By now you will have read that I am currently a Uniden guy and had been a Regency guy for the most part in past decades. I have however, owned many RadioShack scanners over the last 5 decades of scanning. While for the most part they have been fine there have been a few outliers over the years.
Most RadioShack scanners were made by GRE over the years, but Uniden also made some now and again. For the most part the Uniden-made RS radios were very similar to contemporary Uniden scanners, albeit with RS programming methods and labels.
First the good:
The PRO2004/5/6 were the best of the best in their day. They could not be beat for the feature set, frequency coverage, the mix of sensitivity and selectivity and the ability to do mods. The mods really made these stand out. Of course, back then it was the cellular mod that made everyone want one of these. The mod was easy to do, well documented and the radio even had the proper 30 KHz. steps for the cellular band from about 869 thru 895 MHz. I had one of the very first 2004’s, this one had the cellular range set at 870 to 890 MHz. while later ones expanded that range to 869 thru 895 MHz. My very original 2004 had the 870-890 range blocked with the diode tack-soldered to the backside of the board, making for an easy find and removal. I then got a newer model that had it in the matrix with all the other feature and range diodes and the expanded 869-895 range blocked out (and restored). There were plenty of other mods and Bill Cheek made his name developing many of them.
I had an interesting experience with my 2004’s. I wanted to figure out the purpose of all the diodes in the control matrix, there were about a dozen or so. I clipped each one that was present and tried to find out what it changed, I also added one in the empty slots to do the same. One diode added an additional 100 channels, another deleted the 30 KHz. steps in the cellular range and yet another blocked some ranges for the European market. While doing all this soldering and unsoldering I fried something on the board and sent it to Radio Shack’s repair facility. $140 later I got the radio back and they had tack-welded the metal shield that covered the diode matrix to prevent more experimentation. It took me a couple hours to pry that dang thing open again!
The 2005 came out a couple years later and was another hit, the cell block was even easier, and the radio was much better on VHF high band. The 2006 followed up soon thereafter and did not seem much different than the 2005. There were some minor feature differences.
Later the Pro2035 and 2042 came out, while these had many of the same features as the 2005/6 the cases were larger, and it had a big tuning knob. I played with these but saw little need to replace my 2005/6’s at the time. I was not a big fan of these huge radios, the 2006 fit my car better and I think I was into the 780/796 by then.
Another RS scanner I really liked was the Pro43. It had great coverage, especially that it covered the Mil-Air band which was important to me at the time. It was also relatively tiny, so it was easy to carry in a shirt pocket when plane-watching at the local military airfields.
In general, there were some things I liked about RS scanners. The Tape Out jack on most of the base units until about the Pro2042 era was awesome. The RS scanners were generally well built, and the fit/finish was usually better than other brands.
Now the bad:
What can I say about the Pro92 and Pro2067? I hated these radios, and they really turned me off on the whole RadioShack line. I just hated these scanners to my very core. They were hard to program and harder to operate. The PL tone handling was a big issue for me back then as well. I despised these radios and sold the ones I had to whomever I could pawn them off on. It wasn’t until the Pro95 came out that I started to consider the RS line. At least the Pro95 was easier to use.
I was not a real big fan of the Pro96 and 2096, at least at first. While it was cool that I could get the System ID’s and Site numbers just by programming a control channel in, it couldn’t be done during a search, you then had to program it in as a trunked channel to view the info. The Pro96 was also way too large for me.
In general, I did not like the RS programming method. On other brands you could just go to a channel, type in a frequency and hit enter. On RS scanners you had to go into Program mode first, it just seemed to be an unnecessary step in the process.
Many RS base scanners also had non-removable AC power cords until at least the Pro2042, this was a pain when using these in a car. The size of the top-end radios like the 2004, 2042 etc. was excessive, making them difficult at best to fit in a car. They did not have to be that huge, there was a lot of air space inside and blank space outside the radios.
And what about the weird?
The king of weird in my opinion was the Pro2026. Made by Uniden for RadioShack, they took some of the great Uniden features and neutered them for the RS version. It was based upon the BC760XLT, a fantastic little scanner. On the Pro2026 they added a Program button as well as a Monitor button (which did what?) and made the operations buttons way too small to fit 6 where 4 had been on the 760. They also rearranged buttons from the more logical Uniden style. They hid the decimal button so that you had to root around to find it to enter frequencies. The original version had a Motorola antenna connector well after the Uniden radios had switched to BNC. While the early 760’s also had Motorola connectors they switched to BNC’s well before the 2026’s did (in the “A” version).
The 2026 also had really bad intermod issues, something I never saw on the 760. I returned my first one within a week of owning it, it was pretty much unusable. I was hoping to get the same results as the 760 at a much lower price (it was on sale) but no dice there. A year or two later the BNC version came out and it was no better than the original and I returned it too.
In later years the RS scanner line was rationalized into pretty much a 3-teir system, basic, mid-range and digital, matching model for model with the GRE’s. Of course they were all made by GRE by then. Uniden made their last RS scanners around 2007 or 2008, after that all RS scanners were all GRE made. While all major scanner companies (RS, Uniden/Bearcat, GRE, Regency etc.) had good and bad radios, RadioShack seemed to have the ones at the far ends of the spectrum, good and bad. Now that they are gone, we can look back at the sum total and remember the good ones and try to forget the clunkers.
