I need expert advice!

[danaslc]

I have been reading and reading the forum. I live in the Kearns, Taylorsville area. I have been scanning for about 20 years. I have a scanner and handheld that is not going to work for the rebanding that is going on. I am really missing some stuff now and it is making me crazy. I see where every here likes the GSR-500. Radio Shak does have some models that can rebanded for half the price. I could get a handheld and base model for the same price as the GSR-500. Here is the question and if there is the answer on the forum somewhere please direct me to it. But, what exactly is the advantage to the GSR-500. I want one that is going to be the best model for me. I am an amature enthusiast.

Thanks

 

[kf7yn]

The major advantage of the PSR-500 is Digital. However, there are only a few P25 digital TGs in use, WVC Narcs and Midvale Car to Car. TSA agents at the aiport use P25 digital on 170 MHz if you are so inclined to monitor. That's about the extent of digital around SLC but that could always change. I heard P25 digital in St George this weekend on 155 MHz, I would have missed a juicy stake out had I not brought my PSR-500 with me.

The Radio Shack Pro-164 is the same radio as the GRE PSR-300 so keep that in mind when comparing prices. I've seen a few places that sell the 300 for around $160 and it comes with the AC adaptor where that is always an extra cost option with the Radio Shack handhelds. Google PSR-300, I came up with this: http://www.grabcart.com/product/ele...R-300-Triple-Trunking-Handheld-Scanner-BC246T

The Pro-164 is supposed to be $149.99 on Black Friday. The Pro-163 is the mobile version of the 164 and similar to the PSR-400. So yes you can buy the 163 and 164 for less than one digital.

You might also consider the Pro-96 or 2096 which are on sale for $379 but sure to go lower on closeout now that the Pro-106/197 are out. The 106/197 are Radio Shack's version of the GRE PSR-500/600. You can't go wrong with the Pro-96, it's been a workhorse scanner that just plain works well.

Uniden has some reband capable models but I don't know much about them, someone else here can bring up their strong points.

Hope that helps!

Jon

 

[N7YUO]

I would like to add that the PSR500 has the 'V-folders' that can store entire programming.
So, when I intend to travel through Wyoming to South Dakota, I can have the entire program
already there, all I have to do is recall it. I used to have to carry a laptop computer, or a
program sheet and do it by hand. (That always makes the wife happy)
I want a scanner that will do: Analog or digital, Trunking on VHF, UHF 380, UHF 400, 700, 800, 900.
With updatable firmware.
I went to Lava Hot Springs, ID on July 4th. There was a lot of police activity, but not on my
obsolete Pro95. All I could get was a few ID State Police and one SAR callout.

 

[bchris]

My GRE PSR-500

I must admit that I am not a big fan of the PSR-500, even though I own one. I make a living by writing Embedded Software for an industrial product. Perhaps the toughest element of my job is to take a very complex feature, function, or technology and make it look super-easy to the end user. The better I am able to do this, the less credit I get because the user thinks it was just easy.

In my opinion GRE has given us a very powerful tool, but they have done a very poor job of hiding the complexities of a trunked radio system from the user. I know it's hard to do. That's why everybody doesnt build their own scanner, and that's why we pay them money. If I didn't have a technical background I am not sure I could even get this thing to work. OK, with the help of this forum I could get it to work, but how would I even know if it's working to it's full potential? And what about things unique to my area? And what about when I move or I want to try something new? I already know that it would be this forum that saves me, not the product, because the product is not intuitive, especially to a non-technical person.

As I read through the manual the 1st time I found a number of areas that didnt make sense to me, and I have used scanners for 20-30 years. This is my 3rd trunking scanner. The 2nd time I read the manual I tried to identify what didnt make sense. I actually hi-lited statements in different parts of the manual that contradict each other. I found buttons that have some function at one time and some unrelated or opposite function at different times. I found GRE trying to convince me that if I think of Talkgoups and Conventional frequencies as 'scannable objects' then I can treat them the same. Well, indeed they have some commonality in that they are both 'scannable', but they are not the same, and sometimes I need to treat them differently. They seem insistent that both round and square pegs will act the same when they are both treated as 'scannable objects'. And what the hell is an Object anyway, and why should I care? As a programmer I do care what an object is, as a scanner user I couldnt care less - I just want my scanner to work.

