Help! I just got a scanner....

[Sieck72]

....and I have no idea what to do. It's an older model, a Realistic Pro-41. So far I was able to program the National Weather Service and am now lost. I found some frequencies, but when I tried to program them in, the scanner will not accept 7 digit freq's, i.e. 856.2375. What is wrong? Does anyone have some frequencies for me to use? Please help, I've been listening to the same weather report for an hour.

 

[LGLHOOK]

I am sorry to be the one to burst your bubble, but your PRO-41 covers all these bands:

29-50 MHz (VHF Lo) 148 -174 MHz(VHF-Hi)
50-54 MHz (6-Meter Ham Band) 406-450 MHz (ham radio and
government)
137-144 MHz (Government) 450-470 MHz (UHF Lo)
144-148 MHz (2-Meter Ham Band) 470-512 MHz (UHF Hi)


unfortunatly I think it is a little to old to do the 7 digit freqs. I found this info at http://support.radioshack.com/support_electronics/doc8/8553.htm

 

[JoeyC]

Your inquiry is almost useless since we have no idea where you are, besides Texas. You might try looking in the database for freqs for your area. Hopefully, you'll be able to find something conventional to listen to, but a 10 channel scanner these days is almost not even worth having. If you DO find something interesting to listen to and really want to get into this hobby, you'll find it very frustrating using that scanner.

 

[doug408]

This is a very old scanner. According to
http://support.radioshack.com/support_electronics/doc8/8553.htm this model was never designed to listen to 800 MHz frequencies. If that's what you need to listen to, you unfortunately have an incompatible scanner.

Let's take a few steps back. There are lots of smart, friendly people here who would be happy to help you. But to do that, we need to know a few more things from you. First, why did you get the scanner? What types of listening did you hope to do? Fire, police, trains, planes, amateur radio, or what? Also, what cities do you hope to listen to? This is a much more important question than it used to be because there are vast differences in the technologies used by different governments, etc. We need to know that before we can suggest which scanner models it's even possible to successfully use, much less which ones out of that pool are 'best' for a given need.

 

[eyes00only]

There are still LOTS of stuff you can monitor. Most of the people on this website are into the most advanced technology & scanners. Where are you located? Some ideas; trains, media, aircraft, hotels, sport stadiums, etc.

Jerry

 

[Sieck72]

Sorry....

....Guess I should have been more complete. I'm in San Antonio. I wanted to listen to police/fire/ems, but I'm guessing they are all working off of seven digit freq's. What else can I do?

 

[Colin9690]

If you want to listen to San Antonio Public Safety, you will need an 800MHz Trunking scanner that receives EDACS. But as eyes00only said, there is much more out there to listen to other that Police and Fire.

 

[UncleGut]

Re: Sorry....

....Guess I should have been more complete. I'm in San Antonio. I wanted to listen to police/fire/ems, but I'm guessing they are all working off of seven digit freq's. What else can I do?

i would get a new scanner http://www.radioreference.com/modules.php?name=RR&ctid=2537

 

[eyes00only]

Actually, I think San Antonio is "provoice" EDACS, and NO SCANNER will monitor it. I will try to send you some freqs. in a PM. If that doesn't work, feel free to e-mail me, and I will give you some info.

Jerry

 

[scanfan03]

Yes, San Antonio is Pro-Voice EDACs 800MHz with ESK. No scanner can monitor that, so don't buy a new scanner (well unless you want to monitor LTR systems around the area). To find out what the police/fire are doing, you have to listen to the media news frequencies. Sometimes San Antonio PD and FD will have ESK and Pro-Voice turned off, which you can monitor with a trunk tracking scanner.