 Radio shack Pro-92
I was not going to review this scanner for two reasons, one it has never been
on sale in the UK and two, it is a discontinued model. So why did I decide
to review it?
Well first some story about the reason why I purchased this receiver in the
first place. I have been for some time frustrated with the way all my scanners/radios
decode ctcss/dcs tones, the process is slow and sometimes hit and miss. I had
read some time ago that there was a radio shack scanner out there that can
more or less decode these signals instantly.
Some time later I happened to witness one of these scanners in action decoding
a ctcss tone in a flash and I was impressed. I had to have one but they were
discontinued and the newer models did not have this facility. A look on ebay.com
and there were a few on there, a quick e-mail to confirm that the seller would
post to UK and I was bidding, my bid won and after the arrival I put it through
its paces.
The Pro-92 is a 500 channel trunking scanner made by GRE for Radio Shack,
complete with the same rubber duck antenna that Radio Shack have supplied atop
all their handheld receivers for a good few years now which is adequate but
can be bettered, fortunately it uses a BNC type connection so this is not really
a problem. This unit can be cloned/programmed by computer software which is
a must in this day and age.
First impressions
The first thing to hit me when I first saw this scanner was "What a brick".When
compared to my Icom-R5 and yaesu vx-5 this was indeed a house brick. The second
thought was how much the design was not dissimilar to other radio shack/Tandy
scanners. Grey in colour, similar black buttons, similar display in fact not
a million miles in difference from the pro-43 which is yrs older (and smaller
too.) This is not strictly a criticism the cases on these do last and the producers
are obviously working on a "If it ain't broke don't fix it" attitude.
The top of the receiver has the display the middle area houses the speaker
and the bottom has the buttons which incidentally are adequately spaced, better
than the pro-43. The left side panel has a 9v dc jack, with the opposite side
being home to the PC interface jack. Yes This radio is up with the times and
can be programmed with suitable software. The bottom of the receiver houses
the battery compartment, again the same set up as previous models, however
I understand there are two battery packs available, one for alkalines and one
for rechargeables. Mine only came with the alkaline pack so I had to resort
to other means of recharging my Ni-Mh's. The rear of the unit has the belt
clip fitting and I must say I really liked this belt clip, when compared to
the clip I have been used to on my R5 where attaching it and detaching it to
the top of your jeans is a major chore I found the clip on the 92 slipped on
and off a breeze.
Powering up showed the first advancement in design, you get a welcome message
greeting you with "Welcome to multi-sytem trunking" Well all very
nice but there is only one trunked system in my location and I was reliably
informed that due to the step size limitations of the 92 and that it only supports
uhf trunking that this would not be possible. But hey that was not what I bought
it for, I bought it for its ctcss/dcs decode capabilities.
The next thing I noticed was that instead of shooting off into a scan (After
frequencies had been entered into memories) the 92 would stop on the first
memory ch until you press the scan button. Personally I did not like this and
would much prefer an automatic scan.
A major advancement in design for me was the ability to add alpha tags or
text if you prefer to call it that. This makes for immediate identification
on user ID's and is another must in my needs for a modern scanner. Not only
this but you can use up to 12 characters, whereas my Icom R5 gives a paltry
7! The only thing I really miss after using my other scanners is any form of
signal strength meter. I have for years spouted that they are not to be relied
on for accuracy of a signal strength and surely you could hear how strong a
signal was, but here I was missing my signal strength meter.
As previously stated the 92 also has ctcss/dcs capabilities another must for
me and a feature I was keen to try out.
500 Ch's is great and another bonus over previous Radio Shack models I had
used. This comes in the form of 10 banks of 50 Ch's. To hop channels pressing
manual repeatedly is the way to go just as in previous versions but giving
an "M" in the display to let you know you are in manual mode ("P"would
be in program mode). Following the "M" will have the bank number
ch number and below this the current frequency displayed. Another way of moving
channels is to use the arrow keys either up or down in one ch increments. One
thing I did like about this was that I did not have to keep hitting the buttons
to move up or down in ch's, I could just keep the button depressed and it would
scroll through all the ch's.
When receiving a frequency the 92 displays a lightning bolt/electrical character
in the lcd display.
Priority
Yes it has one another necessity for me but one will not be enough for some
people. Priority sampling is at the rate of every 2 seconds and appears to
do its job well. Priority will be ignored when scanning a trunked system and
I could not see any way of setting any trunked talk group with a priority.
So this appears to be for conventional scanning. When compared to my 780's
trunk priority setting which is pretty much useless anyway I don't think the
92 lags in this dept.
Searching
I am happy to say that the pro-92 has user programmable search ranges, 10
to be exact which should be adequate for most users. These can be edited for
frequency ranges text step increments etc. Also 60 pre-programmed ranges. Each
bank can lock out up to 50 frequencies which is very handy as the scanner will
undoubtedly stop on annoying frequencies. When interesting transmissions are
found you can enter them (Function/Enter) and the frequency will automatically
be entered into the next available ch in bank 9, which appears to be a scratchpad
bank for temporarily storing (or permanently if you like) frequencies for closer
scrutiny later on.
