PRO-96/106/2096 Users - How do you organize your radio?

[K9IEL]

Hey guys,
I've been scanning with my Radio Shack PRO-96 for over five years. After my friend picked up the Uniden BCD396XT, I realized that I've been majorly under-utilizing my PRO-96. This is partly due to laziness (I like to listen to a lot of the same traffic) and partly due to not venturing out and messing with the V-Scanner folders.

I'm just curious if anyone kind of has a systematic way of programming their radio. For example, I thought about using V-Scanner folders for certain geographic areas or for larger systems. I mostly stay within Central Indiana and typically monitor public safety systems in the counties surrounding Marion county... but I don't necessarily have to limit my programming to public safety.

For those of you using Uniden BCD396XT, I'd still be interested in your thoughts as well, since I had a chance to program my friend's radio and can make the correlation between the PRO-96 and the BCD396XT.

 

[Anon6083]

My scanner's organization isn't terribly exciting. Every trunked system site has its own system quick key. All conventional channels are kept on the same system in the scanner and are divided into channel groups by the type of agency that licenses the frequency; giving different types their own system quick keys in the scanner would make organizing the scanner for travel difficult. On the other hand, it can be very difficult to toggle a channel group in a conventional system because of how quickly the scanner can step through conventional frequencies that have a delay time of 0 seconds. In that way, it can be advantageous to give each type of conventional channel group its own system and system quick key if you anticipate toggling them frequently.

When traveling, and I expect this is a fairly common method, I organize the system quick keys sequentially along my travel route. I keep those systems that will always be on higher system quick key values (e.g. 22) so I can keep the systems that will be more frequently toggled on the system quick key numbers that are always displayed (0 - 9).

Also when traveling, I tend to merge all of the different ISP district-specific talkgroups into a single channel group in Uniden scanners because of the affiliation rules on SAFE-T; I'll never really need to turn the D21 channel group off when I'm down in D52 because that traffic will rarely be routed to D52 sites (that specific example might not be true, but it demonstrates the system's behavior).

I hope these organization examples will inspire others; I'm very interested to see how other Hoosiers organize their systems and channel groups.

 

[WAScanMan]

Here is how my 106 is organized:
1-Police
2-Fire/EMS
3-State Patrol
4-City Services
5-Aircraft
6-WS DNR
7-Statewide
8-Schools/Colleges
9-Transportation
10-Federal
11-Other Counties
12-Test (Frequencies I'm trying to ID)
13-Itinerant
14-ICE (In Case of Emergency, Disaster related freqs)
15-Local TRS
16-Local TRS
17-Local TRS
18-Local TRS
19-Local TRS
20-Federal Search (138.01-143.98, 148.01-150.78, 162.05-173.98, 380.00-399.98, 406.11-419.98)

It's been set up this way basically since I got it almost 2 years ago now. I think the best organizational method is whatever works best for you! I try not to program in things that can be found using the search feature (Marine, RR, Amateur, etc) I also have separate V-Folders for other counties if I'm mobile.

 

[ind224]

I have not taken my 106's to the max either. At home one does just Safe T another just IMPD. A P25 deaf GRE 600 does Hamilton Co at this time.

My portable 106 has IMPD on 1 and 8 with N district and fire only on 8.
Airport only on 10 SW only on 9 Hamilton Co on 3
Safe T has to conform to the crappy 32 CC limit so I have Indianapolis area on 2 with 15,16,17, containing the other Safe T CC's for on the road. Wildcard capture the TG's and populate with my own text via Win 500 when I get home. 12 has my aircraft including military 13 is VHF PS
6 is Kokomo and 7 Lafayette (not safe t)
Now that I think about it, I need a 2m group for storming and one for trains. I usually use a 2045 for VHF though. Still plenty of room.....I listen to anything I can hear.

 

[KC4RAF]

I use about the same

set up as WAScanMan. I have four different cards and when needed, just change them out for other v-folders as needed.

 

[KD4YGG]

I have one V-scanner set up for each ISP District.

V00 - ISP District 13
V01 - ISP District 14
and so on...

Within each V-Scanner I have scanlists set-up as follows:

01 - ISP Dxx Conventional
02 - SAFE-T Indiana Agencies (ISP, DNR, SDH, DHS, etc.) - this includes mutual aid
03 - SAFE-T County 01 (just the SAFE-T talkgroups for the first alphabetical county in the ISP district)
04 - SAFE-T County 02
05 - SAFE-T County 03...

and so on for all counties in the district

Next I have a scanlist for each county trunked system as applicable

then
19 - Winter Weather (State and County DOT snow plow stuff)
20 - Railroad frequencies for the district

 

[K9IEL]

I have one V-scanner set up for each ISP District.

V00 - ISP District 13
V01 - ISP District 14
and so on...

KD4YGG, that's actually an interesting way of doing it. I still have a PRO-96, so I'm limited by 10 memory banks per V-Scanner folder. Although if someone wants to buy my PRO-96 off me so I can get a 106 or a Uniden, I'd offer a competitive price.

