96 or 97?

[TXFirefighter112]

Back in August of last year I loaned my PRO-95 to my uncle while I was off in bootcamp. Well things didnt go as expected and I was discharged for medical reasons in December. When I got back I found that he had "misplaced" the scanner. Im sure he is just wanting it for himself and I really dont give a crap one way or the other on that since I was kinda looking for an excuse to buy a new one anyway.

But now I find that Pro-95's are completely discontinued and the only way to get them is to buy them 2nd hand from ebay or something. I really dont want to do that. So now Im looking at the 96 or 97.

I know the 96 does digital, but the only digital system around here isDFW airport. Now if the 96 can monitor the public safety side of the airport that would be awesome. But if it cant, is there any real difference between the 97 and 96 that would make one preferable over the other (aside from price)?

Thanks!

 

[W4KRR]

Well, the PRO-97 does LTR trunking, whereas the PRO-96 doesn't. Also, the display on the PRO-97 allows for up to 16 alpha numeric characters, where the PRO-96 only allows up to 12. The display on the PRO-97 is much brighter than that of the '96, and the PRO-97 also has Signal Stalker, and does Mil-air out of the box.

 

[hiegtx]

I know the 96 does digital, but the only digital system around here isDFW airport. Now if the 96 can monitor the public safety side of the airport that would be awesome. But if it cant, is there any real difference between the 97 and 96 that would make one preferable over the other (aside from price)?

Thanks!

The Manfield & Grand Prairie systems are both mixed dgital & analog. You'd need a digital scanner to monitor either of them. Also, Tx DPS is moving toward their conversion to using digital on their conventional (i.e. non-trunked) Vhf-high frequencies. This area will be converted to digital within a few months, if they stay on track.

There's also been several other, projected, P25 systems announced or in the planning stages, including Parker County. The others that have been mentioned, either here or on the DFW Yahoo group, are in Collin County. I would expect more in the next few years, if funding can be obtained.

While neither the Pro-97 or -96 (nor any Uniden scanner) can monitor the Provoice DFW Airport system, we'll see more digital in the DFW area rather than less. Also, the Pro-97 may not survive rebanding, at least on Motorola systems. The Pro-96 should, if programming custom tables works as some predict.

 

[TXFirefighter112]

You say no uniden scanners can monitor provoice. Any other brands that can?

 

[hiegtx]

You say no uniden scanners can monitor provoice. Any other brands that can?

There are no scanners, made by anybody, that can monitor Provoice. See this thread for a long discussion of the topic.