I need a PRO-106 Pro!

[jkbodden]

For the past 35 years, I've always owned and listened to a scanner, however figuring out my PRO-106 is right up there with 11th grade Algebra...I JUST DON’T GET IT! Here are a few questions for anyone who has "been there".

I THOUGHT I had figured out the whole "scannable object" and "scan list" thing and decided to program most of the mil-air freqs for the Knoxville Airport (Magee Tyson a/k/a TYS), since I live less than a mile from the tower. I thought I would program them on scan list #3, reserving lists 1 and 2 for local LEO and EMS. After pushing the PGM button, I hit NEW, then CONV, then changed the scan list from #1 to #3 by using the right arrow key twice (BTW, I did notice the * next to the #1, but didn’t know what it meant). I then scrolled down to enter the freq, alpha tags then hit Save. About 50 of the freqs landed in scan list 1, with only 3 freqs landing in scan list 3. What happened here? BTW, the Knoxville Airport also houses an Air National Guard base and has a decent amount of military activity, but am only receiving a very limited # of conversations. If anyone knows how to "move" these freqs into scan list 3, please help.

Since I am obviously programming "challenged" and obviously don't have the proper freqs programmed, I thought I would simply do a "Signal Stalker" search for all bands (0-9), thinking I would pick-up some local mil-air conversations (there are a lot of military helos and re-fuelers that "live" at this base and practice slow hovers and touch & go's almost daily and again, I’m less than a mile from them), so back to the questions.

a) Why does it only take about 30 seconds for my scanner to "zip" through all bands (0-9) when in signal stalker mode, but it takes about 30 minutes for it to "search" through the same freqs when in search mode?

b) Could this scanner be "missing" or "skipping" some of the mil-air freqs when in Stalker and/or Search modes?

c) How is it I can pick up more traffic out of Atlanta (about 150 miles away on 255.4000, labeled UH1 Huey Army), than I can from the airport less than a mile from me? A lot of these military jets will do 8-10 touch and goes a few times a day around my house, but they don't communicate over the "normal" tower freqs.

If anyone knows where I can find a "Programming a PRO-106 for Dummies" web site, it would also be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Jeff (the programming challenged one)

 

[W6KRU]

Easier to Read Pro-106/197/PSR500/600 Digital Scanner Manual

 

[nanZor]

I THOUGHT I had figured out the whole "scannable object" and "scan list" thing and decided to program most of the mil-air freqs for the Knoxville Airport (Magee Tyson a/k/a TYS), since I live less than a mile from the tower. I thought I would program them on scan list #3, reserving lists 1 and 2 for local LEO and EMS. After pushing the PGM button, I hit NEW, then CONV, then changed the scan list from #1 to #3 by using the right arrow key twice (BTW, I did notice the * next to the #1, but didn’t know what it meant)

That got me at first as well. You can program a frequency as a scannable object, but THEN have to put it into a scan-list to make it actually scan-able. RS does this automatically into Scanlist #1 by default. (the * indicates that this is the scanlist into which it is going.) And this is what you are seeing on a bunch of your target freqs.

To make sure that those milair channels are in ScanList #3, go back in and edit them, and make sure that the star * is visible for scanlist 3 for that frequency. At this point, you may want to REMOVE the * from scanlist #1 for that frequency. You can see that you can program just one frequency as a scannable object, but link them (with the *) to any number of scanlists. That's a very handy feature, whereas on other scanners, I had to more or less copy and paste them or duplicate the programming if I wanted a frequency in more than one system. Here, just toggling the * (the link indicator) makes duplication a breeze)

To make a future job easier, say for instance you want all your future programming to JUST go into ScanList #4, check to make sure that ScanList #4 is the ONLY one linked with a star * as the default and proceed with your normal programming. Just make ScanList #4 as your "default scanlist" and away you go. RS defaults it to scanlist #1 out of the box, and this got me too until I found I could change the default scanlist.

The easier to read manual is absolutely tops, but maybe this will get you up and running while perusing it.

a) Why does it only take about 30 seconds for my scanner to "zip" through all bands (0-9) when in signal stalker mode, but it takes about 30 minutes for it to "search" through the same freqs when in search mode?

Signal stalker is a very fast broadband detector, not really like scanning individual frequencies. For normal searching where it is stepping through each and every freq, even though the 106 is fast, milair is a HUGE bandwidth to cover. Many who search out new frequencies will set up a custom search on a very narrow slice of milair.

c) How is it I can pick up more traffic out of Atlanta (about 150 miles away on 255.4000, labeled UH1 Huey Army), than I can from the airport less than a mile from me? A lot of these military jets will do 8-10 touch and goes a few times a day around my house, but they don't communicate over the "normal" tower freqs.

Not an uncommon situation. The antenna can be improved - ditch the supplied duck if you haven't done so already. There are a billion reviews of other ducks you can use. The Diamond RH77CA or other typical dual-band amateur makes a noticeable improvement. If you want to concentrate on milair only, a 220 mhz amateur duck will do ok especially on the low-end up to about 250 mhz or so. There are others, so check out some reviews.

And note that while the 106 (and it's sister PSR500) will cover milair (I've had both), the sensitivity on milair for those units are not exactly the best in town. Other threads will go into why this is so. So concentrate on getting a good antenna first.

 

[jkbodden]

Thanks...I'm reading it now.

 

[jkbodden]

Hertzian,
Thank you for taking the time with your explination (and I thought Tim Tebow was my hero!) You ROCK! Have a great weekend.
Cheers,
Jeff

 

[nanZor]

Thanks! Actually I got most of my info when I was struggling at first with the 106 from all the members here -- RR members rock!

Cheers!

 

[AC2OY]

He did explain it very well!!!