Radio Shack Pro 97 Triple-Trunking Handheld Scanner

I've owned this scanner for a little while now. I love the alpha-numeric labeling system, lets me know what agency I'm listening to.

I live in an area where I can listen to 5+ agencies so this is very helpful. The bank system also works quite well for turning off things I don't want to listen to at any particulat time. (Usually have police, ambulance, air, fire, and others in separate banks).

I've been very happy with my purchase.

I wouldn't have looked this product up after many years of owning it, and signed in and gone through the trouble of reviewing it, if it didn't deserve a five star review. I've recently bought another radio, an actual NAV/COM trans-receiver for real world aviation use, and I still always keep my PRO-97 close by, because of it's amazing quality and list of features. It's never once had a problem after a good 5(ish?) years of owning it. There may be newer versions of it, I'm not sure, because I've owned the PRO-97 for a few years now. Anyway, the speaker volume can be VERY loud, in fact you'll probably startle yourself the first time you turn it on. It can be loud enough to take to airshows, turn up, and set close by so myself and the majority of people around me can hear it over passing aircraft. It also has a 3.5mm (standard) headphone jack on the top of it. It has an amazing 1000 channels you can program frequencies into...which is probably 900 more than I ever use. Takes four AA batteries in a convenient little double sided pack. I think in my 5 years of ownership, I've only replaced the batteries about twice. I've even fallen asleep with it on during power outages a few times. It has an AC jack on the side that somehow seems to juice up the batteries even though they're non rechargeable... The construction is very solid. It's durable enough for someone clumsy like me. It's mainly a high quality plastic, no metal, so it's extremely light weight. High quality metal attachment for the antenna, it's not gonna break off, ever. It can scan up and down, through the frequencies. You can set priorities, so if an important frequency comes alive, it will immediately switch to it. It has a quick NOAA button that gets you on the nearest NOAA frequency in 1 button press with no need to program/save/tune any frequencies for it.

If I had to say anything bad about this product, it would be the squelch volume while in scan mode. If you're in scan mode, and you have the squelch too low, the radio will blank out at a frequency of 000.00 and give off an extremely loud hiss, rather than stopping at the frequency it's scanning over. I'd also like to see a tune dial. The only real way to tune a frequency (that I know of) is to punch in the frequency manually, rather than just stepping up a few khz with a knob. There may be a way to do this, but it still isn't on it's own dial/button, which isn't that big of a complaint and not worth taking a star off.

All in all, it's simply the best scanner that you can get for both experienced AND new users. It's easy to learn the basics of just picking it up and setting a frequency. A simple scan button that'll just scan through until it finds an active frequency (which can be annoying when there's constant buzzing repeaters in your area that isn't technically talking, but is still an actively transmitting radio the scanner will indeed stop on). It has all kinds of advanced trunking functions and bank settings, if you're an advanced user. Nice sized lettering on the display. It's a good tool, and worth the money. I chose not to rate it for "ease of use", because it honestly depends on your level of experience with scanners. If you've never used a scanner before, it'll take a little reading to learn how to program it. It was my first scanner, however I am a pilot and I do know a thing or two about VHF AM and FM, yet simple things like saving a new frequency took about 5 minutes to learn. Remember it's a VHF radio, and VHF signals can't travel through simply anything. If you have a hard time listening to the radio (music) in your house, odds are you have thick walls, and may need to take your scanner outside to pick up distant/low altitude signals. You may find you can easily hear aircraft in the sky, but have a hard time hearing the traffic controller on the ground if there's many obstacles between you and him. It all depends on your location relative to the source, especially distance and elevation. For example, I can hear police chatter easily in my own home, but I need to step outside to hear the ATIS at the airport a few cities south of me, despite being 200 feet higher in elevation.

Tip Holding your scanner improves it's reception, but ONLY if you hold it around the main scanner itself. You may think touching the antenna improves reception, like the radio in your home, but it won't work well. Grip it around the screen level area if you're having a hard time. Touching the antenna seems to draw energy from it. Also, if you're in a vehicle, touch the top of your antenna to a metal surface *near the roof* of the car. You'll be able to use the car's very powerful radio antenna and surface area to dramatically improve range. :-)

Have fun!

Buy Radio Shack Pro 97 Triple-Trunking Handheld Scanner Now

Make sure you set some time aside and go over the instructions thoroughly, it's worth it. The unit is actually easy to use but the instructions (well written) must be read first. Reception is great.

Can program 1000 channels, easily access frequencies, can block out frequencies when scanning, and lots more. I primarily use it for railfanning and am happy with it.

Remember....read the instructions...read the instructions...read the instructions. (They can be easily found online if you want. I bought a used unit that had the instructions on DVD. It was easier to go to the internet and download it. Just use Google search.)

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