[Jeffhs]

Indeed. This set is a step up from the R-70, as the Royal 84 has the old 147-174 MHz public service band. On the Royal 84, the public-service band's dial scale is calibrated from 146 to 174 MHz; the low end of the band is actually part of the 2-meter amateur band, in particular the 2-meter repeater allocation. If you are interested in hearing 2-meter amateur repeaters, just tune your Royal 84 around 146 MHz. If there are any such repeaters in your area, you should hear them. In case you are not familiar with 2-meter repeaters, these are high-power amateur radio transmitters and receivers that take signals from low-powered hand-held radios and rebroadcast or "repeat" those signals over the repeater's high-power transmitter. In this way, amateur operators using low-power hand-held or mobile 2-meter FM transceivers can communicate over much longer distances than is ordinarily possible communicating over point-to-point (simplex) amateur frequencies. I belong to a radio club that operates such a repeater, located atop a medical center some 15 miles from me. This repeater has excellent coverage of the Lake County, Ohio area and also a good part of east suburban Cleveland. I don't know where you are located, but if you are in or near the greater Cleveland area, I'd suggest you tune in on this repeater. It is on 147.81 (input) 147.21 (output), although you don't really need to know the output frequency; just tune the dial until you hear either someone talking or a Morse code ID (all FM repeaters operate this way, so regardless of where you are, the procedure for finding a repeater on the Royal 84 will be the same). I am purposely omitting the transmit offset (which is normally either plus or minus 600 kHz) since you would be listening only to the repeater's output signal.