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Hello...I just purchased my new Pro-164. I have previously owned a Pro model scanner before that was a trunking scanner and had no issues what so ever in programming it...
It's a great scanner. While I totally believe in learning how to program these things by hand, if you're going to program much, you'll be better off with software to do it. I use WIN97. And you'll need the RS 20-047 (or equiv) cable too.
My issue with this one is the following: I am in Newport News VA..which has a pretty large Motorolla II analog system. There are about 11 controler frequencies.
On a MOTorola type system, you only need to program in the control channel frequencies. There will only be 4 maximum. What I do is program however many there are, set them all to MOT and then lock out those not used as control channels. It just makes the scanner work a little less (faster scanning).
I have no issue getting these freq programmed into my scanner and listening to them. But if i remember correctly my other scanner let me pin point certain codes (police,fire,schools ect) and just listen to those specific things...well when I try to program the ID codes in and yes I do have all the frequencies set to MO (motorolla) and then try to scan...it says its scanning..but nother ever comes through..and I have to initialize the scanner again and put in the freq again from scratch...
One complaint people often have when programming these things the first time is that they hear "everything". That's often because they set the bank to OPEN. What I'd recommend doing is setting your bank to open to see that it is working. Once you're getting traffic, then you can close the bank and move to the next step. While in MAN mode, and in the bank you're using for the TRS, press FUNC DELAY to toggle between OPEN and CLOSED modes.
what key strokes do I need to be hitting..the ID codes for this city are 4 digit long. The book tells me to hit prog, then trunk...select a bank...then a sub bank...what am I not putting in correct??..please help???...book says something about motorolla II putting in a "15"..not sure what that means..please help.
OK, so you pick a bank, you program the control channel frequencies there. Next press FUNC TRUNK and you're in the talkgroup (TG) editor/viewer. Use the UP and DOWN arrows to navigate from one TG to the next, or use FUNC UP and FUNC DOWN to navigate to the next sub group. The '164 is organized as 5 sub groups of 30 TGs each.
When in the TG editor, take a look at the first full line on the display (4th from the bottom). It will display something like: "ID Bank 0-0 ON ". The word at the end indicates whether or not the SUB group is on or off. Press FUNC 1 to toggle the sub group state. If all of your sub groups are off, it will never find anything to stop on.
I personally use the 5 digit DEC codes for MOT TGs. I'd have to check the manual to see how to change that by hand. The first TG used would be 00016 and they go up in increments of 16 (so 00000-00015 are invalid). In the TG editor just type in the code and press ENTER. To enter an alpha tag for the TG, press TEXT, type the text (2 key strokes for each character) and press ENTER. To exit this mode press MAN or SCAN.
Does this help, or is there a specific step that you can not get past?
