PRO-95 Single Bank Scanning

oesjmr · #1 (**permalink**) 10-22-2009, 10:40 AM

I've owned my PRO-95 for a few years and have tinkered with it here and there but never got it to work the way I wanted it to. So it sat in my closet for a while but I recently decided to give it another try. This is the first scanner I've owned and consider myself new to scanning.

Anyway, I'm using the Win95 software to program the scanner. I've set up frequencies and talkgroups that I would like to listen to in bank 9. I closed bank 9 so the only transmissions that would come through would be the talkgroups that I have stored. The problem is, when I hit the scan button, the scanner scans all of the banks. Is it possible to scan ONLY bank 9?

Thanks in advance for your responses!

Astrak · #2 (**permalink**) 10-22-2009, 08:10 PM

Yeah just turn off the other banks by pressing the number on the keypad that corresponds with the bank you want off/on.

oesjmr · #3 (**permalink**) 10-22-2009, 08:15 PM

Wow, easy enough! Thanks!!

gmclam · #4 (**permalink**) 10-23-2009, 02:03 AM

In WIN95, under the SETTINGS tab, you'll see a place which selects which banks are on by default. If you change it there, the next time you program the scanner, you won't have to go back and manually turn the undesired banks off.

Welcome to RadioReference.com !!!

oesjmr · #5 (**permalink**) 10-23-2009, 07:19 AM

Thanks for the welcome and all of the help so far! The check marks for the banks in Win95 will save me a little bit of time when I make changes!

Okay, so here's another question. I have several talkgroups programmed in that I would like to listen to. Is there any way to lock/unlock the programmed talkgroups on the scanner itself? This would be very useful depending on which side of town I'm on.

fmon · #6 (**permalink**) 10-23-2009, 09:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by oesjmr

Thanks for the welcome and all of the help so far! The check marks for the banks in Win95 will save me a little bit of time when I make changes!

Okay, so here's another question. I have several talkgroups programmed in that I would like to listen to. Is there any way to lock/unlock the programmed talkgroups on the scanner itself? This would be very useful depending on which side of town I'm on.

Press L/OUT when talkgroup is active. To unlock later, restrict the scanner to the bank which has the talkgroup then press PGM > TRUNK then use up/down to navigate to the talkgroup (an L will appear on line 2) press L/OUT to remove L.

oesjmr · #7 (**permalink**) 10-23-2009, 10:41 AM

Thank you very much! I wish I would've found this forum years ago! For some reason, reading and re-reading the manual just didn't make sense to me. Now I just have to rearrange my talkgroups to make it a little easier to navigate, which is easy enough in Win95.

Thanks again everyone for your help!

gmclam · #8 (**permalink**) 10-23-2009, 01:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by oesjmr

Okay, so here's another question. I have several talkgroups programmed in that I would like to listen to. Is there any way to lock/unlock the programmed talkgroups on the scanner itself? This would be very useful depending on which side of town I'm on.

Yes, there are two ways.

1. You can lock out any individual TG just like a frequency. When it talks, just press L_OUT. You'll find you did not lock out the control channel frequency (unless it stopped talking before you pressed L_OUT).

2. The second way, which is more managable I think, is to use sub-groups. TGs are stored in 5 sub groups of 30, for a total of 150. I have all my Sacramento PD TGs in one (or two) sub groups, then fire in another, Elk Grove & West Sac in another, etc. If I don't want to hear the city today I turn off the respective sub groups.

The killer is turning these things back on. To unlock a TG you've locked out you have to hit MAN, FUNC TRUNK in the bank of the TRS. Then press TRUNK to get to the sub group you want and press FUNC 1 to toggle it. To unlock an individual TG you have to get in to the editor, press UP to get to the TG, then press L_OUT to toggle the lock out status. You'll see an "L" on the display when the TG is locked out. Of course if you don't want to wait for something to talk, you can use this method to lock out a TG.

Another note: Sacramento uses TWO "sites" or sets of frequencies; one for the city and one for the county. Depending on your exact location at any moment you might receive signals better from either site. What I've done is to program the city site into one bank and the county site into another. I have the TGs exactly the same in BOTH banks. Then as I drive into (or out of) the city I can select the appropriate bank. There is some traffic which will only appear on one site, but I find the dispatch channels are always on both.

marcotor · #9 (**permalink**) 10-26-2009, 07:47 PM

With my 95, I got tired of trying to monitor the 100+ TG's on San Bernardino's System 6/7. After a little thought, I split the systems into 2 banks (one for Sys6, one for Sys7), then programmed a third bank with my local PS stuff. Works quite well, and it's easy to toggle what I want on or off.

Win95 makes scanning life so much easier, I can't believe Don * never charged for it. What a guy!

oesjmr · #10 (**permalink**) 10-26-2009, 08:14 PM

Well after a few hours of entering frequencies and talkgroups, then rearranging them a few times, I think I finally have the PRO-95 working to my preferences!

Most of the departments in my area use the same trunking system, so there were a ton of talkgroups. I ended up programming one bank for PD and one bank for FD. I can ignore one or the other depending on what I want to follow. I also arranged the talkgroups so that I can quickly navigate them and change lockout status if I desire (i.e. activating a fire ground or changing police patrol zones). It has worked great so far!

I agree, the Win95 software is terrific! I'm sure it would've taken me FOREVER to enter everything in the scanner manually. Thanks everyone for your help!

gmclam · #11 (**permalink**) 10-27-2009, 02:32 PM

Unless you are using more than 150 TGs, I suggest putting a trunked system into a SINGLE bank. To manage FD vs PD there are "subgroups". I know it is not as easy to toggle subgroups as it is banks, but that is the better way to do it.

The thing is that the scanner will only find a conversation WHILE it is monitoring the active control channel. So what will happen in your case is the scanner will be in the 1st bank and detect an PD TG. But since the 1st bank only has FD TGs, it ignores the call. Eventually the scanner will scan over to the 2nd bank and monitor the control channel there. Sure it's the same frequency ... but unless data for that TG is sent again, it won't find it and you miss the call.

What you can do to test this with the programming you have now is to wait for a conversation, press SCAN. Does the scanner re-find the same conversation? I find it does with some fire dispatch calls but not others. It is all dependant on how the TRS you are monitoring is set up.

I wish that we could toggle sub groups as easily as banks, but for the '95 it is not going to happen. Good luck scanning.