I think GRE built a pretty good product, but I also think they missed the mark on quite a number of points. I must admit that some features you just cant buy in another product. If you want to keep up on the (b)leading edge of this hobby then you have no choice. Just buy one and make the best of it. If you don't need to keep up with the edge, I would recommend something else. I am already saving up for the new Uniden, even though they wont even say yet when it will be available. Even then I am sure I will keep my GRE because as said before, some of its features are unique or better or just plain different.

I am asking PLEASE that no one take any offense by my aforementioned opinions on this subject. Let me assure you that this is not anything personal against anyone. I would welcome and fully respect any differing opinions.

B.Christensen

 

[qlajlu]

Actually, bchris, I think that was eloquently said, right on point, and I agree. I have found over the years of scanning I have done, every time I buy a new scanner I get that lost feeling. It seems the manuals are written for those who are vastly more educated than I am, but I have struggled through it. However, the GRE 500/600 has challenged us all. Again I say, well put, bchris.

 

[ranger2004]

Who is Manuel? Can he program my elRadio? LOL.

Since I got my pro106 I found myself hating, and I really mean hating my uniden scanners.
Even my 396 is not up to the rebanding or digital. It sucks compared to my 106.


Anyone want to trade a 500/600 or 106/??? for a 396? I have not made it sleep with the dog yet.
And 3 other Uniden scanners that can not track rebanded sites. Anyone? Anyone?



Hey I am just saying.. :>

 

[N7YUO]

Can someone 'splain this to me? Dec 21, 2004

Time to look back (only four years ago) and some of us were
in a dilemma about how to organize a Pro95. Compared to the '500,
the Pro95 was a breeze! I saved this post from a fellow ham.
Enjoy. And, JW, if you are reading this, please don't take offense.
It shows that even then, the best among us have our difficulties!

OK, I'm old, (and often cranky when tired)
But I'm having a heck of a time getting my brain around how to best
set up my scanner for maximum scanning enjoyment.

I live about a stone's throw from the VECC facility, and that site I
understand fine.
So I've got a bank (system) set up with the VECC site freqs.
Now I want to listen to Utah County, so I put in Lake Mountain.
I put in Davis, etc., and so forth.
I have a bank or system for each UCAN county.

But what about sites like Parleys? Why would I have a group (system)
for Parleys?
Or....
Would I just put in the control channels for all the sites in one
group and let the scanner figure it out? I don't think this works
because the scanner locks on the first control channel it hears and
nothing else.

So what about Tooele, or Summit, or Weber.
How do the rest of you set up your scanners where so many talk groups
can be heard common (such as Air 1, Air 2, hospitals, UHP, etc)

Do you enter duplicate IDs for each bank or system? Or do you just
put the unique stuff in each bank or system? And then what happens
when something like a chase or large incident happens when units on
other TGs invade the "other" site -- such as when UHP units move
north to south?

Maybe there's no ideal way to set this all up for maximum listening?
I'm getting a good handle on how to enter the data, but my dilemma is
how to best organize it. Especially for counties with multiple sites
such as SLCo.

(It was sure simpler when we just ordered crystals) JW

 

[bneilson]

I think everybody brings up good points here. Many of you know my story about almost returning my PSR-500 when I got it. However, now I am VERY glad that I didn't.

I think one common thread here is CHANGE. When we are faced with it we have a hard time adjusting. "What do you mean I cant have a bank???" Those of us that have been doing this for a while get use "how things are done." This is exactly why GRE started to directly release their own scanners. They had said they were not comfortable with the direction things were going and wanted to change it.

Take a look at how many types of hammers there are out there. They will all pound nails in but each one does it a bit different. The hammer I have at home is probably not the same as the one you have but it fits my needs. The GRE scanners are not for everybody and the bottom line is you have to research and purchase based on your findings. This is what I did and I am very happy with my outcome.

