First of all, welcome to the forum. Many of us have purchased the PSR-500, and I'm sure many will agree it is one of the best handheld scanners out there. It has a lot of features, but trying to use it takes practice. Just about everyone on the forum who has purchased the radio programs it by computer. Trying to do it by hand will surely lead to carpal-tunnel syndrome. (The same can be said for just about ALL the new scanners from GRE, Radio Shack, and Uniden.) Your PSR-500 comes with a programming cable. Check out the wiki
http://wiki.radioreference.com/inde...m_Web_Service#Web_Service_Application_Support to see what programs are available for setting up your radio. Some, if not all, support directly downloading from the RadioReference database. Become a premium subscriber, download and install your programming software, hit a few keys, and your radio is programmed, with frequencies, PL/DPL codes, alphatags, talkgroups, etc. I personally use Win500
http://www.starrsoft.com/software/win500/default.asp for programming and control. Ask around on the forum, download and try the programs ( they all offer a free evaluation period) and enjoy your radio! The search box at the top of the forum page, as well as the sticky threads found in most of the threads, are very helpful. Ask questions if you can't find the answers you need from the search. There is no such thing as a dumb question. (Only a smart answer!)