Help! I can't sleep

[racelife]

first time post.

I need some advice I started listening with a pro 95 that ran nightly until the screen burned out... then I got a pro 97 witch I also listened to nightly for about a year then I noticed it would keep on scanning but never stopping. disgusted that it lasted less then a year i put it away until about a month ago when i was determined to get it working only to find out about rebanding so I assume that is what is wrong with the 97 so if it cant be reprogrammed then I need a little help picking out a new one.... I'm on a tight budget (spent all my money on the 97 a little over a year and a half ago) but need one that will last as it is sometimes the only way I can fall asleep at night... and cant buy a new one every year! sorry for the lengthy post let me know if there is any other info you would like to know.
thanks,
Stephen

 

[JWJ]

Try to find live scanner audio on this site that has about as much traffic as you normally hear, and listen to that on your computer.
If computer is in another room, you can make an audio recording and play it back.
Sleep Good

 

[qlajlu]

Welcome out of the shadows and into the sunlight of the Utah Forum of RR.com​

racelife!​

Been hanging out in the shadows for a couple of years just watching things, huh. Unusual for someone to hang out that long and not make a post, but certainly not unheard of. Now down to business.

Yep. Your poor ole Pro-97 has seen better times but not all is lost. Since we rebanded in December of 2008, it has become somewhat limited in what it will listen to. You should still be able to listen to SLC PD and SLC FD on AC33 because they did not change. You can enter the new Control Channel frequencies for Salt Lake Site 003 on UCAN and hear some limited radio, but for Davis County you are deaf when it comes to trunking on UCAN. It all has to do with the "new" frequencies they went to. I still get a lot of radio traffic from the SL County area on my BC780XLTs which are in the same boat as your 97. Just be aware that there are some conversations you may miss out on, but you'll be surprised at how much you still can hear. It certainly isn't like the old days though.

My suggestion is to go to the RR Wiki and check out the Radio Shack scanners, the GRE scanners, and the Uniden scanners. Make sure you find one that is reband capable (it'll have a "Yes" in the third column), then check eBay, and Amazon. Don't forget to check in the RR.com Radio Equipment for Sale Forum.

When you find one you can afford and if you still are not sure it will do the job you want, you can always come here, to this forum, and ask questions. We have a lot of experience on this forum and will be happy to assist you anyway we can.

 

[racelife]

Thank you for your reply!
Any one care to give their personal opinion between the rs pro-106 or the BCT369XT? I already have a rs 800MHz antenna and battery holders for the other two. but I like the simple looks and color choices of the BC. but I think Quality is the most important thing to me right now.

P.S. I also help run the neighbor hood watch in my area so listening to recorded old news doesn't work for me.

 

[qlajlu]

Thank you for your reply!
Any one care to give their personal opinion between the rs pro-106 or the BCT369XT? I already have a rs 800MHz antenna and battery holders for the other two. but I like the simple looks and color choices of the BC. but I think Quality is the most important thing to me right now.

P.S. I also help run the neighbor hood watch in my area so listening to recorded old news doesn't work for me.

Which one satisfies you will have to be a personal thing, but I will tell you that I would urge you to take the Pro-106 for several reasons...most of them also personal.

1. When we were in the midst of rebanding, GRE stood up to the plate and got a scanner out that we could use in the form of the PSR-500 & 600. The Pro-106 is made by GRE and is a clone of the PSR-500. Uniden sat on their hands basically abandoning us.
2. Many of the Utah members have and use the PSR-500 and a few have the Pro-106.
3. GRE is fast to answer questions and issue updates, and although RS runs somewhat behind them, they also get out updates.
4. The Pro-106 is very easily programmed using WIN500 which all of us on the Utah board are very familiar with and so can offer all kinds of help.
5. I believe the Pro-106 will be somewhat less expensive, although you do have to buy the programming cable separately.

As I said, all my reasons are personal. I was a Uniden user until they set us adrift at a crucial time. I bought a PSR-600 and haven't looked back. Heck, I'd like to see you get the PSR-500 (which includes the cable), and then you will be right on top of everything!

Don't get me wrong. Uniden puts out a quality product. I just don't like the way they treated us. It's personal.

Whatever you decide, be prepared for a steep learning curve. Things are treated much differently in this new generation of scanners.

 

[racelife]

Thank you for your insight. do you know if the old com port programming cable will work with the new scanners? I think I still have my old one. the only reason for me to go with the 106 over the GRE is that I heard the sound quality seems to be more crisp with the 106, but my research is only internet hear say and I haven't heard one personally. A company that is in tune with and quick to respond to the consumer or community is very important to me so you bring up a good point with that. and it helps that it seems to be popular and there are many who can share info and experience with the programming and trouble shooting.

Any one else is welcome to share there opinion.

 

[kd7rto]

Don't get me wrong. Uniden puts out a quality product. I just don't like the way they treated us. It's personal.

AOR and ICOM are producers of a quality product. Uniden is most certainly not.

My BC246T and BC796D have their uses, but I'm very dissatisfied with their RF performance. This topic came up a month or so ago in the Uniden forum, and I found the attitude of Uniden's product manager to be especially irritating:

"I can safely promise that if we come out with a single band digital trunking scanner for $3,500-$5,000, the performance will be comparable to the Motorola in every respect".

"But, the overwhelming opinion is that RF performance is appropriate for our products, given their price".

