Guide To The Action Bands - Realistic PRO-2001 Owner's Manual

Your community is alive with action-action which is constantly being
reported on the air waves. Your PRO-2001 will automatically scan
the air waves to bring you that action-your police force at work, a
fire truck on a mission, Sheriff's department, State police, the
National Weather Service, Ham Radio operators, highway and other
emergency-type services, some industrial services, some transportation
services (taxi, trucks, railroad), plus some Government services.
Lots of things are going on that most of us just are never aware of.
But, with the right frequencies programmed into your PRO-2001,
you can monitor such exciting signals. You'll have to do a little
investigating in your community to find out what services are active
and on what frequencies. Or better still, just use the Search capabilities
of your Scanner-and it will tell you what frequencies are usedl You
w i l l f i n d o n e o f o u r b o o k s t o b e v e r y i n t e r e s t i n g a n d h e l p f u l i n t h i s
area: REALISTIC GUIDE TO POLICE. FIRE AND AIRCRAFT
RADIO.
What to listen for and where? That is a little difficult for a specific
answer. Each area of the country can and will use different channels.
All we can do is give you some general pointers and then let you take
it from there.
Find out if there is a local club which monitors these frequencies.
Often a local electronics repair shop that does work on the equipment
can give you the channel frequencies used by local radio services. A
volunteer police or fire employee can also be a good souiJe of this
information.
GUIDE TO THE ACTION BANDS
An interesting service is the Mobile Telephone. FCC has assigned this
s e r v i c e c h a n n e l s i n t h e r a n g e o f 1 5 2 . 5 1 1 o 1 5 2 . 8 1 M H z a t e v e r y 0 . 0 3 0
M H z ( c h a n n e l s a r e 3 0 k H z a p a r t ) . A l s o , 4 5 4 . 3 1 5 t o 4 5 4 . 9 5 M H z w i t h
channels 25 kHz apart from 454.375 to 454.625 and then every
5 0 k H z u o t o 4 5 4 . 9 5 .
As a general rule on VHF, most activity will be concentrated between
1 5 3 . 7 8 5 a n d 1 5 5 . 9 8 a n d t h e n a g a i n f r o m 1 5 8 . 7 3 t o 1 5 9 . 4 6 M H z . H e r e
y o u ' l l f i n d l o c a l g o v e r n m e n t , p o l i c e , f i r e a n d m o s t s u c h e m e r g e n c y
services. lf you are near a railroad yard or major railroad tracks, look
a r o u n d 1 6 0 . 0 t o 1 6 1 . 9 f o r t h e m .
I n s o m e o f t h e l a r g e r c i t i e s , t h e r e h a s b e e n a m o v e t o t h e U H F b a n d s
for these emergency services. Here, most of the activity is in a spread
o f 4 5 3 . 0 2 5 - 4 5 3 . 9 5 a n d a g a i n a t 4 5 6 . 0 2 5 - 4 5 9 . 9 5 M H z .
I n t h e U H F b a n d , t h e o v e r a l l s p r e a d o f 4 5 6 . 0 2 5 - 4 5 9 . 9 5 a n d a g a i n a t
465.025-469.975 MHz is used by mobile units and control stations
associated with base and repeater units which operate 5 MHz lower
(that is, 451.025-454.95 and 460.025-464.975 MHz). This means
that if you f ind an active channel inside one of these spreads, you can
l o o k 5 M H z l o w e r ( o r h i g h e r a s t h e c a s e m a y b e ) t o f i n d t h e m a j o r
base station/reoeater for that radio service.
A handy book to have is the POLICE CALL RADIO DIRECTORY
for your region. Stop by your local Radio Shack store and ask about
it. lt has complete listings, by frequency, of the various radio services
in the bands covered by your PRO-2001. These Directories are up-
dated every year, so get a current one.
- 1 4 -