 

[bchris]

Ongoing Frustrations...

Time to look back (only four years ago) and some of us were
in a dilemma about how to organize a Pro95. Compared to the '500,
the Pro95 was a breeze! I saved this post from a fellow ham.
Enjoy. And, JW, if you are reading this, please don't take offense.
It shows that even then, the best among us have our difficulties!

That post by JW is exactly what I am still trying to figure out! Where is JW now, and what did he end up doing about it?
These issues aren't new to the PSR-500/600, but I certainly had the expectation that buying one would help make some of these issues easier to solve.

It's not that I'm at a complete loss as to how to organize my scanner(s), but it does get frustrating when I cant get them to do exactly what I want. I started making this 'Scenario' list in order to help myself define what my requirements are, so hopefully I could solve as many as possible, without needing to reprogram the scanner each time. I would appreciate anyone who could add to the scenario list so we can see what the whole big issue looks like, then I would appreciate anyone who could offer their own solutions to each scenario. When all is said and done, I wish I could solve all scenarios in a single scanner without having to do any reprogramming between each one.

Scenario 1:
I am watching a movie at home and reading the newspaper.
I only want to hear emergency traffic from my local area.

Scenario 2:
I am outside working on a car and listening to the scanner.
I want to hear everything from my local area, and just emergency stuff from all other areas.

Scenario 3:
I am listening to everything in my county or area. An emergency incident starts on the other end of the county and now I want to focus only on emergency traffic for the county, plus the local car-car traffic for that city or agency.

Scenario 4:
I can't sleep. It's the middle of the night. There is very little going on in any one area. I want to hear everything from everywhere.

Scenario 5:
AirMed, LZ1&2, SAR, UHP statewide;-- I want to hear anytime from any site within Rx distance. I used the obvious as examples, but there are a lot more possibilities that might not be so obvious. How many times do I need to enter these same TG's? Once for every Tx site? How long would that take to scan?

Scenario 6:
I go to a softball tournament in Kearns, Tooele, or Ogden. I have hours to kill between games. While at home (in UT county) I obviously listen to all my local TG's from the nearest, biggest site. While away, there is a big chase or a fire right near my house. I hear nothing of it, because I didn’t duplicate all my UT County TG's in all these other sites. Granted, I might not hear them anyway depending on if there is a radio near me w/ that TG selected, but at least I might. Also, the bigger the event the more likely distant radios would select that TG.

Scenario 7:
I drive to Logan for a football game or a car show (and then back). I start in Utah County. I drive through Salt Lake, Davis, Weber, and Cache simulcasts, plus many other IR sites.
I have spent a bunch of time and money, and I think I know the radio system pretty well. All I want to do is listen to what is going on around me as I travel. It drives me crazy that I can’t do this without reprogramming my radio and/or getting a PhD in how to set it up!

Sometimes I feel like someone with the initials of g.r.e. sold me a load of BS by telling me if I used 'Objects' I could reuse the same TG's over and over. That would be great because I wouldn't run out of memory and when something changes I only need to change it in one place. This is one of the main reasons I paid them $400. Did I miss something here, or did they trick me so I would pay them money? Other scanners can't do this either, but none of them claimed or even implied that they could.

I do have solutions in place (or at least in mind) for most of the above senarios individually, but I am still trying to figure out how to do evrything at the same time in the same scanner.... still a work in progress.

-bc

 

[JoeyC]

I do have solutions in place (or at least in mind) for most of the above senarios individually, but I am still trying to figure out how to do evrything at the same time in the same scanner.... still a work in progress.

-bc

What are those solutions?
Assuming you still want the flexibility to control scanlists within your scenarios, why don't you just create the appropriate programming scenarios and save them in the V-Folders? It only takes about 15 seconds and a few key presses to toggle between them.

 

[N7YUO]

Maximum Performance Programming

Quote: "That post by JW is exactly what I am still trying to figure out! Where is JW now, and what did he end up doing about it?"

