RadioShack Pro 2050 Trunk Track Home Scanner Owners Manual

							11
Note: Connecting an external speaker
disconnects the scanner’s internal
speaker.
CONNECTING AN 
EARPHONE/
HEADPHONES
For private listening, you can connect
an earphone or headphones with a 1/8-
inch plug (such as Cat. No. 33-175 or
20-210) to the   jack on the front of
the scanner. This automatically dis-
connects the internal speaker.
Listening Safely
To protect your hearing, follow these
guidelines when you use an earphone
or headphones.
• Do not listen at extremely high
volume levels. Extended high-
volume listening can lead to per-
manent hearing loss.
•Set 
VOLUME to the lowest setting
before you begin listening. After
you begin listening, adjust 
VOL-
UME
 to a comfortable level.
• Once you set 
VOLUME, do not
increase it. Over time, your ears
adapt to the volume level, so a
volume level that does not cause
discomfort might still damage your
hearing.
20-430.fm  Page 11  Wednesday, August 4, 1999  1:29 PM 
						

							12
UNDERSTANDING YOUR SCANNER
Once you understand a few simple terms we use in this manual and familiarize
yourself with your scanner’s features, you can put the scanner to work for you. You
simply determine the type of communications you want to receive, then set the
scanner to scan them.
A 
frequenc
y is the tuning location of a station (expressed in kHz or MHz). To find
active frequencies, you can use the 
search function. 
You can also search the 
service-search banks, which are preset groups of fre-
quencies categorized by type of service.
When you find a frequency, you can store it into a programmable memory location
called a 
channel, which is grouped with your other channels in a 
channel-stora
ge
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.
A LOOK AT THE FRONT PANEL
Your scanner’s keys might seem confusing at first, but this information should help
you understand each key’s function.
Note: Some of the scanner’s keys perform more than one function and are marked
with more than one label. The steps in this Owner’s Manual show only the label on
the key appropriate to the action being performed.
VOLUMETurns the scanner on or off and adjusts the volume. 
SQUELCHAdjusts the scanner’s squelch.
20-430.fm  Page 12  Wednesday, August 4, 1999  1:29 PM 
						

							13
SCANScans through the stored channels.
MANUALStops scanning and lets you directly enter a channel
number or frequency.
TRUNKSwitches between conventional and trunk tracking
modes.
SVC 
(service)Selects a service bank.
PRIORITY/SPEEDSets and turns on and off the priority feature; turns the
HyperSearch mode on and off.
Number Keys Each key has a single-digit label and a range of num-
bers. The single digits are used to enter a channel,
frequency, or ID number. The range of numbers (31–
60, for example) indicates the channels that make up
a memory bank.
•Enters a decimal point.
CLEARClears an entry.
E 
(enter)Enters frequencies into channels or enters IDs into a
scan list.
LIMIT/t Sets the frequency range; sets the search direction
and holds a frequency search.
DELAYPrograms a 2-second delay for the selected channel,
a limit search, or each service scan. Also programs a
5-second delay in the trunk tracking mode.
SEARCHSearches a specified frequency range to find frequen-
cies; searches for another active ID in the trunk track-
ing mode.
L/O/SKIP 
(lock out/skip)Lets you lock out selected channels or frequencies;
lets you lock out a selected ID in the trunk tracking
mode.
20-430.fm  Page 13  Wednesday, August 4, 1999  1:29 PM 
						

							14
HOLD/s Holds on the current ID in the trunk tracking mode;
sets the search direction and holds the frequency
search.
DATATurns the data signal skip feature on or off or checks
the current trunking bank in the trunk tracking mode.
A LOOK AT THE DISPLAY
The display has indicators that show the scanner’s current operating status. A good
look at the display will help you understand how your scanner operates.
LISTAppears with a number (1–5) to indicate the list num-
ber.
BANK  Appears with numbers (1–10) to indicate the scan
bank.
PUBAppears when you search the public safety service
bank.
POLICEAppears when you search the police service bank.
FIRE/EMGAppears when you search the fire/emergency service
bank.
AIRAppears when you search the air service bank.
WXAppears when you search the weather service bank.
TRUNKAppears when the scanner is in trunk tracking mode.
20-430.fm  Page 14  Wednesday, August 4, 1999  1:29 PM 
						

							15
 Shows which control/voice channels are currently
(channel activity indicator)  active.
Appears when a priority channel is selected.
SCANAppears when you scan channels.
MANUALAppears when you set the scanner to its manual
mode.
PRIAppears when the priority feature is turned on.
HOLDAppears when the scanner is in the hold mode during
a search. 
DELAYAppears when you program a delay. 
DATAAppears when the data skip function is active.
L/O (lockout) Appears when you manually select a channel, frequen-
cy, or ID you locked out.
t
SEARCHs Lights steadily during a limit search, service search,
and ID search, and blinks while HyperSearch is active
and when you monitor IDs. The arrow indicates the
search direction.
ErrorAppears when you make an entry error.
P
20-430.fm  Page 15  Wednesday, August 4, 1999  1:29 PM 
						

