I need help badly programming my PRO-668 into separate playlists, monitoring specific talkgroups only, etc.. You almost need a college degree to learn how to use this piece of crap !!!!! DEFINITELY NOT "User-friendly".This is the worst handheld scanner I've ever owned & this is my 3rd..Back in the mid 90s, they still made very good scanners...Now with Digital Trunking, everything's changed...These Trunking "talkgroups" sound horrible- like they got food stuffed i their mouths when they talk....I personally do NOT like Digital....
Pro-668: Anybody in Tucson, AZ. to help me use the PRO-668 ??
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Well, I don't live in Arizona anymore, but I do have some experience with programming playlists on the RS Pro-668. I'll try to help you and walk you through it. I agree, it's not very intuitive but it can be done, and once you have the playlists the way that you want, it's a pretty cool scanner.
OK let's begin...
question #1... Are you wanting to program conventional, trunked, or both?
question #2... If you want to program a trunked system (which I assume you want PCWIN otherwise you wouldn't have bought this scanner), which tower is closest to you?
I tried mine on the P25 phase 2 system used for the Alabama First Responder Network in Huntsville and it decoded just fine.
Also Radio Shack is not "out of business". There are actually many Radio Shack stores still open and operating, although most of those are franchise stores and not company stores. I think that they are under bankruptcy protection until they can get reorganized. Maybe one of those folks who won the Powerball Lottery last week would like to purchase it and try their hand at running the company!
Don't give up on the Pro-668! I think most of us were on the same boat when we first got the scanner. I even took my first one back thinking there was something wrong with scanner. I got another one from RS to try and same results! Was nothing to do with the scanner, but in the programming. It is a bit of a learning curve, but once you get familiar on how to program the scanner (a lot of help here on RR asking questions and looking up past posts) I think you will be very pleased with the performance!
Please add those talk group IDs to the DB!
Yay!
The reason it only shows wildcard is that no one has submitted any talk groups to the RR database yet.
The seven-digit numbers are radio IDs. (Each radio has a unique number.)
There should also be some shorter numbers, which are the talk group numbers. If you can start figuring out which talk groups go with what kind of traffic and then submit them to the database that would be awesome.
On the "General Settings" tab, do you have Display Mode set to Advanced? If so, then on the "Advanced Features" tab you can set Line 3 (under Trunked System Channels) to Alpha Tag and TGID and that will make the talk group IDs display. (There won't be any Alpha Tag, since there aren't any in the DB.)
Similarly, you can set Line 5 to "Radio ID" and get the radio IDs, if you are so inclined.
I just might have to take a roadtrip out towards Batavia sometime. If there are talk groups in the database, that would be even better!
Yay!
The reason it only shows wildcard is that no one has submitted any talk groups to the RR database yet.
The seven-digit numbers are radio IDs. (Each radio has a unique number.)
There should also be some shorter numbers, which are the talk group numbers. If you can start figuring out which talk groups go with what kind of traffic and then submit them to the database that would be awesome.
On the "General Settings" tab, do you have Display Mode set to Advanced? If so, then on the "Advanced Features" tab you can set Line 3 (under Trunked System Channels) to Alpha Tag and TGID and that will make the talk group IDs display. (There won't be any Alpha Tag, since there aren't any in the DB.)
Similarly, you can set Line 5 to "Radio ID" and get the radio IDs, if you are so inclined.
I just might have to take a roadtrip out towards Batavia sometime. If there are talk groups in the database, that would be even better!
I'll second that. The software to program it is wonky and non-intuitive but it makes a lot of options possible once you get the hang of it. One thing to be sure to do: On the General tab, where it displays the start-up screen, change it to display your name, phone #, and address. A thief will have no idea how to change that information before attempting to pawn it. Also record the serial number and, if stolen, report the serial number to the police immediately. Do this with all of your electronics, actually.
You'll see as many radio IDs as there are radios ... so if (for example) you are listening to the sheriff's department, there would be one radio ID for each car and one for each handheld, plus one for the dispatcher. Similar for EMS and fire ... one for each unit, one for each handheld, one for each base station, and one for dispatcher.
