Need help with pro164 programming

[Joshva]

Hi everyone, I'm very new to all of the scanner/ham information and for the last 3 or 4 days have been trying to crashcourse myself. I am having a hell of a time understanding all of this information. I'm trying to find a good program to get freqs in my pro164 scanner.
I have been searching thru the forums here and have downloaded a few. They might as well be written in 6 different languages. My goal is to get all of Sacramento County Sheriff's freqs and Citrus Heights PD's freqs programmed into my scanner. I dont really understand how to do this in the interface. I dont understand how I program the frequencies.
The guys at radioshack programmed some stuff into it but I cant even figure out how to change banks and channels properly. The instructions for this scanner are a joke and I am probably just not understanding any explanations I've read so far in the forums. I'm not usually one to post in forums but I really want to get into this hobby and just need a little help getting started!!
Please help!! =)

 

[Bustergrn]

ARC300 is the easy way to program that unit. I use it for my Pro-163. It is simple and the 30 day free trial period will let you program, save and upload to your scanner. You can get it at the downloads page from Butel. Software for Uniden Radioshack GRE GRECOM AOR police scanner software PRO-97 PRO-96 PRO-2096 PRO-106 PRO-197 PRO-164 PRO-160 PRO-162 psr500 psr600 psr300 psr400 psr100 psr200 BCD996T BCT15 BC246T UBC800XLT UBC785XLT PRO-433 PRO-528 BCD396T PRO-2051 P

You will need a Windows PC, programming cable from Radio Shack (about 35 bucks) with the drivers and some patience. Good luck!

 

[Joshva]

have em

Thanks for the reply! I have all the above and found a new problem, when I used the usb cable model 20-047 from radioshack, the new drivers prevented my computer from having any sounds.... hahaha... but yes, my problem is knowing how to program the necessary frequencies and talkgroups. I just dont understand what goes where.

 

[DonS]

If you're interested in programming software for the PRO-164, there are three options:
* ARC300, as mentioned above
* PSREdit300, if you want to keep your $$$ in the USA
* Win97, if you want to keep your $$$ in California
The latter two also have a 30-day free trial period.

For any of them, you'll need a programming cable. There are two supported cables (they are both made by GRE and, apart from color, are identical):
* RadioShack's 20-047 cable
* GRE's 30-3290

 

[tsmeade2]

Also if you want to program it very easy get a RadioReference Paying sub you will be able to import the information from the DB right into your software.

 

[Joshva]

specifically

I am slowly getting to understand all this but one thing that still evades me, what is the difference between talkgroups and just frequencies? are they synonomous or do I have to program both in?

 

[Evert]

A trunking bank has several frequencies stored. Several talk groups can share the frequencies of the bank. On their transceivers they will only hear and be able to talk to members of their specific group, even though other groups are using the frequencies.

On your scanner you can hear all the groups using the frequencies if the trunking bank is in the open mode or hear only groups that you have programmed id’s for, if the bank is in the closed mode.

Attached is a screen shot from Win97 that may help you see the difference between frequency and talk group. Note the "Closed' box is not checked so the bank is open and I would able to hear all the groups even if I did not put in Talk Group IDs. Since I have put in IDs and Alpha Tags the scanner will show the group name when it is receving a transmission from a particular group. Otherwise it would have shown only the Talk group ID number.

Also note the bank Type is MOT (Motorola) which is one of the trunking types and is what makes this a "trunking bank".

 

[qlajlu]

I am slowly getting to understand all this but one thing that still evades me, what is the difference between talkgroups and just frequencies? are they synonomous or do I have to program both in?

These are are bit of a long read, but if you will take the time to look carefully and read the information several times, I think you will see the difference between TGs and frequencies:

1. Understanding Trunking posted on signalharbor.com, also shows why trunking is more versatile compared to using systems made up of conventional frequencies.

2. This article authored by Lou Maag, one of the Admins here on RR explains trunking quite well.​

Both articles explain the difference between TGs and frequencies and once you have read these articles, I think you will have a much clearer understanding.