Introduction

Tuning the Radio

Squelch

Signal Indicators

Searching for Frequencies

Saving Radio Settings

Scanning Saved Frequencies

IF Shift and DSP

Bandscope

The PCR1000 EEPROM

Preferences

Scripting Interface

Menu Reference

When you save a frequency in MacR-1000, not just the frequency, but the entire receiver state - modulation, filter settings, tuning step, IF and BFO shifts - is saved as a "frequency entry" in the frequency library. This is like the music library in iTunes: The program keeps your selections in a master list, and lets you make sub-lists (like iTunes's playlists) for convenient grouping of frequencies.

Frequency Lists

The frequency library includes three permanent, special lists, plus any lists you create yourself.

All Frequencies

The All Frequencies list contains every frequency entry in every user-defined list, as well as the ungrouped list. It is a list of all frequencies you have saved for listening. Frequency entries that appear in more than one user-defined list will appear once in the All Frequencies list.

Ungrouped Frequencies

This list contains frequencies you haven't yet assigned to a user-defined list or the lockout list. Add to this list by pressing Add to Library next to the frequency display, or by dragging an entry from another list to the ungrouped list's name in the list on the left.

Locked-out Frequencies

A frequency in the Lockout list will not be included in any frequency-range scan. This is useful for picking out interesting traffic in a frequency range without having to deal with permanent signals like pagers, or receiver "birdies." Entries in the lockout list will not appear in the All Frequencies list.

User-Defined Frequency Lists

These are containers you create yourself for sets of frequencies. Create a new one with the + button below the library list, or by pressing Put in Library next to a list of scanned frequencies. You can add to a user-defined list by dragging frequencies from the listing on the right, onto the name of the list on the left.

Tuning from a Frequency List

You can tune the PCR1000 to any frequency in any list (even the Locked-out Frequencies list) by selecting the frequency’s entry in the library window, and pressing the Tune button.

A frequency list can also be the program for your PCR1000, used as a scanner. See Scanning Saved Frequencies for more details.

Moving Frequencies

The same frequency entry can be on many user-defined lists at the same time. For instance, you might keep a fire deparment's ambulance dispatch channel in a list of public-safety frequencies, a list of fire frequencies, and a list of emergency-medical frequencies. When you drag a frequency entry from one user-defined list to another, the entry is added to the destination list, but stays in the original list as well. Changes you make to the entry, such as editing its name or frequency, will be reflected on all lists of which it is a member.

A frequency in the ungrouped or lockout list is by definition not in any user-defined list. Dragging a frequency entry into the ungrouped or lockout list will remove that entry from all user-defined lists. Dragging a frequency entry from the ungrouped or lockout list to a user-defined list will remove that entry from the ungrouped or lockout list.

If a frequency entry appears in a user-defined list, or the Ungrouped Frequencies list, it is also shown in the All Frequencies list. Deleting an entry from All Frequencies amounts to removing it from all the lists in which that entry appears. An alert sheet will appear, warning you in this case.

Searching a Frequency List

Use the search field in the upper-right corner of the Library window to search for frequencies and descriptions.

Whatever you type in the search field will be compared to the contents of the current frequency list, and the list will be shortened to include only the items that match your search. Comparisons are done only against the Name and Frequency columns. The search is case-insensitive: You can find stations with “Police” in their names with the searches “POLICE”, “Police”, or “police”.

An “X” icon appears at the right end of the search field when anything has been typed into it. Pressing this icon will clear the search field, and return the current frequency list to display of its full contents.

Saving Lists

Once you purchase a license for MacR–1000, any changes you make to the frequency library are saved automatically, so there is no need for a command to save such changes.

You may, however, want to use the information in a frequency list in another program, such as a spreadsheet or a database manager. MacR–1000 provides a Save… command for this purpose. Simply select the frequency list you want to export, and select the Save… command in the File menu, or press ⌘–S.

A standard save-file dialog will appear, and you will have the choice of two formats: Tab-delimited Text, and CSV. In both cases, the resulting file will be a text file containing one line describing the elements of a frequency entry (the field names), and one line for each member of the frequency list you're saving. Tab-delimited files are saved with the .txt extension, and the fields on each line are separated by tab (ASCII 8) characters. CSV (comma-separated values) files are saved with the .csv extension, and fields are separated by commas.

Normally, every item in the current frequency list is saved to the file. If you check Active Entries Only, only the entries that have a check mark next to them will be included.

Importing Lists

MacR-1000 can create a frequency list from a file on disk. With the Library window active, select Open… from the File menu, and select the file to be read. MacR-1000 will create a new frequency list with the name of the file (without any extension), and fill it with data from the file. The file must be of one of these types:

.txt

A plain-text file, containing one line of field names followed by a tab-delimited line for each frequency.

.csv

A plain-text file, containing one line of field names followed by a comma-delimited line for each frequency.

.dbf

A dBase III database file containing frequency, name, and other information.

MacR-1000 makes the best guess it can to match the fields read from the file to the fields it uses to define a frequency. A specific effort was made to make .dbf files exported by Radio Shack's Police Call CD as useful as possible.