Hooked like a fish. Thanks so much.

[mlh1448]

Ok I’m hooked. I got a pro-433 Ok nice radio but it really doesn’t do what I want.
I live so close to several state prisons. Loci, being the one I worked for about 4 years ago. I know the repeater is 300 watts. I did the paperwork to get it.
I've programmed the right freq into the scanner and I know at what time they broadcast but I get nothing. Are they on the same system as the OPS? MARCS? The 433 dose not pick up p25.
Ok here is what I want to do.
Monitor my local police. Its 800MHZ Trunked
Monitor the OSP and the prisons.
And all the other weird stuff out there.
I wonder what scanner to get next. $500.00 is a little to much.
Would A Pro 2096 do what I want?
And if so what’s the cost?
I can get a new one for $399.00. Plus $24.00 S&H. Is that good?

Oh and I see these programs you are talking about. Ok tell me about them.
Let’s say I have the pro-2096 along with the pro-433.
What dose these programs do?
Will it make it easer for me to program these scanner to do what I want?
If so where can I get these programs?

 

[mtindor]

If you want to listen to the OSP (or anything on MARCS, including whatever chatter LorCI might have on MARCS), you'll need a digital scanner - i.e. Uniden BCD996T/BCD396T/BC796D/BC296D or RS PRO-2096/PRO-96.

The Uniden digital scanners do MOT/EDACS/LTR/P25. The RS digital scanners do MOT/EDACS/P25 (no LTR). You don't seem to have any worthwhile LTR systems in your area, so LTR may not be a big deal for you. However, if at some point in the future you want to monitor an LTR system, you can't with the current crop of RS digital scanners.

Moto P25 digital is needed for MARCS
EDACS is needed for Fayette Co / AEP / Dayton P&L

You know that the LorCI repeater is 300 watts but you don't know if its on MARCS? Some federal prisons have their own trunked systems. I can't say if LorCI does or not. But they do have at least one TG on the MARCS system. If they have their own trunked system it would likely be Motorola - and it may or may not be digital.

What freq did you program into your scanner?

$500 might be a bit much, but once in a while you'll see a used (barely) 996/396 for sale on RR or Ebay for 450 or less. As somebody mentioned in an a post in another forum here today, the RS digital scanners are on sale for $400 bucks now. Might be a good time to grab the PRO-2096 or PRO-96 if you aren't concerned about being able to monitor LTR.

For a new PRO-2096, some would debate whether it is a 'good' price - I'd say it is. It's on sale new for $400 (compared to the usual $500 price tag of a digital scanner). So if you can shell out $400 I would say to go for it. If you ever need to do LTR in the future you can always pick up a cheap older scanner to do just about any of the LTR monitoring that you'd want. I think ya oughta go for it

I can't speak for RS models, but with the Uniden 996/396 (and other dynamic memory Uniden scanners), you really have to use software to program it if you want to have any fun - You can program it without software but its a major pain in the ass - time consuming, confusing - just plain tedious. I know that the RS people seem to really like the Win96 software from Don Starr (http://www.starrsoft.com/software/Win96/) for programming those scanners. I'd say it is probably worth it to purchase software at some point.

- mike

Ok I’m hooked. I got a pro-433 Ok nice radio but it really doesn’t do what I want.
I live so close to several state prisons. Loci, being the one I worked for about 4 years ago. I know the repeater is 300 watts. I did the paperwork to get it.
I've programmed the right freq into the scanner and I know at what time they broadcast but I get nothing. Are they on the same system as the OPS? MARCS? The 433 dose not pick up p25.
Ok here is what I want to do.
Monitor my local police. Its 800MHZ Trunked
Monitor the OSP and the prisons.
And all the other weird stuff out there.
I wonder what scanner to get next. $500.00 is a little to much.
Would A Pro 2096 do what I want?
And if so what’s the cost?
I can get a new one for $399.00. Plus $24.00 S&H. Is that good?

Oh and I see these programs you are talking about. Ok tell me about them.
Let’s say I have the pro-2096 along with the pro-433.
What dose these programs do?
Will it make it easer for me to program these scanner to do what I want?
If so where can I get these programs?

 

[mlh1448]

Ok mike thanks Ill most likely get the PRO-2096.

 

[radioscan]

All Ohio state run prisons are now on MARCS, they no longer use VHF.