PRO-95 or PRO-97 programming
For the PRO-95, get yourself a programming cable and software. WIN95 is available for free at
www.starrsoft.com and for the PRO-97 use WIN97 (30 day free trial) from the same site.
The manuals for these scanners are horrible, but there is good documentation here online. Go to the Wiki section, Radio Models, Radio Shack and select your scanner. There is info plus links to "easier to read manuals".
The software mimics the scanners. Once you understand the scanners, you'll understand the software. Some people like the software because it gives them a "total overview" of what is in the scanner. That's true.
Programming trunked frequencies into these scanners is as easy as it gets. Programming the newer digital scanners, especially "object oriented" is a lot tougher.
Step 1, pick a bank you are going to dedicate to the TRS you ar programming. After you get the hang of it and get things working, you can mix other stuff in to the bank. Don't program more than 1 TRS into a bank.
Step 2, program the CONTROL CHANNEL FREQUENCIES. There will be no more than 4 for a MOT system. If you are programming EDACS or LTR type systems (PRO-95 does not do LTR) you need to program in all the frequencies, and into proper channels. 01 would go into channel 01 of the bank you are programming, etc. For Motorola just use channels 00-03 of the bank and waste the other 96 slots.
Step 3, CLOSE the bank, unless you want to hear EVERYTHING on the system. If you want to everything, set the bank to OPEN.
Step 4, if you closed the bank in step 3, you'll need to program the TGs yo do want to hear.
The scanner only follows conversations in SCAN mode. If you listen in MAN mode you will hear data on the control channel as well as "parts" of conversations as they are 'randomly' assigned frequencies.