Help with Pro97

[airolgmd]

I really need help for my husband's birthday tomorrow because I want the scanner to be ready to go. He has a 15-year old Bearcat and he knows nothing about programming (not that I do either) and would just get upset if I gave it to him and it did not work as well as or better than his old one.

Here's what I've figured out and done so far:

I've bought him a Pro97 scanner relying on the sales clerk.
I've downloaded Win97 and have figured out how to upload and download (bought the cable, hooked it up to the computer, etc).
He's only really interested in fire stuff and a couple of counties.
I've programmed a bunch of numbers (frequencies???) from his old one.
I've somehow gotten them all in Bank 2 (pre-downloading Win97) - FM, should they be MOT? (There was a post here that the bank and frequencies should both be MOT)

It's scanning and beeping and all that annoying stuff, but...it's still only doing what his old one does. As he explained (dumbed down for me), when a call comes in they then go to another frequency and on his Bearcat, he's forced to scan to find that other frequency and follow the conversation. The clerk said that the Pro97 would automatically go there. Is this a trunk code? or a TalkGroup? Are they the same thing? I went to the Wikipedia and it is way over my head and not something I really care to learn. <grin> I've been reading this forum for hours and no one is on my level of understanding this whole mess so I don't really know what to search for or to even ask about. Does anyone know what I'm asking?

I've found the trunked frequencies and trunked codes to use and printed them out, so where do I put them in in Win97 program so I can upload them to scanner? There doesn't seem to be a column or place anywhere to enter this information.

Can someone help me get this done? Otherwise, he'll just be frustrated and want to take it back.

TIA

 

[doctordave]

You'll want to let us know which counties/cities your husband might wish to monitor, for starters.

 

[airolgmd]

Counties

Here's the counties:

Baltimore City
Baltimore County
Harford
AA
Carroll
Howard

I've gotten them all printed out so I know the numbers...I think. Thanks.

 

[doctordave]

OK, here's the problem......Balt City & Harford/Howard Counties use digital 800 MHZ....the pro-97 is a non-digital scanner. Your hubby's reception of on-scene fire comms for those areas will be limited to that which is re-broadcast on some conventional frequencies (not much). He'll also be missing nearly all police activity for those counties.

AA, Carroll & Balt Counties will be just fine for now w/ the pro-97. Sooner or later, though, we expect those areas to migrate to digital.....precisely when is unclear. If your husband really wants to monitor all that goes on in the listed areas, a digital scanner (about $500) will be needed. At Radio Shack, we're talking the pro-96 or pro-2096. Uniden also makes similar digital models.

 

[airolgmd]

More...

Well, he mainly listens to Balto, AA and Carroll, but that's probably because that's all he's had. He doesn't listen to any police stuff, only fire. I'll upgrade his scanner to the $500 one in 15 more years. <grin>

So, how can I make this scanner do what he wants? Are you saying it's not possible? I really wish I knew for sure what I'm asking. How do I make TalkGroups? Is this what I want to do? I can read more and learn (I still have tomorrow.) about it, but is that what I'm trying to do? I have these trunked frequencies (857.xxxx) and the trunked codes (16, etc.)? Where do I put these numbers?

I know he gets annoyed when they leave the frequency and he starts scanning trying to find it again, but by the time he gets there, he's missed it all. At least, I think that's what he wants as he described to me. So, if I can get even a couple to do this, it would be nice.

He was a bit disappointed a scanner wasn't under the Christmas tree so I really wanted to get this ready. I was actually going to turn it on and wrap it and hope it beeped just as he opened the box.

 

[doctordave]

The pro-97 will be fine for Balto/AA/Carroll Counties. Perhaps someone on here might have some already created pro-97 database files to e-mail you....much easier than having to start from scratch. Anyone able to help?

 

[troymail]

You're in luck - I have a .p97 file with AA County, Carroll County, Baltimore Cnty and some others ... I just set this up for my father as a Christmas present... Standby and I'll get the whole thing posted in a place where you can grab it....

 

[airolgmd]

Thank you!!!!

I really can't thank you enough. He'll be soooooooooo happy.

 

[troymail]

OK - Looky here....

http://pws.cablespeed.com/~troymail/PRO97Files/toShare.p97

Load it up and tell me if it works for you....

 

[airolgmd]

Invalid

It's giving me an invalid format error message.

All I have to do is "Open" it, yes? After I've saved it to my hard drive, that is.

 

[troymail]

Save it to disk and then open it with Win97... then load it to your scanner.

 

[airolgmd]

I did that and that's when I got the error message that it was in an invalid format.

 

[troymail]

You can pm me an email address and I'll try to send it to you directly....

it should be 54,065 bytes

Since the scanner was a gift, I created the file using a trial version of Win97.... I just tried the running Win97 and my trial has expired ... I supposed that could mean that the data file is expired and/or corrupted also --- (does anyone know if this is the case?)

 

[troymail]

OK - I was able to load Win97 on a different PC and confirmed that the file I had placed on my site is being corrupted somehow. However, the copy I have on my machine is not corrupted...

Sooooo... I have now zipped up the .p97 file and placed it at the same link.

Save the zip file to disk, unzip it, and try again loading the .p97 file into Win97 again (I just did and it seemed to work this time).

Troy

 

[airolgmd]

Thank you!

I just wanted to say thank you so very much. It worked like a charm! It's just want he wanted--it soooooo worked!! I'm sorry I didn't get back with you sooner. For those that were interested, I did turn on the scanner and wrapped it at the very last minute (and I mean the very last second!!!) and it did not beep or chit-chat until after he'd opened the gift, which worked out fine.

Let me know if I can ever do something for you!!! You can take down the file, if you want.

Thanks again!!! Now, if only he would use headphones...all this stuff is so annoying to ME!!!!