Radio Shack PRO-404

[WhiskeyHotelFoxtrot]

Hey, I just picked up a used PRO-404 scanner and am having some issues setting it up.

First, I have no problem programming in my local police and EMS frequencies. But, when I push the Police/Fire band button on the scanner it seems to get hung up on a frequency. I adjusted the squelch and tried to scan the band again with no luck.

Even the weather bands don't seem to work. I thought they were programmed but maybe I need to do something first?

Anyone know what I can do to get this scanner working?

All replies are appreciated.

~WHF

 

[WhiskeyHotelFoxtrot]

Maybe some pictures will help.

Here it what it looks like when I push the Fire/Police button...

...and what it looks like when I push the weather button.

I get no sound from either frequencies.

 

[WhiskeyHotelFoxtrot]

I read the manual and it in order to check for proper operation you should push the weather button and hear NOAA weather radio. I did this and it does not work. Is this scanner junk? Maybe I'm missing something perhaps?

Hope it works. When I finally get enough money for a scanner, the one I buy is JUNK! ARGH!

 

[WhiskeyHotelFoxtrot]

Have I stumped you guys? Is this not a common scanner?

 

[tmfok7]

Go to page 35 and look at the section on "Birdie Frequencies".

http://www.radioshack.com/graphics/uc/rsk/Support/ProductManuals/2000404_PM_EN.pdf

 

[WhiskeyHotelFoxtrot]

Go to page 35 and look at the section on "Birdie Frequencies".

http://www.radioshack.com/graphics/uc/rsk/Support/ProductManuals/2000404_PM_EN.pdf

Yes, I have read that section of the manual. I tried to lock out the frequency but then another one just takes its place. Would that cause NOAA weather to not work? From what I can tell, the Weather stations are already preprogrammed in and require NO setup by the user. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[mass-man]

Yes they are pre-programmed. Common for scanners like this. Dumb questions follow...is the antenna attached properly? Is the squelch set to minimum? If you programmed your favorite frequencies, the photo shows you in SEARCH, so did you select that bank? While I doubt it, is there an attenuator, or ATT or ATTN button? Make sure it is off. Is the radio sitting directly beside a computer monitor or plasma TV or something else that would create interference? Just fishing for answers, and then proceed

 

[GTR8000]

Assuming the antenna is properly attached, and you're not trying to listen from an underground bunker, you should at the very minimum be picking up the local NOAA station when you hit the WX button.

Does your BC120XLT have trouble picking up the local NOAA station? I would swap the antennas, put the 120's on the 404 and see if it makes any difference. If there's no difference, then there's definitely a problem with the 404.

 

[ST-Bob]

Being that it's used, its programming could be all screwed up - you don't know what the previous owner may have done to it - you may need to initialize it to factory defaults.

Looking at the manual here and WIKI articles it appears this scanner is made for Radio Shack by GRE. GRE is a bit weird sometimes with how certain things work out of the box. It sounds like the weather search band is not defaulted to begin searching. You may need to press the PSE button to resume a search within the weather band. This is mentioned on page 22 of the manual. However, your pictures of the display would seem to indicate there's some sort of problem. You're clearly in search mode and searching up but nothing is displayed for frequencies.

It's also possible that all the weather frequencies in that search bank are locked out. When in that bank, you can press the LO/LO-RVW button for about 2 seconds to bring up the lockout review mode. If you find the 162.xxx weather channels are locked out, one at a time you can remove the lockouts. This is shown on page 30 of the manual.

As to locking out 'birdies' this is common for scanners and is usually only a problem when actively searching out new frequencies for an unfamiliar area. Occasionally, you may run into a situation where one of the local frequencies you wish to monitor coincides with a 'birdie' frequency. There's little you can do about that, unfortunately. There is a maximum of 50 lockouts that can be stored in the scanner. Hopefully you have far less than that.

It might be a good idea to reinitialize the scanner to factory settings. Power on the scanner and when the screen displays WELCOME SCAnnInG rECIEVEr press the 0 key then the 1 key while it's still showing the welcome message. InItIAL appears for about 2 seconds and then yes=enter and no=clear. Press the enter key for yes or the clear key for no. If you initialize the scanner it will delete any saved frequencies you've entered. This is on page 33/34 of the manual.

Good luck.

 

[mass-man]

Re-read your first post. If you programmed, then do not push the fire/police button, that puts it into search. Hit the bank button...there is a longshot, but in checking the antenna as suggested above, is the center pin there? They can get broken off. Another good reason to swap antennas

 

[WhiskeyHotelFoxtrot]

Yes they are pre-programmed. Common for scanners like this. Dumb questions follow...is the antenna attached properly? Is the squelch set to minimum? If you programmed your favorite frequencies, the photo shows you in SEARCH, so did you select that bank? While I doubt it, is there an attenuator, or ATT or ATTN button? Make sure it is off. Is the radio sitting directly beside a computer monitor or plasma TV or something else that would create interference? Just fishing for answers, and then proceed

Yes, the antenna is properly attached. I've tried adjusting the squelch and then trying the weather band but no luck. I tried it outside yesterday for about a 1/2 hour but it couldn't receive anything. No, there is not a attenuator button on this particular scanner. Thanks for the response.