Most RadioShack scanners were made by GRE over the years, but Uniden also made some now and again. For the most part the Uniden-made RS radios were very similar to contemporary Uniden scanners, albeit with RS programming methods and labels.
First the good:
The PRO2004/5/6 were the best of the best in their day. They could not be beat for the feature set, frequency coverage, the mix of sensitivity and selectivity and the ability to do mods. The mods really made these stand out. Of course, back then it was the cellular mod that made everyone want one of these. The mod was easy to do, well documented and the radio even had the proper 30 KHz. steps for the cellular band from about 869 thru 895 MHz. I had one of the very first 2004’s, this one had the cellular range set at 870 to 890 MHz. while later ones expanded that range to 869 thru 895 MHz. My very original 2004 had the 870-890 range blocked with the diode tack-soldered to the backside of the board, making for an easy find and removal. I then got a newer model that had it in the matrix with all the other feature and range diodes and the expanded 869-895 range blocked out (and restored). There were plenty of other mods and Bill Cheek made his name developing many of them.
I had an interesting experience with my 2004’s. I wanted to figure out the purpose of all the diodes in the control matrix, there were about a dozen or so. I clipped each one that was present and tried to find out what it changed, I also added one in the empty slots to do the same. One diode added an additional 100 channels, another deleted the 30 KHz. steps in the cellular range and yet another blocked some ranges for the European market. While doing all this soldering and unsoldering I fried something on the board and sent it to Radio Shack’s repair facility. $140 later I got the radio back and they had tack-welded the metal shield that covered the diode matrix to prevent more experimentation. It took me a couple hours to pry that dang thing open again!
The 2005 came out a couple years later and was another hit, the cell block was even easier, and the radio was much better on VHF high band. The 2006 followed up soon thereafter and did not seem much different than the 2005. There were some minor feature differences.
Later the Pro2035 and 2042 came out, while these had many of the same features as the 2005/6 the cases were larger, and it had a big tuning knob. I played with these but saw little need to replace my 2005/6’s at the time. I was not a big fan of these huge radios, the 2006 fit my car better and I think I was into the 780/796 by then.
Another RS scanner I really liked was the Pro43. It had great coverage, especially that it covered the Mil-Air band which was important to me at the time. It was also relatively tiny, so it was easy to carry in a shirt pocket when plane-watching at the local military airfields.
In general, there were some things I liked about RS scanners. The Tape Out jack on most of the base units until about the Pro2042 era was awesome. The RS scanners were generally well built, and the fit/finish was usually better than other brands.
Now the bad:
What can I say about the Pro92 and Pro2067? I hated these radios, and they really turned me off on the whole RadioShack line. I just hated these scanners to my very core. They were hard to program and harder to operate. The PL tone handling was a big issue for me back then as well. I despised these radios and sold the ones I had to whomever I could pawn them off on. It wasn’t until the Pro95 came out that I started to consider the RS line. At least the Pro95 was easier to use.
I was not a real big fan of the Pro96 and 2096, at least at first. While it was cool that I could get the System ID’s and Site numbers just by programming a control channel in, it couldn’t be done during a search, you then had to program it in as a trunked channel to view the info. The Pro96 was also way too large for me.
In general, I did not like the RS programming method. On other brands you could just go to a channel, type in a frequency and hit enter. On RS scanners you had to go into Program mode first, it just seemed to be an unnecessary step in the process.
Many RS base scanners also had non-removable AC power cords until at least the Pro2042, this was a pain when using these in a car. The size of the top-end radios like the 2004, 2042 etc. was excessive, making them difficult at best to fit in a car. They did not have to be that huge, there was a lot of air space inside and blank space outside the radios.
And what about the weird?
The king of weird in my opinion was the Pro2026. Made by Uniden for RadioShack, they took some of the great Uniden features and neutered them for the RS version. It was based upon the BC760XLT, a fantastic little scanner. On the Pro2026 they added a Program button as well as a Monitor button (which did what?) and made the operations buttons way too small to fit 6 where 4 had been on the 760. They also rearranged buttons from the more logical Uniden style. They hid the decimal button so that you had to root around to find it to enter frequencies. The original version had a Motorola antenna connector well after the Uniden radios had switched to BNC. While the early 760’s also had Motorola connectors they switched to BNC’s well before the 2026’s did (in the “A” version).
The 2026 also had really bad intermod issues, something I never saw on the 760. I returned my first one within a week of owning it, it was pretty much unusable. I was hoping to get the same results as the 760 at a much lower price (it was on sale) but no dice there. A year or two later the BNC version came out and it was no better than the original and I returned it too.
In later years the RS scanner line was rationalized into pretty much a 3-teir system, basic, mid-range and digital, matching model for model with the GRE’s. Of course they were all made by GRE by then. Uniden made their last RS scanners around 2007 or 2008, after that all RS scanners were all GRE made. While all major scanner companies (RS, Uniden/Bearcat, GRE, Regency etc.) had good and bad radios, RadioShack seemed to have the ones at the far ends of the spectrum, good and bad. Now that they are gone, we can look back at the sum total and remember the good ones and try to forget the clunkers.
