Which scanner best for Estes Park, CO

[Bluemist]

I live in Estes Park and was wondering if someone might have a suggestion as to which scanner would be best since Estes Park has gone to digital. Something good but not costing $600 or $700 dollars.

Thanks very much

 

[Sinister]

Moved

 

[N2JDS]

Others may argue, but if I was in your position, I'd say buy a Pro-96 off ebay, around $300 or so used. But I'd also spend a good chunk on antenna system too, as an outdoor, up in the air would be of great benifit.

BTW, beautiful area out there. If you cover room and board, I could bring my radio and you could use it while I just hang out in Gods country.

 

[scanlist]

Unfortunately digital scanners are in the $500 price range. Thank the patent holder of the digital format for commanding high priced licensing fees.

There is no need for an outdoor antenna if you're in Estes. The primary site that covers the town is on Prospect Mountain.

Forget the PRO-96 for Estes due to the "hang time" issue with home channel based sites as well as NOT having 700 MHz tracking which is becoming more of a requirement with the statewide DTRS radio system as additional sites are added.

The tower that covers the city uses a "Home" voice channel and the PRO-96 and PRO-2096 choke when sites that do this get very busy. The result is ending up hearing other users immediately grab the frequency the scanner is on and wonder why it says Estes Police and you're hearing school buses or sewer line repair crews. Current models do not suffer from this flaw.

Handheld models that make the grade include GREcom GRE-500, RadioShack PRO-106, Uniden Bearcat 396XT. Base Models GREcom GRE-600, RadioShack PRO-197 and Uniden 996T.

 

[jimmnn]

I live in Estes Park and was wondering if someone might have a suggestion as to which scanner would be best since Estes Park has gone to digital. Something good but not costing $600 or $700 dollars.

Thanks very much

I would strongly suggest a Pro-96 or 2096 they be had on eBay for $300-350 and are a quality, proven digital scanner that will work perfect on the limited DTRS activity off your single site in the valley; Prospect Mtn. But no need for an antenna system because there is only one control channel you can receive anyways.

Jim<

 

[Bluemist]

Thank you very much, really appreciate all your info.

Blue Mist

 

[Bluemist]

Might I ask you one more question? In reading the manuals for the GRE 500 and the Pro-106, it appears the GRE 500 might be a little easier to program. What do you think. Thanks again. Bluemist

 

[scanlist]

Other than the front panel layout both radios are identical in operation and programming.

Also Estes PD has been on VHF in the past week. Any ideas what happened? It's business as usual on 155.910.

 

[jeffreyinberthoud]

Intresting Ive heard both Larimer county so and Larimer parks also back on Vhf this week

 

[billc050]

I also live in Estes Park. Recently Estes Police went to 800 digital, then temporarily switched back to VHF. I had a Gree PSR-300 which did not pickup digital signals. Recently bought a Radio Shack Pro-96 which works great. You will need one of these digital scanners to get Estes police in the near future. You can buy programming software, a special USB cable, and join radioreference.com to program your scanner, or I could do it for you. Let me know.

 

[Bluemist]

Best scanner for Estes Park

Hi

Thank you so much for your reply. I did buy a gre 500 off Ebay and have joined RadioReference. While I have had a scanner for 40+ years, these digital scanners are way over my head. I spent a number of hours trying to use Win500 (which I have no knowledge of) and think maybe I have Prospect Mountain programed in but since they are not using it am not sure. I could not use Win 500 to load the scanner for both Prospect Mountain and the Talk Groups and the what they are currently transmitting on. I kept getting "Nothing Enabled" so I put the channels they are using now in manually. I would appreciate some help and would be more than willing to pay you for your time. There is no hurry.

Thank you very much for your offer to help it is greatly appreciated.

Bluemist

 

[Bluemist]

Estes PD on VHF

Other than the front panel layout both radios are identical in operation and programming.

Also Estes PD has been on VHF in the past week. Any ideas what happened? It's business as usual on 155.910.

If figure they are back on VHF because like everything else the town does they screw it up and it a nice way to spend our money

 

[scanlist]

Don't go hatin' on Estes for this one. The state has really been pushing this system on everybody for the last 8 years. Estes has nothing to do with the tower coverage.

The CCNC operate and maintain the system the city is attempting to move to.

800 MHz is not very resilient in the mountains add to it all the vegetation and trees currently are in full bloom which doesn't help the situation either.

For what it's worth it took Motorola 2 years to get coverage to work in the City of Greeley. It was back and forth between 800 and UHF during that stretch.

 

[scanlist]

Has anyone confirmed other than 4084 for EPD dispatch? I'll get them added to the MetroNC file so Bluemist can get his PSR-500 programmed and anyone else needing the win500 file to program their radio.

Thanks.

 

[aprswatcher]

Estes Park PD back on vhf

FWIW, Heard Estes Park PD back on the VHF system (155.91) all weekend, never did see them use the DTRS talkgroup.
Not sure what has happened, see if I can find out.
73, Rex.

 

[lightingnut]

Pro-96

I just got my new Pro-96 from Ebay, and as my luck would have it Estes PD changes back to VHF, but for how long?

Last I heard was from a friend in Estes who contacted a person in the gov. that person told my friend that PD was happy with the 800 band and was not going to change back to VHF. But I hear from others that PD is not happy with the 800 band. I guess someone needs to give Estes a call and find out.

I hope they don't ever change to the 800 band.

 

[scanlist]

They bought the equipment and they will move to it.

CCNC and Motorola are most likely working on whatever issues were encountered during the brief time Estes was on the system.

 

[lightingnut]

Pro-96

Can anyone help me program my Pro-96 so I can pick up the new 800 band that Estes will be using. I don't have the information I need to program the trunking part of the scanner.

Right now I have PD, Fire, and RMNP in my old scanner. Would like to have the same channels and would be nice to have the county as well. If I only get the county when they are in the Estes area.

Thanks for your help.

 

[scanlist]

Step by step to at least get one going.

Find an empty bank. In this example I'll use bank 0.

Press Manual.
Radio should be at channel "000"
Press "PGM"
Enter "853.825" then "Enter" (this is for enterning the site controll channel frequencies)
The top right corner should show "+MO" as being in motorola mode. If not press mode until it does
Press "MAN"
Press FUNC followed by TRUNK.
Display will show: Bank 0 ("Not Trunked!" if the bank is empty)
Press MODE until the display shows "Motorola" on the third line
Display should show "Bank 0-0 ON"
Type "4084" (This is for entering the Talkgroup number)
Use the "^" key to move to the next talkgroup memory slot then type in the talkgroup numbers you wish to add. I would venture that 4085 and 4086 may be assigned to Estes since Loveland Buses start at 4087.
When done adding talkgroups press "Man"
Press scan. This should get you started and you can add more talkgroups as you go along.

One thing you may see mentioned around RR is open and closed modes. Open mode will show a "+" under the active bank as the radio will allow all talkgroups on that site to be heard. Closed mode will show a "-" and will only monitor talkgroups and sub-banks programmed into those sub-banks. To switch between open and closed modes press FUNC followed by 5 to switch modes.

I know alot of info here but once you get the hang of keyboard programming with this radio it's not all that difficult compared to the latest and greatest models out there.

Also you can download the PRO-96 manual via radio shack RadioShack PRO-96 Digital Trunking Scanner (200-0526)

 

[scanlist]

See the updated N. Colorado Files thread for programming your scanners with area systems including Larimer County which has Estes PD added.