Of course that idiot N_JAY was in there, trying to shoot us down with his worthless opinion that there are not enough customers willing to pay the cost for a professional grade receiver to make production worthwhile. Did I already say idiot? Well it deserves repeating.

http://forums.radioreference.com/un...-models-bcd396xt-bc346xt-bcd996xt-bct15x.html

 

[racelife]

sorry for resurrecting this post but with the Iscan 107 out will this be compatible with UCAN I still haven't figured out if it is digital or not, or whether UCAN will be going digital anytime soon. my mind is going numb from reading all the old posts.

 

[Don_Burke]

first time post.

I need some advice I started listening with a pro 95 that ran nightly until the screen burned out... then I got a pro 97 witch I also listened to nightly for about a year then I noticed it would keep on scanning but never stopping. disgusted that it lasted less then a year i put it away until about a month ago when i was determined to get it working only to find out about rebanding so I assume that is what is wrong with the 97 so if it cant be reprogrammed then I need a little help picking out a new one.... I'm on a tight budget (spent all my money on the 97 a little over a year and a half ago) but need one that will last as it is sometimes the only way I can fall asleep at night... and cant buy a new one every year! sorry for the lengthy post let me know if there is any other info you would like to know.
thanks,
Stephen

Wecome to the sunlight.

That 97 might have a break in the antenna connection inside the case. They are prone to that.

 

[gldavis]

sorry for resurrecting this post but with the Iscan 107 out will this be compatible with UCAN I still haven't figured out if it is digital or not, or whether UCAN will be going digital anytime soon. my mind is going numb from reading all the old posts.

The 107 is compatable with UCAN. However it is not Digital. I have not heard anything about UCAN going full Digital.

 

[racelife]

so will I miss anything with it not being digital?

 

[kf7yn]

You won't miss much, there is not a lot of digital activity. West Valley Narcs and Midvale PD Car to Car is about the extent of it. LifeFlight is encrypted digital but no scanner can decode encryption.

 

[racelife]

Man West valley narcs is one i wanted to follow :-(

 

[Kestrel]

Pro-97 Feeback

I'm a little surprised to hear about the limitations of the Pro-97. I've used the Pro-97 before and after UCAN rebanding and it works like a champ. I can't imagine I am only hearing 'some' of the traffic. I am most often tuned to the Salt Lake control channel 853.11250 (VECC, WJPD, SLSO, AirMed, UHP). If I run the bank in open mode I hear all sorts of traffic. I have no way of comparing what I heard before and after rebanding but based on the various conversations going on it sure seems like I'm picking up the same volume of traffic. As far as other control channels I'm pretty certain I lock to channels in Davis and Weber counties but I will say there isn't as much traffic on those as the Salt Lake control channel. Whether that's a function of my scanner or just less on-air trafifc, I don't know. I am usually in Ogden a couple of times a month. I will pay closer attention to what's going on during my next trip up there. I will admit I've thought about upgrading but I can't justify replacing something that works perfectly fine (or is perceived to work perfectly fine ...).

And yes, I've been lurking for a while too. Nice to see you guys haven't missed a beat on the message board.

 

[Kestrel]

Pro-97 Feeback (2)

I couldn't sleep not knowing what I probably didn't know. Long story short, time to upgrade. The Pro-97 is destined to be my exclusive aviation frequency scanner. Bummer.

 

[Observer1]

Traffic on narcotics and other 'specialty' frequencies is not high volume these days.

Most law enforcement agencies have their non-patrol squads equipped with Nextel phones. Other than some operational outings, most of their recon etc is going to be done via phone, not over airwaves.

I notice many here also don't seem to pay much attention to the SLC network AC33. Probably should if you don't, largest and busiest police and fire departments in Utah.

 

[ww7y]

I'm a little surprised to hear about the limitations of the Pro-97. I've used the Pro-97 before and after UCAN rebanding and it works like a champ. I can't imagine I am only hearing 'some' of the traffic. I am most often tuned to the Salt Lake control channel 853.11250 (VECC, WJPD, SLSO, AirMed, UHP). If I run the bank in open mode I hear all sorts of traffic. I have no way of comparing what I heard before and after rebanding but based on the various conversations going on it sure seems like I'm picking up the same volume of traffic. As far as other control channels I'm pretty certain I lock to channels in Davis and Weber counties but I will say there isn't as much traffic on those as the Salt Lake control channel. Whether that's a function of my scanner or just less on-air trafifc, I don't know. I am usually in Ogden a couple of times a month. I will pay closer attention to what's going on during my next trip up there. I will admit I've thought about upgrading but I can't justify replacing something that works perfectly fine (or is perceived to work perfectly fine ...).

And yes, I've been lurking for a while too. Nice to see you guys haven't missed a beat on the message board.

Yes the old non rebanded compatable scanners work fairly well on the Salt Lake Simo. The reason for this is how the freqs were changed due to rebanding, those having this configuration xxx.xxx5 are the same as they were before rebanding. The new rebanded freqs have the xxx.xxx0 configuration since they went from 25 kHz spacing to 12.5 kHz and interleaved the new freqs between the old ones. Salt Lake Simo has 12 of its 18 talk freqs in the old range, and if you watch that system with Trunker it uses the old 12 much more than the new 6 so the old scanners get "most" of the traffic. Davis Simo on the other hand has only 1 of the old and 7 of the new, so you miss almost all of the traffic on that site with a non reband compatable scanner. The Salt Lake PD/'FD system AC33 uses ALL old freqs so can still be monitored totally with non reband compatable scanners.

Just look at the system freqs in the database, if the freqs have a 5 in the fourth place after the decimal (xxx.xxx5), your old scanner will receive it. If it has a 0 in that position (xxx.xxx0), it won't.

Simple huh?