I got the PRO-97 today

[antenna-man]

Well I couldn't wait any longer. I was going to wait a couple more weeks, but..... It is an upgrade for the old PRO-51. Trunking is not all that important to me, but why not spend a few extra bucks for a trunking scanner. The PRO-51 had a problem of receiving very strong UHF frequencies on just about any freq that started with a 4- 4XX.XXXMHz. I would be scanning the 440MHz ham radio freqs and hear a Houston Police Dept on all of them. So far the PRO-97 has not done that. The light is great-lights the display and buttons. I really like the alpha numeric memory channels. I no longer have to memorize what each freq is. You can use stereo headphones and hear audio on both channels. You don't need a mono to stereo adapter or headphones with a mono/stereo switch. Using the built in speaker yields plenty of audio-it blows away the PRO-51's built in speaker. All in all it's a very nice scanner. If there's something I would change, how about being able to switch the light on full time if you want to? And the signal stalker feature-can't wait to play with that! Now learning how to program trunked systems...I'm in no hurry.

 

[bonus1331]

Hold the bottom left button down (the one that looks like a light bulb) for 2 seconds and the backlight will stay on.

 

[antenna-man]

Hold the bottom left button down (the one that looks like a light bulb) for 2 seconds and the backlight will stay on.

Hey thanks! I had not got that far in the manual-page 81. I didn't think a handheld model would have that feature because of the light shortening the battery life. I don't think I've had a handheld with full time backlighting.

 

[RayK]

Here is an easer to read manual for the Pro-97:
http://myweb.cableone.net/marksscanners/97/97.html

 

[Gilligan]

I use my backlight all the time and it doesn't seem to affect the battery that much.