Instructions for "Scanning" the PRO-93/95 Extended Ranges ========================================================= My Win93 and Win95 programs allow you to program the PRO-93 and PRO-95 (respectively) scanners with frequencies that are outside of their "normal" ranges. You must enter these frequencies into channels in the scanners. You cannot use the user-programmable "Limit Search" (aka SR5) feature, because the radios will check frequencies entered into that search range and will reject any that are not in their normal ranges. There are two ways, however, to force the scanners to scan through these extra frequencies: 1. You can program every desired frequency into its own channel and scan through them. This will require many, many banks of channels (possibly across several data files). 2. You can enter a single frequency from each desired "extra" range and use the scanner's "tune mode". This mode moves a frequency from a programmed channel into a special location, then searches up or down from that frequency. The check performed in SR5 is not done in this mode, so you can effectively scan the extra ranges. Each of these two methods has its advantages and disadvantages. The first method requires that you enter many, possibly thousands, of frequencies into Win93/95; but, you can then scan through the ranges with no user intervention. The second method requires that you enter a maximum of 6 frequencies (one from each extra range); however, you must press keys on the scanner in order to search a given range one time. My personal preference is the second method. The extra ranges provided by my Win93/95 programs, along with the step sizes for those ranges, are: 17.000000 – 24.995000 MHz, in 5.000 kHz steps ( 1600 freqs) 54.005000 - 107.995000 MHz, in 5.000 kHz steps (10799 freqs) 174.005000 - 216.000000 MHz, in 5.000 kHz steps ( 8400 freqs) 225.005000 - 405.995000 MHz, in 5.000 kHz steps (36199 freqs) 512.006250 - 805.993750 MHz, in 6.250 kHz steps (47039 freqs) 960.006250 – 1239.993750 MHz, in 6.250 kHz steps (44799 freqs) Total: 148836 frequencies (You can actually enter frequencies down to 5 kHz, and up to 4194.3 MHz, but the scanner will not receive anything below 17 MHz or above 1300 MHz.) As described above, there are two methods for scanning through all of these frequencies. The "simple" method is described first, followed by the "hard" method. The Simple Method ----------------- Use Win93 or Win95 to enter the following 6 frequencies into 6 channels. You can use either a "new blank template" or 6 empty channels in an existing P93/P95 file. The description below assumes that you're entering the frequencies into the first 6 channels in bank 0. Channel 000 – 17.000000 MHz Channel 001 – 54.005000 MHz Channel 002 – 174.005000 MHz Channel 003 – 225.005000 MHz Channel 004 – 512.006250 MHz Channel 005 – 960.006250 MHz Note that these are the low frequencies in each of the ranges described above. Set the Receive Mode (either AM or FM) for each of the 6 channels. If desired, save the file. Next, upload to the scanner as you usually do with Win93/95. After the upload is complete, select one of the channels from the scanner's keypad (i.e. press MANUAL, enter the 3- digit channel number, and press MANUAL again). Then press the FUNC key followed by the TUNE key. The channel's frequency will be moved to the scanner's "tune mode", and the scanner will begin searching from that frequency. The scanner will search through the entire extended range, stopping when it hits a "normal" range. For example, if you are searching through the 174.005000 – 216.000000 range, the scanner will stop when it hits 216.000000 MHz. To search again, repeat the steps above from the first "press MANUAL" step. If you want to search only a subset of one of these ranges, then substitute the LOW frequency you want to search for one of the 6 frequencies above. The scanner will start searching at that frequency. If you want to "back up" (i.e. search downward), enter the HIGH frequency you want to search and press the DOWN arrow key on the scanner's key pad immediately after pressing FUNC TUNE. The scanner may stop on frequencies for which you cannot hear any transmissions. This may be due to birdies in the scanner, or other sources of interference (either within the scanner or in your local environment). Merely press the UP arrow on the scanner's keypad to skip past the offending frequencies. The More Difficult Method ------------------------- This method involves programming actual channels in the scanner with each frequency you want to scan. If you want to scan all of the extended ranges, you'll have to program 148,836 channels. On a PRO-95, this will require 149 P95 files. On the PRO-93, it requires 497 P93 files. This is why I prefer the "Simple" method above. If you really want to use this method, you have three choices for generating the lists of frequencies: 1. Manually enter every frequency you want to scan into Win93/95. 2. If you're a programmer, write a program that will generate lists of frequencies and dump them to a text file. You can then copy/paste the text file into Win93/95. 3. Use a spreadsheet program (e.g. Microsoft Excel) that has an "auto fill" feature. This is, by far, the quickest and easiest way. These instructions will only detail #3, as the other two should be relatively self-explanatory. If you have questions about those first two (e.g. text file format for #2), email me at don@starrsoft.com and I'll try to provide assistance. To use Microsoft Excel to create a list of frequencies, do the following: 1. Enter a starting frequency in cell A1. Make sure that the frequency is on a valid step for the range. For example, 175.000000 is OK, but 175.001000 is not. 2. Enter the next frequency (by step size) into cell A2. For example, if you entered 175.000000 into cell A1, enter 175.005000 into cell A2. 3. Select cells A1 and A2. 4. At the bottom-right of cell A2, there will be a small, "draggable" square. Click on it with the left mouse button and hold the button down. 5. Drag down. A small window should appear showing you the ending value for the fill. Continue to drag down until that window shows your desired ending frequency. For example, if you started at 175.000000 MHz, you might want to end at 180.000000 MHz. 6. Release the left mouse button. Excel will fill all of the cells in column A down to where you released the button. These cells will contain frequencies, in order and on the correct step size, from the starting frequency in cell A1 to where you stopped the drag operation. 7. In cell B1, enter the receive mode (either AM or FM) you want to set. Click on cell B1 and drag down to fill all of the 'B' cells with that same receive mode. 7. Select blocks of cells (columns A and B) and copy/paste into Win93/95. You can copy and paste, at most, a single bank's worth of cells at one time. So, if you're using Win93, you can only do 30 frequencies per copy/paste; with Win95, you can do 100 frequencies each time. On the "Settings" page in Win93/95, make sure that each bank to which you've pasted data is enabled for scanning (click the check box under "Enabled Scan Banks" for each bank). Save the file in Win93/95, if desired. Upload to the scanner as usual. On the scanner, merely press the SCAN button. If you get the "birdie" frequencies (or other interference) as described for the Simple method above, you can press the L/OUT button on the scanner for those channels. You can also note the channels and delete them from your P93/P95 file(s). Other Help and/or Information ----------------------------- If you have any questions, concerns, or comments about the methods described here, either send me an email at don@starrsoft.com or ask on one of the PRO-93 / PRO-95 Yahoo lists. The preferred list is: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pro-93_95 This text is Copyright © 2003, 2004 Don Starr. You may distribute it in any medium as long as this copyright notice remains intact and as long as NO CHARGE, MONETARY OR OTHERWISE, is made.