Newbie question

[lightstorm1]

Hi. I have inherited a Radio Shack Pro-71. Does anybody know whether this scanner is of any use in Minneapolis now? I read some posts in the forum saying that Minnesota has gone digital and inferred that the Pro-71 was no longer compatible. Any info would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[stmills]

Public safety in the MEtro is alomost entriely digital trunked- Scott, Washington countyies are still vhf. Fire paging for suburban Fd's is still on analog vhf.

Steve

 

[wogggieee]

Scott and Washington are also in the process of changing over to digital. For Washington at least, they're planning to be online by next February. Depending on where you are in the metro you may be able to get some neighboring counties that are still analog. Also if you're close enough, Wisconsin is still analog as well.

 

[lightstorm1]

Thanks for the info guys. Any thoughts on an inexpensive, entry-level digital scanner that would allow tuning of ARMER freqs?

 

[stmills]

You need a scanner that does 9600 baud APCO 25 trunking to get Minneapolis or St. Paul. The list of choices is fairly short:
Radio Shack Pro 96 & 2096
Uniden 296,396,796,996
GRE PSR 500&600.

Your best bet is to shop online, either for new or used- New are in the $500-$600 range and used can be found starting in the $300's.

Steve