Pro-2004: Pro-2004 Revival

[N1SQB]

I’m not sure if this has happened to any of you. I went through my shack closet a few months back, and ran into things I forgot I had. One was a mint condition Pro-2004. It was unmolested. I said “oh no, I can’t leave this like this”😁. So….out came the fun stuff; soldering iron, desoldering iron, drill, etc…Dusted off the ol Bill Cheek mod books. In the end, it ended up with a faster scan rate, full 800 MHz., carrier on indicator light, dimmer switch on/off now, tighter squelch and of course, 100 more channels. Now it’s more of a relic than anything else. I do add some aircraft stuff when I’m bored. I thought about selling it but I decided not to. It’s in mint cosmetic condition and works flawlessly, so I’ll keep it next to its brother, my Pro-2006…. Miss those mod days..😊

Manny

 

[trentbob]

I’m not sure if this has happened to any of you.

Yeppers, about 5 years ago I went into the scanner graveyard in the garage to thin out the heard, my 2004 was perfect pristine condition.. GRE did a hell of a job with those three radios..

The only mod I had ever done was lickity split fast, just cut the diode to have analog 800 MHz cell phone coverage which is meaningless now of course..

I ended up selling it to someone who is a lot more happy than I was to have it but it just didn't serve any purpose and would have just gone and stayed in the garage, heck, I've already retired my x36s🙂.

 

[N1SQB]

Yeppers, about 5 years ago I went into the scanner graveyard in the garage to thin out the heard, my 2004 was perfect pristine condition.. GRE did a hell of a job with those three radios..

The only mod I had ever done was lickity split fast, just cut the diode to have analog 800 MHz cell phone coverage which is meaningless now of course..

I ended up selling it to someone who is a lot more happy than I was to have it but it just didn't serve any purpose and would have just gone and stayed in the garage, heck, I've already retired my x36s🙂.

I thought the same thing, sell it. But I monitor railroad, marine, civil and military traffic as well. It’s still good for those things. Yes sir, GRE did a hell of a job in the Pro-2004,5,6 line..

Manny

 

[trentbob]

I monitor the same exact things that you do, live on the Delaware River, I'm right next to the northeast corridor, I monitor the cap on the East Coast, guard, news choppers various UHF and VHF stuff.. I'm even into Federal monitoring now that things have gotten so active, you still here stuff in the clear from time to time from ICE, FBI Etc but I just don't have the room anymore.

My Radio Shacks of the past were quite large, even as a teen in the sixties.. I've cut back everything.

There are a few radios that I got rid of that I regret now. That's spilled milk.😉

 

[GadgetGeek]

Pro-2004 was my favorite. Still have a Pro-2005. Excellent analog scanners.

 

[trentbob]

Pro-2004 was my favorite. Still have a Pro-2005. Excellent analog scanners.

Very exciting day that I first got mine I'm guessing in the late 80s.. the only drawback to using it today is I listen to a lot of Coast Guard that includes p25 conventional.

A lot of VHF High stuff that I listen to, and I would use a rooftop is shared by other municipalities in the state and not having the PL tone option would be a drawback today.

I'm comfortable with selling it when I did.

 

[PACNWDude]

Yes! Keep that thing running and useful. I monitor a lot with a stack of Pro-2005/6/2032's......FRS/GMRS/Railroad radios/aviation/and some local utilities.

FRS/GMRS seems to be the best to listen to now with mine. Most only have the 800 MHz diode cut mod....but some have discriminator taps too.

Have to change out backlighting on one Pro-2032.....also have a Pro-2042 with OS-535 board that is stuck in "remote" mode, and many other. I hoard them, but still use most of them.

The GRE Pro series scanners were and still are awesome!

 

[kc2asb]

Great job bringing that 2004 back! I've had my Pro-2006 since 1990, when it was introduced. The 2004/2005/2006 are the best scanners Radio Shack ever sold.

FYI, keep the dimmer switch set to "on/dim" - the brightness level is still sufficient and it will lengthen the life of the backlight.

 

[N1SQB]

FYI, keep the dimmer switch set to "on/dim" - the brightness level is still sufficient and it will lengthen the life of the backlight.

Umm, can’t do that. I removed the resistor that made it dim. It is now an on/off switch. I like it that way. I am more of an ear guy than a visual guy. If I’m doing a search or something or programming, then it goes on. Otherwise it stays off.😊

 

[kc2asb]

Umm, can’t do that. I removed the resistor that made it dim. It is now an on/off switch. I like it that way. I am more of an ear guy than a visual guy. If I’m doing a search or something or programming, then it goes on. Otherwise it stays off.😊

That is even better! Just went back and re-read your original post and saw that you did make that modification.

