Pro 96 help

[sniperbob]

I recently purchased a Radio Shack pro 96. I programmed Mesa's digital trunking system in and can pick up parts of the conversation; I made sure it's in Motorola p25 mode. I have version 1.0 on the scanner, if I put the newer version on will it make it so I can pick things up better? It also might be due to in part because of the antenna, I'm thinking the software and antenna combo will make it work, it picks up the FM patches fine.
Any help would be appreciated, I have searched for hours trying to figure out what’s wrong
thanks
Bob.

I'm sorry if this is in the wrong place, I didn;t know if this would be regional or technical.

 

[rdale]

There's never a reason to not upgrade. Put the latest firmware on.

 

[InlandAZ]

"I recently purchased a Radio Shack pro 96. I programmed Mesa's digital trunking system in and can pick up parts of the conversation;"

I had nothing but issues receiving Mesa up until about a week ago, when one of the guys on the ArizonaScanner group gave me a hard time when I went on one of my “can’t hear Mesa rants” I found I could receive them loud and clear if (and only if) the bank was run in "open" mode, as soon as the bank was closed - it went deaf. I finally reset, reinitialized and reapplied the 1.3 DSP upgrade - viola...

I get so much chatter on it now I occasionally have to turn the bank off (just like the old days).

I’m in chandler (just outside of Tempe near Rural road) – the only frequencies I have programmed into the bank are the 4 CC’s for Simulcast “D” – and the TGID’s for the non encrypted transmissions.

Mesa Sim D 867.75000 MOT 0.0
Mesa Sim D 867.82500 MOT 0.0
Mesa Sim D 868.27500 MOT 0.0
Mesa Sim D 868.35000 MOT 0.0

I can’t explain why the scanner was deaf to Mesa, but I’m sure glad I reinitialized it. If you don't have the 800MHz antena, get one - it does make a difference.

 

[sniperbob]

Thanks Inland AZ, I switched to open and could hear better. Still choppy though.
Do I have to buy the cable to put the firmware on or is there a Radio Shack that can do it for me?

I got these off the database:
TKN: Twin Knolls, 8450 E. Main St., East Mesa: WPNY928
TRW: TRW Plant, 7144 S. Meridian, Southeast Mesa: WPWE840
COM: Communications Center, 300 E. 6th St., Downtown Mesa: WPWE853
F05: Fire Station 5, 730 S. Greenfield, Central Mesa: WPWE854
RAN: Range Rider Trail, 3961 N. 84th St., NE Mesa: WPWE855
MCC: Mesa Community College, 1517 S. Dobson, SW Mesa: WPWL705
SWP: Germann & Greenfield, South Gilbert: WPWH996
AJ2: AJ Fire St. 2, 3955 E. Superstition, Central Apache Junction: WPWE841
AJ4: AJ Fire St. 4, 5988 S. Kings Ranch Rd., SE Apache Junction: WPWE852

Are they the current sites? If so I am between a triangle, 5 miles away from the closest one. Would this make a difference? The best percentage is about 75%.

 

[InlandAZ]

If you hear better in "open" mode you may have the same issue I had. (page 108 of the manual describes the initialization procedure). I'm not sure if RS will apply the DSP upgrade for you, I would imagine it would depend on "who" you asked... Some of the RS stores are quite helpful. Otherwise, you'll need to purchase a cable.

I'm not sure where the sites are located. If that's what you found in the Data Base it's probably correct. Like I said... all I have entered (control channel wise) in the bank for Mesa/Gilbert are the 4 CC's above... You can find the Talk Group ID's in the RRDB as well, you can exclude the encrypted TGID's.

 

[AZScanner]

1. Sounds like you definitely need the latest DSP upgrade. Any RatShack should have the cable for around $15 or so - pick one up while you're there to get the 800MHz antenna. You should do the upgrade yourself - I wouldn't trust the salesdroids there to put batteries in my scanners let alone fool around with the DSP firmware - yikes...

2. Once that's done, make sure you scan with the squelch on full open. The scanner seems to work better on our horrible DTRS that way.

Bear in mind that your reception will still be less-than-perfect. The agencies themselves have issues with this system, so be prepared for a lot of drop-outs and weird noises.

In the immortal words of Han Solo in ROTJ: "Good luck... you're gonna need it". Seriously, this system is crapola for scanning. I hope it gets better someday.

-AZ

 

[sniperbob]

I initialized it, didn't help any. I went to the Radio Shack by my house (Gilbert/Southern) and they didn't have any antennas. Has anyone been to a Radio Shack lately and noticed if they had antennas?

 

[sniperbob]

I went to Radio Shack today (Guad and Val Vista) and they had the 800 antenna. Sadly it didn't do much for reception. I then went to another Radio Shack (Southern and Gilbert) and they had the pc cable for $5. I came home and put 1.3 on and the difference is night and day, it also works much better with the 800mhz antenna. thanks for the help everyone.

 

[InlandAZ]

I went to Radio Shack today (Guad and Val Vista) and they had the 800 antenna. Sadly it didn't do much for reception. I then went to another Radio Shack (Southern and Gilbert) and they had the pc cable for $5. I came home and put 1.3 on and the difference is night and day, it also works much better with the 800mhz antenna. thanks for the help everyone.

Good deal - they do tend to be a little picky at times, but once you get them working they're great.

 

[sniperbob]

After playing around with my new Pro 96 for a couple of days I am liking it more and more. I wish Mesa PD ch. 5 wasn't encrypted, that has all the best stuff on it. I found a bunch of talkgroups not in the database on Simulcast D, about a dozen pd and one fire, the fire one got me excited because I heard an IC on a fireground, after listening to the homemade encode I figured out it was a training channel. How do I go about putting those up?

 

[jambo]

How do I go about putting those up?

Do you mean locking them out or programming them in? And on the ch5, it has action on it if you programmed it in right. There is also another HOT channel and the TG for that is 3002. If you need some help getting the Fire & Police setup on your radio I live in Mesa and have all the TG's and Freq's. Just let me know and I'll send them to you.