Mike, since he is a total newbie & you are a scanner newbie, the GRE PSR-600 is a serious piece of hardware for anybody, not just beginners, why don't you start him off with a basic scanner with service search & let him get his feet wet by listening to railroad, aviation, marine, gmr-frs & so on, If he gets hooked & believe me you will know it, then grab the PSR-600, program it for him & include a basic "Get me by" cheat sheet & see where it goes from there. Who knows, next Christmas he might be ready to upgrade to the Icom IC-R9500, either that or buy him a car for $15,000.00
You can download the PSR-600 owners manual here:
www.greamerica.com/PSR-600.html
Universal Radio sells it:
http://www.universal-radio.com/catal...ners/2534.html
Icom IC-R9500
www.icomamerica.com
Universal Radio sells it:
http://www.universal-radio.com/catal...rxvr/0095.html
FLRAILMAN