It is possible to program the scanner without a computer and cable, especially if you are keeping the scanner at home and only need to hear what's coming from the nearest SIRN tower. You would be entering as few as two control channel frequencies. You could further simplify the process by entering a "wildcard" to hear everybody in the area using SIRN (state police, DNR, sheriff, EMS, etc) but exclude non-SIRN users such as school buses. There are some other steps to tell the scanner what type of system you are programming, etc, and which scan list you'll use to listen. If you know somebody who is fairly technical (maybe does some computer programming, for example), you could ask them if they could follow the steps in the manual.