Pro-96 for my boyfriend - now what?

[joesplace]

The Radio Shack salesman said the Pro-96 is shipped preprogrammed and ready to scan so I bought it for my boyfriend for his birthday. Now I'm testing it before I wrap it and when I turn it on and press Scan, it says All Channels locked! This is not 'ready to scan.'

I just want to get this scanner where it will pick up the local police and emergency transmissions which are supposed to be digital nowadays.

Am I close? Should I take this to Radio Shack and let them set it up?

Jean

 

[unitcharlie]

hi jean...
where are you.... do you have a cable for the scanner.... we need a little more info to help you....

welcome to the forum, by the way...

 

[BaLa]

when they said it's preprogrammed they prolly just meant the search banks.

 

[joesplace]

Cable?

Oh dear, I need a cable for this? I just bought the scanner and that's it. Was told that was all I needed. It's one of those handheld digital scanners. I'm going to try and read this awful owner's manual. How hard can it be to program it to pick up the local police and emergency channels anyway?

Sorry to be so ignorant. I just thought that for something so expensive it should be ready for use like a computer.

Thanks and maybe I'll post again when I'm more educated.

Jean

 

[MacombMonitor]

Wow! You bought a PRO-96 for your boyfriend :!: He sure is a lucky guy!

Read up on the V-SCANNER feature. Then follow the instructions on how to load the V-SCANNER list for your area. That should be a start. Also, Radio Shack offers free programming for your local area. It's part of the deal when you buy one. Not all Radio Shacks stores may be capable of this however. Call around to different ones in your area. Someone should be able to help you.

Later, recomend to your boyfriend that he buy a programming cable, and Win96 software. He'll be glad he did.

 

[Voyager]

when they said it's preprogrammed they prolly just meant the search banks.

Come on, guys. If you know nothing about the scanner, please don't post answers that are not correct.

It DOES come preprogrammed. All you have to do is load one of the 10 V-folders into memory and it will scan those systems just fine. You will need to look at the manual and see which one covers your area (if any).

To load a folder, press:
PGM FUNC PGM 2(LOAD) (folder#) ENTER (wait for it to load) ENTER CLR

Joe M.

 

[Voyager]

Re: Cable?

Oh dear, I need a cable for this? I just bought the scanner and that's it. Was told that was all I needed. It's one of those handheld digital scanners. I'm going to try and read this awful owner's manual. How hard can it be to program it to pick up the local police and emergency channels anyway?

Sorry to be so ignorant. I just thought that for something so expensive it should be ready for use like a computer.

Thanks and maybe I'll post again when I'm more educated.

Jean

Post in the state forum for your area. There may be someone around who can load a local file for you. I've done it for many people in my area. The preprogrammed files will never be customized for an area as well as a local can set up a file.

Joe M.

 

[BaLa]

Re: Cable?

Come on, guys. If you know nothing about the scanner, please don't post answers that are not correct.

sorry for trying to help wont happen again

 

[loumaag]

Jean (joesplace),

I am guessing that the pre-loaded "V-Folders" 0 or 1 are the ones you need to look at for your area. (I am not sure exactly where you are but guessing that is close.)
V-Folder 0 has Arlington, Carrollton, Denton, Ft. Worth, Garland, Grand Prairie, Irving, Lewisville, Plano, & Richardson systems set up.
V-Folder 1 has Austin, Bexar Co., some LCRA, San Antonio, parts of STARNet (Harris Co.), Williamson and some Louisiana systems set up.

You can use the key-presses that Joe mentioned earlier or you can see if someone local can load up local stuff for you.
BTW, I hope he enjoys the gift, and also stick around after, we don't get a lot of ladies on the boards.

 

[jpm]

ya should of gotten the 396t scanner

 

[Al42]

Re: Cable?

Sorry to be so ignorant.

Jean, you weren't born knowing all of this?

I just spent a few hours getting my laptop talking to my scanner program - and I'm in the business. We all have areas of knowledge and areas of total blank, so don't ever apologize for not having learned something yet. Even Einstein was only a mediocre violinist.

