I bought a Realistic/RadioShack PRO-2020! Anything I should know?

[nvanw27]

Curiosity got the best of me yesterday and I saw signs for a garage sale. So, I followed them and walked away with a PRO-2020 and a $2 dollar difference from when I drove in. It badly needs refurbishing to the point where my hand gets stuck on some of the buttons, and the previous owner used some weird cabling for the antenna and it doesn’t work at all, it won’t even pick me up on a GMRS standing 5 feet away.

So, I need to refurbish it, get a new battery, and find my spare antenna.

Anything I should know about this scanner hey could greatly improve my appreciation of it? It’s going to sit proudly on my desk with a few of my favourite frequencies programmed in.


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[a417]

20 channels, analog only, VHF & UHF. It'll only do AM in the VHF air band (iirc) and FM everywhere else.

it looks purty when they're all cleaned up and running, but it doesn't do much. I always did like that good ol' VFD display that it had on it, makes a good desk queen.

RadioShack / Realistic Pro-2020, Desktop VHF/UHF Scanner / receiver | RigReference.com

RX-range: 30-50 / 108-136 / 138-174 / 410-512 MHz (USA), TX-range: -, Base Station model, Manufactured between 19xx and 19xx

rigreference.com

 

[bb911]

I have a RS 2021 that works great and there's still plenty to listen to in Southern California: CHP, USFS, Cal Fire, some county FDs (not all of their communications), and more... I'm assuming that it's the follow up to the 2020. The 2021 has 200 channels, an LCD display, and gray buttons. Still has the Motorola type antenna connector and the 9 V back up battery. Also, that darn AC cord that can't be removed without a mod., even though it came with a mobile mounting bracket and DC input.

 

[trentbob]

That was a wonderful radio and I owned one in the early 80s? It has the Motorola pin type plug antenna connection.

By the way that was made by GRE. Bearcat was made by the Electra company at that time in Cumberland Indiana and had the Bearcat 210. This was a better radio.

When you open it up you're probably going to see a lot of corrosion.

You'll probably be able to get a few VHF UHF things on it. Aviation was also very good on that radio.

Getting a mot pin type back of set antenna is not that easy even though I probably have about five of them left, the BNC to mot adapter should be easy enough to find.

Radios then didn't do well with rooftop antennas as I believe it was only double conversion and they didn't have PL tones then on scanners.

Sweet radio, hope you get it working, if I can answer any questions I'll try but there's a lot on the internet I'm sure on that radio... Bob.

 

[iMONITOR]

Realistic Pro 2020 Modification (Restoration Project)

More mods here:

Radio modification files

MANUAL

http://pdf.textfiles.com/manuals/SCANNERS-F-R/Radio%20Shack_PRO-2020%20VHF-UHF%20Scanner-Reciever_Short%20Manual.pdf

 

[nvanw27]

Here are my findings after working on it yesterday:

Yes, the battery was corroded. It also collected the brown foam that was installed on the battery door. The battery went bye-bye, and the foam was scraped off with a putty knife.

I cleaned the front of it, and now it looks decent . Luckily it isn't white so there was no yellowing.

I did get another antenna for it. I've been able to pickup the BATA busses a few cities over, so I see that as an absolute win.

Does anyone know where the piezo for the button beeps is? It's highly obnoxious and I wish to disconnect it.

 

[fourthhorseman]

Do Not Get it wet...
Do Not Feed After Midnight...
or you get this......

 

[Paco-Jerte]

Discriminator tap would be useful on the 2020

Look for the following IC - MC3357 and Pin # 9 has the Baseband audio output.
Connect a 10 k resistor and use shielded cable for best results.
Good luck

 

[nvanw27]

The entire front end has been cleaned to its original glory. The inside is a mess - not going to try to screw with that too much. The way mine seems to be set up is the beep goes out of the internal speaker... but the speaker is crap anyway so I am going to try to connect my computer speakers up to it for better audio. This also means that my UV can be the backup unless I want 3 things running at the same time.
I've compiled a photo album that i'll post later of all of the accouterments and cleaning process.

 

[MTS2000des]

This is a beauty of a radio built by GRE for Radio Shack. Was my FIRST scanner bought new at 7 years old in 1983. I was able to get one in cherry shape off Ebay in 2015 and it still serves as a great HAM/aircraft scanner. Done nothing to it, and it's perfect with superb sensitivity and selectivity on VHF and UHF. I have a thing for VFDs and this was the "glory days" of VFDs for sure.

For $2 you did great.