Finding A Hidden Frequency In A Range - AOR AR1000 Manual

AR1000 Applications

Finding a hidden frequency in a range

While you may get many of your frequencies from friends or from frequency
guides, one of the most exciting aspects of monitoring is to find those hidden,
interesting frequencies on your own. Frequency allocation and usage change all
the time and even your new frequency guide may be out of date or incomplete.
With the AR1000 search feature, you can search for the new frequencies.
The basic method of using the search features are described in pages 14 to 20.
Here we'll detail the technique a little more.
If you are looking for a specific frequency or set of frequencies, you can use the
search bank frequency lockout feature to help you. Let's take an example. Say
you live near a company and you want to find out the frequency or frequencies of
the security department. Often the units used by security companies have one to
five channels. You start by searching the frequency band for this kind of service.
In the United States, many security companies operate in the range of 460.000 to
465.000 MHz. Set your search banks to somewhere in this range. For example,
you might start searching from 460.00 to 461.00 with an increment of 12.5
KHz. Once you've exhausted this range, try 461.00 to 462.00.
If you know the frequency of a company's handheld, but you hear them switch
to "channel 3" it means that their unit probably uses several different frequencies.
Most likely these other frequencies will be close to the one you are listening to.
The challenge in a search is to identify what you pick up. You do this by listening
and logging the intercepts. Usually, you can get enough information from the
broadcasts to identify the type of operation and who it is. When you are search-
ing for a particular company or group, eliminating an identified transmission is as
important as identifying a new transmission, especially if the band is heavily used.
Here's how to use the AR1000's search bank frequency lockout feature to help
you. Start searching as described above. When you identify an active frequency,
log it and then press LOCKOUT. It is now locked and the scanner will no
longer stop on this frequency. As you continue doing this, you eliminate the
frequencies you have identified. The scanner will not stop on frequencies you
have already identified so there is more chance it will hear one of the frequencies
you are still searching for. By elimination, you will clear the range of frequencies
you know about and will eventually find the frequencies you are interested in.
When you use this approach, it helps to put your scanner in Hold mode. Then
you will always be able to grab and lock out an active frequency, even if the
transmission is short.
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