New Pro-97 in Henderson

Greetings. Post #2, here goes. I finally got around to purchasing a scanner as I’ve been thinking of getting one for months now. Lots of information out there and I quickly found RadioReference forums and read the eHam.net review of the Radioshack Pro-97. Scanning Arkansas' review was very helpful. I owned a four-channel scanner from RS way back when you had to have an individual plug in crystal for each channel and each light would blink as it scanned.

The Pro-97 is great out of the box so far and fairly intuitive to figure out. I’ve scanned the manual a few times also.

Right now I have it scanning the preprogrammed Police/Fire in the group #3 851-869 and group #2 453-465 and there is traffic. I can identify Metro calls but don’t know if I’m getting Henderson.

I’m trying to find out if I am in fact getting Henderson PD over these frequencies. Or do I need to set up a different scan? If so, could you describe how I would go about doing that?

If you want answers to most of your questions you might go visit Radio World in Boulder City (294-2666) and pick up a copy of the Las Vegas Scanner Book published last Feb. 2006 which contains a "gold mine" of monitoring related information for the greater LV area. Conventional & trunking is addressed. I like it and have two copies one of which I keep in my vehicle to use as quick reference when I need it. Also, Amateur Electronics Supply in LV has the book (647-3114). Hope this helps you out.

Radio World also does scanner programming for a small fee I have observed and it seems to be very accurate. Just a thought.

There is a YahooGroup for the Pro97 which may have files for your area too. You can check them out by following this URL, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pro-97/

Good luck.

Thanks. I'll check out RW in Boulder.

eta: They've got a web site: Radio World

TOUGHLIFE said:

If you want answers to most of your questions you might go visit Radio World in Boulder City (294-2666) and pick up a copy of the Las Vegas Scanner Book published last Feb. 2006 which contains a "gold mine" of monitoring related information for the greater LV area. Conventional & trunking is addressed. I like it and have two copies one of which I keep in my vehicle to use as quick reference when I need it. Also, Amateur Electronics Supply in LV has the book (647-3114). Hope this helps you out.

Click to expand...

Yes, RW has a website but much of it is very out of date. There is no other radio store like RW however. He's open six days a week and you can bargain with him. Many people call him "Trader Dave".

TL, Got the LV scanner book and it included the one page update (dtd 4-17-06). Dave's shop sure is interesting. I've got to spend more time there next time.

I did drop off my Pro-97 so they could program it for me. I'm just not familiar with the system and it will be a while before I can become proficient.

Can you tell me if I can pick up Henderson, Metro, and NLV with the Pro-97? I was looking at some of the modes (AM, CTSS, DCS). Does this mean that I can monitor digital broadcasts? Are any of the Henderson, Metro, or NLV using a digital broadcast?

As I recall the PRO 97 is not a digital radio although the PRO 96 is. If you are looking for a good digital handheld I highly recommend the Uniden 396 as I love mine.
Henderson PD & FD along with all the valley FDs' and NLVPD share the SNACC 800 MHz system as outlined in the book you just bought. Just program in the frequencies showing for the trunked radio system on page 13. You don't need to put in the ones showing just below the middle of the page.

Then look thru the tables on pages 15-18 for the agencies listed in alpha order that use the system. Decide which one or ones you want to monitor and enter them by ID number on scan lists that you create for the trunked radio system. The group IDs' for NLVPD are all shown on the update sheet you just got.

The LVMPD is non-trunked conventional so look at page 4 of the book and decide what channels you want. Then program them in.

If you want to listen to the State Dept. of Public Safety which includes the NHP look at the EDACS system starting on page 29. Read it carefully before programming. If you live in the South area of the valley I would suggest the Sloan site over Sunrise Mtn. Otherwise I recommend the Sunrise site. You cannot program two EDACS sites into one bank and expect it to scan properly. Please keep that in mind.

Hope you enjoy the radio. There is a lot of history in Dave's shop. I buy most of my scanners thru him and bargain. He trades a lot also.

TL

TL,

I went ahead and dropped my scanner off yesterday at Radio World and had them program it. Dave said the guy would be in today and I got a call early this morning that it was done! I believe his name was Austin, but he had a typed page of everything that was programmed to the 10 [banks] and I'm completely satisfied.

Thanks again for that lead.

[edit]

NF, That was one of the first places I went, having used yahoogroups for shortwave research last year. Good stuff there.

NeFire242 said:

There is a YahooGroup for the Pro97 which may have files for your area too. You can check them out by following this URL, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pro-97/

Click to expand...

Glad it worked out for you. I have encountered many happy customers of Radio World over the years and I think you will agree it is not the "average retail radio store". I enjoy bargaining with him when I go in for a radio. Although he might not have it in stock he has always been helpful in ordering for me. Trading in used equipment for new has been a great way for me to dispose of old or unused electronics. You won't find that kind of service at AES. If you walked thru the store he has some scanners that belong in a museum including the BC101 which was in the consumer domain in the mid 70s'. Lastly, I have found the book he sells to be very accurate where some websites have copied from it.

Good Day

TL

I suspect more than ten channels were programmed, probably more like ten banks of maybe up to 100 channels per bank. That is a lot of work for someone to do.

Correct, I meant to type banks. I really like the 1 page reference to each bank and the detailed descriptions. I concur about the work involved in gathering such a wide range of data. Years of work to say the least.

Yes, just like the fine book that the publisher puts out. Although it appears to be a low budget venture it contains a great deal of very useful information for the monitor radio listener. Many items in it never appeared on the internet and obviously someone has contacts to get those hard to get items like the criminal history radio codes shown on page 43 along with those in-depth disposition codes on pages 43 and 44.

Enjoy your PRO97.

I love this Pro-97! I am in SE Henderson and I'm getting Nellis control and routine departure / arrival control transmissions from McLaren.

Austin recommended 2500mAh NiMH batteries. I'm going to try a few of these from Thomas Distributing.

Our local commercial airport is McCarran.

Yup, McCarran.

Eta: TL, Do you have a Pro-97? I was wondering if there is a recommended aftermarket antenna that will improve my 97's performance, or would it approach diminishing returns? Dave did sell me a Pro-Am Tri-Band antenna which seems to work good. I cannot tell the difference between the stock yet though.

No, I don't have a Pro-97 but as for antennas I have noticed that if you have very strong signals to receive the type of antenna might not make any real difference in what you are hearing. But if you are dealing with weaker signals such as simplex or mobiles it will most likely make a difference. Remember that any external antenna such as a magnetic mount needs some kind of ground to be effective. The base of a metal filing cabinet often helps. A metal cookie sheet or pizza pan can work well when you are dealing with VHF high band signals. Of course such an antenna can yield substantial benefits if you go mobile with your radio and want to monitor anything but very strong signals. VHF-AM signals such as aircraft ground stations can usually be heard better with the use of an external antenna over a rubber duck associated with a handheld radio.