Pro-197 Radio Scanner Radioshack

 (4 customer reviews)

I've had over a dozen scanners in the last 30 years. Loved my BCT-15 but local agencies started going digital so I had to as well. Looked at the Home Patrol and the other Uniden digitals, but found the Pro-197 here at Amazon as a "used" item fulfilled by Amazon Warehouse. It was as good as new. Loaded up the software, downloaded info from Radio Reference, and it's perfect!

So easy to use. Love GRE's new objects and groups. Throw out the old way of thinking about scanning. This way is so much better!

Completely pleased with my purchase.

I've never owned one of the GRE designed scanners before, so my experience was limited to using one at work. After a bit of learning curve, it was an easy to use scanner using ARC500 software. I have a lot of experience with the Uniden DMA scanners, so I'm comparing the Pro 197 (which is made by GRE and the same as the PSR600) to those scanners.

The Pro 197 is more sensitive on UHF than the Unidens. I'm running them all off of a ST-2 on the roof through an Electroline 0 db splitter, so there is no antenna difference. It's maybe a little less sensitive on 800, but I'm not sure. It's certainly NOT more sensitive. I haven't heard enough VHF yet to notice a difference.

I used ARC500 to program the scanner and there are certainly some differences between it and Butel programs for Uniden scanners. I had to do a bunch of revisions and reloads as I tried to get the various functions and features to my liking. The only downside to that is that you have to reload the...Read more

I love this scanner,has good audio, good reception and works well. The only drawback is it is difficult to program. I guess it will get easier the more I use. Would recommend it.