trunk scanning on pro90

[Sicmaro]

ive had 2 other scanners and use my pro 97 daily. bought a pro 90 for the girl friend. I have all the freqs programmed into the trunking bank. but it constintly searchs for the control channel, which is programed because its the same on my pro 97.

any help would be great, thanks in advance......

scanning sacramento county, ca sheriff dept, and other local cities who are all on the same trunk radio system.

 

[N8IAA]

ive had 2 other scanners and use my pro 97 daily. bought a pro 90 for the girl friend. I have all the freqs programmed into the trunking bank. but it constintly searchs for the control channel, which is programed because its the same on my pro 97.

any help would be great, thanks in advance......

scanning sacramento county, ca sheriff dept, and other local cities who are all on the same trunk radio system.

Sicmaro, the 90 needs to have all of the trunking frequencies programmed into the radio. It will not work in the CC only mode. It is a late 90's radio. Used to have one. So, get your fingers warmed up and limber
Larry

 

[N8IAA]

I presume that you have a manual for the radio, if not, go to radio shack.com and in the search field, type owner manual Pro-90, hit search and download the manual. This radio will not do TT'ing and conventional like the 97. It will be only in a single bank trunk mode, or, in multibank conventional mode.
HTH,
Larry

 

[Sicmaro]

N8IAA............. i have all the freqs store into bank one. just trying to scan them. it continues to scan and never finds the dang control channel. i have the manuel and im doing everything by the book. not sure what my deal is

 

[mtindor]

N8IAA............. i have all the freqs store into bank one. just trying to scan them. it continues to scan and never finds the dang control channel. i have the manuel and im doing everything by the book. not sure what my deal is

You need to make sure it is in Trunking mode and not conventional.

Hold down Trunk until the scanner beeps twice
(BANK, TRUNK and the bank numbers flash)
- then select the bank the trunked system is in that you want to scan
- then press Search (which will search in open mode, no need for talkgroups)

If you manually step through the frequencies, do you _hear_ the control channel?

NOTE: If you press SCAN instead of SEARCH, then instead of running in open mode it runs in closed mode (scans only the TGIDs you have entered into the scanlists). If you have not entered any TGIDs into the scanlist and you are using SCAN, you won't hear anything.

The manual says:

Your scanner's squelch setting is automatically adjusted in the trunking mode, which means it is not necessary to manually adjust squelch while tracking trunked transmissions. However, the squelch setting can affect how fast your scanner acquires the data channel, and, in some instances, can prevent your scanner from acquiring the data channel at all.

The manual then goes on to recommend that the squelch be set so that the dot on the knob is facing the word 'squelch'. What they are saying is that even though they claim the squelch setting doesn't matter, it does - and you shouldn't run with the squelch in a position where you hear static on a frequency that has no transmission.

Mike

 

[loumaag]

Just to add to what mtindor had to offer, remember that when programming the frequencies, the radio must be in Trunking mode to begin with (while programming them in); otherwise it just considers them as conventional frequencies.

 

[mtindor]

Just to add to what mtindor had to offer, remember that when programming the frequencies, the radio must be in Trunking mode to begin with (while programming them in); otherwise it just considers them as conventional frequencies.

I was wondering about that . I was too lazy to go grab mine off the feed and find out. So yes, he would want to make sure and add them after doing TRUNK (until two beeps) and selecting the bank.

Thanks for the clarification.

Mike

 

[reddgroom]

Additional Pro 90 help

I was given an old Pro 90 scanner in very good condition and tried programing it to see if it still worked. I am in So Cal in the IE and the fire/pd system here is still analog and Motorola type II, so the scanner should work well for those. I found this thread VERY helpful as the owners manual was practically useless and not even correct! If you have a pro 90 and are frustrated trying to make it trunk try these tips.
- Use the Bearcat235 owners manual from Uniden instead. It is slightly different, but the steps in it worked where the Radio shack manual didn't https://www.uniden.com/product-information/owners-manuals
- Frequencies MUST be programmed in as trunking freqs, follow the instructions above, you can't just enter them normally. (be in trunk entry mode and Hit E after entering, not up or Manual!)
- I entered my trunk freqs in the 860 range in bank 10 to start and when I hit search the first few times, it started back at 151 freqs in a slow methodical search for the control channel. I changed all the trunking freqs to bank 1 and this time when I hit search, it started with my bank one channels and found the control quickly.

I got the scanner working now after several frustrating hours previously trying to follow the official instructions. They didn't work! Good Luck, even this old equipment works great on my local scanning needs. I guess that's the reason why we keep search functions and data archives. Thanks for the help guys!

 

[W8RMH]

The PRO-90 was manufactured by Uniden for Radio Shack. It is functionally identical to the Uniden BC235XLT model. Uniden made most RS scanners before GRE and Whistler.