Back then, I answered the call. Until I read his post, I had no idea that anyone was struggleing with the programming. I had already worked out a program organization that allowed me to "set up my scanner for maximum scanning enjoyment." I had the program 'menu' on an Excel Spreadsheet and I offered it up.

As you scrolled the spreadsheet up and down, you could see all the banks, sub-banks,
frequencies, text tags, everything. Next thing I know, I had a lot of people asking me for the .p95 file. I gave it the name Maximum Performance Programming.

bchris and myself are working separately toward a similar solution for the '500.
The ideas behind the Pro95 program will work today. I just have to tweak it for the quirks of the '500. I plan to start a new thread, '500 programming for Utah.
Together we can collaborate on this and create some great solutions.

 

[Junior1970]

Quote: "That post by JW is exactly what I am still trying to figure out! Where is JW now, and what did he end up doing about it?"

Back then, I answered the call. Until I read his post, I had no idea that anyone was struggleing with the programming. I had already worked out a program organization that allowed me to "set up my scanner for maximum scanning enjoyment." I had the program 'menu' on an Excel Spreadsheet and I offered it up.

As you scrolled the spreadsheet up and down, you could see all the banks, sub-banks,
frequencies, text tags, everything. Next thing I know, I had a lot of people asking me for the .p95 file. I gave it the name Maximum Performance Programming.

bchris and myself are working separately toward a similar solution for the '500.
The ideas behind the Pro95 program will work today. I just have to tweak it for the quirks of the '500. I plan to start a new thread, '500 programming for Utah.
Together we can collaborate on this and create some great solutions.

That would be great. All the threads I have read regarding the 500/600 have scared the hell outta me! I picked up a 2096 (primarily for I have a Pro 96) and purchased the Win96 Starrsoft software because I figured that, with rebanding, it was the easiest and most economical in my situation. After a few brief brainfarts (and some tutoring from K7FYN) I got it to work perfectly. However with 700 Mhz in ID and NV (regardless if Open Sky works for Las Vegas Metro) that's the way several agencies are going and, unfortunately, the 96/2096 doesn't support 700. In the future the bankless scanners will prevail and It's good to be prepared for hiccups if they happen. Auto Mechanical faux pas don't phase me nearly as these electronic ones do. Thanks Mike for putting this all in perspective!

 

[kf7yn]

Jay, rumor has it the Pro-2067 will follow rebanded freqs by programming all freqs in and turning off CC mode. Care to try it and let us know?

 

[Junior1970]

Jay, rumor has it the Pro-2067 will follow rebanded freqs by programming all freqs in and turning off CC mode. Care to try it and let us know?

This may be an idiotic question but by turning off CC mode do you mean putting everything in with the new rebanded freqs and leaving the voice freqs in MO mode while putting the CC in say FM mode. If so I did this to the garage radio 2067. However my antenna for out there was experiencing problems before all this crap happened but what little I did get out of it looked promising. I'm taking the old one out of my truck with me today and when I get somewhere with a decent signal I can play with it a bit more.

Maybe I won't be having a 2067 ebay firesale after all!!!!
Thanks Jon.

 

[kf7yn]

Program all the freqs, voice and CC in MO mode. I don't know this for fact, I heard it from someone who said it works on Nelson so it's worth a try. If not, the ebay fire sale is always an option.

 

[danaslc]

Pro 106 versus Pro 96

Can someone give me any advice on the differences of these two? Is the Pro 106 and Pro 197 the same as the GSR 500 but just a different brand?

 

[Utah_Viper]

Since this thread seems to becoming all things new scanners

I am debating between the Pro-106 and GRE 500. If they are the same price when I get the money together then I likely will go with the GRE since most here have that and we all can share programming.

My question.... in "Object Oriented" scanning. You can have 2 trunk systems in 1 scan list correct? My theory is I can finally have SLC Fire and VECC Fire all in one Fire list as a example.

 

[danaslc]

If the GRE will do that then it is well worth the cost. Lets say I want the biggest bang for the buck. If the bang means more money that is ok. I love scanning. But, I need to be able to work the darn thing or I will just end up screaming at it.