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Reviews For: Radio Shack PRO-95 Dual Trunking Sacnner

Category: Receivers: Scanners

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Review Summary For : Radio Shack PRO-95 Dual Trunking Sacnner
Reviews: 28MSRP: 149.95 on sale as of December 20
Description:
1000 channel control channel only trunking capable scanner covering anything that is (currently)legal.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.radioshack.com
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00284.2
WY3X Rating: 2003-02-16
Best bet for the money Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I was impressed with it's capabilities from the first hour! I never owned a trunk-tracker before, but if this is what they're about, I'm happy to have spent the $250 to buy it! Feature-for-feature, it's still $90 less than the equivalent Bearcat scanner.

I lamented the lack of a readily available computer interface cable at time of purchase, but I ordered the parts from Mouser and rolled my own. (After finding plans on the internet.) I ordered enough parts to make 6 extra ones, so if you want a complete kit of parts, $19.95 to me (which includes shipping) will get you all the parts you need to build your own. Half the fun of being a ham is building your own gear- so why buy one ready-to-go when you can save a few bucks and build it yourself? The software is still free, and works great! I was really dreading having to punch all the keys to make the scanner do what I wanted it to do- but the software made it so easy I was done in about 2 minutes! But this doesn't need to be a "software review"....

Like the old "LIFE" cereal commercial, try it, you'll like it! (My only lament was not catching it on sale!)
Now all we need is an internet frequency repository for programming files for different cities for the Pro95! If anyone wants the file I have for Horry County and the Myrtle Beach area, let me know, I'll e-mail it to you.

KR4WM in Myrtle Beach, SC
LNXAUTHOR Rating: 2003-02-09
good performer - bad manufacturer Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
- i'm sorry, but i have to mar the near-perfect scores most have assigned to this handheld, dual-trunking scanner...

- this 'large-ish' handheld comes in a small box with no batteries (4 AAs or NiMhs may be used in either of the included trays), no A/C adapter, and no case...

- in fact, you won't find a case for this scanner from the manufacturer or its nationwide distributor! (i had to make my own)

- you do get a 92-page manual (which is also available on-line), along with a very abbreviated listing of trunked frequencies

- 1,000 channels in 10 banks of 100... keypad interface... 5 search bands, 4 of which are pre-programmed and one which may be used for min/max freq sweeps...

- coverage includes 800Mhz range, but no SW, FM, TV...

- WX bands are included (which is nice)...

Now for the bad part:

- there is *no* 'official' software or hardware cable interface available from the manufacturer!

- users must resort to third-party cable makers and a single source of a proprietary, binary-only [albeit] free program to manage channels via a PC..

- you cannot operate the scanner via your PC - only download or upload an 'image' of the scanner's transient storage..

- the manufacturer, GRE, will not release specs on the storage or transfer protocols, and, as in its other products, appears to intentionally obfuscate the process - this is confusing, as the scanner could be much more popular with more open specs...

- the lack of official support for the serial interface built into the scanner is inexcusable, and the closed specs should be a warning to potential buyers...

- my conclusion, after using and carrying the unit for two weeks is that in other regards, the 95 seems to work well... the sound is not too 'tinny' considering the size of the internal speaker, and the 'rubby ducky' antenna can be swapped out for a small center-loaded whip with a tad better reception performance...
BRUDYAW10 Rating: 2003-02-01
about my review Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
about my review down below with my email address,
please no more emails. you can by a frequency book at radioshack fore $20.00. it also comes with a disk so you can have frequencies for other states.please no more emails.

----------------------
Earlier 5-star review posted by BRUDYAW10 on 2003-01-31

THIS SCANNER IS THE BEST. IF YOU ARE CONSTANTLY ENTERING FREQUENCIES, THIS IS THE BEST SCANNER FOR YOU. IF YOU NEED FREQUENCIES FOR TEXAS, LOUISIANA, ARKANSAS, OR MISSISSIPPI EMAIL ME AT
brudyaw10@hotmail.com
N8AUC Rating: 2003-01-31
Great Scanner... Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I've owned this scanner for about 6 weeks. When they dropped the price to $149.95, I checked the reviews here on eHam and decided to go for it. I have not been disappointed. Now they have raised the price (at least around here) back to the regular $249.95 price so it doesn't appear to have been a a closeout.

