Radio Shack 20-422 General Guide to Scanning, Guide to Frequencies, Ham Radio Frequencies

A GENERAL GUIDE TO SCANNING

Your scanner’s reception is mainly “line-of-sight.” You usually cannot hear stations that are beyond the horizon.

GUIDE TO FREQUENCIES

Ham Radio Frequencies

Ham radio operators often broadcast emergency information when other means of communication break down.

The following chart shows the voice frequencies that you can monitor:

Wavelength (Meters)	Voice (MHz)
10-Meter	29.000–29.700 MHz
6-Meter	50.000–54.000 MHz
2-Meter	144.000–148.000 MHz
70-Centimeter	420.000–450.000 MHz

National Weather Frequencies

162.400 162.475 162.525

162.425 162.500 162.550

162.450

Birdie Frequencies

Every scanner has birdie frequencies. Birdies are signals created by the scanner’s in- ternal circuits. These stray frequencies might interfere with broadcasts on the same or similar frequencies. If you program one of these frequencies, you hear only noise on that frequency. If the interference is not severe, you might be able to turn SQUELCH clockwise to cut out the birdie.

This scanner’s known birdie frequencies (in MHz) are 171.250 and 460.0125.

To find the birdies in your scanner, begin by disconnecting the antenna and moving it away from the scanner. Make sure that no other nearby radio or TV sets are turned on near the scanner. Use the search function and search every frequency range from its lowest frequency to the highest. Occasionally, the searching will stop as if it had found a signal, often without any sound. That is a birdie. Make a list of all the birdies in your scanner for future reference.

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