PRO-2006 mods

[Have_Teeth]

Anyone still own a PRO-2006? (GRE product, RS-branded).

I find the 2006 to be a powerhouse receiver. It's obviously aged and not useful for trunking, but I've put mine to good use as a general coverage receiver and use it mostly as a hot data-receiver. I also use it for directional-finding and doing mobile site-surveys.

Here's a list of the mods I've implemented and some pictures to go along with it:

- Cellular restoration
- Speed enhancement
- Audio improvement (cap changes)
- Squelch improvement (hysterisis)
- Discriminator output (red jack)
- Analog s-meter output (black jack)
- Keypad beep-level attenuation (VR installed on board)
- Headphone/speaker amplitude balance
- Tape-out level improvement (padded down...VR near back of scanner)
- ELD replacement

[Click bottom picture for enlarged version]

Anyone else use a souped-up 2006 to complement their monitoring requirements?

 

[K8TEK]

Other then putting a baseband audio port on the rear of this unit, no. I got mine on eBay for $100. It looks like it has never been used. It even came in the original box.

 

[Have_Teeth]

Another cool mod would be a multicolor display so the 2006 could compete with Uniden's new scanners. I notice they really take pride in what they do these days

 

[Eng74]

Even with as "old" as the 2006 is it is still one of the best scanners that Radio Shack has ever put out. The scan speed is just as fast as what is out there now. It was a great scanner to mod if you want also. I see you have one from the first batch since it has the dimmer and not the light switch.

 

[R1VINCE]

i use mine for MilAir

 

[Have_Teeth]

I see you have one from the first batch since it has the dimmer and not the light switch.

Good observation, but I forgot to add I re-cased this one back around '97 and they didn't have the "light" face plate available, only "dimmer". So looks can be deceiving

One useful mod for the 2006 if one could figure out how to do it, would be a backlit keypad. I've haven't seen that one yet. I've got both of Cheek's books too.

 

[smokeyjones666]

Hey, if your camera has a macro mode, can you take a closeup of where you connect to the board for the s-meter mod? I'd be grateful to hear more details of how you handled that.

 

[Squad10]

It's still the one I use for searching the fed bands. Selectivity and sensitivity at its best. Alot of people have Bill Cheek (RIP) to thank for the enhancements he came up with to add to this fantastic scanning receiver.

This thread made me look at the Optoelectronics website to see if they still offer their OPTOSCAN LITE
Computer Control Interface. They do!

http://optoelectronics.com/os456lite.htm

IMO, still worth the $199.00 if you already have not added it to your 2006.

 

[Have_Teeth]

http://optoelectronics.com/os456lite.htm

IMO, still worth the $199.00 if you already have not added it to your 2006.

I was looking at that tonight too, but the available software is what turned me off. Optoelectronics doesn't make their own software, they just provide links to third-party websites.

ScanStar and ScanCat (two of the three links mentioned on Opto's website) don't appear to even sell/promote software for the OS456Lite board any longer. I guess Opto hasn't updated their site in a while.

Would be nice to see something current for the OS456Lite boards. You could probably even trunktrack with the thing if someone wrote the right software. (single radio, just like a real trunktracker)

 

[Have_Teeth]

Hey, if your camera has a macro mode, can you take a closeup of where you connect to the board for the s-meter mod? I'd be grateful to hear more details of how you handled that.

There's not much to see inside of the scanner as I put the circuit into the heat-shrink tubing you see at the back of the scanner. But what I can show you, is the original mod from Bill Cheek's Scanner Modification Handbook 2--the exact circuit I installed with a parts list.

Here you go, everyone:

http://members.shaw.ca/have_teeth/2006/s-meter/

Of course, all of that is copyrighted by Bill Cheek, but since he passed about 9 years ago, I don't think he'll mind that I'm sharing some of his great work with this site. He was a true master at scanning and contributed a lot to our hobby.

 

[Have_Teeth]

For s-meters, check out this guy's eBay sales:

http://shop.ebay.com/merchant/texxcomm

He sells different styles/models that are sometimes not listed. Send him a note and see what he has! That's where I got mine from.

 

[Have_Teeth]

Best s-meter ever!

http://cgi.ebay.com/S-METER-POWER-O...14&_trkparms=72:1205|66:2|65:12|39:1|240:1318

 

[PHOENIX_SCANNER]

Simply one of the finest scanners ever made, and revolutionary for its time. I remember buying one when it came out and thinking, wow, this is really a step forward!