Power requirements
The pro-92 requires 6AA type batteries which is a lot in this day and age
and I find a pain as my chargers all have a max capacity of charging 4 batteries
simultaneously. The 92 does come with a built in charger circuit which can
be powered from the supplied wall power supply.
In use
After programming some frequencies into memory and had a little play around
it became obvious that although there were more features to this radio compared
to previous Tandy models I had used that this was not going to steer away from
one of the main selling points of Tandy/Radio shack scanners... The ease of
use.
As I mentioned earlier I wanted to see how well the ctcss/dcs (Or PL/DL in
radio shack terms which comes from the motorola private line name and I suppose
digital line?) worked. I am pleased to say I am well pleased 9 times out of
ten the tone will be displayed instantly sometimes it took a bit of time but
never as long as any of my other receivers. Well done I am impressed!
Now you have found what tones are being used you can now save them into memory
to do this you select mode, select PL for ctcss or DL for dcs, now press pgm
step and keep clicking step until it matches the correct tone being used for
this user. Don't press enter nothing will happen, simply come out of the menu.
now each bank can be open or closed if it is left open then any user using
that frequency will have their tone found and displayed. but if you have the
bank closed then only that tone will result in a scan stopping and the squelch
opening. See User manual for opening closing banks. note: even with bank closed
if you have not entered a tone for a memory allocation but have selected pl/dl
for a ch it will open up on any tone received which is a good feature for me.
Channel selection on the 92 came with an added bonus, instead of having to
keep pressing the manual button to scroll to your selected channel you can
with the 92 just keep your finger depressing the manual button and it will
scroll through all the channels. I am really pleased with the tone decode features
available on this scanner and consider it money well spent as I bought it for
this feature alone, but I was in for a big bonus.
Trunking
I was informed that the trunked system used near my location was out of bounds
due to the limitations of the step sizes of the pro-92, You see the system
I am talking about uses VHF at 12.5KHz steps and the pro-92 being designed
for a US market only allows 10 or 5Khz steps (Well it offers more but these
are the nearest to 12.5). but I decided to give it a go anyway by following
the instructions for monitoring a Motorola type II UHF system. I entered the
frequencies to the nearest possible setting e.g.155.4125=155.410.To my surprise
I found some familiar TG's were being recognised, now I wonder if I enter them
into memory... Yes indeed it worked, the 92 follows this system flawlessly
because I believe although some scanners get their info from the control ch
and are told which frequency to go to, the 92 appears to scan all the frequencies
you have entered for your chosen talk group and if there is activity it will
stop. Update! With the pro-92 I discovered another motorola trunk system that
is active in my area, this system was previously unknown to other scanning
enthusiasts in the UK.
The only drawback I can see with this method is that sometimes the first word
or two are clipped off before the 92 finds the active frequency, but apart
from this it works well. Update I have now sorted this problem using the win
92 software I reset the minimum scan delay to 0.1 seconds and now I rarely
miss any transmissions. One gripe I have is that you cannot (or so it appears)
manually select a talkgroup to monitor, you have to wait for a transmission
on your selected talkgroup to be found by the 92 and then you can hold on to
the traffic from that talkgroup, this appears to have a plus effect though,
whereas with my 780 the talkgroups can be manually selected, the 780 sometimes
loses the control ch for some reason resulting in all of the talkgroups being
scanned even in manual/hold mode, this is not the case with the 92 as it does
not rely on the control ch for its trunk information.In bank open mode you
search for active Talkgroup's but in closed mode this is where the trunk tracking
can be done, following the system id's you have entered. something interesting
going on? Simply depress the trunk button for 2 secs and the 92 will only follow
that talk group! 100 talkgroup's can be added to a bank. Alpha tags are available
for each ID. Update I have since discovered that even in open mode that talk
groups can be followed just the same as when in closed mode but when in open
mode the 92 will find new active talkgroups so I now leave it in open mode.
WX Button
Is for US users and of no use whatsoever to us here in the uk.
General conventional type scanning
There are some limitations here as as this is intended for the US. The freq
coverage is 29-54MHz, 108-136.975, 137-174, 380-512, 806-823.9875, 849-868.9875
and 894-960MHz this means that what is left in the pmr 85-88 Mhz area is not
possible to be monitored along with fire on 70MHz. This was of no great loss
to me as I rarely listen to fire and there is only one user left in my area
on 85-88Mhz. Military airband is not covered, again no great loss to me I rarely
get them on other scanners due to my location probably the furthest point from
any military airfield.
The other pmr bands are well covered though and I found the 92 receives them
just fine. With the supplied aerial discarded and my trusty watson w-889 telescopic
fitted the signals came in with no problem whatsoever. Probably not as good
as the pro-43 but then what is?
UHF is fine as it usually is, also I noticed airband reception was very good.
One thing I really love about this radio is that you get no squelch tail, You
know the CRRKK! at the end of transmissions even with the squelch on the threshold
there is only the slightest. But more like the sound it makes when you stick
your tongue out and quickly suck it back in. Very nice. The pro-92 comes with
an attenuator which can be used on a per ch basis which is a good touch and
much better than the one on my Icom R5 which is all or nothing.
