Another stupid "Should I buy a PSR 500" thread

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raisindot

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Sorry to bring this up again, but I have a Pro 95 and the cold weather is putting me into GAS mode.

I live in the greater Boston area. Keeping that in mind, does anyone who has a PSR 500 live here and does the PSR 500 pick up a lot of digital stuff? I'm not really whether any systems have converted to digital (it's not that easy to do the research, since a lot of the sites that provide frequencies haven't been updated in sevearl years), which would be the main reason for me to get one.

Can anyone offer any advice? I'd prefer not to shell out the $500 right now if it's several years until digital comes to the area.

Thanks!

Suzie
 

K8TEK

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This question is stupid. Should I buy a scanner? This is kind of like asking "should I buy a plasma TV"? Do you need it? Can you justify spending $500 to listen to people talk? You must be made of money if you haven't even done the research to see if you need one to listen in.
 

letarotor

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Hey K8TEK, didn't your momma ever tell you that if you don't have something nice or constructive to say, shut the hell up? She should have.........

Raisindot, although I don't live in the Boston area, I do live in a large metrolopolitan area and eventually everything will be going digital. However, it will be a long time before all analog transmissions disappear, if ever, so probably at this point its more of a "want" versus "need" to have a digital scanner. Check the Radio Reference database for your area, that will help you with your research. RR is by far the most up to date database you will find anywhere on the internet. Here are some of my observations about the PSR500 that I recently posted to another list: I've had one since the day they were released and shipped. I've been very happy with the unit, and it is now my go everywhere scanner. I haven't listened to hardly any MilAir so can't give you a definitive word on that part, but it seems to do well on airband AM, and VHF and UHF conventional. I do enjoy the NAC decoding capability. If you set the channel to code search, it will tell you immediately what type of tone is being used (CTCSS, DCS and NAC) and what the number is. If you enter a NAC tone on a channel, it works just like the CTCSS and DCS tones do. I took it to Colorado over Christmas and it performed very poorly (missed lots of initial transmissions on a talkgroup) on the statewide digital trunked radio system, a pure ASTRO P25 system. It performed poorly in this area compared to my PRO-96. However, GRE has released another firmware upgrade, which according to initial reports, has improved its performance on these types of systems. Around our area, it performs very well on trunked systems. And I have every one for our area entered into mine. I'm up to about 1750 objects and its not full yet. But, if you are used to Uniden scanners and to breaking down your systems into subgroups, forget that concept. You enter in each conventional channel or talkgroup as an object affiliated with a system & assign it to a scan group. If you want to listen to all talkgroups in a system you have to create a Wildcard object for that system. You can't turn it on and off other than locking it out, then turning the unit off then back on. You are limited to only 20 scan lists. So what I did was combine several systems who are close into one scan list, like Grand Prairie and Mansfield for instance. Arlington has its own scan list, but since I don't get up to the northeast corridor often, I have Richardson, Garland, Plano, McKinney and Collin County all in one system to save scan lists for other items. The audio is crisp and clear like the PRO-96, and I really like the colored LED light at the top of the scanner. It helps in identifying who is talking on a scan list without having to glance at the screen; like red for fire, blue for police, yellow for EMS, green for Media and pink for wreckers! It has been mentioned that the unit is very sensitive. Forget about hearing much of anything around a NEXTEL tower. The audio on mine washes out. And you can't set it near computers. And if you have a 800MHz cell phone, you will hear the hamster claw sound coming out of the scanner's speaker each time the phone pings, or gets pinged, by a cell site. Guess that's handy if you want to know if someone is calling before the phone rings or if Jack Bower is looking for your GPS coordinates! But, the receive capability with the stock antenna is awesome. I can hear systems here at the crib that are deaf to all my other scanners including the PRO-96. The scan rate is remarkably fast and comparable to older GRE scanners "back in the day." With four 2500maH Energizer nickel metal hydride batteries it will run for about 8 to 10 hours.
 

K8TEK

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Letarotor,

Your post lacks any sentence structure. You fail to properly format a single paragraph, and the entire post is a run-on sentence.

By the way, I am still failing to see how my post was not constructive. The original poster has failed to read the database for her area and understand it. She would rather ask someone "should i buy it" as opposed to doing a little bit of research on her own. My post said if you don't need it, don't buy it... Pretty simple and constructive.

My car has tires, but there are better tires. Do I need new tires? Hmm... Do a little research. Only you can justify making such a purchase.

If you really want to just buy one, send it to me... I can find a use for it.
 

raisindot

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I was asking for help, not mistanthopy

K8TEK said:
Letarotor,

Your post lacks any sentence structure. You fail to properly format a single paragraph, and the entire post is a run-on sentence.

By the way, I am still failing to see how my post was not constructive. The original poster has failed to read the database for her area and understand it. She would rather ask someone "should i buy it" as opposed to doing a little bit of research on her own. My post said if you don't need it, don't buy it... Pretty simple and constructive.

My car has tires, but there are better tires. Do I need new tires? Hmm... Do a little research. Only you can justify making such a purchase.

If you really want to just buy one, send it to me... I can find a use for it.

