"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