Pro-106 Digital Scanner - seeking advice

[Riptide]

Ok so for awhile I was borrowing my Dad's conventional scanner and it was quite fun. It definitely wasn't a great countermeasure by any means but it was neat listening to everything that was going on around me.

When I had to give it back to him I didn't go out and buy my own because of the number of places switching over to trunking or digital systems and those scanners were much more expensive.

Now I have a chance to pick up a RS Pro-106 Digital scanner for $220 and I'm trying to decide what to do.

I had been eyeing a few of the Uniden scanners due to their ability to be hooked up to a GPS and change frequencies, but I can't get this type of a price break on those models. Besides the fun hobby part of this there are two countermeasure aspects I'd like to get out of a scanner:
1. On a big roadtrip I'd like to use it so that I can possibly hear if my car is called in and they dispatch someone looking for me
2. Same kind of thing but at a test meet.
The GPS thing seemed like it would make this very easy without a ton of programming; however again we come to cost. How much of a PITA is it to program a scanner ahead of time for a long trip and switch scanned frequencies as you go?

[rocky2]

I really like my Pro-106 the Win 500 software makes it super easy to program. But the best countermeasure use for a scanner is setting it to pickup the state police mobile extender frequencies so I will alert you when they are around. Some states don't use them anymore but a lot still do.

[happya$$]

Ok so for awhile I was borrowing my Dad's conventional scanner and it was quite fun. It definitely wasn't a great countermeasure by any means but it was neat listening to everything that was going on around me.

When I had to give it back to him I didn't go out and buy my own because of the number of places switching over to trunking or digital systems and those scanners were much more expensive.

Now I have a chance to pick up a RS Pro-106 Digital scanner for $220 and I'm trying to decide what to do.

I had been eyeing a few of the Uniden scanners due to their ability to be hooked up to a GPS and change frequencies, but I can't get this type of a price break on those models. Besides the fun hobby part of this there are two countermeasure aspects I'd like to get out of a scanner:
1. On a big roadtrip I'd like to use it so that I can possibly hear if my car is called in and they dispatch someone looking for me
2. Same kind of thing but at a test meet.
The GPS thing seemed like it would make this very easy without a ton of programming; however again we come to cost. How much of a PITA is it to program a scanner ahead of time for a long trip and switch scanned frequencies as you go?

This is a good scanner. I used to have one and ended up selling since it was only useful for me when I traveled south of Ohio

[Event Horizon]

That's a great freakin price for a pro -106. I'm pondering getting one soon too. They're 299 on feebay.

[Riptide]

I really like my Pro-106 the Win 500 software makes it super easy to program. But the best countermeasure use for a scanner is setting it to pickup the state police mobile extender frequencies so I will alert you when they are around. Some states don't use them anymore but a lot still do.

Yeah I did that in PA for awhile but unfortunately it didn't turn out all that useful. Well on the road it didn't turn out useful, when I was living on campus during the last year of undergraduate and my first semester of graduate school it was quite handy to know when cops were on campus.

This is a good scanner. I used to have one and ended up selling since it was only useful for me when I traveled south of Ohio

Why is that?

[Event Horizon]

can someone elaborate on that state police mobile extender? What is that?

[Motor On]

can someone elaborate on that state police mobile extender? What is that?

Portable radio transmits at low power on a frequency to a radio in the car that repeats the signal on the normal frequency on high power so that it makes it to the repeater tower for the agency, so the dispatcher and/or the other units can hear what is being said.

More reliable communications, and conserves battery life of the portable.

Pick up the low power frequency and you know you're close; when there is no radar, but the officer is out of the car or using the portable in the car out of habit, and happens to be talking then you'll get the signal, setup to an alert tone and turn the volume down and now it's a proximity detector. Some setups use the normal repeater channel, some setups will repeat what the dispatcher says on the low power frequency, increasing your odds of getting the alert without the officer needing to be actively talking.

link to RR wiki on CHP mobile extenders: http://wiki.radioreference.com/index...andheld_Radios

[Event Horizon]

can someone elaborate on that state police mobile extender? What is that?

Portable radio transmits at low power on a frequency to a radio in the car that repeats the signal on the normal frequency on high power so that it makes it to the repeater tower for the agency, so the dispatcher and/or the other units can hear what is being said.

More reliable communications, and conserves battery life of the portable.

Pick up the low power frequency and you know you're close; when there is no radar, but the officer is out of the car or using the portable in the car out of habit, and happens to be talking then you'll get the signal, setup to an alert tone and turn the volume down and now it's a proximity detector. Some setups use the normal repeater channel, some setups will repeat what the dispatcher says on the low power frequency, increasing your odds of getting the alert without the officer needing to be actively talking.

link to RR wiki on CHP mobile extenders: http://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php?title=Department_of_the_Highway_Patrol_& #37;28CHP%29_%28CA%29&diff=prev&oldid=54563#Mo bile_Extender_Handheld_Radios

Thanks for the explanation, it makes sense. Is this a special feature on scanners? FHP is completely encrypted here, on ProVoice DES system. No chance to get anything, not even an APCO-25 digital will work. I assume this mobile extender won't work on encrypted?

[methusaleh]

I've been strictly a RS scanner owner for the last 25 years or so, because a good friend of mine has been in their management hierarchy. Thus, I can offer no opinions on Uniden products, but I do own a 106.

One feature it sounds like you might like is the Signal Stalker. Put a higher-gain antenna on the radio (buy one that is frequency-specific to the band you want to hear best), and it will be more sensitive to strong signals. I have found that with a Larsen coil-loaded 1/4 wave VHF (about 12" long) antenna on the 106, it will detect a 5W VHF handheld from about a mile away if I have the squelch open in SS mode. That's not bad compared to older RS scanners. Or you can use Search mode, put it in Service Search for Public Safety, or even do a Limit Search for a small segment of the spectrum, to capture what you want.

If you are concerned with knowing how close you are to a speed trap, you could also scan their repeater input frequencies. Even if they are encrypted, you will know how close you are based on the signal strength meter.

[Motor On]

Thanks for the explanation, it makes sense. Is this a special feature on scanners? FHP is completely encrypted here, on ProVoice DES system. No chance to get anything, not even an APCO-25 digital will work. I assume this mobile extender won't work on encrypted?

It wont work, because those new systems are trunked, and utilize a network of towers and function much more like a direct connect nextel cell phone so those systems it's almost exclusively radio direct to the tower (then the tower assigns the next available frequency to the radio and the "talkgroup" kind of like an old fashioned switchboard operator) and uses fiberoptic wireline or a ghz band frequency to link and repeat that talkgroup on the other towers in the network. This works fine for routine traffic, but you get busy signals if everyone tries to
talk at once.

Encryption works just like the password for wifi routers, you can see that something is there if you monitor the right frequencies, you just can't tell what is being said. So theoretically if older systems just went encrypted on the same radio setup you could employ the technique. Same thing applies for digital, you can go to an old analog only TV tune in a digital TV station and see there's a signal, you just can't comprehend it without the box, or in the scanners case, computer chip.

Uniden actually used to make a "BearTracker" scanner that revolved around this feature and looked like an RD, but it was late to market and was pretty ineffective except for specific locations, and sales floundered and it was canceled.

If you go north into GA you can still use this technique, you can use it in CA for now mostly, but as the 700mhz system spreads it will be eliminated from use there. And I think there's a handful of other states still using them.