Buying a scanner

[af5rn]

nicdoot, don't listen to this guy, he has no idea what hes talking about. It is not that hard to figure any of these radios out. Heck even if you do have problems there is always software that can bail you out and have you up and running in no time flat.

What are you, blind? You've been on this forum since 2002 and haven't seen the number of people who freak out in the first week of trying to program their new scanner? Get real.

Hey, if it comes easy to the guy, great. He'll be pleasantly surprised, won't he? But that beats the hell out of him ending up feeling like a complete idiot, as well as thinking we mislead him into a frustrating mistake.

 

[hoser147]

All BS aside if you get one and need help just ask in a post and plenty of members will be there to help you work thru it.....................Hoser

 

[ridgescan]

Do what I did: read the HELL out of the instruction book. Then read it again. Then take it to the one place where you do your best thinking-the BATHROOM and go over it there. You get my point...at least for my Uniden-those instructions contain all the info and order of procedure you'll ever need for programming. You HAVE to take the time to orientate yourself to this technology-you have procedure that must be followed or it WILL fail. Patience pays off here-and once you have success, and it's all in there, it actually becomes 'just a push of a couple buttons' ...........by the way-STOP BICKERING YOU GUYS! I'm seeing more tension around here lately. Don't get frustrated with each other-you're all very intelligent folks who contribute tons to us in knowledge and you are appreciated-but you're gonna scare off inquiring minds and they are precisely why this forum is here

 

[n2mdk]

It's also very important to also understand the way radio communications you are going to listen to work. Simplex is easy, simply radio to radio, Repeaters are harder but it's easy to understand generally, the radio transmits and one frequency another radio picks it up and retransmits out on another frequency that the field radios listen to. Trunking is harder still it a bunch of repeaters controlled by basically a computer. Understanding trunking is important to programming a scanner to use listening to trunked systems.
A great place to start to get an idea of how trunking works is this primer written by UPMan
http://www.uniden.com/products/ButIjustwanttolistentothePolice.pdf

 

[ka3jjz]

This is just my opinion, but you really need to spend some time learning in this hobby. I don't care which hobby you pick - even stamp collecting - but you need to sit down and devote some time to learning. If you don't, whatever the hobby, you're not going to get much out of it.

In that end, some people believe (and I'm one of them) that doing your own programming (either by hand - which many say is valuable in and of itself - or with software) immediatly gives you feedback - good or bad - when something you did does or does not work. However, I suppose there are enough folks that want to be 'turnkey' types - and for those, we have a few programming services listed in our wiki (anything in blue - or underlined, as in the wiki - is a link...)

http://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/Programming_Files

73 Mike

 

[af5rn]

A great place to start to get an idea of how trunking works is this primer written by UPMan
http://www.uniden.com/products/ButIjustwanttolistentothePolice.pdf

Plus 5 for posting that. I should have remembered it!

 

[mrova]

Read, Read, Read...

That's what I did, read everything here I could on the uniden, RS, and GRE...read what everyone was saying, pros and cons. All the while, saving my nickels. Then, I decided the one to get and downloaded the manual, and read that thing like crazy. Out of all that, even though there's a bit of learning curve to these digital scanner, I had I good idea of how this thing was gonna work. After making the decision on the one I was going to get (psr-500), I read all the posts about what the questions were on programming it and went ahead and downloaded the trial versions of the available software, tried them out a bit to see how they work. A few days before my scanner arrived, I paid the 180 day subscription to RR and reviewed that, using the software (mostly the Win500). So, to say the least, when that bad boy arrived, I had quite a bit of familiarity.
So, it arrives, and within just a couple of hours, I was scanning some of my targeted frequencies...and in the next two days, I had expanded that to others, another day and my scanner is filling fast. Not to mention, I asked a question on the forums and within just a couple hours had a file and answers to my questions! Hat's off to the forums and this site! Having a sense of how it's laid out, how it works, and the answers all of you provide, sure made it more enjoyable!

 

[nicdoot]

I may be SOL on the scanner. I took it in today and it says on the receipt they will refund it before 30 days and only replace or repair it within 90 days. I am going back tomorrow to speak to a manager but if not I will probably try to sell it locally and get a Pro 96 on ebay.

Thanks for the words of encouragement. I'm sure the scanner will be whatever you want to put into it in terms of time, patience and dedication to it.