I've been lurking for a while but this is my first post. Great site, the amount of info. available is amazing. Now to my questions. I've been away from the hobby for about 13 years. I owned a Pro-43 in the early 1990's when I lived in the Washington, DC Metro area. Needless to say there was always a lot of interesting things to scan for in the DC area. I now live in Wilmington (New Hanover County) and would like to get back into the hobby. These are my questions.
1) Is there enough interesting radio traffic in Wilmington and the surrounding area to make the purchase of a scanner even worth it? I've always lived in or near major metropolitan areas of the country but never in a "smaller" town like Wilmington. I don't travel much anymore so I would be monitoring Wilmington pretty much exclusively. I'd hate to buy a scanner only to find out there isn't much to listen to.
2) I am considering the Pro-97 but would make the jump to the Pro-96 if there is any benefit in my area. The local RS manager said the county has plans to switch to digital but there is no set timetable for the changeover. Would the Pro-97 be sufficient for Wilmington or would I be better off spending the extra cash for the digital Pro-96? I'd hate to buy an analog scanner only to have it be obsolete in a month or two. Btw, I'm not wedded to RS scanners, so if someone thinks I'm better off with a Uniden model please let me know.
3) Is the computer software really necessary for an area the size of Wilmington? I am fairly computer literate so the programing part shouldn't be an issue. I can see the benefit of these computer programs when you have several hundred or more frequencies to enter into your scanner but how many frequencies are there in the Wilmington area?
Thanks for taking to time to read this and thanks in advance to anyone who replies.
Ed
1) Is there enough interesting radio traffic in Wilmington and the surrounding area to make the purchase of a scanner even worth it? I've always lived in or near major metropolitan areas of the country but never in a "smaller" town like Wilmington. I don't travel much anymore so I would be monitoring Wilmington pretty much exclusively. I'd hate to buy a scanner only to find out there isn't much to listen to.
2) I am considering the Pro-97 but would make the jump to the Pro-96 if there is any benefit in my area. The local RS manager said the county has plans to switch to digital but there is no set timetable for the changeover. Would the Pro-97 be sufficient for Wilmington or would I be better off spending the extra cash for the digital Pro-96? I'd hate to buy an analog scanner only to have it be obsolete in a month or two. Btw, I'm not wedded to RS scanners, so if someone thinks I'm better off with a Uniden model please let me know.
3) Is the computer software really necessary for an area the size of Wilmington? I am fairly computer literate so the programing part shouldn't be an issue. I can see the benefit of these computer programs when you have several hundred or more frequencies to enter into your scanner but how many frequencies are there in the Wilmington area?
Thanks for taking to time to read this and thanks in advance to anyone who replies.
Ed
I think the software is worth the investment. Don Starr puts out some great software that many of us would be lost without. 
