Getting Started Radio Shack Pro 96

[AngeloCosma]

Hey guys, how is everyone, my name is Angelo and this is my first post here, Looking forward to getting in on all the scanning. I just purchased a Radio Shack Pro 96 of ebay so the price didn't kill me that bad. But this is the first scanner I own besides my Air scanner which is really easy to use. But know that we are talking about trunked frequencies its like a whole new Language to me. I live in Orange County California and would like to know how I would get started in setting up my radio. Basically wanting to get all the local PD's and CHP. I don't know where to start but any help is appreciated, and I should mention that I am getting the Win 96 software for programming the unit. Again thanks for the help guys.

Wasn't sure where to post this so theres another one in Federal Gov section.

Angelo Cosma

 

[SCPD]

where are yiu located state, county & town

 

[AngeloCosma]

Its in the post, Orange County, I live in the city of Santa Ana.

 

[brentoli]

In California. Don't worry, I read it the first time!

 

[captclint]

I live in Orange County California and would like to know how I would get started in setting up my radio. Basically wanting to get all the local PD's and CHP. I don't know where to start but any help is appreciated

Welcome to RR. In general, you should not post same question more than once, but I understand your indecision. First, you should wait til you have Win 96 installed. The reason is that it will automatically download one or any combination of frequencies and trunking systems from this site. That is like getting your radio programmed for all the good stuff almost for free. You would need to become a paid subscriber to this site to get the automatic down loads, but this is also very reasonable($7.5 for 3 months). This can save you countless hours of programming and frustration.

Here is where you can see all the state agencies, including CHP: http://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?stid=6 From there you can see Orange County . There are a lot of things to download. You may want to start off with just CHP and
Orange, County of (CCCS - Public Safety) trunking system. You may need some help on the trunk system. I am not familiar with Pro96 and whether it allows Control Channel only. That means you only have to download the RED and BLUE frequencies. There may be other system para's such as Fleet Map. Win 96 may give you some clue to these things. Be sure you know which sites are close(15-20 miles) to you, as each site probably has to be programed as a separate system/bank. Read your manual carefully on trunking, and then ask in the Radio Shack forum if you still have problems. Also ask in the California Radio Discussion Forum what CCCS zone(s) you should program. They are called "interop"(they connect two systems together) at the far right, so you need to find out which ones, if any are of interest. They can also give you some help on setting up the trunking system. You can always come back with Win 96 and down load more as you get to understand what you want. Win 96 will also help you to understand all the features of your fairly complicated scanner.

 

[SCPD]

The Orange County Sheriff Department and all cities in Orange County encrypt their law enforcement radio traffic. For an explanation of the radio systems in Orange County click onto this link:

http://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?sid=201

There aren't any scanners capable of decoding encrypted radio traffic as to do such is against federal law. You will still be able to listen to all the fire departments in the county as well as CHP and lots of other agencies such as state parks.

 

[AngeloCosma]

Wow thats not cool. How about like, Santa Ana, Costa Mesa, Newport Beach Police Dept. They are all my local surrounding agencies.

 

[AngeloCosma]

This is what I just read In another topic "Newport Beach Police Freq" and this was posted in it, The only radio scanners currently (July 2003) on the market that can monitor unencrypted digital talk groups on the Orange County system are the Uniden BC250D and BC785D with the required BCi25D digital card. As of July 2003 these radio scanners are running about $650 street price with the digital card.Radio Shack is currently developing a digital capable radio scanner, the Pro-96, which should be available late 2003 and will cost $599. The Radio Shack Pro-96 includes some features not found on the Uniden models and lacks some other features. The most prominent feature lacking in the Pro-96 (in my humble opinion) is the lack of military air band frequencies.

 

[SCPD]

This is what I just read In another topic "Newport Beach Police Freq" and this was posted in it, The only radio scanners currently (July 2003) on the market that can monitor unencrypted digital talk groups on the Orange County system are the Uniden BC250D and BC785D with the required BCi25D digital card. As of July 2003 these radio scanners are running about $650 street price with the digital card.Radio Shack is currently developing a digital capable radio scanner, the Pro-96, which should be available late 2003 and will cost $599. The Radio Shack Pro-96 includes some features not found on the Uniden models and lacks some other features. The most prominent feature lacking in the Pro-96 (in my humble opinion) is the lack of military air band frequencies.

When I said all cities in Orange County are encrrypted, that does mean every one of them. They are all on the same radio system. As for military air frequencies, I believe that use of Don Starr's Starrsoft program for the PRO-96 that you can extend the coverage of the PRO-96 down into the higher portion of the 300 MHz range. I'm not positive about that, so here is the link to his site where you can check it out.

http://www.starrsoft.com/

Military aircraft traffic in this area is very minimal so I have not looked into extending the coverage of my PRO-96.

If you bought the radio used you need check the CPU version it is loaded with. I believe the current version is 1.4. If you don't have the current version you can download it from the Radio Shack website. The owner's manual will give you instructions on how to check what CPU and digital processing version is in the radio.

Good luck!

 

[Sac916]

This is what I just read In another topic "Newport Beach Police Freq" and this was posted in it, The only radio scanners currently (July 2003) on the market that can monitor unencrypted digital talk groups on the Orange County system are the Uniden BC250D and BC785D with the required BCi25D digital card. As of July 2003 these radio scanners are running about $650 street price with the digital card.Radio Shack is currently developing a digital capable radio scanner, the Pro-96, which should be available late 2003 and will cost $599. The Radio Shack Pro-96 includes some features not found on the Uniden models and lacks some other features. The most prominent feature lacking in the Pro-96 (in my humble opinion) is the lack of military air band frequencies.

Here are 3 popular handheld DIGITAL capable scanners.

Uniden BC396T
http://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/BCD396T
(covers 25.0000 - 512.0000 MHz)

Radio Shack Pro-96
http://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/Pro-96
(covers 108-174, 216-225, 406-512)

GRE PSR-500
http://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/PSR-500
(covers -
216.0025-219.9975 5 kHz
220-224.995 5 kHz
225.000-379.975 25 kHz
380-419.9875 12.5 kHz)

Here are some scanners on the market today that are digital capable.
Again, none of these will monitor "encrypted" radio traffic.

http://www.scannermaster.com/Digital_Scanners_s/269.htm

In my opinion, the BC396T is a bit more user friendly - it's also smaller and lighter.