New member trying to setup Pro 164..

[jarablue]

Hello everyone. This is my first post and I am a clueless newbie. Hopefully I can get some help.

I just bought a Pro 164 scanner from Radio Shack for my newphews Christmas present. I've never used or setup a scanner before but I'm hoping I can. My nephew lives in Worcester MA so hopefully I can get this setup with all the correct frequencies. He isn't the most technical person so I think the best way for him to use it would be just to turn it on and listen. The salesman at Radio Shack said he programmed it but I want to get the most out of this scanner and possibly use the trunking feature and make sure I have a good amount of channels for him to listen to.

Ok thanks for the help everyone!

 

[gmclam]

Welcome to RadioReference. Some of us spend weeks learning these radios if not longer. Many of the systems we monitor these days are quite complex, so it takes a complex scanner to do the job. Fortunately, we have software these days to aid in the physical programming of the scanner. But the entire reason these things are programmable in the first place is because each listener has different likes and dislikes.

Yeah many people only listen to police and fire calls, but there are plenty who listen to air traffic control, railroads, amateur radio and just about anything they can pick up. Part of know "how well" the scanner has been programmed, depends largely on what your nephew likes to monitor, or what you think he will like.

I am not sure how deep you want to get into this. You could read up on the radio itself, and then be able to see what Radio Shack programmed in there. There is a lot of info on that radio here on this site. You'll also notice a section that leads you to software available for programming the scanner.

The next step would be to compare what is programmed in the radio with what is in your nephew's area. Look here for starters.

Merry Christmas!