If it decoded DCS and CTCSS It would probably be my analog scanner to this very day, I would even gladly live without alpha tagging and deal with the funky little global attenuation switch on the back.

For civair and milair it's probably still the best scanner money can buy.

Nice work.

No other scanner has withstood the test of time like the 2006.

 

[raisindot]

For its time, the 2006 was probably the best base scanner ever. Radio Shack/GRE did it right by "winking" at users who wanted to mods. I never went beyond the cell mods and snipping the keypad beep cables, but in terms of reception, quality, and functionality, nothing beat it. The only thing I didn't like about it was the 9V battery you needed to keep installed to preserve memory.

I ended up selling it because I could only afford one scanner and wanted to move to a handheld with trunking. Ended up selling the 2006 for $100 more than I paid for it new!


Suzie

 

[K8TEK]

For its time, the 2006 was probably the best base scanner ever. Radio Shack/GRE did it right by "winking" at users who wanted to mods. I never went beyond the cell mods and snipping the keypad beep cables, but in terms of reception, quality, and functionality, nothing beat it. The only thing I didn't like about it was the 9V battery you needed to keep installed to preserve memory.

I ended up selling it because I could only afford one scanner and wanted to move to a handheld with trunking. Ended up selling the 2006 for $100 more than I paid for it new!


Suzie

Really? $100 more then what you paid for it? How long ago? I just bought one off eBay for $100!

 

[Squad10]

Simply one of the finest scanners ever made, and revolutionary for its time. I remember buying one when it came out and thinking, wow, this is really a step forward!

If it decoded DCS and CTCSS It would probably be my analog scanner to this very day, I would even gladly live without alpha tagging and deal with the funky little global attenuation switch on the back.

For civair and milair it's probably still the best scanner money can buy.

Nice work.

No other scanner has withstood the test of time like the 2006.

After I bought my new 2006, the first device I added to it was the Optoelectronics DC440 that decodes DCS, CTCSS, and DTMF. The setup still works perfect today and they have been on for almost non stop since new.

 

[DELCOLHFC]

2 OPTO equipted '06's here!

I have two 2006's, one has the OPTO456 Lite board on board, it usually sits unused on the shelf. I plan to someday (once the honey-do list is wittled down some.....) add some classic Bill Cheek mods to it. The other has the OPTO456 full featured board in it, this one runs all the time partnered with Probe 7.0 software for a really sweet monitoring set. Both radios look like new and work as they should. I love the 40 character alpha tagging on Probe. This radio is hooked to a RS Sputnick antenna (20-076) in the attic, 50' of RG-11 and an Electroline 4 port drop amp. With this setup it proves it has better ears than the other radios that find themselves tapped into the other drop amp ports.

 

[smokeyjones666]

There's not much to see inside of the scanner as I put the circuit into the heat-shrink tubing you see at the back of the scanner.

Ok, I'm pretty sure I can figure this out without letting all the blue smoke out. I just have a couple of questions on your implementation - it looks like you soldered a capacitor to the cathode of diode D-33 and then ran a wire up near the rear of the case where you completed the circuit and shrink tubed it, is that right? Also, what point did you select for your ground, are you grounding to the chassis at the jack in the rear panel?

 

[kd6ecz]

I have two Pro-2006 scanners in my collection still. One I got for Christmas in 1993 and I use it from time to time to scan neighboring L.A. County conventional radio traffic. The other one I bought used in 1995 and I use that one to scan the local VHF/UHF fire and CHP traffic while my BC-780xlt is running on the local trunked radio systems. Both of them work great still and I'll probably keep at least one of them until they stop working

This thread made me look at the Optoelectronics website to see if they still offer their OPTOSCAN LITE
Computer Control Interface. They do!

http://optoelectronics.com/os456lite.htm

IMO, still worth the $199.00 if you already have not added it to your 2006.

If I remember correctly, the OS456Lite board used to be $99 and the full OS456 board was $199. I guess they raised the price on the Lite version when the stopped making the full version. OS456 had a few features that the Lite version didn't have but I don't recall all of the differences. I wonder why they raised the price so high on OS456Lite?

 

[crippledchicken]

I regret selling mine don't really know why I did the 6400 channel mod to it as, I live in a small town and would never, need that many Lol! I also did lots of the other mods including getting rid of the PS tranny and building an external supply to reduce the heat inside the case for prolonged life. I bet I wind up looking for another one yet Lol!