Jeesh, where does a beginner start? Digital, trunk tracking, which scanner?
How do you program these new high tech scanners? Please help.

Bill

"Bill" wrote in message
. ..
Jeesh, where does a beginner start? Digital, trunk tracking, which
scanner?
How do you program these new high tech scanners? Please help.

First, where do you live? Do you live in a large urban area, or in a rural
area? Where you live will be a big indicator of what there is to listen to,
and what sort of scanner you'll need.

What sort of communications are you interested in listening to? Emergency
comms only, or are you interested in hearing military air comms?

Lots of people use computer software for scanner programming. With today's
scanners, you really need to read all the documentation that comes with them
so you don't get frustrated.

Jackie

It's a BIG pain in the ass.

But it helps if you have programming software for your scanner. And the
right in put information everything has to be right or it wont work. And
read the book 20 times to begin to understand it.

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"Bill" wrote in message
. ..
Jeesh, where does a beginner start? Digital, trunk tracking, which
scanner? How do you program these new high tech scanners? Please help.

Bill

Http://www.butelsoftware.com

I have this software and use it with my Uniden 250D. It works good and much
better than the uniden software that they make for it. You might look at the
Uniden 296D or the new 396T, BUTLE has software for them to.

I have used scannerworld.com for years and had good luck with them, But
there are others.

Have Fun

"Bill" wrote in message
. ..
Jeesh, where does a beginner start? Digital, trunk tracking, which
scanner? How do you program these new high tech scanners? Please help.

Digital? Works only with APCO-25 systems, mostly urban areas, but not all
urban areas use APCO-25.
If you find that your agency uses ProVoice, you're out of luck.Scanners are
deaf in trying to hear Pro-Voice systems as
the system is proprietary and no store bought scanner can listen in to it.
Some use Motorola systems which if they
are analog can be heard. If there's no digital system within 10 miles of
where you live, save the money and buy
an analog type scanner.

Trunk Tracking? A must in urban/suburban areas since many agencies use
frequencies subdivided to many talkgroups.
Takes a bit of programming to seat the frequencies and set talkgroups, but
works nicely when set properly.

Trunking can use a control frequency and a few others in a series to build
the environment upon which many talkgroups
exist. Think of one talk group for fire, another for garbage, another for
city buses, and another for road crews. Each
is seperate from the other. Trunk tracking allows a person to keep one or
more talkgroups on to listen to.

Programming? Either the finger dance or use software such as Win95 for the
Radio Shack Pro-95/96. Butel has
reasonably good software but it's not the only option out there.

Read the manual 10 times. Scanners have notoriously badly written manuals.
Some are worse than the manuals that
come with software.

Product? Depends. Two choices. Uniden or Radio Shack.

www.uniden.com

www.radioshack.com

On Thu, 06 Oct 2005 05:35:15 GMT, "Bill" said
in alt.radio.scanner:

Jeesh, where does a beginner start? Digital, trunk tracking, which scanner?
How do you program these new high tech scanners? Please help.

http://www.radioreference.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page has some good
basic information.

On Thu, 06 Oct 2005 23:17:26 GMT, "Paul Keenleyside"
said in alt.radio.scanner:

Digital? Works only with APCO-25 systems

APCO25 isn't the only digital standard.

mostly urban areas, but not all urban areas use APCO-25.

And not all rural areas use analog. There's no correlation between
"urban" and "digital".

If you find that your agency uses ProVoice, you're out of luck.Scanners are
deaf in trying to hear Pro-Voice systems

Not deaf, they just can't track them.

the system is proprietary and no store bought scanner can listen in to it.

No scanner can, store bought or handmade.. Only ProVoice radios can.

Some use Motorola systems which if they are analog can be heard.

Or if they're digital.

If there's no digital system within 10 miles of where you live, save the money and buy
an analog type scanner.

Unless there's a digital system within reception range - which can,
under the right circumstances, be as much as 50 miles - or more with a
good outside antenna.

Trunk Tracking? A must in urban/suburban areas

And rural areas in which trunking systems are used.

Product? Depends. Two choices. Uniden or Radio Shack.

Actually GRE and Uniden. Some of Radio shack's scanners are GRE, some
are Uniden.

Another consideration is to make sure that the scanner you buy will
(probably, since no one can say for certain yet) survive rebanding. It
doesn't make sense to buy a scanner that may be obsolete in a few
months.