Pro-106 Easy To Program

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hsdtech

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I thought I would post this for those who are considering the Pro-106. I jumped on this model because of the price. I had a bct-397t but had a house fire a few months ago that burned up ALL of my radio equipment. Anyway, after ordering I read a few posts here about how hard the pr0-106 was to manually program. i have to say I didn't find it hard at all and had no problems. If you have have manually programmed any other trunking scanner you shouldn't have any problems. I had mine scanning in about 15 minutes. Just READ the manual while programming it. So don't worry about running out and buying a programming cable thinking it will be too hard to set it up manually. Hope this helps.
 

kayi4cle

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That’s very sad about your radio equipment, but hopefully you escaped the fire without injury.

I agree with you about programming the Pro-106. What gets my goat is that when people ask questions about programming their radio manually, sure as the world someone else will come along and say how crazy it is not to use software. This doesn’t even answer the question that was asked. It also leads me to believe that many software users have no experience manually programming their radios (which is fine until they need to program something “on the fly” and don’t have their computer with them). :D
 

hsdtech

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That’s very sad about your radio equipment, but hopefully you escaped the fire without injury.

I agree with you about programming the Pro-106. What gets my goat is that when people ask questions about programming their radio manually, sure as the world someone else will come along and say how crazy it is not to use software. This doesn’t even answer the question that was asked. It also leads me to believe that many software users have no experience manually programming their radios (which is fine until they need to program something “on the fly” and don’t have their computer with them). :D

Yeah my family and I had to get out real fast, it happened at 10pm. Everyone is ok and of course thats the only thing that matters. I had several thousands of dollars in equipment, and about 80% of the house was damaged, but we have insurance (not for equipment, only for house) but all I care about is my family when something like that happens. I appreciate your concern.
Anyway, yeah i totally agree with you about being able to manually program your radios (I'm a ham also), but thats just my opinion.
 

hsdtech

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I ordered mine ,I have not got it yet but I thought the 106 came pre-loaded with trunking freq. like the 96?

Yeah but I don't think it would be for your specific area. It has pre-programmed freq. for public service, ham, cb, air, etc.
 

ab2ms

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If you can find the PGM button you can program a conventional freq, the menu pretty much steps you through it. As for a trunk system, it requires a little more knowledge, but the menus step you through it as long as you understand what's needed. Software speeds up the process and is easier, but knowing how to program manually is a MUST.
I think a lot of those complainers of the "cryptic" menus requiring an engineering degree are just your typical 12 o'clock flashers X)
 

fmon

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Yeah but I don't think it would be for your specific area. It has pre-programmed freq. for public service, ham, cb, air, etc.
V-Scanner folder 5 has 10 Riverside EDACS TSYS sites pre-programmed each with same TGRP objects. The folder also has all 10 San Bernardino TSYS with associated TGRP objects for the area. But no V-folders in your area have any conventional TGRP objects.
 
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n5usr

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Agreed. I actually find the PRO-106/197 PSR-500/600 to be easier to program for trunked systems than more traditional scanners. Once you grasp how the systems are setup in memory, of course. But that just takes a bit of reading and playing with the scanner to understand. I actually went a bit overboard and bought a stack of the 197s at the Christmas sale so I could have one in each vehicle and two at home. Primary motivation was I liked the way they program much better than anything else I had.

On the other hand, depending on how much data someone is trying to enter I would also suggest software. I'd be pulling my hair out long before I finished entering all the TGIDs with alpha-tags for my state's trunked system. WAAAAY too many TGs, would take forever! Whereas with the software it's a short selection process then dump into memory.

The scanners do have a number of trunked systems set up in the V-Folders for various parts of the country. If you're lucky, and happen to be living there, all you have to do is import that V-Folder and you're listening. Not sure how often they update that data with the latest frequencies / TGIDs / etc, but could be handy for a quick jump start.
 

jrholm

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I found manually programming the 106 very easy just time consuming especially entering the alpha tags. I took the time to program my first v-folder by hand (so I would know how to). I then programmed the others with the computer. The computer went a lot faster but the difficulty was no less or greater.

Having done it that way I can make edits on the fly without a problem because I'm not intimidated by my scanner ;) . I agree it would be a lot easier for everyone if they would just take the time to master the knowledge of their equip. But like so much else in this world everyone wants it easy and have others fix all the problems.
 

dracer777

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Agreed, i owned a pro-96 for 3 months, which i have never even pushed a button on a scanner before that, and the learning curve was steep, since i didnt even know what trunking was, but after learning what each term was, which was maybe only a week of reading the forums religiously, i had everything in my immediate area programmed in a day or so. Then i exchanged my pro-96 for a 106, and all it took to program it was reading the manual and getting familiar with the way it stores "objects". i have never programmed from a computer, i probably will when i can justify the cost, but programming manually is a must. The other day, for example, i was south of denver, and was scanning CSP, then the scanner lost the signal, so i searched for a new dtrs tower, entered the freq in and i was back to scanning in less than a minute.

as for entering alpha tags, if you text on your phone alot, you can do it fairly fast. :D
 

GrandpaFrank

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I am trying to program this scanner for a friend and I have no cable. I have a pro-96 programed with no problems, all I want to do is enter about 15 frequencies in this pro-106. Is there a simple way for me to maunally do this without having to read his whole book?
 

kayi4cle

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Assuming they are conventional frequencies:

Press these keys: PGM, NEW, CONV. Then press your down arrow to Freq, hit your right arrow and then insert your frequency and hit Enter. Now go to Tag and hit your right arrow and name your entry (such as “PD dispatch”) and hit Enter. Next scroll back to the top where it says Scan Lists and choose the one you want by using your right arrow. Note that pushing Select causes an asterisk to appear/disappear and the asterisk means it is assigned to that Scan List. Hit Save. Repeat for each frequency. When done, press Scan and enable that scan list by pressing the number that corresponds to it (if over 10 you have to press FUNC for the fist digit).

Hope this helps!
 

GrandpaFrank

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Assuming they are conventional frequencies:

Press these keys: PGM, NEW, CONV. Then press your down arrow to Freq, hit your right arrow and then insert your frequency and hit Enter. Now go to Tag and hit your right arrow and name your entry (such as “PD dispatch”) and hit Enter. Next scroll back to the top where it says Scan Lists and choose the one you want by using your right arrow. Note that pushing Select causes an asterisk to appear/disappear and the asterisk means it is assigned to that Scan List. Hit Save. Repeat for each frequency. When done, press Scan and enable that scan list by pressing the number that corresponds to it (if over 10 you have to press FUNC for the fist digit).

Hope this helps!

Much Thanks kayi4cle! It was exactly all I needed!
 
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