Pro-2004: Revisiting the past

[bkantor]

As much as I love all of my modern scanners (BDD536HP, HP-1, PSR-800, etc), I decided to take one of my old 2004's out of storage today and fire it up. I dusted my old friend off and programmed all of the local conventional frequencies (by hand no less!!) and turned it on. I forgot how sensitive and fun this old radio is - it will now sit proudly among my other radios once again with its soothing blue display. I actually enjoyed programming by hand for a change.

That is all!

Bob

 

[rbm]

I had a few PRO-2004's and at the time, they were the BEST!
I actually paid full price for my first one or two of them.

I modified ALL of them!

Then I started buying the PRO-2006's and they were even better.
I paid full price for the first one or two them also.

I forget what year they were closing out the PRO-2006's. Sometime around 2003 maybe.

I bought a LOT of them at closeout for around $150 or so. Maybe even less.

I built a lot of CE-232 interfaces of the Bill Cheek type and I wrote a number of programs for him. (And me. )
I modified ALL of them too!

I had more than 40 PRO-2004's and PRO-2006's and didn't think I'd ever need any other scanners.
(I still have a few dozen of the PRO-2006's on the shelf. I gave a bunch to friends who were just starting in the hobby.)

Then........................
I got my first Uniden BCD396T when they first came out.
I loved it.
So ...................... I started buying a lot of Uniden DMA scanners. (BCD396, BCT15, and BCD996 of all vintages.)
I was watching Ebay every day and when one was in my desired price range, I bought it.

Today I'm running more than 40 Uniden DMA scanners of several vintages and the only thing that will make me change, is if I need some digital modes that they don't receive.

Rich

 

[SCPD]

I like how the 536HP is off! LOL!
The 2004 was probably and still is one of the fastest scanners out there.
I see yours,now I miss mine.DMA is still better

 

[dkf435]

Still have a PRO-2035 with OPTO OS-535 installed, think the 2035 and 2042 were the fastest of the GRE of that line. The OS-535 with Probe Software with password entered and decending frequency order search would rip pretty fast. We had all the 800 AMPS stuff mapped by site.

David

 

[wtp]

still got mine

on the row of 4 scanners there is a 2001 and a 2004.
they still have a purpose and are useful.

 

[wbswetnam]

I remember when the Pro-2004 first came out in 1987... it was the first scanner to receive military aircraft frequencies, I believe. I just about drooled on the floor looking at it!

 

[rbm]

Still have a PRO-2035 with OPTO OS-535 installed, think the 2035 and 2042 were the fastest of the GRE of that line. The OS-535 with Probe Software with password entered and decending frequency order search would rip pretty fast. We had all the 800 AMPS stuff mapped by site.

David

I also had a bunch of PRO-2035 and PRO-2042 scanners.
I used a CE-232 interface for each. (Thanks to Bill Cheek)

A long time ago, I ordered twelve European PRO-2042 processors and replaced the ones in my scanners.
I ordered them from Javiation in the UK.
http://www.javiation.co.uk/pro2042.html

That gave the PRO-2035's all the capabilities of the PRO-2042 and with NO blocking.

I still have four of the PRO-2035's with the PRO-2042 European processors in use today.
They work great for what I use them for.

Somewhere around here I have a few more of the processor chips that I never even used.

Rich

 

[trp2525]

I have a PRO-2006 that I bought new when they were being discontinued and consider it one of the best/most versatile scanners that I have owned in my 40+ years in the hobby. I still have it in use today but the display is not as bright as it was when it was new (known issue).

The one thing that I dislike about the older scanners like the PRO-2006 and the older RCA crystal scanner that I have is their lack of PL/DPL. In a metropolitan/urban area a scanner can usually receive multiple users on the same frequency especially if an outside antenna is in use. Typically you want to monitor only a certain local user on a particular frequency and really don't want your scanner stopping for traffic of out-of-town users on that same frequency.

The other thing that I have noticed with the really old scanners (like the crystal scanners) is that you can sometimes hear the analog PL tone hum coming through the speaker. In my area PL 203.5 is in widespread use on many channels and you can definitely hear it in the audio output of my crystal scanner.

I have a Bearcat BC950XLT with the analog PL tone board installed and even though it is 25+ years old it is my main go-to scanner for monitoring of local analog channels. I believe it was one of the first scanners to offer PL capability back in the late 80s. The only drawback is that it doesn't decode DPL which some of my local services have migrated to over the years. I've replaced the display backlight bulb a few times over the years but the radio still sounds good.

 

[N2SCV]

I remember when the Pro-2004 first came out in 1987... it was the first scanner to receive military aircraft frequencies, I believe. I just about drooled on the floor looking at it!

I was ecstatic when I bought my 2004, wow, military aircraft frequencies! Made a discone and put it in the attic. Did some of Bill Cheek's mods, even more on the 2005. Miss those days.

 

[kennyblues]

I think before the Pro-2004 came out Regency had the MX7000 that included the Milair band. I remember jumping all over it being my first Milair scanner, my first 2004 came later.

 

[rbm]

The progression of those GRE scanners was great.

I had some of each and modified many with Bill Cheek's mods for myself and others.
They all had the CE-232 interfaces.
I wrote software that allowed me to link multiple search ranges in any combination.

Another that allowed me to lock out a channel with a constant carrier. It would keep checking and when the carrier dropped, it would unlock the frequency.

Rich

This processor will upgrade a PRO-2035 to a PRO-2042 and PRO2042 to the latest full coverage scanner.
PRO-2042 - "Full 800MHz Coverage" GRE-9621 European CPU

That's NOT something you can do without specialized equipment which I no longer have access to.

 

[kb9tdj]

I still have my Pro-2006 and CE-232 interface and also wrote my own (DOS-based) frequency database manager/ce-232 interface software. The great thing about my software (written in about 1994-1995 timeframe) was that not only could it automatically program the scanner and record the frequency hits, it also recorded the audio via a soundblaster card and saved that audio data in the application-embedded database (using db_Vista database SDK software). Replay options included playing back audio in strict time order (which could include multiple frequencies), or play back audio just for a single frequency. I used this for 225-400 MHz milair band searches and scans. It was fun to come home at the end of the day and play back the national guard A-A exercises that happened during the day or range practice down at Atterbury or Jefferson Proving grounds in Indiana. Ahhhh......memories.