My PRO-97 Scanner ( Triple Trunk )

[rayg1022]

Does anyone know if this radio shack brand is a good one and where can I find the local frequencies for my area? ( Victorville Ca ) for police and Fire and EMT? ). IM new at this and tried to do a serch and couldnt find anything thats up to date. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

 

[ka3jjz]

Does anyone know if this radio shack brand is a good one and where can I find the local frequencies for my area? ( Victorville Ca ) for police and Fire and EMT? ). IM new at this and tried to do a serch and couldnt find anything thats up to date. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

rayg, first off welcome.

Your question falls a little short of the mark, but not by much. The PRO-97 is a very good scanner, but the real question you should ask is 'is this a good scanner for my area?'. It sounds like nit picking but it isn't. You see many areas are moving to a digital platform that the 97 cannot copy.

That being said, you can find out about frequencies in your area by using our online database. Under the 'RadioReference' title in the blue toolbar on the left, you will see Database. Click on the pulldown, then you will see a map of the US. Use the various pulldowns to get to the state and county where Victorville resides.

Examine these frequencies carefully, along with any of the trunked systems that are listed at the bottom. Do not concern yourself about 'trunking' at the moment; there is, however, something to examine on each of these links. If the system voice says 'Analog and APCO-25 Common Air Interface', then some of the users of this system are using a digital platform (which the 97 cannot copy), and some are analog (which the 97 will copy). If however, the system voice says 'APCO-25 Common Air Interface Exclusive' then the 97 cannot copy this system at all, as all the users are on a digital platform.

If any of the frequencies on that first page says 'P-25', that is also an indication of a digital platform that the 97 cannot handle.

This is highly oversimplified, but it goes to your question about the 97 being a good scanner - remember, I mentioned that it really needs to be qualified more specifically. I will leave that judgment to our California members.

Additional information can be found in our collaboration area. This is a member-supported area of our wiki that often has additional information about an area that the database is not set up to handle. Specifically, for California (note: anything in blue is a link)

California(US) - The RadioReference Wiki

You will note that there are a number of mailing lists for scanning in California, quite apart from our state by state forums (and yes, we have one for California).

Take the time to wander through this site. Don't fall into the trap of just looking at new posts- as I mentioned earlier, we have state by state forums, and a forum devoted just to RS scanners, among a great many others. Like any new hobby, there's lots to learn - take your time and ask questions. Questions about the 97 should go to the RS forum, California related stuff in the California forums.

Get something cold to drink, sit back and start reading. Welcome! 73 Mike

 

[rayg1022]

Pro-97

So I dont understand, why would radio shack tesll me that this would be able to get all police,fire and EMT in my area? I looked at the frequenies in my area and dont see where it specifys any thing for the victorville Ca area? and what would be triple trunking?

thanks
Ray~

 

[Eng74]

It will work on the San Bernardino trunked system until they reband. Once the rebanding happens we will have to see what the freqs are for the system there.

 

[ka3jjz]

rayg, you should never trust a typical RS employee to know anything about radio based scanning...'nuff said, hi

Anyway, 'triple trunking' is something of a description of the kinds of trunking the scanner can handle; in this case, Moto (Analog only), EDACS, LTR. 73 Mike

 

[SCPD]

I love my PRO-97 but, as the man said, don't ever trust a Rad Shack employee to give you good dope about scanning. I had one tell me that it was legal to hack into encrypted broadcasts.

Before buying my first trunked scanner I went to the Anaheim location of Ham Radio Outlet and talked to a guy who knew his stuff. He told me how the Orange County system worked both analog (Fire) and digital/encrypted (Police), what trunking was, etc. It was this guy's information that convinced me it wasn't worth the extra $300 to buy a digital scanner when practically all of Orange County law enforcement is digital encrypted. An extra $300 just to hear lifeguards and public works (i.e. digital, but not encrypted) wasn't important enough to me. I then compared the radios HRO offered with the Radio Shack models and opted for the 97.

I like the 97's ease of operation. I've never had to buy the computer cable/software to program the unit. It may sound like a lot of work, but it was easy enough for me to program the 75 Orange County system frequencies (available through RR) by hand and then save each trunking code as it appeared on my readout. As another member mentioned in his post, you can then add alpha tags to each trunking code, which I did. It's great knowing I'm listening to ORC 4 Bravo for instance, without having to look up the trunking code.

As was also mentioned by another member, the 97 also allows you to read out PL tones. This is especially important when listening to some of the "secret" channels that the local police, FBI, ATF and DEA share while stalking drug suspects, etc. The tone readout lets you know what agency is talking. The guys on the RR board are great for knowing these tones. Also, I like the tone feature while listening to 2 meter amateur repeaters. It helps me know what tones are needed to access the various repeaters.

I've lost count over how many scanners I've owned through the years, both crystal and programmable. By far, the 97 is the most sophisticated scanner I've ever owned. What with talk of everything eventually going encrypted, the 97 very well may be the last scanner I ever own. I'm preparing to jump back into amateur radio once scanning is no longer viable.

Dave
KA6TJF