Getting started on a Pro-164

[NathanExpo]

Hello All,

The newspaper I work for just bought a new RadioShack pro-164. I read the manual and am trying to figure it out, even though I am brand new to this.

I programmed 25 frequencies into the banks, and I think that I have all the frequencies I need - local fire and police, etc.

I have a few questions, I hope you can help me out.

When I press scan, what is it doing? Is it looking through all banks, or just the ones I have programmed? (some of the banks were pre-programmed with some crap - local racing frequencies and stuff I think).

Sometimes when I press scan, it doesn't do anything. It gets locked on one bank and pressing scan just skips to the next bank. What am I doing wrong there?

If I press "pause" when I get a signal, does it stay at that bank forever? What if I don't press pause quick enough? A lot of times I hear a conversation and I can't press Pause fast enough.

What does trunking mean?

Frequency FM 155.5950 in my area is the Jackson Michigan police dispatch. Why can I hear them super clear sometimes, and have a really crappy signal a few moments later? What can I do to make the signal clearer?

I want to get the radio dispatch for Columbia Township Police in Brooklyn, Michigan. I can't find their frequency listed. Can you help me listen to their radios?

Thanks so much! I apologize again for being such a noob.

-Nathan

 

[shadcall]

Hello All,

The newspaper I work for just bought a new RadioShack pro-164. I read the manual and am trying to figure it out, even though I am brand new to this.

I programmed 25 frequencies into the banks, and I think that I have all the frequencies I need - local fire and police, etc.

I have a few questions, I hope you can help me out.

When I press scan, what is it doing? Is it looking through all banks, or just the ones I have programmed? (some of the banks were pre-programmed with some crap - local racing frequencies and stuff I think).

Reply: Your scanner will pick up anything that is programmed in the scanner and not locked out whether you programmed it or it was already in the scanner.

Sometimes when I press scan, it doesn't do anything. It gets locked on one bank and pressing scan just skips to the next bank. What am I doing wrong there?

Reply: When it gets locked up on a bank, are you hearing anything? When you press scan you are telling the scanner to get off whatever it is on and move on.


If I press "pause" when I get a signal, does it stay at that bank forever? What if I don't press pause quick enough? A lot of times I hear a conversation and I can't press Pause fast enough.

Reply: You don't need to push pause. Just make sure you have the Delay enabled. When you program a frequency, just push the delay key. It will stay on that channel for a set amount of time.

What does trunking mean?

IReply: f you go to google and put in trunking you will probably find a better than explanation than I can give. But the only thing I saw in your area that is trunked is the city of Jackson transit system, the power company and some businesses. If you want to listen to them it will take a bit more programming. The State system such as higway patrol is trunked, but they are digital and your scanner can only pick up analog signals

Frequency FM 155.5950 in my area is the Jackson Michigan police dispatch. Why can I hear them super clear sometimes, and have a really crappy signal a few moments later? What can I do to make the signal clearer?

Reply: It could be just where the car is that is broadcasing, it could be where the radio tower is, or it could be your antenna and where you have the scanner. It could be other things such as interference from computers. I could be wrong, but just throwing out a few of the possibilities.

I want to get the radio dispatch for Columbia Township Police in Brooklyn, Michigan. I can't find their frequency listed. Can you help me listen to their radios?

Brooklyn

Frequency License Type Tone Alpha Tag Description Mode Tag
451.20000 WPJK663 RM Brkln PubWrk Public Works FM Public Works
453.61250 WQGF404 BM Brkln Water Water Department FMN Public Works

Columbia Township

Frequency License Type Tone Alpha Tag Description Mode Tag
154.13000 WNJF604 RM 192.8 PL Jackson Fire Fire - Countywide Dispatch [F-1/2] FM Fire Dispatch
154.29500 WNJF604 M CSQ F-3 Fire - Statewide DNR Fireground FM Fire-Tac
154.35500 WNJF604 M 192.8 PL F-4 Fire - Fireground FM Fire-Tac
155.77500 WNJD917 BM 114.8 PL F-5 Public Works/Police/Fire FM Multi-Talk
156.10500 WNJF604 M 85.4 PL F-6 Fire - Lenawee County Ops. FM Fire-Talk
154.43000 WNJF604 BM 85.4 PL F-7 Fire - Lenawee County Tactical FM Fire-Tac
33.78000 KBX379 BM CSQ Fire - Severe Weather Alerting Monitors FM Emergency Ops
33.66000 KBX379 M CSQ Fire - Tac (rarely used) FM Fire-Tac

Looks like the police is on 155.775 and it is shared with fire and public works.


Thanks so much! I apologize again for being such a noob.

-Nathan

I hope this helps and I hope I have provided the correct information. Welcome to the world of scanning and to Radio Reference.

 

[NathanExpo]

Thank you!

Nice!

That should give me something to chew on for a while. Thank you for the in-depth response. Hopefully I can wrap my head around this...

 

[shadcall]

You're welcome. I was suprised when no one else answered your questions. Usually they try to help the new people. So I took a shot at it. You may also want to consider branching out. I don't know where you are at exactly, but there may be more to listen to in terms of possible news stories if that is what the paper is using is using the scanner for. For example if you are near Lake Michigan there is marine traffic. If you have an airport there is air traffic which can include military aircraft. Two important frequencies there are the emergency channels, 121.5 for commercial airplanes and 243.0 for military air. Since airplanes are high in the sky they are easy to hear. There may be an air traffic control center you can listen too such as Detroit or somewhere else. There may be privately operated ambulances that can be monitored and of course the hospitals. Schools are also good to listen to since you never know these days if a kid brings a gun to school or something else happens. The scanner you have has a search key on it. You can use it to listen to a variety of services. Good luck and post any questions you have.