So we’re all square with everything, I do not own the featured image on this page. I give all credit whereupon credit is due and in this case, I cropped it out of the 1991 Radio Shack Catalog.

Even before I had left my ex-wife, I had prayed that God would deliver me from that terrible marriage and I also prayed that He would send me someone who would be more in line with my standards. I will say that I had relaxed my standards to be with my ex-wife and I suffered quite a bit as a result.

I believe God has sent me my future spouse and we plan to get married in a few days. I will declare that we get along great and it seems that many things come against but, but because of God’s grace we come back stronger. My prayer is that He will continually sustain us and our relationship.

So ever since leaving my ex-wife, I had romantic interests in a handful of females.

One thing I wanted to do when these romantic interests is purchase her something that was made the same month and year she was born. To do this, I would read the Radio Shack Catalogs, look for a product that she [and I] could use that was from around that time, then check for it on eBay.

It wasn’t until late last month that I was successful in doing this.

I was looking for something for my fiancee (who was born in 1991) out of the 1991 Radio Shack Catalog.

I came across a Realistic Pro 2024, which is a mid-grade tabletop scanner radio made for and sold by Radio Shack. And that scanner is what this piece will be a review thereof.

I secured one of these on eBay late last month when I was looking at the pictures of it and saw that it was made in the same month of 1991 that my fiancee was born. I knew I had to give it to her.

So, I made the purchase, then I told her that I had a surprise for her and it would be in the mail in a few days.

She was happy.

When it came in, I presented it to her, then set it up. And by doing so, I think I got my fiancee’s feet wet into my scanner hobby.

After I finished programming it, I turned it on and let it scan.

It did so for hours on in, performing very well despite being thirty-one years old at the time I am writing this and also at the time of our initial use!

From my experience, I think Radio Shack made their best products between 1980 and 2001, then there was a sudden decline in quality that would contribute to the ruin of the company.

However, this scanner that I bought for my fiancee works wonderfully.

There are no issues with the volume or squelch knobs.

The audio is clear as a sunny day.

The memory keeps even when unplugged, which cannot be said of all scanners from that era!

Then there is the sensitivity, which is the finest I’ve seen on a scanner in quite a while, maybe even ever.

It is either equally sensitive as my Realistic Pro-59 (which came off the assembly line the same year) or it is possibly even better, due to the distance at which it pulls in signals that my other scanners in use struggle severely with or don’t even stop on unless conditions are just right. Dare I say, it may even outperform my Pro-2004 in terms of sensitivity!

My fiancee says listening to it at night helps her fall asleep and stay asleep.

I, of course, listen to it with her and am just amazed at the sensitivity, due to its ability to pull in distant signals with clarity and ease. Of course, I also appreciate the fine audio quality and robust memory.

So, I know a decent scanner when I see one and this is a good scanner indeed, albeit obsolete in some areas of scanning.

Unfortunately, most scanners are obsolete these days when listening to law enforcement and some fire and EMS entities because of all this gosh durn encryption going on, which I believe is a blatant and direct violation of the First Amendment’s Free Press Clause. Except for matters of a legal and ethically justified war, and I stress the words “legal and ethically justified”, or other events of extreme national security, I believe our government must needs to be transparent with its people and scanners allow this, except when government entities encrypt their communications. This is much better than a biased and edited press release.

Still, this scanner is a winner for pulling in railroad, civilian aircraft, some fire dispatch tone-outs, a little bit of marine traffic, local amateur radio, and much business band traffic.

By the way, I still wonder if these new Vietnamese-made scanners will still be working for thirty-one years in the future. For those wondering, the Realistic Pro-2024 was made in Japan, the country that makes the finest electronics, although I must admit that China, both the Republic (Taiwan) and the People’s Republic (mainland) is gaining on them and has been for some time. Scanners made in The Philippines were decent back in the day, but now I don’t think they are too hot.

Okay, enough of the politics already!

The catalog had this to say:
Be “on the scene” instantly-hear police, fire, and ambulance calls, aviation and marine communications, Ham radio, rail, and more from your own living room!

That statement was very true in 1991 and still is partially true in 2022

Below I will list some of the features of the Realistic Pro-2024:
60 Main Memory Channels
Full-Frequency Liquid Crystal Display
Search Function with 10 Channel Monitor Bank
2-Speed Scan and Search Modes
Lock-Out Key
Memory Backup
Motorola Antenna Jack in addition to top antenna jack for the supplied antenna.
Frequency Coverage of 30-54 MHz FM, 118-136 MHz AM, 138-174 MHz FM, and 380-512 MHz FM

The price tag in 1991 was $199.95 or $435.73 in 2022 Dollars.

Here I am getting political again, but something needs to be done about this terrible inflation, people are suffering because of it!

All in all, my fiancee enjoys her scanner and this is the first one she owns.

Actually, I don’t think she knew what a scanner was until I came into her life, but I may be wrong.

Let me say that I thoroughly enjoy it as well and it also has sentimental value because it is the same age as hers.

Easily I give this product a full 5 out of 5 stars and I only wish the electronics of today were made with such quality!

This, therefore, concludes my review of the Realistic Pro-2024.

I hope that you, the reader, have been informed, enlightened, and maybe even entertained.

May God richly bless you!

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