The Right Scanner
Hi Angelo,
I'm from your area and wanted to respond to you after reading your post so I registered. I read your quotes on your post and they are both very false. I think I know where they came from and I would not buy a scanner from them as they are looking out for their own interests. You are much better off going down to your shack store when they have a good sale. The good Shack scanners are made by Gre, which are the best out there. I just got a great sale on mine for $100 off, but even without the sale I would still get it through your local Radio Shack for one big reason. You can easily return it with your sales slip and return it for any reason, no questions asked. The $15 or so you may save by getting it online is not worth the hassle and worry if it is not working right or you are stuck with it if you change your mind. So keep this in your train of thought when you decide to purchase one. When you buy at the shack, make sure you get the Shack clone over it's sister Gre. They are both identical but Shack tends to mark the Gre's up much higher.
Now I'm going to tell you about my mistake, thinking I needed the Pro-197. As you know our main police frequency in our area 155.535 (Marinette County Sherriff) is fully digital Apco-25. As you probably found out like me, it sounds just terrible listening to digital on an analog scanner. It hisses very loud and drives you half nuts. After awhile you have to delete it. I was upset about that and looking so forward to having a digital scanner to be able to listen to it again as suggested by that site on your quote. So I ran down to the East Town Mall across from Gandrud for that Pro-197 on sale for $299. I was so excited, I couldn't wait!
It seemed very intimidating at first, but after I got the hang of things I soon programmed all my favorite frequencies (objects) in manually. That programming software where you can do it on your computer is a big waste of money for our area so don't bother with it. Once you get the hang of things, the manual programming and customization is fun and easy. Anyhow, after I finally got done programming I was ready for my big test to hear all those top-secret conversations our local cops were having on 155.535! To my major dissapointment, they sounded like a bunch of aliens after it locked onto 535. I was really bummed and read for hours thinking I may have did something wrong. Then after I finally gave up, I went on the internet for some research and found out our 155.535 is Apco-25 but "ENCRYPTED" as well and that scanner or any other legal digital scanner doesn't decode that type of encryption. I was super P'd Off! That was the main reason I bought it!! I could easily return it but after I settled down, decided not too. I have it set up the way I want and it sounds so good even with that bottom speaker. The reception is outstanding, even with it's supplied stock antenna. Well, I have digital in case some other ones in our area go digital and DON't ENCRYPT IT! In bigger cities it is a great scanner to have because you have all those trunking talk groups going digital without encryption. But around here, to my dissapointment you don't need a digital or trunking scanner as of now. You will be paying for features that do not work on 155.535 and there are no trunking groups in our area that are worth listening to. You can still hear the Marinette City Police (155.655). The Menominee Police is a good one to put in (155.415) and all those EMS and Fire frequencies they have listed on this site. I tend to like putting in the main Coast Guard Frequency (156.800). Then I like to add the most used talking ones like 156.425, 475, 575, and 625 so I can listen to all the fun the fishermen and boaters are having out in the bay. That works out much better than scanning the entire Coast guard band.
I hope I helped you out, Angelo. To make a long story short, go down to your Radio Shack and get the nice analog base model that looks identical to the Pro-197 and you will save yourself a couple hundred bucks for features you won't need for some time.
Anyhow, I found out how to go through all the NAC Codes in my scanner and they have a lot of them, but over half are not in it. There are big gaps between some of the numbers. It had 664 listed but no 666 like displayed on my police frequency 155.535. So, I think thats where the problem is. Anyhow, I would be willing to bet the government issues of that scanner have all those NAC Codes programmed in and our civilian models have them simply deleted. I am thinking or hoping there may be some way to download them back in if you know the right people or show enough George Washingtons. Any thoughts on this from anyone that has knowledge of these type of scanners or government issued scanners?
