PRO-64 and PRO-2041, and PRO-2052

[w2lpa]

W2LPA here. My old thread is closed, so I opened this one:

I settled on ScanControl for the PRO-2052. It works well for me.

I've written my own software to control it and load its channels which is easy enough, but logging hits from scanning or searching is more challenging.
From reading its command list it isn't so obvious how to do this. I keep checking the squelch, when open "+", send an MA to indent the channel and freq, and then when the squelch closes "-", calc the time duration. Getting the timing to work is the tough part, I don't quite have that down. Easier to go with ScanControl for $20!

I don't use the ScanControl Radio Ref import feature so I can't comment on how that works. I store my freqs in a spreadsheet and export/import from that. Its column picker is nice.

I have 2 PRO-64's and just recently got one of them working. I didn't do anything much to it other than adjusting the battery contacts, use a brand new set of good batteries and reset it. Mysteriously, it decided to come alive.

The PRO-64 is the handheld version of the PRO-2041 which I also have and have posted about. They program in the same way. For both, I use WLOAD64 as it runs fine on Windows 10.
I've thrown together quick and dirty programs to send frequencies to the scanner as its protocol is simple. WLOAD64 works well enough.

Lastly in terms of computer interfacing scanners, I have a PRO-93 and PRO-160. I don't have the cable for them and so I just programmed and tagged the 30 or so analog freqs manually that are active around here - Fire Dept and EMS, everything else is P25 Phase II. it doesn't take that long. Many of us who've been in the hobby for awhile have programmed the pre-computer interface 200 - 400 - and 1000 channel scanners by hand .. multiple times .. multiple scanners

 

[gmclam]

What language(s) are you writing all this software in? What O/S are you running it under?

 

[ka3jjz]

I wouldn't worry about the RadioRef import function in Scan Control' that software is old as the hills, and it's quite likely the import function won't work anymore....it used to be decent software way back in the day, but it's been out of development for years

Mike

 

[gmclam]

I still write in anything that I've ever written in from MCS-48 assembly to Visual Studio (C++, etc.). The older stuff is better suited for these older scanners, depending on exactly what you want to do.

 

[w2lpa]

What language(s) are you writing all this software in? What O/S are you running it under?

Python under Windows. I'll give it a try under Linux and see if it works there.

 

[Ubbe]

I noticed that your earlier posts said that you at that time used qbasic, and that's probably fine as there isn't any time critical functions needed.

I would use a timer function that starts with the squelch open and then read the channel number and save both to variables and what other data you'll need to save to your log file. Then when squelch closes I would wait for the channel number to change, I.E its scanning again, and read the timer difference and save and close that log.

/Ubbe

 

[w2lpa]

I noticed that your earlier posts said that you at that time used qbasic, and that's probably fine as there isn't any time critical functions needed.

I would use a timer function that starts with the squelch open and then read the channel number and save both to variables and what other data you'll need to save to your log file. Then when squelch closes I would wait for the channel number to change, I.E its scanning again, and read the timer difference and save and close that log.

/Ubbe

I stopped using QBasic when the hard drive on my Win98 laptop died. I could use QBasic under a Windows VM or perhaps even DosBox, but I'd rather use Python these days. What you describe. is basically what I was doing.

 

[Ubbe]

Can you post your timing part and perhaps someone can give some pointers to make it more reliable?

/Ubbe

 

[w2lpa]

I may .. eventually .. it's just slop that I threw together to try things at this point in time.

 

[rgchristy]

Please let me know if any of this information would be helpful to you:

 

[w2lpa]

Thanks! The first one would, but not the second.

 

[Ubbe]

I keep checking the squelch, when open "+", send an MA to indent the channel and freq, and then when the squelch closes "-", calc the time duration. Getting the timing to work is the tough part,

Change that calc when "-" detected to instead check, or also check, when the channel or frequency change and then calculate time, or you will end up with one log for each squelch burst. You could also check when the delay timer goes down to 0 and then save the time and log, but there's probably no scanner command to read that timer.

/Ubbe