Years ago in the mid and late 1980’s police scanners were pretty tame by today’s standards. 20 channels was the norm, 50 channel scanners were top of the line. Most scanners did not cover 800 MHz, the displays were small and hard to view.
Radio Shack surprised the scanning world in 1987 when it introduced the revolutionary PRO-2004 scanner. Made by GRE (like most RS scanners at the time), it had 300 channels, totally unheard of at the time. People actually complained that there were too many channels available! Soon it was discovered that the memory could be easily expanded to allow 400 channels.
In addition the PRO-2004 had full coverage from 25-520 MHz. and 760-1300 MHz. This was also unheard of at the time. This was one of the first radios that covered the entire spectrum, including Military Air and more. Later versions of the PRO-2004 had the cellular bands removed from the radio.
The radio itself was pretty big and heavy. There was a lot of metal involved, the entire frame and case was made of steel, just the front panel was plastic. The metal case helped reduce outside interference sources. The radio soon developed a reputation for excellent sensitivity and image rejection and it was soon considered the top-of-the-heap scanner.
An entire cottage industry soon developed for modifications to the PRO-2004. It had plenty of room inside for additional boards and components. The radio had a diode matrix used to configure it for different areas and these uses were discovered in short order. Enterprising hobbyists created memory expansion cards. computer interfaces and data decoders to be installed to the radio.
The PRO-2004 spawned 2 successors, the PRO2005 and PRO2006. These were essentially identical to each other with minor updates to the 2006. The 2005/6 were identical in function and features to the 2004 but were in a smaller plastic case (although the interior case was steel).
Almost 30 years on and the PRO-2004/5/6 are still considered among the best scanners ever made. Many are still in daily use. The large channel capacity and wide coverage made them ideal for Military aircraft listening. While current scanners dwarf them in features and capacity the PRO-2004 made a tidal wave sized splash in the scanner hobby. Old-timers maintain fond memories of these scanners.