I'm also wondering if I can make better use of my storage banks by lumping more talkgroups into a sub-bank and just locking out the talkgroups that don't interest me as much, but would still like to have in there just in case.

W9NES, if you're out there, I'd be interesting in hearing how you have yours set-up.

 

[W9NES]

K9IEL, Thanks for asking on my Commications Center Set-Up. I use (3) Radio Shack pro-2096's and a Radio Shack Pro-96. Please check your pm box. Thank You.

 

[pliquett]

0-IFD
1-IMPD
2-HAMILTON CO FIRE
3-HAMILTON CO LAW ENFORCEMENT
4-HANCOCK CO FIRE
5-HANCOCK CO LAW ENFORCEMENT
6-BOONE CO
7-HENDRICKS CO
8-JOHNSON CO
9-STATE POLICE

I've had all brands of scanners over the years and it comes down to what works for your needs.

 

[markanderson]

here my set up for pro 106

Bank
1 Crawfordsville Safe-t
2 Mont Co Trunk
3 Attica
4 Marshal
5.Newport
6 Boone Co
7 Hendricks
8 Lafayette Trunk
9 Lafayette Safe-t
10 Conventional

 

[K9IEL]

My solution

After thinking about it for a while, I've decided to put several V-Scanner folders on my PRO-96. Here is a taste of what I'm doing to give you a better idea (These aren't complete listings).

V-0 Default (a combination of systems I like to have on tap)

V-1 Hamilton Co.
0 Sheriff and Jail
1 Carmel PD, Fire, Schools, and City Services
2 Noblesville PD, Fire, City Services
3 Westfield PD, Fire, City Services, Rural Police Agencies (Cicero/Arcadia/Atlanta)

V-2 Marion Co.
0 IMPD
1 IDPS (Various other law enforcement agencies on IDPS system)
2 IFD/Marion Co/EMS
3 Safe-T (ISP 52, ISP Special Units, IDHS, etc.)

 

[canav844]

I just spent a large chunk of the day getting organized after dumping everything into the 106 a few weeks ago to get it at least listening...

1 Local Sheriff, Jail, C2C and tac stuff
2 Local PD and all tac stuff
3 Local State Police post
4 DNR, all the talk groups for this half of the state, and all the Hoosier National Forest frequencies
5 Local County fire
6 Local Airport, ARTCC, and a MilAir Service Search
7 Local Hospital
8 Local Corrections facility
9 Region DOT, Statewide DOT talk Groups, County and City Highway groups
10 Federal, FBI (Conv and SAFE-T), USMS (Conv and SAFE-T), ATF, ICE, USFW, Hoosier National Forest and several limit searches in the Fed Band
11 Empty
12 Rail for the Region
13 All Business frequencies for my county
14 IDOC Facilities for the Region
15 4 Area County SAFE-T Block
16 4 Area County SAFE-T Block
17 3 Indy Metro Collar County Block (Hendrick, Hamilton and Jefferson, so I've got something to listen to when the better half wants to go to the malls)
18 SAFE-T with all sites in the state, Talkgroups of ISP, Gaming, Excise, DNR, DHS and Fed. No matter where I am in the state, I'll have something even if it's not efficient .
19 Indianapolis Trunked system (I want to call it MECA, but I know it's not)
20 Nearby Illinois Startcom, County and Local Frequencies


1-3, and 5 are off of a Safe-T system setup for the 2 nearest towers, so it's watching as few frequencies as possible
Banks 4, 9, 14-17 are setup on a Safe-T system that monitors sites in the Region
Bank 18 Monitors all sites on SAFE-T
Bank 11 That is currently empty will likely develop into a HAM bank.

Next will be setting up the V-Scanners, I've got 20 of them and I want to configure at least 5 for travel purposes, plus the one already in use, which will leave me with 14, I'm thinking one for the Indy area to get a little more specific so it's easier to narrow things down when I want to pick specific stuff out, then one for Air Monitoring to separate MilAir hunting and regular listening, and airshows, it might be cool to take one and load it up with a few states worth of HAM repeaters broken up by region, so if I'm looking for a conversation while traveling I can use the 106 to locate the traffic for me. One V scanner for NIFOG info may be worthwhile as well.

Being new to Radio shack object scanning, and knowingly under utilizing the 996 for specific talk groups of interest, I find myself constantly wondering; Am I completely under utilizing my pro-106?

 

[maddogdecker]

Since I travel for my job. I have my pro 106 set up with three or four counties in each bank. For example i have a bank with Huntington, Wells, Adams. I keep all state in one bank. I keep most EDACS Systems in there own bank. I'm only around 55% full on my pro 106 and I love it.

 

[W9NES]

K9IEL, I have my Uniden 396XT programmed in the following order: Bank 40:IMPD, Bank 41 PD Digital, Bank 42 FIRE/EMS, Bank 6 ISP Dist 52, Bank 8 Boone County Safe-t, Bank 9 Hamilton County. My Pro-96 does not receive IDPS(MECA) very well and is not programmed up for that system.I use the Pro-96 for Safe-t for Boone County and ISP Dist 52.