What do I have to do to program this PRO-164 ?

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M00N

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Hello and sorry for opening a new programming thread.

I wanted to listen ATC from a nearby airport here; so I bought a PRO-164 Radio Shack scanner, but the seller did not tell me that the scanner needed programming, because when I turn it on screen says "Boot Ver:F1.01" ... I took me a while to understand that message means that the scanner needs to be updated... I did not know radios needed to be updated... so as you can expect: I NEVER HAD A SCANNER/RADIO BEFORE. The oldest tech I have is my 2008 gameboy SP.

Gosh; all I wanted is to hear ATC, didn't expect so many troubles.

I have gathered the following things/items that are needed to program:

1) Radio Shack 20-047 orange color usb cable
1) Radio Shack 20-047 programming cable driver CD
1) Win97 V01.37
1) Radio Shack -2000163_0164_V101.exe program

Can you help me get out of my ignorance and point some actions to program this thing please?

Raphael;
El Salvador
 

gmclam

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It sounds like the scanner you got not only needs to be programmed (with channel information), it sounds like it also needs to be programmed with its firmware. Normally when powering you would not see that Boot Ver message.

The process to program the firmware requires powering the scanner, connecting that cable between the PC/IF jack on the scanner and a USB port on your PC. I believe the program you have (Radio Shack -2000163_0164_V101.exe program) is what you run. Follow what it tells you.

When you get past this point, you should see a "sign on message" when you power the scanner. Since you wouldn't have channels programmed at that point, if you do press SCAN, it will display something like "No channels to scan". Try the Wx button to see if you can pick up the NOAA weather channels. If that's working another option would be to use the SEARCH button. I believe there's a group there where you could search the air band.
 

M00N

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It sounds like the scanner you got not only needs to be programmed (with channel information), it sounds like it also needs to be programmed with its firmware. Normally when powering you would not see that Boot Ver message.

The process to program the firmware requires powering the scanner, connecting that cable between the PC/IF jack on the scanner and a USB port on your PC. I believe the program you have (Radio Shack -2000163_0164_V101.exe program) is what you run. Follow what it tells you.

When you get past this point, you should see a "sign on message" when you power the scanner. Since you wouldn't have channels programmed at that point, if you do press SCAN, it will display something like "No channels to scan". Try the Wx button to see if you can pick up the NOAA weather channels. If that's working another option would be to use the SEARCH button. I believe there's a group there where you could search the air band.


Thank you very much for explaining this!. I have connected the scanner via PC/IF jack and the 20-047cable. I ran the firmware software, but a message related to no commnication between pc and scanner shows. Maybe I should try again installing the Radio Shack 20-047 driver in a virtual win XP machine...

I recorded my attempt to try the firmware installation first, then I tried on Win97 programm to "download from PRO-164"... with no success.


Device manager tells me the COM port associated with 20-047 cable is COM6.

I have to say that I have never used any software of this kind, so there is a big chance of mistakes on what I am doing. I will try again soon.
 
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Winnsboro, La
Hello and sorry for opening a new programming thread.

I wanted to listen ATC from a nearby airport here; so I bought a PRO-164 Radio Shack scanner, but the seller did not tell me that the scanner needed programming, because when I turn it on screen says "Boot Ver:F1.01" ... I took me a while to understand that message means that the scanner needs to be updated... I did not know radios needed to be updated... so as you can expect: I NEVER HAD A SCANNER/RADIO BEFORE. The oldest tech I have is my 2008 gameboy SP.

Gosh; all I wanted is to hear ATC, didn't expect so many troubles.

I have gathered the following things/items that are needed to program:

1) Radio Shack 20-047 orange color usb cable
1) Radio Shack 20-047 programming cable driver CD
1) Win97 V01.37
1) Radio Shack -2000163_0164_V101.exe program

Can you help me get out of my ignorance and point some actions to program this thing please?

Raphael;
El Salvador
The pro-164 is not that hard to work with, just pay attention to the above posts.
 

M00N

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Joined
Dec 21, 2019
Messages
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I would try removing the stereo to mono adapter from the cable. I also found this pdf with instructions.

This screenshot is thanks to you!.

I removed the adapter from the cable. (This is alien to me, so I was not aware of the adapter could be the reason of no communication between pc and radio!Success.png

Well then; I have to program frequencies on it now. Will comment if anything is achieved.
 

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gmclam

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You should NOT need that pigtail.
Once the scanner is successfully programed with firmware, it will need a power cycle.
As long as the cable is plugged into the scanner, when running properly, it will display "... clone mode....". That's when you can attempt to connect to it with WIN97.
 

M00N

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Dec 21, 2019
Messages
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I call this a success; I commented to someone that today morning I listened ATC from a 1km nearby airport; It is more than a year since I got the PRO-164 with the firmware problem; I posted here the issue a year ago; so I am happy with the result. Of course I need to learn how to program the banks, because I have to manually type each freq I want to listen.
 
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