trixwagen
Member
That's right. Don't waste your time and hard earned money buying both a Pro-43 and a Pro-97, just to find out which is "better". Leave that to me.
Appearance & Superficial Stuff:
The Pro-43 is all business, all black, in the height of late 80's tech. It's got a nice, solid, almost military spec heft to it (maybe from the 6 AA batteries it requires).
The Pro-97 feels sort of light and flimsy in comparison. The silver accents are nice. The scanners are very similar in size; you'd think scanners would be a lot thinner and sleeker after all these years, something more like an I-pod with a keypad. But Radio Shack and Apple are two very different companies.
The light on the Pro-43 is a minimal firefly whereas the Pro-97 's lighted keypad and brightly lit screen is like the old Disneyland Main Street Electrical Parade.
I like the two side by side knobs on the Pro-43 for squelch and volume better tha the two knobs stacked on top of eachother on the Pro-97. The knobs on the Pro-43 are set up to be adjusted when you are wearing the scanner on a belt rather than looking at the display, which is sort of weird. But then, when you don't have alpha tags, the display is perhaps less important.
Actual Performance:
I programed in the same frequencies on the scanners and the Pro-43 tends to pick up signals up to a second before the Pro-97 knows what's going on. Yes, the legendary Pro-43 sensitivity shows through. Milair was good on both scanners. The jets have been pretty quiet tonight, but further investigation will be required before I can say "the Pro-97 is a fine replacement for the Pro-43 for milair" or "the Pro-97 is deaf compared to the Pro-43's incredible milair capabilities".
The Pro-97 has a better speaker and you can hear the Pro-97 in both ears on headphones. The Pro-43 just plays on the left headphone. Not really a big deal, but it drives me crazy, anyway.
Of course, the Pro-43 can't do trunking or signal stalker II, so there's no comparison there.
Odds and Ends:
If you are one of those people who only wants to have a Pro-43 to illegally mod it and listen to those forbidden cell phone frequencies, make sure your Pro-43 has a date stamp before "4A4". The first digit stands for the month and the last digit stands for the year it was manufactured. "4A4" means "April 1994". You'll find the date stamp inside your battery comparment. And yes, my date stamp reads "4A4". The damned unblockable scanner is keeping me a law abiding, FCC approved citizen. So, anyone who wants to know how well you can hear analog cell phones on a Pro-43... I have no clue.
Final Thoughts (for now)
After messing around with Win97 and Win96, it was refreshing and a little annoying to hand program the Pro-43. Such simplicity. Reminded me when my kid found a old rotary phone. At first he was like, "Wow, I want to dial it! This is cool." 30 seconds later he muttered, "This sucks. My fingers are getting tired and this is taking forever."
I really like the Pro-43, though technological innovations seen in the Pro-97 and the questional value of an unblockable scanner are wearing away at the Pro-43's Clinton-era laurels. While the Pro-43 is nice to have around, the temptation to throw it on E-bay for enough money for a couple tanks of gas is growing as my SUV's fuel gauge wanders over to the E. There's a lot less temptation to sell the Pro-97.
Now if I had the capability to hear all those ancient analog cell phones from the trailer park down the road on the Pro-43....well, let's not talk about that.
Appearance & Superficial Stuff:
The Pro-43 is all business, all black, in the height of late 80's tech. It's got a nice, solid, almost military spec heft to it (maybe from the 6 AA batteries it requires).
The Pro-97 feels sort of light and flimsy in comparison. The silver accents are nice. The scanners are very similar in size; you'd think scanners would be a lot thinner and sleeker after all these years, something more like an I-pod with a keypad. But Radio Shack and Apple are two very different companies.
The light on the Pro-43 is a minimal firefly whereas the Pro-97 's lighted keypad and brightly lit screen is like the old Disneyland Main Street Electrical Parade.
I like the two side by side knobs on the Pro-43 for squelch and volume better tha the two knobs stacked on top of eachother on the Pro-97. The knobs on the Pro-43 are set up to be adjusted when you are wearing the scanner on a belt rather than looking at the display, which is sort of weird. But then, when you don't have alpha tags, the display is perhaps less important.
Actual Performance:
I programed in the same frequencies on the scanners and the Pro-43 tends to pick up signals up to a second before the Pro-97 knows what's going on. Yes, the legendary Pro-43 sensitivity shows through. Milair was good on both scanners. The jets have been pretty quiet tonight, but further investigation will be required before I can say "the Pro-97 is a fine replacement for the Pro-43 for milair" or "the Pro-97 is deaf compared to the Pro-43's incredible milair capabilities".
The Pro-97 has a better speaker and you can hear the Pro-97 in both ears on headphones. The Pro-43 just plays on the left headphone. Not really a big deal, but it drives me crazy, anyway.
Of course, the Pro-43 can't do trunking or signal stalker II, so there's no comparison there.
Odds and Ends:
If you are one of those people who only wants to have a Pro-43 to illegally mod it and listen to those forbidden cell phone frequencies, make sure your Pro-43 has a date stamp before "4A4". The first digit stands for the month and the last digit stands for the year it was manufactured. "4A4" means "April 1994". You'll find the date stamp inside your battery comparment. And yes, my date stamp reads "4A4". The damned unblockable scanner is keeping me a law abiding, FCC approved citizen. So, anyone who wants to know how well you can hear analog cell phones on a Pro-43... I have no clue.
Final Thoughts (for now)
After messing around with Win97 and Win96, it was refreshing and a little annoying to hand program the Pro-43. Such simplicity. Reminded me when my kid found a old rotary phone. At first he was like, "Wow, I want to dial it! This is cool." 30 seconds later he muttered, "This sucks. My fingers are getting tired and this is taking forever."
I really like the Pro-43, though technological innovations seen in the Pro-97 and the questional value of an unblockable scanner are wearing away at the Pro-43's Clinton-era laurels. While the Pro-43 is nice to have around, the temptation to throw it on E-bay for enough money for a couple tanks of gas is growing as my SUV's fuel gauge wanders over to the E. There's a lot less temptation to sell the Pro-97.
Now if I had the capability to hear all those ancient analog cell phones from the trailer park down the road on the Pro-43....well, let's not talk about that.
I got my PRO-43 in 1994 new at the shack, other then a keypad and front case replacement (left it under the seat in the car and the wife slid the seat across the top of it) a few years back, it has worked perfect.
