Allan_Love_Jr
Member
Thank God that the Railroad band aren't going to Digital. At least not yet. I will continue to enjoy my Analog Radio's for years to come.
Pro-95. Obsolete?
- Thread starter johnsondave
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br0adband
Member
So, to get back to the OP's original question, a good response or answer would be;
"No, the Pro-95 is not obsolete, not by a long shot, but it may be hamstrung by its inability to monitor digital broadcasts using the APCO P25 digital communications that some but not all public safety systems are moving towards."
There are tons of things to still monitor, and even in some areas that are considering P25 hardware or have already begun to switch over, they'll still simulcast traffic on non-digital purely analog systems for several weeks to several months until they're absolutely confident the digital system is rock solid stable for their needs.
There's basically three types of traffic nowadays:
- Conventional, which is what we've been using for decades and decades now, point to point simplex static channel communications (no hopping around, the frequencies are static)
- Trunking, which has been around since around 1982-1983 or so (that's my earlier recollection of first encountering a 'growler' control channel back home in P-town, VA as already mentioned), which requires a scanner capable of "tracking the control channel trunk" signal and decoding it so the scanner can hop the necessary frequencies as assigned and programmed to follow a communication. You can monitor a trunked system with a non-trunked scanner but you're going to be hitting Scan a helluvalot of times and missing out on a great deal of the content.
- Digital, which can be either using Conventional style static frequencies or they can be Trunked systems. Obviously a digital capable scanner is required for such reception, and there are several available, but you're looking at several hundred bucks for such a beast, even used. As more systems nationwide move to the APCO P25 standard over the years to come, digital capable scanners are definitely going to become a necessity if you want to participate in this hobby, but as of right now they're not an absolute requirement unless you live in an area that has nothing to monitor except a digital system and that's not something I've ever heard of.
Sure, you might live in an area where the specific thing(s) you want to listen in on are digital, but with an analog trunking scanner like the Pro-95 and many others, there's still a lot to listen in on. So in that respect it'll never be obsolete anytime soon.
Hope this helps...
"No, the Pro-95 is not obsolete, not by a long shot, but it may be hamstrung by its inability to monitor digital broadcasts using the APCO P25 digital communications that some but not all public safety systems are moving towards."
There are tons of things to still monitor, and even in some areas that are considering P25 hardware or have already begun to switch over, they'll still simulcast traffic on non-digital purely analog systems for several weeks to several months until they're absolutely confident the digital system is rock solid stable for their needs.
There's basically three types of traffic nowadays:
- Conventional, which is what we've been using for decades and decades now, point to point simplex static channel communications (no hopping around, the frequencies are static)
- Trunking, which has been around since around 1982-1983 or so (that's my earlier recollection of first encountering a 'growler' control channel back home in P-town, VA as already mentioned), which requires a scanner capable of "tracking the control channel trunk" signal and decoding it so the scanner can hop the necessary frequencies as assigned and programmed to follow a communication. You can monitor a trunked system with a non-trunked scanner but you're going to be hitting Scan a helluvalot of times and missing out on a great deal of the content.
- Digital, which can be either using Conventional style static frequencies or they can be Trunked systems. Obviously a digital capable scanner is required for such reception, and there are several available, but you're looking at several hundred bucks for such a beast, even used. As more systems nationwide move to the APCO P25 standard over the years to come, digital capable scanners are definitely going to become a necessity if you want to participate in this hobby, but as of right now they're not an absolute requirement unless you live in an area that has nothing to monitor except a digital system and that's not something I've ever heard of.
Sure, you might live in an area where the specific thing(s) you want to listen in on are digital, but with an analog trunking scanner like the Pro-95 and many others, there's still a lot to listen in on. So in that respect it'll never be obsolete anytime soon.
Hope this helps...
johnsondave
Member
Thanks for a thorough answer and the good info. I'm off to monkey with my scanner some more!
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