I was quite explicit in my topic line. I wasn't trying to fool anyone. You could have avoided this topic altogether. Instead, you chose to be aggressive, patronizing and nasty.

I wasn't asking for someone to do the work for me. I simply asked if anyone in the easter MA area had a PSR 500 and could up digital frequencies with it? What is the point of having these kinds of forums if they can't help newbies or potential consumers? What better way to get people to "join the group" than to give them advice that can help them make intelligent decisions?

It may surprise you to know that not all of us are experts like you. It's not easy to decipher information on exactly which systems and digital or not in Massachusets (and, yes, I looked on this site and others. It's not easy to tell which are digital or not.). So rather than spend hours trying to look up frequencies, I was asking for help from the people who have these scanners in MA to give me their feedback. And, from Letarotor and everyone else but you, I've received very helpful, specific responses that have been far more valuable in guiding my evaluation process than all of the online research I've done. Those that did respond very nicely pointed out there is not a great deal of digital usage in MA right now, and it might be better off to wait before making this investment. This is exactly the kind of helpful feedback I was looking for and I greatly thank those who gave it.

On the other hand, your boorish attitude toward myself and others here reinfornces the unfair and untrue stereotype of radio hobbyists as isolated, angry, survivalists holed up in shotgun shacks in Montana.

Fortunately, it seems that nearly everyone else in this forum except you is quite nice and helpful, and they more than make up for your misanthropy.

Sincerely,

Suzie
 

K8TEK

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I still fail to understand why anyone would spend $500 on a scanner and not even have the slightest clue.

The fact that you own a scanner already would lead someone to believe you had a clue. $500 is an awful lot of money to invest in something that you have no clue about.

Lets not forget that you already asked the same question on here.
 

Patch42

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You are limited to only 20 scan lists. So what I did was combine several systems who are close into one scan list, like Grand Prairie and Mansfield for instance. Arlington has its own scan list, but since I don't get up to the northeast corridor often, I have Richardson, Garland, Plano, McKinney and Collin County all in one system to save scan lists for other items.
It's actually 22 scan lists when you include FAV and Skywarn. (Skywarn is intended for a specific purpose, but I don't believe there's anything keeping your from using it for whatever category of radio service you want.)

I would also point out that with V-Scanner ability to store 20 additional complete configurations, it's really like you have 440 scan lists, you just can't have them all mapped at the same time. With your northeast corridor situation, you could put those in another V-Scanner folder and still have each city/county on its own scan list. You'd just load up that V-Scanner Folder when you travel in that vicinity. I'm sure you know all this. I just wanted to point it out for those who might not be aware.

As to the grammatical criticism of your mini-review, I would agree that the one giant paragraph is a bit daunting, but the attack on your sentence structure is completely misplaced. I recall no run-on sentences in your post and it certainly is not one giant run-on sentence.
 

loumaag

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K8TEK said:
...Lets not forget that you already asked the same question on here.
Let's also not forget you have been warned in the past that your attitude here is sub-par. If you want to rant, go somewhere else where people enjoy that; it is not welcome here. Due to the repeated warnings your posting ability is suspended for 1 week. Please see your email (provided your email address is accurate) for details.
 

Landman

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Not to try to throw any fuel on the U vs GRE fire but with a Uniden scanner you are restricted to 200 talkgroups per trunked system. If you are listening to a large system with over 200 talkgroups you will have to program it twice or more in the Uniden scanner with different talkgroups in each which will slow down the scan rate as the scanner has to check the control channel multiple times to cover the entire list of talkgroups. With the PSR-500 you can have up to 1800 talkgroups per system. I have a large system with almost 700 talkgroups in mine with no apparent detriment to the scanner's performance.

While mobile in an urban area the 20dB global attenuation which can be activated by a single button push on the PSR-500 is a veeerrry nice feature to have if you listen to 800 MHz systems.
 

N8IAA

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raisindot said:
I have a Pro 95. I live in the greater Boston area. Suzie
What I see for the greater Boston area is BAPERN. It is 450mhz. The only digital system is the Massachusetts State Police. Boston city services needs a fleetmap programmed if you are listening to them. As you have stated, digital is not in the near future. What you have will do nicely for your monitoring. That is, unless, you want to have CT and DC for more selectivity on the BAPERN system. If you want a base model for monitoring, I would check out the GRE PSR-400. It is very similar to the 95 that you are using. It is an upgraded analog/conventional scanner that replaced the Pro-97/2055 radios.
HTH,
Larry
 

CAPTLPOL1

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If you hit the road buy, if not think about not buying it. They do make a non digital version as well.
 

Curfew

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Get it, just break down and do it. It's worth it- it's probably the most advanced scanner to date. Curfew
 

raisindot

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Stop it, stop it, stop it! You're breaking down my resistance. GAS is a terrible thing.

It's even worse now that I've discovered that the Scannermaster headquarters is located less than a quarter mile from my home. I can actually drive over there and pick up one up. I have a feeling that logic and common sense are not going to win this time...oh, well, food, heat and electricity are way overrated anyway... :)
 

Curfew

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This is great. You will have to sit a couple of days reading the manual. It's a cool radio once you start learning your way around it.
 
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