Pro-95. Obsolete?

[johnsondave]

Hi. I just registered, so go easy on the new guy, OK?

I'm in the Atlanta area. I have an opportunity to buy a Radio Shack Pro-95 scanner for $75. But someone was trying to explain the 'trunking' business and 'digital trunking' and how the scanner might be useless if the police/fire/whatever agencies in my neighborhood have switched to digital. So far as I can tell, the Pro-95 is not digital. So, does that mean the radio will just sit there quietly, or will there still be something to monitor? Thanks.

DJ

 

[ryangassxx]

Well if what you listen to is currently analog, and it goes digital, you will no longer be able to monitor it with that Pro-95.. BUT, make sure that you have a good source about your area going digital.. Lot's of idiots and Radio Shack sales people seem to like to tell people that EVERYTHING IS GOING DIGITAL, and it's just not the case.. But they'll stop at nothing to upsell you to a $500 scanner .. You might want to trace that info back to the source and if it began as "the guy at radio shack told me,.." then you might want to be a bit more critical..

 

[xpawel15x]

Check in the database the county you want to monitor and see if they're analog or digital and go from there...
Like Ryan said, if they are currently analog, your Pro-95 will be able to monitor it.

 

[n2mdk]

If you look at Atlanta Metro http://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?sid=398 the system as listed is analog. Best to ask in the GA. regional forum about future plans. The one thing I do notice is that some of the frequencies used fall into that area of the 800Mhz band that comes under rebanding. There are 2 things that can be done one is simply frequency shifting moving those frequencies all out of the reband area. The other is an actual rebanding of the system, in that case the radio will be useless, since there is no hope of upgrading the firmware. The truth is even people like myself that have scanners that can have the firmware changed it's unknown as to whether or not the changes to the firmware will actually work.

 

[Bentley]

Well if what you listen to is currently analog, and it goes digital, you will no longer be able to monitor it with that Pro-95.. BUT, make sure that you have a good source about your area going digital.. Lot's of idiots and Radio Shack sales people seem to like to tell people that EVERYTHING IS GOING DIGITAL, and it's just not the case.. But they'll stop at nothing to upsell you to a $500 scanner .. You might want to trace that info back to the source and if it began as "the guy at radio shack told me,.." then you might want to be a bit more critical..

Absolutely right....according to RS associates, you NEED a digital scanner to monitor anything now! That is just not the case, period. Is is nice to have a digital scanner? Sure. Is it NECESSARY to have a digital scanner, no. (like n2mdk said your area is not digital) .

Also, keep in mind that even with a digital scanner, especially in my little neck of the woods, you still may not be able to pick up digital transmissions if they are encrypted.

The pro-95 is a GREAT scanner, you paid a very good price for it also. I have used the 95 for years, still in use in my work truck on a daily basis. You made a good purchase, without breaking your bank. Enjoy it!

 

[johnsondave]

Many thanks to all who responded. I did buy the scanner, and now the fiddling begins. I must get a PC cable soonest. This forum, from what I've seen, appears to be a gold mine of info. Hopefully it won't ALL be over my head before long!

DJ

 

[N8IAA]

Hi. I just registered, so go easy on the new guy, OK?

I'm in the Atlanta area. I have an opportunity to buy a Radio Shack Pro-95 scanner for $75. But someone was trying to explain the 'trunking' business and 'digital trunking' and how the scanner might be useless if the police/fire/whatever agencies in my neighborhood have switched to digital. So far as I can tell, the Pro-95 is not digital. So, does that mean the radio will just sit there quietly, or will there still be something to monitor? Thanks.

DJ

Where do you live Dave? I am in northern Gwinnett. Maybe I can help you with the radio. Used to have one.
Larry

 

[gatorhater]

Glad to see another person in the metro Atlanta area getting into scanning. I have a PRO-95 as well, and use it as my secondary scanner.

 

[BaLa]

Most Older Scanners will work great if you're not trying to monitor digital systems.

Of Course the rebanding business stinks, but until then they'll work great.
Even after that they'll still work except they'll be useless for MOT Systems.

I actually have a Pro95 and 92b monitoring my local EDACS System in my bedroom.

 

[johnsondave]

Where do you live Dave? I am in northern Gwinnett. Maybe I can help you with the radio. Used to have one.
Larry

I'm in Marietta. Appreciate the offer to help. May take you up on it.

