need help setting Pro-97

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alifeva

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Can someone please help me understand this.

I dont understand what DEC means or HEX and where those numbers fit in to my Pro-97 scanner. The only numbers that made sense to me were the ones in red and black at the top. I pushed program on my scanner, put the frequency in, then hit Ent to take it off program. Nothing but silence. Can anyone please explain to me step by step so I can listen to Arlington County frequencies. I just got my scanner today and I just want to hear someone, something, anything!! Im so lonely :( (jk lol) ...anyways thanks for the help


- Adam


*edit I heard someone finally! on the primary 859.43750 freq. It was exciting! one guy said "downtown..(?someting i couldnt make out)...police" and then the other guy said "what?" yep thats about it so far but am really interested in the Police freq. can anybody tell me what Hex and Dec means? What do I press into my scanner thanks guys!

*i heard someone else i think it was an officer. he said "Traffic 11, I'll be ending my tour" and then the lady dispatcher "allright 11-32" (anybody knows what this means?)
THIS is so much fun!
 
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n4jri

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Ignore the Hex numbers. Your scanner does trunked talkgroups in DEC format.

Look in your scanner's manual for Motorola trunked systems. The only four frequencies you'll need to enter are the ones printed in red. It would be hard to explain the rest in a
BB message. There is some learning to be done here, and you need to carefully read your manual so that you understand how these trunked systems work.

Once you're receiving the trunked system, you'll start seeing the decimal (5-digit) numbers pop up on your screen. These are the various talkgroups.

Since you have a computer, I'd strongly advise you to get the Win97 software from http://www.starrsoft.com and a programming cable from Radio Shack. It'll make this whole process much, much simpler.

73/Allen (N4JRI)
 

alifeva

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aaaahhh i see. you my good sir have made it a whole lot clearer. It is my first day with this thing so am still a newb. I hope you dont mind but I will ask newb questions.
 
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tglendye

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alifeva said:
...he said "Traffic 11, I'll be ending my tour" and then the lady dispatcher "allright 11-32" (anybody knows what this means?)
THIS is so much fun!

I'm not from Arlington, but it sounds like he is a police officer assigned to traffic and ending his shift. The 11:32 the dispatcher stated was probably what time it was.:)

Read up and keep the questions coming, someone will help. I agree with Allen... get the software.
 

fmon

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Click on the Selected Programming Shortcut link below my signature. The 97 has a link available which includes setting the fleetmap, ID's and frequencies.
 

tglendye

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vinnytazjr said:
Read the owner's manual
See technical specifications
See Features of this product

Aren't you asking for help in another thread?
 

alifeva

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vinnytazjr said:
Read the owner's manual
See technical specifications
See Features of this product

maybe after midterms...dont get me wrong I made several unsuccessful attempts.

I just have a habit in learning out of habit haha, (Technically I have to see someone push the buttons and I copy)
Same with school I can read the textbook for days but I need to see the teacher do examples on the blackboard.
 
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alifeva

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@ glendye you were right its the time the dispatcher keeps stating. but that primary frequency i was listening to yesterday went down, its now a noise that is so loud it hurts, been like that since yesterday after 1pm. I had to switch over to the other red numbers provided. wonder what happened to the 859.43750? now im on 858 and 860 (same last digits after the decimal)
 

fmon

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alifeva said:
but that primary frequency i was listening to yesterday went down,
It didn't go down, instead it changed to another controler.
its now a noise that is so loud it hurts, been like that since yesterday after 1pm. I had to switch over to the other red numbers provided. wonder what happened to the 859.43750? now im on 858 and 860 (same last digits after the decimal)
Many Motorola Smartnet systems rotate the controls daily The noise you hear on 859.4375 is now the duty control.

If you program the system as in the suggested shortcut, you will never need to lockout any of them because the scanner will trunk track the system correctly.
 

alifeva

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oh they just changed controls again this time to 857. now 858 has the duty (noise lol). I think i get the picture now although in my scanner I have programmed all the main frequencies seperate (000FM,001,002,003) so I have to cycle through them with the arrows on my scanner. So basically what your telling me is I will be able to keep on one frequency and my scanner will auto adjust. Most of the time I pick up half a conversation and I wonder what the other person said. I dunno I got alot of studying to do.
 

alifeva

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Are you the author of this cheat sheet shortcut for the Pro-97!? You don't know how much that wiki page has helped me in the past day! Thank you!
 

fmon

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These should be MODE for each to MOT, not to FM
(000FM,001,002,003)
So basically what your telling me is I will be able to keep on one frequency and my scanner will auto adjust.
Yes, use the cheat sheet to program the scanner which will also eliminate the following problem because the scanner will be on talkgroups matched with a voice frequency by the duty control.
Most of the time I pick up half a conversation and I wonder what the other person said.
The non-duty controls may be used for voice (your first post indicated some are). But, they are actually ignored by the scanner when not used for active control as all voice freqs are picked from the incoming signal to the scanner CPU. These are all of the frequencies you see on the database page for the system, thus you only need to program the rotating control freq know as CC or control channels.
 

Stick0413

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There is a lot more to trunking than what you are seeing. You have a control channel that tells the radio to go to channel #xxx (you do not need to know the actual Motorola channel numbers). Once one side of the convo is over the system may tell the radio to go to channel yyy instead of channel xxx for the convo. Trunking is complex when you know little about it but once you understand it then its not that bad. Check out the Wiki here on RadioReference and it will help. You can get a better understanding of Trunking in general from it and you can get more in depth info on the different types of trunking on it.
 

Stick0413

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Another thing that could help you greatly would be to invest in the programing cable from Radio Shack and a premium membership here on RR. You can then download Win97 (from www.starrsoft.com) and try it for the trial period. You can then download directly from the RR database.
 

alifeva

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I CAN!? WHY didn't you say so earlier!? I'll sign up today. Then I can just upload the data to my scanner and be set.
 
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