You may want to look at this:
Easier to Read Pro-106/197/PSR500/600 Digital Scanner Manual
The radio is not at all difficult to program. It is however tedious and getting accustomed to how object oriented programming works versus the previously more common "banks and channels" can take time. With objects and scan lists your scannable items can belong to multiple lists so you can customize it to your listening preferences. It's tedious because there's so much information to enter and using the little keypad for the text labels for each item and other parameters is a slow process. Using software and the programming cable will certainly improve the user experience. As far as I know all the software for this radio are available with a free trial period.
If you aren't familiar with trunked radio systems you will want to read a bit about them. Once you get a grip on what they are programming the radio will make much more sense.
I would begin by entering in a few conventional frequencies. Just follow the guide and you'll have it going in no time. Put something in, leave things at defaults, assign a scan list, press scan and press the button for that list, presto. From there you can learn more about the CTCSS and display names for each object.
Once you're ready to fully set it up plan out your objects in advance. You may wish to order them. I put in trunk systems first, then talk groups, then conventional objects, then custom searches. I use Win500 which permits renumbering of the objects. I group these object types into ranges of object numbers.
Radio Shack Pro-197 Programming Question
Linear Mode