							16
UNDERSTANDING 
BANKS
Channel Storage Banks
To make it easier to identify and select
the channels you want to listen to,
channels are divided into 10 banks of
30 channels each. Use each channel-
storage bank to group frequencies,
such as those used by the police de-
partment, fire department, ambulance
services, or aircraft (see “Guide to the
Action Bands” on Page 39). For exam-
ple, the police department might use
four frequencies, one for each side of
town. You could program the police
frequencies starting with Channel 1
(the first channel in bank 1) and pro-
gram the fire department frequencies
starting with Channel 31 (the first
channel in bank 2).
Service Banks
The scanner is preprogrammed with
the frequencies allocated by public
safety, police, fire/emergency, aircraft,
and weather services. This is handy
for quickly finding active frequencies
instead of searching through an entire
band (see “Searching Service Banks”
on Page 18).
UNDERSTANDING 
TRUNKING
In the past, groups that broadcast fre-
quently, such as police departments,
were restricted to transmitting on just
a few frequencies. This resulted in
heavy traffic and often required 2-way
radio users to wait for a specific fre-
quency to clear before transmitting. 
Trunked systems allow more groups
of 2-way radio users to use fewer fre-
quencies. Instead of selecting a spe-
cific frequency to transmit on, a
trunked system chooses one of sever-
al frequencies when the 2-way radio
user presses PTT (push to talk). The
system automatically transmits the
call on that frequency, and also sends
a code that identifies that 2-way radio
user’s transmission on a data channel.
You can set this scanner to monitor
the data channel frequency, so you
can hear both the call and response
transmissions for that 2-way radio
user and therefore follow the conver-
sation. (You cannot listen to the data
channel itself in the trunk mode.)
20-430.fm  Page 16  Wednesday, August 4, 1999  1:29 PM 
						

							17
OPERATION
TURNING ON THE 
SCANNER AND SETTING 
SQUELCH
1. Turn SQUELCH and VOLUME fully
counterclockwise.
2. Turn 
VOLUME back clockwise until
you hear a hissing sound.
3. Turn 
SQUELCH clockwise, then
leave it set to a point just after the
hissing sound stops.
Notes: 
• If the scanner will not scan, turn
SQUELCH further clockwise.
• If the scanner picks up unwanted,
partial, or very weak transmis-
sions, turn 
SQUELCH clockwise to
decrease the scanner ’s sensitivity
to these signals. If you want to lis-
ten to a weak or distant station,
turn 
SQUELCH counterclockwise. 
•If 
SQUELCH is adjusted so you
always hear a hissing sound, the
scanner does not scan properly.
STORING KNOWN 
FREQUENCIES INTO 
CHANNELS
Good references for active frequen-
cies are the RadioShack “Police Call
Guide including Fire and Emergency
Services,” “Official Aeronautical Fre-
quency Directory,” and “Maritime Fre-
quency Directory.” We update these
directories every year, so be sure to
get a current copy.
Note: To store trunking system fre-
quencies, see “Programming Trunked
Frequencies” on Page 26.
Follow these steps to store frequen-
cies into channels.
1. Press 
MANUAL, enter the chan-
nel number (1–300) where you
want to store a frequency, then
press 
MANUAL again. The chan-
nel number appears. 
2. Use the number keys and 
• to
enter the frequency (including the
decimal point) you want to store.
20-430.fm  Page 17  Wednesday, August 4, 1999  1:29 PM 
						