The talk groups are used to separate different types of traffic ... law enforcement, EMS, fire.
If all of the traffic you are hearing falls into one of those categories then it makes sense you're only seeing one TGID.
Sorry to hijack this thread; probably should be in the NY forum!
in response to wbswetnam, I want to program Trunked & conventional stuff into various playlists, but even the software does not seem to allow this to be done.. I'd have to do some research to see "where" my "nearest" trunking tower is, but I live in Zip Code 85757..I've been extremely disappointed with my PRO-668.. When Tucson Police talk, it's always cutting off their conversations, sounds garbled ( like they got food in their mouths when talking ) & their on Project 25, Phase 2.. I personally HATE Digital Voice...Also, when scanner's scanning, always shows LAW TAC, LAW TALK, FIRE DISPATCH, LAW DISPATCH, etc.. I only want to see PLAY on the LCD or the playlists shown.. Also, how do you "send" your current database assembled ( all the stuff my scanner's picked up so far ) over to radio reference ??
Sure it does. I assume you are using the "Library Import" tab, yes? If you are, you might try using "Preferred" in the "Select Import Type" box; that allows you to import JUST the frequencies and systems you want, instead of everything in that county.
Either way, once you do that, go to the "Conventional Frequencies" and "Trunked Radio Systems/Talkgroup Details" tabs. At the far right there is a "Playlists" column, where you can pick which playlist(s) each conventional frequency or talkgroup appears in. There's also an option in the import where you can select a target playlist.
Welcome to the wonderful world of digital trunking systems. It's not your PRO-668 ... it's just a lot harder to get good results listening to a digital system than analog. A couple things to try are to turn on the attenuation; often the problem is LSM, where your scanner is picking up signals from more than one tower. Another thing to understand is that moving your scanner, even an inch or two, can make all the difference. Look for the "T" indicator to be on solid (or almost so) and you're probably in a sweet spot.
That's because by default you are importing frequencies and talkgroups into their "categories", and the scanner enables those category playlists. You can either remove those playlist numbers or just turn them off on the scanner. (Hit "Menu", then go down to "Playlists" and scroll up and down to turn off the ones you don't want.) That can also be done in the software ... on the "General Settings" tab there is a big window in the center of the screen where you enable and disable playlists before writing to the scanner.
Look at the top of the web page ... there is a "Submit Info" tab. That's where you ... submit info.
OK, after I select "PREFERRED" for importing, then on the COMPUTER Software in upper-left corner menu where it shows "Scanner/SD Card", I then hook up my scanner & select what ?? Do I select "Copy Config to Scanner" or "Copy Library to Scanner Memory" or both ???
"Copy Config to Scanner" copies your play lists to the scanner, so that's what you need to do once you get everything set up.
"Copy Library to Scanner Memory" copies over the updated RR database, which is used for the zip code feature. So you probably want to do that too.
Excellent!
That's great ... please submit them to the DB, once you figure out what they are!
That's great ... please submit them to the DB, once you figure out what they are!
"how exactly" do I turn on the attenuation & am I doing this for EVERYTHING programmed into the scanner already..There's all kinds of "attenuation settings" & is rather confusing to say the least.. Remember, I'm primarily focused on "improving" these Digital Trunking Talkgroup signals
Global attenuation
The easiest way to test to see if attenuation helps is to enable it globally (ie for everything).
Just press the "ATT" button on the front of the scanner until you see "GA" just to the right of the middle of the top row of the display. ("G" means "global attenuation mode"; "A" means attenuation is on.)
If that helps, then you can enable attenuation just for that system in the programming.
The easiest way to test to see if attenuation helps is to enable it globally (ie for everything).
Just press the "ATT" button on the front of the scanner until you see "GA" just to the right of the middle of the top row of the display. ("G" means "global attenuation mode"; "A" means attenuation is on.)
If that helps, then you can enable attenuation just for that system in the programming.
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