I haven't tried the PC programming feature yet, but I am gathering parts to build the interface. The software (Win95) is a free download from the internet. That is a cool feature. And with 1000 memories, probably a necessary one.

I also haven't yet played with the trunking features, but the only thing it can't do is listen to the digital trunked systems.

1000 memories is plenty, it covers a lot of territory from 25-1300 MHz (cell blocked). There are gaps though between 174 and 400 Mhz. The unit has alpha tags for each memory channel. Those are nice! In fact the only thing it does cover in that range is the 220 MHz ham band. The unit is very sensitive, and the selectivity isn't bad either, but I haven't tried it on an outside antenna. And the way this thing hears, I may not need to. The audio quality is also very good.

Battery life is great. The first set of alkalines lasted 3 weeks, listening for about 6 hours a day at low volume. The unit has a separate battery holder (included) for using rechargeable batteries, and a charging circuit is built into the radio, but the needed wall-wart is not included.

If you can get one for the sale price, this scanner is definitely worth having. I'm not sure I'd have bought it at the regular price though. $250 for just a scanner is a bit much in my book.

P38LIGHT Rating: 2003-01-10
Excellent Scanner for the Value Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Just purchased the Pro-95 at Radio Shack on sale for 149.99. I could not resist with all the features (1000 channels, trunk capable, preprogrammed search banks (Police/Fire, Hams, Marine, CB, Aircraft, and user programmable limit searching ranges). Scans at reportedly 60 channels per second.

Also purchased the programming cable from http://www.blackbagsoftware.com for 23.00. Received cable in two days!

I used the free programming software from http://www.starrsoft.com/freeware/Win95/apps/Win95.zip

Extremely user friendly and easy to use and worked flawlessly.

The Pro-95 has got to be the best buy of the year. All the features and cost about 1/3 of an AR8200 or Alinco DJ-X2000 and you won’t need a second mortgage . Alinco and AOR are not even trunk capable and have slow scan speeds. You can literally operate the Pro-95 right out of the box by just turning it on and pushing search. The scanner automatically goes into preprogrammed search bands.

I give this scanner a 10 for value, features and ease of use.
KD6RXY Rating: 2002-12-30
What a deal! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Having owned and used a number of scanners including a PRO-94 trunking scanner I found the PRO-95 a great deal and easy to use.

I use the WIN-95 software and my Yaesu VX-5R programming cable with a sterio to mono plug adapter. Makes progamming easy. (I programmed about 200 alphnumeric tags manually and really appreciate the software!) The latest version of WIN-95 allows programming of frequencies outside the limits set by R.S.

I use this scanner to monitor conventional, Motorola type II and EDACS systems and it works great. Unlike the PRO-94 it scans trunked and conventional systems concurrently.

For $150 it's a great deal.
KD4UXM Rating: 2002-12-11
Super value. Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Having owned several trunking scanners, I feel somewhat qualified on this subject: BC-235, BC-245, PRO-92, etc.. For the money invested this is the best radio. Equal to or better than the BC-245, which seems to have the edge in monitoring in my area. Very nice features and easy to use, although not as versatile as the PRO-92. But would be easier for the new user. Also, has plenty of memory channels... Lacking with only one bank of user programable search, but has many useful pre-programmed search limits.
WV1K Rating: 2002-12-11
So far so good. Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This scanner did what I figured it would. I heard such great things las year about the Uniden BC780, I bought one.

Junk. Until you fix it. I had been assured by the dealer and those I asked that my serial number was LONG past the famed audio control problem, where, the volume gets frozen in the LOUD position, and the volume pot becomes useless. I then heard such fine stories of Uniden losing scanners, etc, I opeted to repair it myself despite it being under warranty still !

I did well. Never had another problem.

But not caring for 350 dollar scanner kits much, I opeted to return to the favorite, Radio Shack.

I started out with a PRO-93 but a very ethical salesman offered to take it back... in advance of the sale starting, so that I could get this latest version.

I could not be more pleased. I run the rubber duck on it and the pull up whip on the BC780 and the PRO-95 consistenly outperforms it. It is easier to program and Don Starr's win95 (the scanner not the operating system !!!) software just adds to it.

It is a tough one to program, but use that software and you're set.

On a set of fresh regular alkaline Duracells, look for 4 or 5 days continuous usage.. weeks if you shut it off at night.