							18
3. Press E to store the frequency into
the channel.
Notes:
• If you made a mistake in Step
2, Error appears and the
scanner beeps when you press
E. Simply start again from Step
2.
• Your scanner automatically
rounds the entered frequency to
the nearest valid frequency. For
example, if you enter a fre-
quency of 151.473, your scan-
ner accepts it as 151.475.
• If you entered a frequency that
is already stored in another
channel, the scanner beeps
three times and displays the
lowest channel number where
the frequency is already stored.
If you want to store the fre-
quency anyway, press 
E again.
•Press 
DELAY if you want the
scanner to pause 2 seconds on
this channel after a transmis-
sion ends before it proceeds to
the next channel (see “Delay”
on Page 21). The scanner alsostores this setting in the chan-
nel.
4. If you want to program the next
channel in sequence, press 
MAN-
UAL
 and repeat Steps 2 and 3. 
SEARCHING SERVICE 
BANKS
You can search for public service, po-
lice, fire/emergency, aircraft, and
weather transmissions even if you do
not know the specific frequencies that
are used in your area. And, you can
store any of the frequencies you find
into channels.
Your scanner has the following pre-
programmed service banks.
• PUBLIC — contains 140 public
service frequencies
• POLICE — contains 2,392 police
frequencies
• FIRE/EMG — contains 197 fire
and emergency service frequen-
cies
• AIR — contains 2,319 aircraft and
air service frequencies
• WX — contains 7 weather fre-
quencies
To select a service bank, press 
SVC. A
service bank’s name (
PUB, PO-
LICE
, FIRE/EMG, AIR, or WX) and
one of the preset public service fre-
quencies appear. After a 2-second de-
lay, searching begins. 
20-430.fm  Page 18  Wednesday, August 4, 1999  1:29 PM 
						

							19
To select another service bank, re-
peatedly press 
SVC until the scanner
displays the name of the bank you
want to use.
Notes: 
• To skip data signals (such as
modem signals), press 
DATA. See
“Skipping Data Signals” on
Page 23.
• Because frequencies are not
always assigned to the same ser-
vices everywhere, you might hear
transmissions from one service in
another service group.
Press 
SEARCH to start searching im-
mediately or to continue searching if
you want to skip a frequency.
During service-search, you can press
HOLD to pause the searching. HOLD
appears. Press s or t to move up or
down one step, or press 
SEARCH to
resume searching.
Follow these steps to store frequen-
cies into channels.
1. Press 
MANUAL. 
2. Use the number keys to enter the
channel number (1–300) where
you want to store the frequency,
then press 
MANUAL.
3. Press 
SVC then SEARCH to select a
service bank and begin searching.
4. When the scanner stops on a
transmission, press 
HOLD. The
frequency appears.
5. Press 
E to store the frequency into
the channel.
LIMIT SEARCH
If you do not know a frequency to
store, you can search for transmis-
sions within a range of frequencies
you select, called the 
limit search
range
. Then you can store any inter-
esting frequencies you find into chan-
nels.
1. Press 
MANUAL, enter the chan-
nel number where you want to
store a frequency, then press
MANUAL again. The channel num-
ber appears. 
2. Use the number keys and 
• to
enter the frequency that is the
lower limit of the range you want
to search.
3. Press
 LIMIT.
4. Use the number keys and • to
enter the frequency that is the
upper limit of the range you want
to search.
5. Press 
LIMIT, then press SEARCH.
The scanner begins to search
from the lower limit to the upper
limit.
6. When the scanner stops on a
transmission, quickly press either:
•
E to store the displayed fre-
20-430.fm  Page 19  Wednesday, August 4, 1999  1:29 PM 
						

							20quency into the channel. The
scanner stores the frequency.
• s or t to stop searching so you
can listen to the transmission.
HOLD appears.
To release hold and continue
searching, press 
SEARCH.
Notes:
• To step through the frequencies
while 
HOLD appears, press s or t.
• If you tune to a search skip fre-
quency, 
L/O appears. See “Lock-
ing Out Channels and Fre-
quencies” on Page 23.
• To skip data signals (such as
modem signals), press 
DATA. See
“Skipping Data Signals” on
Page 23.
SCANNING THE STORED 
CHANNELS
To begin scanning channels, press
SCAN. The scanner scans through all
non-locked channels in all banks that
are turned on, then stops on the first
transmission it finds. When the trans-
mission ends, the scanner resumes
scanning.
Notes: 
• Channels with no frequencies are
automatically locked out during
scanning.
• To scan in the trunk tracking
mode, see “Scanning a Trunked
Bank” on Page 27.
MANUALLY SELECTING 
A CHANNEL
You can continuously monitor a single
channel without scanning. This is use-
ful if you hear an emergency broad-
cast on a channel and do not want to
miss any details — even though there
might be periods of silence — or if you
want to monitor a specific channel.
Follow these steps to manually select
a channel.
1. Press 
MANUAL.
2. Enter the channel number.
3. Press 
MANUAL again.
Or, if your scanner is scanning and
stops at the desired channel, press
MANUAL one time. (Pressing MANUAL
additional times causes your scanner
to step through the channels.)
To resume scanning, press 
SCAN.
CLEARING A 
FREQUENCY FROM A 
CHANNEL
1. Press MANUAL.
2. Use the number keys to enter the
channel number containing the
frequency you want to delete.
Then press 
MANUAL again.
3. Press 
0, then press E. The fre-
quency is deleted.
20-430.fm  Page 20  Wednesday, August 4, 1999  1:29 PM