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Please Support Our Advertisers Product Review Radio Shack PRO-2052 Scanner I've been searching for sometime to find a scanner which handles all the common trunk systems as well as mil-air frequencies. Yes, I know, Bearcat has one, but let me tell you what my experience with Bearcat scanners are. NOT GOOD! I had a BC9000XLT for a short time and sensitivity, selectivity, and the audio all sucked! Sorry Bearcat lovers, that radio just left one hell of a bad taste in my mouth. The BC9000XLT was great for listening to Cell phones as so many Cell phone images appeared in the Mil-Air band, it made monitoring Mil-Air WORTHLESS!  The PRO-2052 Scanner pretty much covers anything from 29.000MHz thru 1300.000MHz excluding the cell freqs. This scanner has 1000 channels broken up into 20 banks of 50 channels each. This is one thing I like much better, my PRO-2035 as well as most 1000 channel scanners only give you 10 banks with 100 channels. To me, 100 channels are too many in a bank, I would rather have more banks so I can organize my banks better. This is a PLUS for me on this scanner! This scanner has a computer port, to make it work all you need is a cable to connect to your computer. I have yet to use this but atleast you don't have to spend another $300+ for a computer interface. This makes the PRO-2052 a very good value for $369.99 (please shop around on the internet, I've found two places selling it for $299.95). The PRO-2052 can handle Motorola I, II, and EDACS systems. One thing I miss about the PRO-2052 is the fact that you can't monitor CB channels. Many times on the road and caught in a traffic jam I like punching in 27.195MHz (channel 19) and listen to the truckers to figure out what the traffic problem is. When looking at the Sensitivity listed in the manual, this radio has the same specs as most other scanners. Why I bring this up is because there are some people saying they think the sensitivity of the PRO-2052 scanner is a bit weak, however I did not find this to be the case. When compairing the PRO-2052 beside my PRO-2035, PRO-2006, PRO-26 and PRO-94 I found that the PRO-2052 is just as good as all the rest. My PRO-2006 is just a tad bit better at pulling in the weakest of signals, but not by much. There is one airport I monitor which is located about 35 miles away and with the PRO-2052 I can hear the tower itself on a discone antenna. My PRO-26 can't do this. And the signal is stronger on the 2052 than on the PRO-94. So I've very pleased with the sensitivity. Also, in the Mil-Air bands this scanner has just as good sensitivity as all my other mil-air capable scanners. Here's somethings I miss with this scanner. First, Radio Shack did not print which channels are assocated with each bank number. So, when you want to start programming freqs into let's say bank 10, you have to sit down and think about what channel bank 10 starts on....answer.....451. Not a biggie, but sometimes is annoying. Another miss on this scanner is the ability to directly enter a freq and start searching up or down from that freq. Also, you don't have the ablity to directly enter a freq like you do on the PRO-26, PRO-94, and PRO-2035 (probably others as well). This is something I do really miss. Now, if you want to search an area of freqs, you MUST enter a high and low limit. If you want to listen to a freq which you don't normally have programmed in, you must now allocate a channel and program in that freq. Again not big disappointments however these are features which have vanished from the PRO-2052. For those out there who own a PRO-2052 and want to join a support group, we've started a PRO-2052 UsersGroup/mailing list. To join simply send email to pro2052owners-subscribe@onelist.com. Have fun and happy listening.
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