 

[rpowley]

Many thanks to all who responded. I did buy the scanner, and now the fiddling begins. I must get a PC cable soonest. This forum, from what I've seen, appears to be a gold mine of info. Hopefully it won't ALL be over my head before long!

DJ

You may have already discovered or have http://www.starrsoft.com/freeware/win95/default.asp. It sure makes programming the 95 much easier plus it's free.

 

[fmon]

I'm in Marietta. Appreciate the offer to help. May take you up on it.

Program the 4 red frequencies in this Cobb County link. Marietta has several talkgroups in this DB page also.

A Pro-95 programming shortcut can be found in my signature for shortcuts.

 

[shaft]

I'm in Marietta. Appreciate the offer to help. May take you up on it.

Check out the scancobb.com forums. They might be able to help you out a little better about that area.

 

[N8IAA]

I'm in Marietta. Appreciate the offer to help. May take you up on it.

You will find that getting a digital scanner will be the best. Almost all of Cobb is P-25 digital. What isn't, will be shortly. Join http://groups.yahoo.com/ScanAtlanta/
You will find tons of help from those who live in your area. I've been a member since 1999. /\/\ike /\/\artin is very familiar with the Cobb system.
Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and ya'll have a Happy New Year!
Larry

 

[hoser147]

Thats still a good price on the pro 95 if it is in good condition, in Mint condition Ive seen them go for as much as 150 on Ebay. But digital is the way to go in the long run........Hoser

 

[gmclam]

PRO-95 is a great scanner

Seriously, you can not go wrong with a PRO-95, especially for only $75. I happen to like them most for listening to (analog) trunked systems. Even if everything is rebanded, and trunked stuff goes digital, there is likely to be a LOT of stuff you will still be able to hear. These scanners cover a fairly large spectrum of radio communications, and it is not all going digital or out of reach overnight.

 

[johnsondave]

Program the 4 red frequencies in this Cobb County link. Marietta has several talkgroups in this DB page also.

A Pro-95 programming shortcut can be found in my signature for shortcuts.

Did that, thank you. Are PRIMARY CONTROL CHANNELS something other than the normal Police/Fire frequencies?

Thanks.

 

[br0adband]

Not really, no. Trunked systems operate on a "hopping" basis; when a frequency is listed as a Primary control channel it typically means that channel/frequency is where the control channel data is broadcast. If there are Secondary or other control channels/frequencies noted, it means control channel data was heard on one of those at some point, and the Primary frequency was then used for standard voice comms.

Back home in Portsmouth, VA, years ago - and they may still use the same setup, I don't know now that I live in Las Vegas - they had 10 channels/frequencies assigned, and of those 10, 1 was used for a Primary and 2 were "assigned" as 2 Secondaries. The control channel would "hop" every 24 hours, from the Primary to one of the Secondaries, 24 hours later it would "hop" back to the Primary one, then the next shift 24 hours later would be to the "second" Secondary, and so on.

In Vegas the hops tend to be erratic, as I'm listening with a Pro-97 to the actual comms while monitoring the control channel data with a tapped BC-700A and I have to change the frequency several times a week on the BC-700A, but it's not at specific intervals. Each system and each location seems to be different, sooo... only listening and monitoring will give you some ideas.

 

[n2mdk]

Control Channels are used on Trunked Radio Systems (TRS). Trunked systems allow lots of different users use a group of repeaters no one agency is assigned a frequency instead they use Talkgroups IDs (TGID) that are assigned to the different agencies.
If you look at the database http://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?sid=674
you will see which agencies use which TGID.

 

[fmon]

Back home in Portsmouth, VA, years ago - and they may still use the same setup, I don't know now that I live in Las Vegas - they had 10 channels/frequencies assigned.

Portsmouth still uses 4 rotating CC's and the 10 freq linup. I live 10 road miles from Portsmouth. Suffolk, Norfolk, VA Beach, & Newport News each use 4 rotating also on Smartnet systems.

johnsondave,

On this scanner the duty CC will find an available voice freq (VC) to match the talkgroup with when the user keys the mike. In Cobb it could be any of the other 11 freqs including the other three red non duty controls. You will see the VC on line 2 of display when they talk.