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Reviews For: Radio Shack PRO-96 Digital Trunking Scanner

Category: Receivers: Scanners

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Review Summary For : Radio Shack PRO-96 Digital Trunking Scanner
Reviews: 19MSRP: 499.00
Description:
This Analog, digital APCO-25 3600/9600 BPS EDACS and Motorola trunking scanner is the most advanced scanner on the market today.
Product is not in production
More Info: http://www.radioshack.com
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00194.5
KZ5I Rating: 2007-02-04
Good Scanner Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I will agree with an earlier review that the radio is difficult to program and I will also STRONGLY AGREE with another earlier review about a good support network being available for the Pro-96.

Once I got some very good programs and very good advice from the support network, I was on my way. The Pro-96 is very versatile and does a lot of things extremely well.

Overall I am very happy with this scanner.

' 73 Emmett KZ5I
KA3UIX Rating: 2007-01-24
Complicated Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I've had the scanner for several months and in general think it is of Good Quality especially from Radio Shack. At $500, the unit is OVERPRICED, but Radio Shack obviously know that they and Uniden have little competition otherwise and the unit is in demand. The unit does go on sale on a rare occasion and if you apply for a Radio Shack credit card, you'll get another 10% off.

The unit is complicated to operate and program. Unless you are or wish to be a PC Geek, IT Engineer or Computer Programmer, it may be a frustrating experience and expensive wasteful investment. The features and technology get in the way of using and operating the radio. Why would I need a PC to operate a radio just to monitor public service?

And, while the audio and speaker is sharp for it's size, oftentimes part of the transmission is dropped and words and syllables are lost, which can have you miss out on key details and information.

It's OK but way, way expensive and overpriced.
WN3R Rating: 2007-01-24
One neat little radio Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
To add to the comments below, the people who own these radios are willing to share info and programming. Without this community it would have taken me weeks to get this unit completely setup. Thanks to the others who went before me. Get Win96 and the USB programming cable for trouble free upgrading and programming. You can find a new PRO-96 on eBay for $400 or less. RS price is $500.

Metal case and great audio. This is not your typical radio shack quality.
WT3844 Rating: 2006-09-16
GREAT HANDHELD Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
WELL IVE HAD THEM ALL A BC250D ABC296D AND 2 BC396TS.I HAVE SOLD ALL OF THEM AND BOUGHT A PRO 96.SHOULD HAVE DONE THIS IN THE FIRST PLACE.IVE ALWAYS BEEN A UNIDEN MAN BUT THE 96 BEATS ANY UNIDEN HANDHELD IVE OWNED NO THRESHOLD ADJUSTMENTS VERY SENSITIVE.I HAVE A BCD996T RIGHT NOW FOR A BASE UNIT.I DONT KNOW ABOUT A 2096 IF IT IS AS GOOD OR NOT.BUT YOU CANT GO WRONG WITH THE PRO96.
KG6EJT Rating: 2005-07-19
Fantastic Radio! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Really a great radio. I've owned a bunch of radios in over thirty years in the hobby, and I've got to say that the Pro-96 is one of the best, if not THE best I've owned.

There is a bit of a learning curve with the Pro-96, though not too bad. I would strongly suggest checking out Don Starr's Win96 to program the radio via computer. It makes it very easy.

LAPD APCO-25 comes in great as do all the analog systems, conventional and trunked. CTCSS works great too and the alpha tag display is a nice feature.

If you have APCO-25 systems in your area, this may be the radio for you.
K2KOH Rating: 2004-07-17
Good Deal Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Having owned a BC250D for over a year now, I decided it was time to get a radio to decode Bergen County's soon to be up 9600 UHF trunking system. Playing with this scanner makes me wish I had waited to get this one in the first place. No playing with sound quality settings; this radio locks in with the digital AGC, and provides clear digital audio. Volume out of the speaker is excellent for noisy environments; it's almost as loud as a regular public safety radio. Another nice feature...two battery cases, one for rechargable AA and the other for regular alkaline or lithium AA batteries. I run this scanner off 4 Radio Shack AA NiMH 2000 ma batteries, and they last me for the better part of the day, almost ten or eleven hours.
A note for other Pro 96 owners...there is a reported bug in the radio that does not allow it to read 4xxxx talk groups...Radio Shack is taking the radios back under warranty for a CPU Version 1.3 fix.
I give this radio a 4 because it lacks LTR and EDACS SCAT trunking. Maybe the new mobile scanner RS is coming out with will have LTR.
W6YB Rating: 2003-12-24
All in all, this is a winner! Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I got this radio to mainly monitor the LAPD, although I now use it to listen to everything. Before this I had the Uniden SC150B, the Radio Shack PRO-93, and now I own the really nice PRO-96. I was deciding between the Uniden BC250D and this. After looking through reviews and thinking about it for quite a while I decided this would be better for me. Reasons included:

