Best handheld scanner for York area?

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tes151

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Mar 16, 2004
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York, PA
Since using the search only gets me a blank white screen to look at, I thought I would post this question. I have been told my old PRO-90 is now a paper weight.( been away from scanning for a while ) I want to get back into scanning, and am also planning to become a premium member here as well. I need to know from the educated York area scanners, what would be the best all around handheld scanner to buy to be able to scan anything in the area? I would prefer it to be able to take software downloads as well. I am also partial to radios with rechargeable batteries/and or battery packs, like in the PRO-90, but if not that's ok. Thanks for any info. Tim
 

trap5858

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Feb 22, 2003
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Doylestown PA & Milton DE
York County is now on a trunked system. Go to the database section of this site and click on PA then York county. It will give you the layout of the whole county.

As far as which scanner is best- any of the ones that will allow you to listen to digital trunked systems will work. It should also be capable of decoding P25 systems. The Radio Shack pro-106 or the Uniden BC- 396XT are both excellent scanners. Cost wise they are about the same. If you get either of them, upgrade your subscription to RR to premium so that you will be able to program your scanner using software.

Both of those scanners can accomodate rechargable batteries.

Good luck and be sure to check out all of the resources this site has to offer.
 

tes151

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Mar 16, 2004
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Location
York, PA
Well, I went and bought a PRO-106 tonight. Not a bad price at $100 off on sale. The Radio Shack downloaded all the York county data for me. Now I just need to figure out how to work this thing. Seems to be a lot more to it than my old PRO-90. I also bought the programming cable, and the AC charger. I just needed a different end for the car charger I already had. I will probably be using the search function a lot here trying to get some questions answered.
 

CStarr59

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Feb 24, 2008
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Schuylkill County PA.
Thats a great deal on the 106! wish I had the $$$ right now, I would jump on one also. You made an excellent choice in a scanner! Get yourself some software, your going to need it sooner or later anyway and learn how to use your scanner a little better.
 

trap5858

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Feb 22, 2003
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Doylestown PA & Milton DE
Ttes151- congratulations on the new purchase. You will have a lot of fun with it. One of the problems with using the scanner with the radio shack programming as they did in the store for you is that it is the entire county- basically everything that is in the database. You may not want to listen to all of that and you probably want to organize the freqs. you listen to by category or location. All of the major software providers allow for a download of a 30 day trial version- FREE! Take advantage of this offer to find the software that is best for you. It will allow you to achieve the full potential of this fine radio.

I personally use win500 software. Go to the wiki section and look up trunking software, it gives an excellent overview of what is out there as well as links to download the trial versions.

Have fun.
 

tes151

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Joined
Mar 16, 2004
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York, PA
I guess I would have to figure out how to get rid of the Radio Shack download before I download the Win500 and make it the way I want it right? Or, can I just download the software and change the existing download around to suit my preferences?
 

trap5858

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Feb 22, 2003
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Doylestown PA & Milton DE
There are two ways to go about this. 1. download the software to your computer, attach the scanner to the computer and download the programmed information from the scanner and save it in a file. Once you do this you can begin to manipulate the program to better suit your needs, Then up load the modified file to the scanner.

2. Download the software as above. Sign in to the radio reference database and download either a conventional system or a trunked system. You do this by going to the web import tab on the file drop down menu. Once you have opened a system you can pick and chose what you want to have in the scanner. You have to make sure you load the control channels (the database will tell you which ones).

It takes a little time to get used to but it is well worth the investment in time. Once you ave your systems defined you can save the file and upload it to the scanner. Since you are saving each of these systems you can go back and re-work them if you need to.

I hope this helps.

If you are looking at the win500 software there is an excellent guide in the wiki section for this.
 
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