 

[screxer]

ya should of gotten the 396t scanner

Well they didn't did they?? Why not contribute to the thread instead of telling people what YOU think they should have done? :roll: As for frequencies, yeah, follow the instructions for the V-Folders as the 96 does come preprogrammed with a large number of frequencies for the entire US.

 

[Voyager]

Re: Cable?

Come on, guys. If you know nothing about the scanner, please don't post answers that are not correct.

sorry for trying to help wont happen again

Trying to help is fine, but you effectively said that the scanner had nothing preprogrammed.

I'm not saying to not post anything unless you're 1000% certain about something. Anyone can be wrong. It's OK to be wrong. But you contradicted the people selling the scanner (OK, a debatable point that they know the product) without knowing for a fact that you were right and they were wrong, correct?

A quick check of the RS website says "• Scanner is preprogrammed with the most often-requested systems—if you live in a major metro area, your city's system is probably already loaded".

I apologize for my comment (which I DID preface with "IF you know nothing about the scanner"), but I will stand by my belief that anyone should not guess at answers, and should be at least somewhat familiar with the product in question. They should also be fairly certain of their answer when contradicting others.

Friends?

Joe M.

 

[unitcharlie]

FYI:
One of the seven PRO 96's I have purchased came WITHOUT the preload.... perhaps hers has the same problem. One of the rat shack dweebs working a store I only visit when my Wife is shopping tried to sell me a thru-the-glass cell fone antenna "because it will help you pick-up those trunked systems better..."
The fact that Jean is asking for help means she needs our help... no one in here started knowing it all and surely none of us does know it all... Personally, I think we should follow Lou's lead and try to help Jean.

 

[loumaag]

FYI:
One of the seven PRO 96's I have purchased came WITHOUT the preload....

You got a used radio. :x

 

[unitcharlie]

That is my point, they are ALL supposed to be preloaded, but some of them are recycled and don't have the preloads.... so plz don't assume that is fact when it obviously doesn't apply to all PRO 96's.... Jean's radio could be another of those without anything loaded...

 

[Voyager]

That is my point, they are ALL supposed to be preloaded, but some of them are recycled and don't have the preloads.... so plz don't assume that is fact when it obviously doesn't apply to all PRO 96's.... Jean's radio could be another of those without anything loaded...

This may all be true, but the fact remains that you don't know they are not there unless you know the V-folders exist and you TRY them. That was the answer to the problem, not 'well they are probably not there'.

It's much more likely she didn't know about the V-folders than the possiblity they are blank.

I agree - let's try to help her rather than debating the odds that she got a unit that doesn't have them (which is on the order of maybe 1% or less).

Joe M.

 

[KB8UYC]

JOESPLACE: Check your Private Messages...

 

[unitcharlie]

Now I'm testing it before I wrap it and when I turn it on and press Scan, it says All Channels locked! This is not 'ready to scan.'

The empty scanner I received told me the same thing, the other six were loaded with all the VScanners and one was loaded into the working memory... in all but the one I received that had nothing in there... Jean, without knowing it gave us a few tips....

 

[califzeph]

My goodness, we are going to scare this nice gal off.

Give your BF the scanner and let him figure out how to program it. You will be doing him a favor, since he will need to know how the thing works. He won't always have access to his computer and cable and owner's manual, and may want to put some stuff in "on the fly" some day.

I would recommend getting a copy of the WIN 96 software and the appropriate cable, however, along with a membership in radioreference.com. It will greatly ease the programming of the scanner, and make the radio much more enjoyable to use.

And, yes, if you go to a "good" Radio Shack, they will put in your local programming for free.

When I got my Pro-97, I used it for about a month before I started using a computer and cable to program it. I'm glad I took the time to see how the scanner works without computer assisted programming.

Good luck to you and your BF, and enjoy your new radio. We take ours everywhere on long trips, it's interesting to know what's going on around you.

You will be surprised how much stuff doesn't make the local news broadcast and newspaper!