Newbie with RS pro-164

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AJR11234

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I just got my very first scanner and of course have a question (one of many). After playing with as many buttons as I could get to work over the weekend I decided to reset (inintialize) my radio. Now when I press the scan button it says ALL CHANNELS LOCKED OUT! What does this mean? Before restting this button used to perform a full scan of all frequencies. This was a refurbished unit and I suspect that the previous owner had something programmed into it that I was unaware of. What do we do?
 

FLA2760

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All channels locked out simply means that none of the banks are enabled or the banks are not programmed with any frequencies. What are you interested in monitoring in your area?
 

AJR11234

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Steve, Thanks for the quick answer. I continued futzing around and found that out. I actually tried to program the Suffolk County PD trunking frequencies but I don't think that I did it right. However now when the scan button is pressed it scan Bank 0. What I want to listen to is just about anything that the radio can pickup. I find police, fire, ems, towing companies, aviation very interesting to listen to. Any advice that anyone can offer will be warmly appreciated. As everyone seems to know, the manual is rated P-U. BTW, can anyone recommend a good "universal" antenna? I use this mostly in the house and around my property. I do not know how strong the stock antenna is for pulling in weak or distant signals. I do not want to get an antenna that limits the frequencies that I can hear. I want the same basic antenna with an amplifier.
 

FLA2760

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I looked at Suffolk County in the database and see that it is a Motorola system with some digital talk groups. You will not be able to monitor the digital TGs with the PRO 164 but you will be able to hear the analog TGs.
Suffolk County Trunking System, Suffolk County, New York - Scanner Frequencies

As far as antenna selection I use two different ones on my PRO 164 depending on what I am monitoring.

W-881 Super Gainer BNC Portable Antenna If i was going to have one aftermarket antenna it would be this one. It is wideband.




I use this if monitoring an 800 MHz system like Suffolk.

800MHz Scanner Antenna - RadioShack.com
 

nanZor

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I actually tried to program the Suffolk County PD trunking frequencies but I don't think that I did it right. However now when the scan button is pressed it scan Bank 0.

Why not get the feel for the 164 by programming some conventional frequencies first, and for now, consider bank 0 a wash - we'll ignore that during scanning for now.

We'll organize your banks according to service - why not try programming Bank #1 with some nearby airband frequencies?

On page 18 of the manual, they describe "Defining A Channel" - which is a fancy way of saying programming some conventional systems. :)

The Westchester county airport tower is on 118.575 mhz. (You may not hear the tower, but should hear some planes talking to it). NY approach is on 120.800, and 126.400. New York departure is on 120.550

Thanks to airnav.com

Program these three frequencies as described on page 18 into bank #1. That is:

101 = 118.575
102 = 120.800
103 = 126.400
104 = 120.550

The scanner should automatically choose these airband freqs in AM mode for you. If it doesn't, press [MODE] to make sure that you see AM while programming in each one.

When you are done, hit [SCAN]

We're going to ignore bank 0 since it might have a messed up trunking setup. Just hit [0] while scanning to toggle this bank off. If it actually toggles it on, hit [0] again to make it go away.

Make sure that bank 1 is now active when scanning - hit [1] while scanning, and you'll toggle this bank on and off. For now, you want it on to listen to aircraft.

Make any other banks that have funky programming go away, by toggling them on/off the same way - while scanning, just hit the number of the bank.

Research the database here on RR for more conventional non-trunking freqs like this for your area. Do the same "Defining a Channel" (cracks me up) programming, and optionally put it into a different bank if you wish - the organizational choices are yours.

Hopefully this will get you something to listen to in the meantime.

Forget the idea of an amplifier with the 164. There are many antenna choices one can make, but beware that some can lead to worse performance if you are in a heavily rf-congested area. So for now, the oem duck will do until you get a handle on the programming.
 
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AJR11234

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Sep 3, 2011
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SW Suffolk County, NY
Thank you hertzian. The info you provided was quite helpful. I did as suggested and added the frequencies for KFRG (Republic). Voila! Nice job. Now we're getting somewhere. I am going to hold off on the antenna until I know the unit better. I'll be doing some experimenting over the few days and expect favorable results thanks to the assistance received through this forum.
 

AJR11234

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SW Suffolk County, NY
The newest list of questions that I have is that the Pro-164 supports rebanding. I thought that rebanding was changing Motorola analog frequencies over to digital but apparently that is not the case. Can someone explain this? Also, I am told that this unit will NOT receive digital signals because it is an analog unit. It seems that the only thing digital on this radio is the squelch. (Not really an issue for me.) Lastly, for now anyway is the firmware. I have ver 1.04. The RS site indicates they are up to 1.08. Is this a big deal? I know that if I update the firmware I will lose all the programming I put into the unit unless I purchase a cable and software, and then backup my info. As you can see I'm way at the beginning of the learning curve here but this is fun learning about all the capabilities of my newest toy.
 

AJR11234

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Sep 3, 2011
Messages
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Location
SW Suffolk County, NY
Setting up trunk scanning

I'm relatively new to scanning but have figured out how to program certain things into my Pro-164. However, I'm a bit confused about trunking. Referencing the EZ To Read manual it seems that you only need to press the trunk key once at the beginning of the trunking setup to set the base frequency. Do I need to press trunk for each freq that I program into that bank?
 
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