-5500 memory channels (I will never need that many channels, well... maybe later on. I never even used the 300 channels in my PRO-93, but boy I only recently realized how nice it is to have the extra room).

-It uses AA batteries, instead of a proprietary battery like Uniden.

-Cheaper then a BC250D (with the digital card).

-That brings me to the next one, no need to buy a card for digital.

-Follows 9600BPS systems.

-AGC DSP, not like the BC250D where you have to manually adjust the APCO-25 audio.

-Software ungradable.

-And much more . . .

I also love the lighting on the PRO-96 (unlike the PRO-93). CTCSS and DCS are also a nice thing to have. The AGC DSP is also nice and the PRO-96 receives APCO-25 transmission so good sometimes that I can't tell the difference between a APCO-25 and a FM signal. I also love the SEARCH frequencies in the scanner, and now it includes FRS/GMRS frequencies. I also got the computer programming cable (finally Radio Shack sells one) and I programmed my PRO-96 with it. The PRO-96 is easy to use, especially after using my PRO-93 for a while. Although, when programming 5500 channels (ok, I don't use that many channels, but still) it is much easier with the computer. With the cable/software you also get to change certain parameters. Including the voltage level at which it displays the battery low warning and my favorite, you can change the welcome screen. I also like the fact the 5500 memory channels are contained in separate folders, and each folder can have a separate parameters setup (a big plus).

Two things I would change on the PRO-96 are:

-Even thought I turn the volume knob all the way down the volume does not mute. The volume is lowered at a level which is quite, not that big of a deal.

-Oh, and also, if I could change just one other thing on this scanner it would be, not to have the name "Radio Shack" on it. I don't know why but I rather not have it on my scanner, and its not because it is bad (hi! hi!, I just had to add that).

The case for the PRO-96 is not the strongest out on the market, but in my option it is not something to worry about. I have dropped it and knocked it around a few times (no, not on purpose) and I have had no scratches or problems. Although you might want to get a case, just to make sure this $500 jewel won’t get hurt. There are cases available for this scanner. After all, a high-tech and the best of all scanners is hanging on your belt; I just love having the best of the best (doesn’t everyone?).

As far as actually buying the scanner, Radio Shack was really really nice. Too nice infact! The radio arrived in less then a week and free shipping was given.

I'm sort of sorry to say Uniden, but Radio Shack out did you with this one. All I can say is Radio Shack really listened to the scanner and radio community to bring you this product, and that is more then I ever would have expected from Radio Shack. There is much more I would like to say, but need I say more? All in all, this is a winner!

73 and enjoy!
Andrew W6YB



N1BD Rating: 2003-11-22
Quality Scanner! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I just purchased this newest of the Radio Shack scanners. It's not yet available in the Boston area but, using the RS website, I found one in New Hampshire. About half-programmed so far, I
am very happy with it. This scanner offers APCO-25, both 3600/9600 baud digital capabilities right out of the box. No add-on card is required. True to the advertisements, it really does offer "eleven scanners in one" - each one independently programmable w/ 500 channels -
for a total of 5500 possible channels. Triple conversion cuts down on much intermod. Audio is crisp and clear. The ability to use AA alkalines in addition to ni-cads offers greater flexibility than that afforded by Unidens.

N1QKD Rating: 2003-10-24
Awesome! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Just got it delivered yesterday and plugged in all the local Trunk freq.. Side by side to the Pro-92... night and day for quality of reception and has signal strenth % read out on the trunk ID's (cool!). Very impressed so far.
Programming is just as complicated as pro-92 but a bit more flexable on the text id's.