 

[GadgetGeek]

I bought a spare display light for my Pro-2005 off ebay but my original display still works fine.

 

[N1SQB]

I bought a spare display light for my Pro-2005 off ebay but my original display still works fine.

Yup. I just bought another MINT pro-2006 ( latter version ) for $39.99 because the seller said he was selling it with a “non working backlight”. I almost fell off my chair. I couldn’t hit the purchase button fast enough. It was one of those people who sell anything and everything. He had no clue what he had. The pics he posted showed it works, but in fact, no light. I have changed lights on these scanners so many times, I can almost do it in my sleep. The case looked really clean as well as the front face, buttons and knobs.Somebody took good care of it. I can’t wait to get it and start mods all over again er again..😎

Manny

 

[kc2asb]

That is a great deal for a 2006 in that condition.

 

[N8YX]

2004 was my first "real" scanner - bought it in April of 1987. There's a bit of a back story:

When I first got the unit I carefully set up local and regional public service/public safety scan banks, amateur radio repeaters and simplex frequencies of interest, search ranges for various services - and a bank dedicated exclusively to railroads. In and around my old stomping grounds was a lot of railroad activity. Near to me was a multi-carrier main line set - Chessie System (ex B&O), Conrail (ex PRR/Penn Central) and a regional short line. A double tracked arrangement (north and southbound) was shared by Chessie and Conrail. The latter didn't quite maintain their trackage as well as Chessie did.

I got to know all the crossings and how they were called by the crews on approach, where the hotbox detectors were located and so forth. Late June of that year saw a Chessie and Conrail freight reach out and touch each other just south of a crossing at the south end of my home town. Heard it live on the 2004. Also heard the cleanup efforts. Derailment was ultimately cited as the result of poor R-o-W maintenance on Conrail's part. IIRC, one of the crew members was killed.

Shortly after, Conrail abandoned their trackage from Akron to Massillon and the rails were ripped up around 1990. The right of way from Canal Fulton to the north edge of Massillon was converted into one of my favorite bike trails.

I haven't abandoned the 2004. Shows its age a bit and could use some DeOxit in the Vol/Sq pots but still does the analog thing very well.

 

[videobruce]

I have a 2004 and I had a 2006.
The 2004 was FAR superior over the newer 2006. The ONLY improvement of the 2006 was the keypad instead of that ugly, toy like looking 3 color (namely yellow) membrane keypad the 2004 has.
You can do more with the 2004 for starters. The display is much larger and it had a metal enclosure instead of that cheap plastic box with the rear tabs that hold the 2 parts of the enclosure on that always wind up breaking off.

I got rid of the 2006 and kept the 2004 inspite of the ugly, cheap looking keypad.

 

[kc2asb]

I have a 2004 and I had a 2006.
The 2004 was FAR superior over the newer 2006. The ONLY improvement of the 2006 was the keypad instead of that ugly, toy like looking 3 color (namely yellow) membrane keypad the 2004 has.
You can do more with the 2004 for starters. The display is much larger and it had a metal enclosure instead of that cheap plastic box with the rear tabs that hold the 2 parts of the enclosure on that always wind up breaking off.

I got rid of the 2006 and kept the 2004 inspite of the ugly, cheap looking keypad.

The plastic case was definitely a downgrade as far as the PRO-2005/2006. Radio Shack's scanners did get more "plasticky" and lighter in the 90's but at least the 2005/2006 were well-shielded. Otherwise, the 2004/2005/2006 are substantially similar in terms of performance.

The 2004's larger display is a plus. I never had any issues with the display on my 2006, though. The membrane keypads on the 2004 do seem to hold up well, despite their appearance.

 

[Ubbe]

it ended up with a faster scan rate,

I would advice against doing any clock crystal changes to speed up the CPU. Everything else will speed up and not only scan speed. The sampling time the CPU does for the squelch are shorter but the squelch detect are still the old slow one from its passive components and sound squelch the same with a shorter samplig time, making it skip some active channels, and the delay time for channels will also be shorter. The CPU in itself will run hot and bus speed to memory and other circuits will run at a higher speed close to what they can tolerate without running into data errors.

Pro-2004 have a reliable 8ch/s scan rate and a more unreliable 16ch/s turbo scan speed so isn't really suited to be scanning more than a few channels, so not really any point in trying to make it scan quicker as the components in it for its squelch circuit cannot manage any higher speed.

/Ubbe