Help!!!! Programing a radio shack pro 97 hand held sca

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iowa train fan

Train Attendant
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May 22, 2008
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I must be the dumbest person on the face of the earth. I had purchased the pro 97 scanner so I could listen to Amtrak CZ transmisions. Radio Shack programmed the radio for all my local police, fire and the usual. How on earth....or can I enter the individual frequencies that the CZ uses, I have that list and tried to follow the instructions but got no where. Could some one please go through the procedure so even a five year old can do it. I can read but evidentaly it ends there!!!! PLEASE HELP!!!!
 
iowa train fan said:
I must be the dumbest person on the face of the earth. I had purchased the pro 97 scanner so I could listen to Amtrak CZ transmisions. Radio Shack programmed the radio for all my local police, fire and the usual. How on earth....or can I enter the individual frequencies that the CZ uses, I have that list and tried to follow the instructions but got no where. Could some one please go through the procedure so even a five year old can do it. I can read but evidentaly it ends there!!!! PLEASE HELP!!!!
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I think I have a Pro-97 (I forget, though). If I do I'll post the instructions when I get home and look at it.
 
argh.. if you're the dumbest, move over, you have company. I just downloaded your manual, read the instructions and gave up. I got a Uniden BC95XLT a few days ago and I thought they might be similar as Uniden makes some of the Radio Shack scanners, but no such luck, this thing is a different animal. :blink:
 
Thank you so far for both replys, thanks for offering to look, I hope you can help me out and also thanks for not making me feel quite for stupid. I probably bought way more radio then what I needed. Thanks again for any help.
 
iowa train fan said:
Thank you so far for both replys, thanks for offering to look, I hope you can help me out and also thanks for not making me feel quite for stupid. I probably bought way more radio then what I needed. Thanks again for any help.
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Any chance you can return it for a simpler model?
 
I have the same scanner and had the same reaction you did. Here is what I do for simplest operation.

Look on page 56 of your manual. "Searching active frequencies in a range"

Follow those directions. Use 159.810 as the low end and 161.565 as the high end.

Now, just press the SRCH button until the LIMIT SEARCH comes up. It will search those frequencies which I beleive cover all possible Amtrak freqs. Then just listen. If you here something, you can press PSE (pause) and keep it on a certain channel. Once I hear my train crew, I pause on a channel and keep it there. They usually say when they are going to change freqs, then just press PSE again to unpause.

That is basically how I used mine.
 
PetalumaLoco said:
I like that idea. Seems simple enough, no programming required.
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If you want the flexibility to program frequencies other than you local ones and the railroad frequencies, you may want to look at several things. The Pro 97 is computer programmable. Radio Shack sells a cord which allows you to connect your scanner to the USB port of a computer. WWW. Starrsoft.com sells a software which allows you to do your programming a a straight forward way and directly load it to your scanner via the Radio Shack cord. You can use the Starrsoft software for 30 days free and then you have to register it. WWW. radioreference.com has frequencies from all over the country. They also have forums similar to this one. Oft times by asking for it someone will send you a frequency file for the area you want. All you need to do is load it in the scanner. I have a computer file for all of the railroad frequencies nationally; however, my file is set up for the Pro96.

GJ

Richmond
 
Right! I just broke down and picked up a Radio Shack Pro-94 scanner on eBay after seeing some good reviews on it. Are there any suggestions for quickly getting up to speed on this model? Since I live only about 1.5 miles from the BNSF in Norman OK, I'm hoping to listen in on train chatter when I'm not listening to aviation. Thanks!
 
I have a Pro-97. I have programmed the AAR channels in channel bank 9 such that AAR Channel 1 is bank 9 channel 1 etc. When I go on a trip I just print out the channel list for the trip from On Track On Line, and simply keep switching to the appropriate channel at the appropriate times. Just four keys to push to get to any channel, or just do a search in bank 9 to search through all AAR channels. Works like a charm.
 
*********************** NOTE: This Thread is Almost Four Years Old ******************************

I consider myself somewhat of a computer tech and I can not figure this Pro-97 out... Why I do finally catch somone talking I can hear pretty good they stop it just start serching again. I got very frustrated with it and stuck it in a drawer. Cleaned the garage this weekend and decided to give it another try. Just now after hours of frustration have learned how to use the pas button THANK YOU SO MUCH!

I aslo bought win97 and the proper cable have the software loaded but can't figure out how to work it. With that software can I get just the local channles in my area? I really only care about local things...

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Feeling like an idiot in CA

:help: :wacko:
 
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I am a computer tech and since I use my scanner only once a year or so, I struggle every year to remember how to do things. I programed in all the channels into memory, which makes it easier, if I can remember how to get to them!

I have started making notes to myself in Evernote. That should help a lot later this year.

Sorry I cannot help you with the software. Never even tried.
 
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