parnass@ihu1h.UUCP (Bob Parnass, AJ9S) (01/21/86)
x Scanner Survey: Radio Shack (made by General Research Electronics of Tokyo) Bob Parnass, AJ9S PRO2001: Early, discontinued single bank 16 channel pro- grammable. Reasonable coverage of the 3 traditional bands, minus aircraft band. LED digital display as well as an LED per channel. Mechanical lockout switch for each channel. Delay is either on or off for all channels at a time. High synthesizer noise level. Troublesome plated through holes on digital board in some units renders radio virtually unfixable. Could never get mine to work more than a few days in a row; always another bad connection. Some owners have no trouble. PRO52: Discontinued 8 channel VHF-Lo/Hi base unit. No UHF band or provision for mobile operation. Good little scanner despite limited frequency coverage and Spartan lack of frills. Front mounted, vertical speaker always a win. PRO2003: Radio Shack's top of line. 50 channels + 10 FM commercial broadcast band channels. Includes aircraft. Good frequency coverage and functionality, but at a high price. Poor human engineering: difficult to read keyboard makes the PRO2003 hard to operate unless in a well lit room. Keyboard label coloring improved on newer units. Rather slow scan rate and high price. Although there are provi- sions for 12VDC operation, the cabinet shape and lack of mounting bracket makes mobile operation impractical. Scan rate only 8 channels/sec vs. 15/sec in Regency and Bearcat. Causes RFI: Plastic case permits scanner to radiate signals into nearby receivers. PRO30: 16 channel programmable portable with aircraft band. Good frequency coverage. Extra controls on top allow con- trol of SCAN, MANUAL, and PRIORITY functions while worn on belt. Good belt clip. Low audio output. Plastic case prone to break at BNC antenna connector under severe use, vs. metal frame in Regency HX1000. High price, no discounts or sales yet. I had 6 or 7 PRO30s, having to return them several times during the 1 year warrantee, although other owners have had little or no trouble. Troubles included oscillation in IF stage, no UHF band reception, case broken around base of antenna connector, etc. PRO24: Only 4 channels in this crystal controlled portable. Covers the three basic bands, but no aircraft. Easy to obtain batteries and crystals. Characteristic Radio Shack squelch problem, fixable by changing one resistor. All- plastic case larger than Bearcat Thin Scan and clones. -- =============================================================================== Bob Parnass, Bell Telephone Laboratories - ihnp4!ihu1h!parnass - (312)979-5414