Assuming the antenna is properly attached, and you're not trying to listen from an underground bunker, you should at the very minimum be picking up the local NOAA station when you hit the WX button.

Does your BC120XLT have trouble picking up the local NOAA station? I would swap the antennas, put the 120's on the 404 and see if it makes any difference. If there's no difference, then there's definitely a problem with the 404.

I see you found another one of my posts! Yes, the BC120XLT works just fine in my location for picking up NOAA and EMS frequencies.

I swapped antennas. The Pro-404's antenna picked up frequencies fine on the BC120XLT and the Pro-404 still couldn't pickup anything with the BC120XLT's antenna attached. Guess that sums it up. Thanks for your reply.

Re-read your first post. If you programmed, then do not push the fire/police button, that puts it into search. Hit the bank button...there is a longshot, but in checking the antenna as suggested above, is the center pin there? They can get broken off. Another good reason to swap antennas

Center pin is there. The antenna works fine on my BC120XLT.

Edit: I believe banks 1 and 3 are being searched. Hence the little bar under the numbers. Or maybe its the opposite. haha. Either way, I been trying to get this scanner working for about 3 hours in total and haven't heard so much as a peep from anything. Police/Fire/Ham/Weather. Nothing. I find it hard to believe that I'm that big of a dummy! lol

 

[WhiskeyHotelFoxtrot]

Being that it's used, its programming could be all screwed up - you don't know what the previous owner may have done to it - you may need to initialize it to factory defaults.

Looking at the manual here and WIKI articles it appears this scanner is made for Radio Shack by GRE. GRE is a bit weird sometimes with how certain things work out of the box. It sounds like the weather search band is not defaulted to begin searching. You may need to press the PSE button to resume a search within the weather band. This is mentioned on page 22 of the manual. However, your pictures of the display would seem to indicate there's some sort of problem. You're clearly in search mode and searching up but nothing is displayed for frequencies.

It's also possible that all the weather frequencies in that search bank are locked out. When in that bank, you can press the LO/LO-RVW button for about 2 seconds to bring up the lockout review mode. If you find the 162.xxx weather channels are locked out, one at a time you can remove the lockouts. This is shown on page 30 of the manual.

As to locking out 'birdies' this is common for scanners and is usually only a problem when actively searching out new frequencies for an unfamiliar area. Occasionally, you may run into a situation where one of the local frequencies you wish to monitor coincides with a 'birdie' frequency. There's little you can do about that, unfortunately. There is a maximum of 50 lockouts that can be stored in the scanner. Hopefully you have far less than that.

It might be a good idea to reinitialize the scanner to factory settings. Power on the scanner and when the screen displays WELCOME SCAnnInG rECIEVEr press the 0 key then the 1 key while it's still showing the welcome message. InItIAL appears for about 2 seconds and then yes=enter and no=clear. Press the enter key for yes or the clear key for no. If you initialize the scanner it will delete any saved frequencies you've entered. This is on page 33/34 of the manual.

Good luck.

When I first opened the box I tried to see if it would pick up anything, but it didn't so a reset of the scanner was one of the first things I did.

I tried what you said about the weather band, and it did start to show the frequencies instead of a blank screen. 162.XXXX showed up. But it still did not broadcast any audio.

Thank you for your reply.

 

[WhiskeyHotelFoxtrot]

The seller offered me a refund. First I'm going to radio shack and have them verify it is junk then I'll probably send it back.

Thank you all for your replies!

 

[mass-man]

If you have been offered a refund, get the scanner boxed up and on its way. I wouldn't waste my time with a stop at Radio Shack. They won't know how it works, or even what it is. They may have sold the thing, but they don't know much about it. Sounds like you went thru everything to get it to work.

 

[WhiskeyHotelFoxtrot]

If you have been offered a refund, get the scanner boxed up and on its way. I wouldn't waste my time with a stop at Radio Shack. They won't know how it works, or even what it is. They may have sold the thing, but they don't know much about it. Sounds like you went thru everything to get it to work.

It'll be on my way to the post office so it isn't much trouble. Figure its worth a try anyway.

I'm looking at a Pro-164 now. I may post another thread sometime in the near future. haha

 

[GTR8000]

If you're looking for a basic handheld that doesn't cost a fortune, you might want to see if RS has any Pro-137's left in stock. A few weeks ago they were on closeout for $50, which is a hell of a deal for a really nice handheld scanner.

Pro-137 - The RadioReference Wiki

 

[antburns3]

Did you ever get your pro-404 to work?

 

[WhiskeyHotelFoxtrot]

Did you ever get your pro-404 to work?

No, I returned it and got a Pro-164. I'm happy with it.

 

[larry52]

Pro-404

I know that you no longer have the pro-404 scanner but maybe someone else may have the same problem. I have a couple of hand helds scanners that do the same thing. After pulling my hair out I found the culprit. It was my cordless phone and my Magic jack connector. As soon as I unplugged it the scanner resumed scanning as normal. When I plugged it in it hung up on most of the lower frequencies,ie,37 to 46 range. So while you may not have have a magic Jack, you may have something that is causing the problem. Try a different location in the house to see if it's just something in that room.