Service, Custom & Quick Search

Summary: Searching preset service bands, your own custom ranges, or a one-off frequency range, plus storing and locking out what you find.

Service Search

If you don’t know the specific frequencies used locally, Func + Srch/Svc searches the scanner’s seven preloaded service banks – Emergency, Freenet, PMR, Marine, Aircraft, CB radio and HAM radio – without you needing to enter anything. Toggle banks on and off with keys 1-7. Bear in mind the Emergency bank only holds old analogue frequencies – UK police, fire and ambulance services now run on TETRA, an encrypted digital system this scanner can’t decode, so don’t expect that particular bank to turn anything up.

Custom Search

Srch/Svc on its own searches your 10 custom ranges, out of the box preset to sensible broad bands (roughly 25-28 MHz, 28-30 MHz, 30-50 MHz, 50-88 MHz, 108-137 MHz, 137-144 MHz, 144-174 MHz, 225-400 MHz, 400-512 MHz, and 806-960 MHz). Reprogram any of them from the Search menu’s Program Limits: pick a bank, then set its Lower and Upper frequencies. Toggle ranges on and off with keys 0-9.

Quick Search

For a one-off search up or down from a single frequency you already know, press Hold, type the frequency (with a decimal point, so it isn’t read as a channel number), press Hold again to set it, then Hold once more to start searching from there.

While Searching

In any search mode, turning the scroll control (or pressing the mode’s search key again) changes direction or skips a long transmission. Press Hold to pause on a frequency and step through nearby ones manually.

• Store a frequency you’ve found into a channel: press Pgm/E, then pick an empty slot (or one of your choosing) and confirm.
• Lock out a frequency: L/O once for temporary, twice quickly for permanent – up to 200 in total (100 of each), shared across every search mode including Close Call.
• Unlock frequencies: via the Search menu’s Review Lockouts, either individually or all at once.

Step Size and Modulation Per Band

Func + 3/Step while holding a frequency lets you override the default step (5, 6.25, 8.33, 10, 12.5, or 20 kHz, depending on the band) – this affects both searching and Close Call. Func + 9/Mod does the same for AM/FM on bands where that’s adjustable (airband stays AM-only). Both can also be set from the Search menu, and both reset to their defaults when the scanner is switched off, except CB and HAM band modulation, which stick.

Search Delay and CTCSS/DCS Search

From the Search menu, Set Delay controls the pause after a transmission ends before searching resumes (same idea, and same options, as channel delay). CTCSS/DCS Search toggles whether the scanner checks for a sub-audible tone when it stops on something – on by default.