-405 scanner can receive these bands:

Frequency Range	Types of Transmissions
29–54 MHz	10-Meter Ham, VHF Lo, 6-Meter Ham
87.3–107.9 MHz	FM Broadcast
108–136.99166 MHz	Aircraft
137–174 MHz	Military Land Mobile, 2-Meter Ham, VHF Hi
380–512 MHz	UHF Aircraft, Federal Government, 70-cm Ham, UHF
	Standard, UHF “T”

nNote: See “Specifications” on page 32 for more information about frequency steps.

Features

Features

Understanding Your Scanner

Once you understand a few simple terms used in this manual and familiarize yourself with your scanner’s features, you can put the scanner to work for you. Simply determine the type of communications you want to receive, then set the scanner to scan them.

A frequency is the receiving signal location (expressed in kHz or MHz). To find active frequencies, use the search function or consult an online resource such as www.radioreference.com.

When you find a frequency, you can store it into a programmable memory location called a channel, which is grouped with other channels in a channelstorage bank. You can then scan the channel-storage banks to see if there is activity on the frequencies stored there. Each time the scanner finds an active frequency, it stays on that channel until the transmission ends.

Channel Storage Banks

To make it easier to identify and select the channels you want to listen to, your scanner divides the channels into 10 banks (1 to 10) with 20 channels each, for a total of 200 channels. You can use each channel-storage bank to group frequencies, such as those used by the police department, fire department, ambulance services, or aircraft.

For example, you could program the frequencies used by your local police department starting with Channel 1 (the first channel in bank 1) and program the fire department frequencies starting with Channel 21 (the first channel in bank 2).

Service Banks

The scanner is preprogrammed with the frequencies allocated to marine, fire/ police, aircraft, ham radio, FM broadcast and weather services. This is handy for quickly finding active frequencies instead of searching through an entire bank (see “Service Bank Search” on page 17).

Preprogrammed Service Bank Frequencies

Marine

Channel	Frequency (MHz)
01	156.0500
05	156.2500
06	156.3000
07	156.3500
08	156.4000
09	156.4500
10	156.5000
11	156.5500
12	156.6000
13	156.6500
14	156.7000
15	156.7500
16	156.8000
17	156.8500
18	156.9000
19	156.9500
20	157.0000 / 161.6000
21	157.0500
22	157.1000
23	157.1500
24	157.2000 / 161.8000
25	157.2500 / 161.8500
26	157.3000 / 161.9000
27	157.3500 / 161.9500
28	157.4000 / 162.0000

Channel	Frequency (MHz)
63	156.1750
64	156.2250 / 160.8250
65	156.2750
66	156.3250
67	156.3750
68	156.4250
69	156.4750
70	156.5250
71	156.5750
72	156.6250
73	156.6750
74	156.7250
77	156.8750
78	156.9250
79	156.9750
80	157.0250
81	157.0750
82	157.1250
83	157.1750
84	157.2250 / 161.8250
85	157.2750 / 161.8750
86	157.3250 / 161.9250
87	157.3750 / 161.9750
88	157.4250

Features

nNote: Both frequencies (transmission and reception) are shown for marine channels used for duplex transmission.

Fire/Police

		Group	Frequency Range (MHz)	Step (kHz)
		1	33.420-33.980	20
			37.020-37.420	20
			39.020-39.980	20
			42.020-42.940	20
Features
			44.620-45.860	40
			45.880	-
			45.900-46.060	40
			46.080-46.500	20
		2	153.770-154.130	60
			154.145-154.445	15
			154.650-154.950	15
			155.010-155.370	60
			155.415-155.700	15
			155.730-156.210	60
			158.730-159.210	60
			166.250	-
			170.150	-
		3	453.0375-453.9625	12.5
			458.0375-458.9625	12.5
			460.0125-460.6375	12.5
			465.0125-465.6375	12.5

Aircraft

Group	Frequency Range (MHz)	Step (kHz)
1	108.000-118.000	8.33
2	118.00833-136.99166	8.33

Ham Amateur Radio

Group	Frequency Range (MHz)	Step (kHz)
1	29.000-29.700	5
2	50.000-54.000	5
3	144.000-148.000	5
4	420.000-450.000	12.5

FM Broadcast

Frequency Range (MHz)	Step (kHz)
87.3–107.9	100

Weather Channels

Channel	Frequency (MHz)
1	162.400
2	162.425
3	162.450
4	162.475
5	162.500
6	162.525
7	162.550

Features

Understanding the Keypad

Features

POWER

Turn scanner on and off.

VOLUME

Adjust volume.

SQUELCH

-Turn counterclockwise to listen to a weak or distant station.

-Turn clockwise to cut out weak transmissions.

MAR (Marine)

Search the preprogrammed marine bank.

FD/PD (Fire Dept/Police Dept)

Search the preprogrammed fire/police bank.

/ (Weather / Skywarn)

- Search the seven preprogrammed weather channels.

- Press and hold to jump to the Skywarn channel (channel 200). You must first program your local Skywarn frequency into channel 200 (see page 22).

HAM

Search the preprogrammed amateur radio bank.

AIR (Aircraft)

Search the preprogrammed aircraft bank.

FM Broadcast

Search FM radio stations.

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SCAN / MAN (Manual)

-Enter Scan mode to scan programmed channels.

-Enter Manual mode to stop scanning, directly enter a channel number, or monitor a single channel.

e d

Select the direction for searching and scanning.

PRI / ALERT

-Enable and disable the priority feature.

-Enable and disable SAME standby mode when monitoring a weather channel.

PSE (Pause)

Stop and restart a search or tune.

0–9

-Input a number when entering frequencies and selecting banks (0 selects bank 10).

-The number range above the keys (1–20, 21–40, 41-60, etc.) indicates the channels stored in that bank.

• / DELAY

-Input a decimal point when entering frequencies.

-Program a two-second delay for the selected channel.

ENT (Enter)

Complete the entry of frequencies.

L/O / L/O RVW

-Lock-out selected channels or frequencies.

-Review locked-out frequencies.

TUNE / CLEAR

-Enter Tune search.

-Clear an incorrect entry.

PGM

Program frequencies into channels.

Features

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