There is a distinctive audio hiss which can be heard, often pulsating this
I believe is the battery saver circuit in action, however this still pulsates
in scan mode so not sure what exactly is going on here.
For night time use I found that the pro-92 was left a little in the dark ages,
no keypad lighting and the display light, well it is just about adequate. Another
restriction is that it only stays on for 5 seconds (Using the software you
can modify this setting to infinity if you so wish) Key beeps can be tailored
to your requirements or turned off completely. Also the contrast of the display
can be changed (Can't see why the factory setting is just right).
Out and about
Early tests have shown that the 92 handles strong signals very well indeed.
Taking it past my pager site which cripples the R5 on VHF had little effect
on the 92.
Software
As previously mentioned there is software available for this radio which are
free to download the Two way cables required will have to be imported from
the States or if you are technical minded then schematics are available for
info on how to build one yourself. The software is much less hassle than programming
the radio yourself (Not hard at all but a chore with any scanner) the cables
are available on ebay.com and the software and schematics are available from
www.pro-92.com
Computer cable interface jack
Negative points
I have seen some messages saying this scanner is hard to programme, (I have
pasted one mans thoughts on the programming of this radio below) and all I
can say is that either this was written before there was plenty of support
for the radio via the various newsgroups etc. or this bloke is a half wit!
I followed the instructions for setting up ctcss dcs trunking, alpha tags etc.
and I do not see the problem. I got it right more or less first time yes some
features are new such as open and closed banks etc. But if you have programmed
a Yupiteru 7100, Icom R2/R5 then this you will find a piece of pi... erm cake!
"I recently had a friend bring one of these radios to me to program for
him. As I have been fooling with police monitors / scanners since I was 12
and didn't consider myself a technical "retard" by any means, I told
him I'd be glad to give it a shot with the understanding that I wouldn't do
any 800 Trunking programs as this is so incredibly complicated and the available
frequency info is sketchy at best. This is the reason I will NOT buy any scanners
until they come out with a self stuffer that can load frequencies with only
the control channel programmed in. Thinking I could program enough conventional
public service frequencies in so he could benefit from this "feature packed" radio,
I set to work. an hour and a half later, I had managed to program one frequency
and PL code in its memory and wasn't even close to getting an alpha tag into
it. Also, the frequency I did manage to program into it would not stay in memory.
He said he had asked the Radio Shack salesman who sold it to himm to help him
program it, and as would be expected, he didn't have a clue either. From the
posts here, I take it there are some people out there who can get use of this
radio but as I said, I am not a techno-geek and found this radio totally non-intuitive
and absolutely user-UNFRIENDLY! I advised my friend to take it back and get
something simpler, and perhaps to suggest creative places for them to store
this radio. Radio Shack should be ashamed for marketing an item such as this
to the general public, who, thinking they can take it home and spend a few
minutes programming it with the crappy users manual and worthles supplied frequency
list, believe they can sit down and enjoy public safety adventure via radio.
If I cannot program it, I know most people who just want to listen to their
local police are in for a bad trip unless they know a techno-geek who is also
RF savvy. There aren't too many of those around. I really hope Radio Shack
gets a lot of returns on this item and does better by the consumer in future
models."
Final thoughts
This is a welcome addition to my scanning arsenal the size is a little on
the large size and the design is dated, when compared to my Icom R5 my R5 looks
much neater but the quality of the 92's features are very good indeed. The
ctcss/dcs capabilities are very good on this receiver and should be looked
at by other manufacturers. I hear that later scanners from the same stable
did not come with these features, Why?? One thing I did not mention but is
worthy of note is the audio quality is excellent and very good for me in my
car.
Purchasing options.
This scanner is no longer sold by Radio Shack but some good examples can be
found for sale Here at ebay U.S.
Specs.
Channels 500
Scan Banks 10
Search Bands 10
Coverage 29-54 108-174 380-512 806-960 MHz
Scan 25 chan/sec
Search 50 step/sec
Steps 5/10/12.5/15/20/25/30/50/100 kHz
Modes AM & FM
Sensitivity As specified in the manual :
FM:
29-54 0.3 µV
108-136.9875 0.3 µV
137-174 0.5 µV
380-512 0.5 µV
806-960 0.7 µV
AM:
29-54 1 µV
108-136.9875 1 µV
137-174 1.5 µV
380-512 2 µV
806-960 2 µV
Selectivity As specified in the manual :
-6 dB @ ±10 kHz
-50 dB @ ±18 kHz
Conversion Triple
IFs 1=257.5 2=21.4 3=0.455 MHz
Priority 1 channel
Search skip 500 frequencies
Auto-Store No
S-meter No
Delay Yes
Lockout Per channel
Attenuator Per channel
Lock Yes
Tone codes CTCSS& DCS
Computer intf Cloning
Light Display
Power 9V DC
Audio 240 mW
Size 2.4"(W) x 6.22"(H) x 1.75"(D)
Weight 9.9 oz
Memory non-volatile
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