User's Manual

20-527 Owner’s Manual Draft
Page 48 of 60
A GENERAL GUIDE TO FREQUENCIES
Reception of the frequencies covered by your scanner is mainly “line-of-sight.” That means you usually
cannot hear stations that are beyond the horizon.
US Weather Frequencies (in MHz)
162.400 162.425 162.450
162.475 162.500 162.525
162.550
Ham Radio Frequencies
Ham radio operators often transmit emergency information when other means of communication break
down. The chart below shows the frequencies the scanner receives that ham radio operators normally
use.
Wavelength Frequencies (MHz)
10-Meter 28.000–29.700
6-Meter 50.000–54.000
2-Meter 144.000–148.000
70-cm 420.000–450.000
33-cm 902.000–928.000
25-cm 1240.000–1300.000
Birdie Frequencies
Every scanner has birdie frequencies. Birdies are signals created inside the scanner’s receiver. These
operating frequencies might interfere with transmissions on the same 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 omit the birdie.
The scanner’s birdie frequencies (in MHz) are:
Add birdie frequencies
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 scan 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. This is a birdie. Make a list of
all the birdies in your scanner for future reference.