How do YOU scan

I just got my pro-97 scanner and all the programming cables, etc. I have programmed in a bunch of channels for my town and those surrounding into a single bank. Great, the scanner works beautifully , the only thing is that not all municipalities are good at announcing which one they are. It's easy enough to glance at the text display when I am just listening in my house, but when I'm driving that's not possible. So I'm just wondering, how do you guys scan, what's your approach to programming banks to enjoy it most!

Thanks!

For me, it was about learning the codes and signals and how things are said over the scanner. For instance, I know when I hear a numerical number (i.e. - 1929) and then headquarters, I know that it is the local PD and then whatever signal and code they would use. If it's a letter and a number calling for 3200 (i.e. - A27 3200) I know it's the S.O.

I also know that the county pages on a two tone system and the city fire pages on a single tone system.

Basically just getting to know your area and how they talk should work. Also I have the room (not sure if you would) but I have things in dedicated banks. I have the S.O., County Fire and what not in one bank. I have a mediflight in another, and I have the city in one. This helps cause I know if i's on bank 4 then it's the city only.

Hope this helps!!

The longer....

The longer you listen, the more familier you will become with the voices of the agencies. Then you will recognize a particular voice as belonging to this PD or that SO or that EMS....

Steve/KB8FAR

I program the local stuff, including pds, fds, railroads, busineses etc. into one bank. The other banks are programmed as described above to close by areas that I visit, ie: different cities, counties, states and so on that are not really local. This is saved in another file on Win97. I have other files for other areas that are definitely not local, but visited occaisonally in the same manner along with a few local freqs so they can be scanned before I leave my area, and also save them in another file in Win97. When planning a trip, it is easy to swap one for the other. I also have the files saved on a small travel drive to be able to re-program with the laptop as necessary. The ability to download files with Win97 from RR is a valuable feature for everything else when on the road.

SLWilson said:

The longer you listen, the more familier you will become with the voices of the agencies. Then you will recognize a particular voice as belonging to this PD or that SO or that EMS....

Steve/KB8FAR

Click to expand...

Thats how I know. As others stated for like the FD, learn the units #'s etc.

SLWilson said:

The longer you listen, the more familier you will become with the voices of the agencies. Then you will recognize a particular voice as belonging to this PD or that SO or that EMS....

Steve/KB8FAR

Click to expand...

This is so true, I have been listening for so long I don't even look at my display very often, it does throw me when they hire a new dispatcher, I have to keep looking until he/she becomes familiar.
But as for programming, I program MY towns PD/FD in bank#0 and then do a circle from there programming from my town out, untill I have all the towns/counties programmed that I want to hear.

I have tried to get the fine folks here to share their win97 files as well as have RR have a place to post them, but no luck. It would be so easy to just post what we have to give you and everyone else that asks a place to go and download, or just look.

This is how i do it on my Pro-95:
Bank 1: My County's Frequencies, organized by agency: F/R first, then Police/Sheriff, Ham next, Aircraft, and then anything else

Bank 2: My Summer County's Frequencies, organized by agency also: Sheriff's trunking system, the rest of the PD depts, FDs, then Emergency Op. Centers (lots of them there), then anything else

Bank 3: Train Frequencies (all of the AAR frequencies) in order of AAR chan #

Bank 4: CB Frequencies (i prog. them even though the are in the search band so i can listen to that and public safety at the same time) in order of CB channel

Bank 5: Walkie talkie and baby moniter freqs in order of channel

the rest: i prog. counties here when i go on trips

Here's what I have got in my PSR500:

Bank 01: Brazos County TRS (ASTRO 9600)
Bank 02: College Station TRS
Bank 03: Texas A&M TRS
Bank 04: Texas Communications LTR (450 MHz)
Bank 05: Skyline Communications LTR (460 MHz)
Bank 06: Skyline Communications LTR (850 MHz)
Bank 07: Conventional Stuff
Bank 08: STARNET Site 001 (For when I am in Houston)
Bank 09: STARNET Site 016 (Also when I go to Houston)
Bank 10: STARNET Site 020 (When I'm at school in Huntsville)
Bank 11: STARNET Site 102 (When I'm at school in Huntsville)
Bank 12: STARNET Site 103 (When I'm at school in Huntsville)
Bank 13: Entergy TRS (When I'm at school in Huntsville)
Bank 14: Teletouch LTR (When I'm at school in Huntsville)
Bank 15: Federal Prison TRS (If I can ever get it to work...)
Bank 16: Marine
Bank 17: CB
Bank 18: Railroad

Clayton County GA is all Simplex Analog and i have everything related to clayton programmed into my Pro-83. just a few things i dont have, the BOE School Buses(they just got new radios and i have yet to find the new freq.) and a couple of Sheriff's channels that are encrypted and the jail house.

Thanks a lot for everyone's responses. I guess over time I can get used to what they are saying. My last scanning experience was a while ago and I'm just getting back into it. Back then, no scanner-to-computer connectivity so I would get lazy before I had too many freqs in.

Always looking for more opinions

I like to scan in MANY different ways, I have my 396T set to CSP Troop E (Dispatch) and I have my other scanners loaded with pretty much the same stuff with different channels set as priority-(So I never miss anything), And if a call for my department goes down I will hear it and stop one scanner (My BCT8) to listen to just that frequency with no priority such I wouldn't miss a call.

Just give it some time and you will be able to tell who is talking without looking at the scanner