Railfan Technology > Any free scanner programming software out there?

Is there free scanner programming software available for download? I purchased a Radio Shack Pro-97 and wish to program it with my computer. Unfortunately, the cable costs $30 and then the software costs another $30. Yikes!

Actually, depending on what computer you have, RS has a cable that they are clearing out that will work directly to your serial port as opposed to USB, and I got it for $5. Try the Win97 program as a demo, its good for 30 days, and actually its only $25 if you decide to buy it. The demo will let you write info to the scanner.

You should also consider ScanCat Pro Lite. You have to pay, but it's cheap and it works on dozens of models of scanners. If you friends have scanners (assuming they bring the proper cable if you don't have it) you can program their scanners with your software.

If you buy a new scanner that the program doesn't support you can buy a discounted update,

It's very handy because you can use files created for one scanner on another scanner, although you may have to do some slight modifications because scanners sometimes have different features and capabilities.

Or you could just punch in those freq's. Not that hard and probably spending more effort thinking about it.

bob

I can tell you one thing, when trying to program a chug of UP Genisys, BNSF ARES, and ATCS frequencies, the 97 AAR frequenices, and local public safety frequencies, having software to do it is a really nice feature. Admittedly, I use to program everything by hand too. Problem is, up until recently, I haven't had to program frequencies because I mostly use commerical radios that get programmed once, and stay that way...

> Or you could just punch in those freq's. Not that
> hard and probably spending more effort thinking
> about it.

I take it you've never programmed a 1000 channel scanner that, in addition to railroad frequencies, has multiple trunked systems and alphanumeric text labels.

Well I have never downloaded 5000 songs for an MP3 player either. This a RR forum AAR channels plus some local channels of interest. If you are that into scanners then I am
sure there are plenty of Yahoo groups specifically for that. But I have programmed a 200 channel scanner. Still alive to talk about it.

Bob

OK, I can see someone woke up on the wrong frequency this morning.......my my, everyone play nice now......