               
Notice: We are proud to announce that Trackside Electronics has purchased the RACE PAK Company, which has supplied race tote bags to fans and teams for many years. It has been every ones favorite cooler tote for years. It will hold 12 cans of your favorite beverage as well as your scanner, headphones & other equipment. It is now available on our online catalog
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Race Scanning 101
How to use your scanner at the race track
BASICS & TIPS
This article is written to aid you in the proficient use of Uniden scanners at the race
ITEMS YOU WILL NEED
Spare Batteries
You have just driven 300 miles, overpaid for a motel room, spent over $100.00 for your ticket & have your new $200.00 scanner with you, it's the middle of the race and your battery just died.
Need I say more?
UPDATED FREQUENCY GUIDE
There are many sources for frequency info such as the internet, race program and sometimes even the local newspaper, however I know by the amount of people that come to us saying they cannot find their favorite driver, that these sources are seldom accurate & certainly not updated. It is much wiser to spend the $5.00 & purchase an updated list from one of the track scanner vendors.
I have seen up to 3 updated printings on the same weekend.
SCANNER
You should be using at least a 100 channel scanner, which will allow you to program
the drivers by their car # and you will be able to identify who you are
listening to in an instant.
If you only listen to very few drivers, a scanner with less channels will work just fine, but it won't be long before you will be looking to upgrade because the real race fan will program all of the drivers into
the scanner and use the lockout feature (LO button) on the scanner to prevent
the scanner from stopping on the drivers they don't want to listen to on a
regular basis. More about the lockout feature later.
HEADPHONES
Also very important is a set of headphones with noise canceling qualities to block out unwanted sound such as engine & crowd noise. Look for noise reduction rating NRR symbol followed by a number.NRR-24 is good for all of the tracks even Bristol the loudest on the circuit.
Also you can share listening to your scanner by using 2 sets of headphones & a splitter cable, an inexpensive
device available on our website.
RACE ANTENNA
The antenna that comes with your scanner from the factory is designed to hear distant signals & is much too powerful for race track conditions. A short or stubby antenna designed for race applications is much more desirable. It will eliminate bleed over which your scanner will interpret as noise & static.
LEG STRAP
A convenient item that allows you to sit in comfort with your scanner strapped to your leg & still view the display & have access to the keypad. Your scanner is secure even when you stand. You will not want to hold it in your hand for the 3-4 hours you will be there or even worse drop it.
Now that we have our shopping done, the next step is to charge the batteries the
FULL AMOUNT OF TIME the owners manual specifies. Very important with NiCad cells.
Next step programming
PROGRAMMING & USING
I know you have been dreading this part, but it is quite easy as you will see. The owners manual that was supplied with your scanner contains much more technical information than you will need for scanning at the races.
First things first, if your scanner is new it will have nothing in the program so you can skip the next step.
If you have used your scanner you might as well clear the memory and start fresh.
Here is an easy trick to return your scanner to all zeros.
With the scanner in the off position depress and hold the manual the 2 and the 9 keys all at the same time then turn the scanner on. You will now see zeros in your display.
Programming
by the car number
Now you must say over & over in your head manual-car # manual. This will
put you in the right position to enter the frequency or monitor a driver
during the race. Manual-car#-manual. Remember we are programming the scanner
by the car number.
manual-car# manual
will put you in the right position on the scanner. Got it?
For our purpose of examples
we will use the #6 car that should not create any controversy I hope.
Entering the frequency
Remember manual-car # manual
now we will do manual 6 manual
You will see the
# 6 on your display. Now we are in the right position to enter the frequency. Mark Martin's frequency is 460.9500, enter those numbers and hit the key labeled (E) or enter That's it, he is now programmed in. Some models will flash twice & other models the car# will stop flashing to confirm programming. Now continue to enter your favorite drivers.
manual-car#-Manual-enter the frequency press E for enter.
Do not press a number first always hit manual first if you don't you will be shutting off scanning banks. Those tiny little numbers at the top of your display usually 1234567890 represent the 10 scanning banks make sure all 10 banks are turned on. That is done by hitting the number while in the scanning position.
Program as many drivers as you like in the scanner as a matter of fact, program them all in and the ones you do not want to listen to on a regular basis, you will see a button labeled L/O which means lockout, the scanner will not stop on locked out drivers but you can go directly to them by hitting manual-car#-manual and you will be listening to the locked out driver. That is also the sequence for monitoring the MRN radio broadcast. Lets put them on channel 100.
manual-100-manual-454.000-E-LO
Now we have entered the radio broadcast & locked them out. If we did not use the L/O feature with the radio broadcast the scanner would not scan your drivers because the radio is a continuous broadcast and they talk all of the time.
During the race to quickly go to your favorite driver, simply hit manual-car # manual & the scanner will go there and stay until you hit scan.
Good luck & happy scanning.
Any questions e-mail