Hi billy and welcome - firstly please put in your profile where you are (county/state is fine) - that way locals can spot your message and help
Next anything in blue is a link...
While I'm not in California, I can at least get you started. We have a number of resources in the following article that will help...
Programming Your Radio Shack Scanner - The RadioReference Wiki
I understand the user manual for the 197 is pretty decent, but there is an Easier to Read guide available. You should also consider using software; but before you do that, you will need a USB-serial cable as newer PCs don't have serial ports. Unfortunately with this model, you have to buy that separately from RS (or GRE). We have an article called 'Connecting scanners via USB' which goes into detail as to the model numbers as well as how to use Windoze Device Manager to diagnose issues. We even have a Programming Shortcut cheat sheet if you want to try to do this manually.
Finally there are 3 packages most use to program the object oriented scanners. These would be Win500, PSREdit500 and ARC500. We have links to the user guides for Win500 and ARC500, and the links for these 3 packages can be found on the Object Oriented Scanner Software article.
We also have an extensive California forum - I would suggest posting a question there, as was mentioned before, local help is often best. Please be sure to mention which software you get, as the formats aren't interchangeable.
California Radio Discussion Forum - The RadioReference.com Forums
best regards..Mike