I noticed today that the Radio Shack web site is showing the Radio Shack PRO-137 scanner on sale until 01/02/2010 for $79.99. That is a good deal. It normally sells for $130 and the last two sales were at $99. If you can live with some limitations, it is a great scanner for that price.
This is a conventional scanner (non trucking, non digital) made for Radio Shack by Uniden. It shares the case and some operational features with the Uniden BCD series, expect it uses a conventional fixed bank memory design rather than the more abstract dynamic memory model. I have one (also bought several more for relatives and friends) and the reception quality (on conventional frequencies) is the same as the BCD396T and the BR330T.
What is special about this scanner compared to some of the competition in it's class is that it has alpha tagging so you can enter an alpha description of the frequency you are listening to. It also displays the frequency number at the same time. This is great for listening situations such as commercial air bands and ham where they reference frequency numbers in many of their transmissions. Also nice is the ability to program the radio on the PC using after mark software. (I liked ARC137 the best for $25.)
Now for the limitations. It does not decode tone codes and you can not specify modulation (FM, NFM, AM) or frequency steps. Some minor annoyances are no signal strength meter, no battery voltage (just a low battery symbol when the battery is getting low), limited back light options, and limited key tone (beep) options. Also, the alpha tagging is 12 digits because the first 3 digits plus a space are reserved for an optional "race car" number. It does not pick up the military air band.
Radio Shack markets this as a NASCAR model, but that is mostly marketing hype. It allows you to associate a race car number with the frequencies for that car (or team), then access that group of frequencies directly by keying in the car number. However, you can totally ignore that usage, and with some imagination, come up with some other good uses of the functionality. I use it for air band so when the tower say Cactus 123 contact departure (but no frequency given), I just key in "1" and get to the group of several departure frequencies I have associated with the "quick key" "1". I then rotate the scroll wheel to pick up the transmission. When Departure says Cactus 123, contract Albq. Center, I just enter "2" and get directly to the Center frequencies. Neat!
Another unique feature it has is a second set of three more memory banks where it stores additional channels "off line". They can be swapped into active memory using selections from the scanner menu. They are preprogrammed with race car assignments, but you can load your own frequencies in this space. Custom usage does take some creative thinking on part of the owner and the PC programming software cannot access this auxiliary memory.
This is obviously not a Uniden BCD396XT (or a PRO-106), but it is a great scanner for it's niche in the market at 80 bucks. And, it has a couple of unique special features is the race car/quick key functionality and the auxiliary memory banks.
This is a conventional scanner (non trucking, non digital) made for Radio Shack by Uniden. It shares the case and some operational features with the Uniden BCD series, expect it uses a conventional fixed bank memory design rather than the more abstract dynamic memory model. I have one (also bought several more for relatives and friends) and the reception quality (on conventional frequencies) is the same as the BCD396T and the BR330T.
What is special about this scanner compared to some of the competition in it's class is that it has alpha tagging so you can enter an alpha description of the frequency you are listening to. It also displays the frequency number at the same time. This is great for listening situations such as commercial air bands and ham where they reference frequency numbers in many of their transmissions. Also nice is the ability to program the radio on the PC using after mark software. (I liked ARC137 the best for $25.)
Now for the limitations. It does not decode tone codes and you can not specify modulation (FM, NFM, AM) or frequency steps. Some minor annoyances are no signal strength meter, no battery voltage (just a low battery symbol when the battery is getting low), limited back light options, and limited key tone (beep) options. Also, the alpha tagging is 12 digits because the first 3 digits plus a space are reserved for an optional "race car" number. It does not pick up the military air band.
Radio Shack markets this as a NASCAR model, but that is mostly marketing hype. It allows you to associate a race car number with the frequencies for that car (or team), then access that group of frequencies directly by keying in the car number. However, you can totally ignore that usage, and with some imagination, come up with some other good uses of the functionality. I use it for air band so when the tower say Cactus 123 contact departure (but no frequency given), I just key in "1" and get to the group of several departure frequencies I have associated with the "quick key" "1". I then rotate the scroll wheel to pick up the transmission. When Departure says Cactus 123, contract Albq. Center, I just enter "2" and get directly to the Center frequencies. Neat!
Another unique feature it has is a second set of three more memory banks where it stores additional channels "off line". They can be swapped into active memory using selections from the scanner menu. They are preprogrammed with race car assignments, but you can load your own frequencies in this space. Custom usage does take some creative thinking on part of the owner and the PC programming software cannot access this auxiliary memory.
This is obviously not a Uniden BCD396XT (or a PRO-106), but it is a great scanner for it's niche in the market at 80 bucks. And, it has a couple of unique special features is the race car/quick key functionality and the auxiliary memory banks.
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