RadioShack PRO-96 5500-Channel Digital Handheld Scanner Reviews
RadioShack PRO-96 5500-Channel Digital Handheld Scanner
- Backlit display and keypad for use in low light
- Channel scan
- Alpha display can show name of service
- Continuous Tone Controlled Selective Squelch (CTCSS) and Digital Coded Squelch (DCS) decoding
- TCXO for frequency stability; designed for new 6.25KHz channel spacing
This handheld scanner has an abundant memory capacity, able to store frequencies in 5500 memory channels. Plus, you can store up to 16,500 ID codes in one “working” 500 channel. Follow APCO 25 digital and virtually all analog Motorola and GE/Ericsson EDACS trunked systems.
Price:
Not for a rookie but will provide months/years of fun,
This is my first “real” scanner. Received as a gift. I spent the first two days trying to figure out how to program it! There is a lot to this scanner. Be prepared to put some time into programming it. The payoff is worth it.
Let’s talk about hardware first. Out of the box, the scanner comes with a standard antenna. It has decent pickup of VHF, UHF, and 100-1300Mhz ranges. The unit comes with a 120page manual, two battery holders (one for rechargeables, one for standard), and the antenna. That’s it. No AC adapter. No car adapter. No carrying case.
You will want both of the adapters. This unit eats 4 x AA batteries every few days. I’m on my second set in a week of heavy use. What is worse is that the manual doesn’t provide specific part numbers. The RadioShack website doesn’t even list this scanner anymore either. Still, considering the alternative if feeding batteries every few days, hunting down the adapters is worth it.
The scanner can follow a vast number of frequencies and channels. Trunked systems, Motorola Analog, Motorola Digital, APCO-25 trunking systems, EDACS trunking, VHF and UHF trunks, and 800Mhz splinter systems are just a few of the systems this scanner can track. You can also listen to CB, Ham radio, TV channels, Aircraft frequencies, railroads, and more. The Pro-96 can store up to 500 channels in 10 storage banks of 50 channels each. For trunking systems, you can store up to 1500 trunk IDs.
To give you an idea of how much space that is, I have 6 different county systems in my scanner (Northern VA, DC, PG County MD) with over 250 trunk IDs plus most of the Commonwealth of Virginia (another 100 frequencies) plus most of known Washington DC frequencies for Federal and local and still have another 300 or so open channels. It’s a HUGE number.
I’ve listened to local police, fire and rescue, state police, water/sewer dept, railroad engineers, one airplane, a Medical Evac helicopter, a taxi company, several department stores, multiple weather channels, a CB channel (19), and some HAM radio operators (I think).
I’ve heard about a car on fire on an Interstate, a high-speed pursuit involving two counties and the state police, a robbery in progress, multiple traffic stops and domestic incidents, multiple fires, and more.
Unfortunately, programing those banks using the keypad is a time-consuming and tedious process. I highly recommend you get ARC96 software (google it) and the RadioShack USB cable. The ARC96 software handles all the features of your Pro-96 easily with point-click-program ease.
I’m having an absolute blast with mine. It rides shotgun in my car whenever I am driving. Thanks to this scanner, I avoided several accidents and major traffic backups.
Other misc features:
1) a backlight;
2) one button weather reports;
3) keylock;
4) a big ole belt clip; and
5) pre-programmed frequencies to get you started;
The scanner isn’t for the person who wants to just listen to local police channels out of the box — but if you put some time into it, this scanner will provide weeks/months/years of entertainment.
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|Feature-packed but poor quality.,
It does what it says it does, but it has some flaws.
The scanner tracks most any Motorola trunking format, plus EDACS systems. I was successfully able to use it on a newly-rebanded 800 MHz digital system with no problem. It supports P25 digital signals. It supports alphanumeric tagging of channels, CTCSS and DCS decode. It comes with weather alert (though I’ve never used the feature) and an attenuator. For the most part, it’s feature-packed. But it has a few crippling problems.
For one, it has a notorious problem with volume. When it’s new, the volume is often too loud. You can turn the volume to its lowest setting and it’s too loud for a quiet room, or you can turn it all the way up and it’s only slightly louder. But then something happened to me — and, apparently, many other Pro96 owners — and the volume went away. The volume gets extremely low, and smacking the side of the radio or pushing hard on the volume knob are the only ways to bring it back. I’ve read reviews saying it’s a bad solder job, but disassembling the radio, I was unable to find anything I could fix.
I’ve also found digital decode to be sporadic. Sometimes it will fail to switch to digital mode when receiving a digital signal, or it will become “jumbled” mid-transmission and start emitting horrible sounds from the speaker. It does this mid-transmission, and changing the channel and then coming back will fix it. It does this even on strong signals, and the firmware upgrades didn’t offer any relief. This does not happen often, but when it does, it’s supremely irritating.
If it weren’t for these major flaws, it would be a good radio. As it is, I regret my purchase, but it’s far too late for me to return it.
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|Volume Issue,
While not the easiest to program, an account with Radio Reference will allow you to automatically download and apply the frequencies, make sure you buy the software. After having the scanner for several months, the volume dropped to almost inaudible. After reading some of the other reviews, this seems to be a common problem. Holding down the volume knob brings the volume back up, but as soon as you let off it drops again. I have yet to take it apart, but since this was not a minor investment, I’m going to attempt to fix or replace the volume knob.
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