Over my head.

[Chillipepper]

My brother has Cerebral Palsy and years ago enjoyed the old scanners that were easy to use. He ask for a scanner for his birthday so we got him the new Radio Shack Pro-197. I am overwhelmed trying to figure out how to operate it. Is there anyone in the Boise area that would be willing to help us set it up for him. Maybe it is too complicated for us to use being new to this type of system. Just don't want to give up until I have tried to find resources. I have watched YouTube and searched other resources also. Radio Shack has tried to help..... Just beyond me! Thank you for your response.

 

[thewenk]

My brother has Cerebral Palsy and years ago enjoyed the old scanners that were easy to use. He ask for a scanner for his birthday so we got him the new Radio Shack Pro-197. I am overwhelmed trying to figure out how to operate it. Is there anyone in the Boise area that would be willing to help us set it up for him. Maybe it is too complicated for us to use being new to this type of system. Just don't want to give up until I have tried to find resources. I have watched YouTube and searched other resources also. Radio Shack has tried to help..... Just beyond me! Thank you for your response.

Before you give up, have you considered using software such as WIN500 (30 day free trial) to program the scanner with a PC?
Win500: PSR-500, PSR-600, PRO-106, PRO-197, PSR-310, PSR-410 Scanner Software for Data Management, Monitoring, and Control

I consider the software option to be much easier than manually programming the Pro-197.

With a premium subscription to Radio Reference you can use the software to download data files to your PC and program the scanner. I suggest you look at the following links, if you haven't already done so.
WIN500 - UtahRadio
WIN 500 Programming Video - YouTube
Scanner Programming FAQ - The RadioReference Wiki
Programming Shortcut PSR-500/600 RS Pro-106/197 - The RadioReference Wiki
http://forums.radioreference.com/scanner-programming-software/167201-new-winxx-versions.html

Dave

 

[ckeslar]

My brother has Cerebral Palsy and years ago enjoyed the old scanners that were easy to use. He ask for a scanner for his birthday so we got him the new Radio Shack Pro-197. I am overwhelmed trying to figure out how to operate it. Is there anyone in the Boise area that would be willing to help us set it up for him. Maybe it is too complicated for us to use being new to this type of system. Just don't want to give up until I have tried to find resources. I have watched YouTube and searched other resources also. Radio Shack has tried to help..... Just beyond me! Thank you for your response.

I live in boise idaho and i bought the Uniden BCD396XT scanner. I use the software free scan. The best thing to do is subscribe to radio reference and use the software to import the frequencies from radio reference. Freescan is free and i really like the software but i dont know if its compatible with the pro-197. I know that radio shack has there own programming software you can buy. feel free to message me if you would like.

 

[davewhall29]

I live in boise idaho and i bought the Uniden BCD396XT scanner. I use the software free scan. The best thing to do is subscribe to radio reference and use the software to import the frequencies from radio reference. Freescan is free and i really like the software but i dont know if its compatible with the pro-197. I know that radio shack has there own programming software you can buy. feel free to message me if you would like.

Freescan will not work with the 197. There are a couple of different software for the 197, the ARC500 and Win500, both have 30 day free trial periods, but you will need the programming cable. After the 30 days are up, you will have to purchase a software license to continue to use them. In thewenk's posts, there are all the links you will need. I personally have saved many hours of programming my 197/GRE PSR 500/ and RS Pro 106 all using the software that I purchased versus trying to program it by hand. But, once you take the time and figure it out, then it's not that hard to program by hand, which I have had to do out in the field when I didn't have my computer with me and needed to add a few frequencies.