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RadioShack PRO-79 Handheld Scanner
Specifications
Vintage 2000
Type Handheld
Range 29-54 108-174 380-512 MHz
Channels 200
Banks 10
Modes AM, FM
Priority 1 channel
Sensitivity As listed in the manual:
29- 54: 0.5µV
108-137: 1.0µV
137-174: 0.5µV
380-512: 0.7µV
Conversion Double
IFs 1=10.7 MHz
2=0.455 MHz
Scan 25 channels/second
Search 50 steps/second
Audio 180 mW
Power 6V DC (4 AAs)
9V (external)
Current 45 mA (squelched)
Size 2.4"(W) x 5.7"(H) x 1.4"(D)
Weight 7.9 oz
Interfaces BNC, DC, speaker/PC
Accessories Antenna, belt clip, battery
holders (2)
Features Service scan (4 agencies)
Duplicate freq check
Direct search
Weather search & alert
PC Interface
Search lockout (50 freqs)
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Quick Peek
- Everything appears to point to GRE as the manufacturer
- Service Search includes police/fire/EMS, air, marine and ham
- Manual lists freq ranges searched for above Service Search classes
- Direct search works off of entered freq or memory channel freq
- Weather search programmed with the 7 US NOAA freqs
- Weather alert does not mention SAME so it most likely uses the
old analog 1050 Hz tone for activation
- Like most other scanners, once the weather alert is activiated,
the scanner can not be used for other purposes
- No limit search!
- 50 search lockouts for both direct search and service search
- Search lockout review function!
- Single priority channel
- Unique keypad layout
- Keys are small and crammed together
- Display is large, has good contrast and large chars
- Looking at the LCD at the right angle, you can make out a
hidden indicator: CAR #
- Key beep can be turned off
- Power-on resume!
- Backlight is probably the best GRE has made yet (although they
still have some work to do)!
- The first GRE to take only 4 AAs?!
- Made in China!
- Date code implies December 1999 manufacture
- Manual includes new section on how to calculate image frequencies
to verify newly found transmissions
- Manual lists 34 birdies
- Hard to say, but the manual makes it appear that the PC interface
is for programming only and only for downloading data to the scanner
- I'll be interested to see this unit's rejection capabilities
given that it is only double conversion but has no 800 MHz
- AM sensitivity appears quite poor; audio is muffled
- FM sensitivity is below average on testing thus far
- FM audio is medium-powered; fidelity is OK
- Squelch tail is average-to-short
- Overall it looks like a bargain for only $100
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