I just got a PRO-135 Scanner that covers 200 Channel’s from Radio Shack and I have a few questions. Does Bank 0 cover 0-19 Channel’s? Does Bank 1 cover 20-39 Channel’s? Does Bank 2 cover 40-59 Channel’s? Does Bank 3 cover 60-79 Channel’s? Does Bank 4 cover 80-99 Channel’s? Does Bank 5 cover 100-119 Channel’s? Does Bank 6 cover 120-139 Channel’s? Does Bank 7 cover 140-159 Channel’s? Does Bank 8 cover 160-179 Channel’s? Does Bank 9 cover 180-199 Channel’s?
You don’t have to anwser any of them. All I want to know is if I’m right about how the Bank’s go and Channel’s go.
Here’s an example I got. Just say I want to here the NS Olmsted Falls Detector in Ohio close to Berea. The Detector for that is 160.980. Would that go with Channel 58 on the scanner?
As just answered, each bank must be programmed. If you wish to program with the AAR channels, it’s your choice. With my PRO scanner, I grouped the channels to the railroads, not the AAR channels. My first five, went to IC (or I should say ex-IC) channels that are active in my local. The next few went to NS. Again, my area. After I programmed my area frequencies, then I programmed the frequencies I’d encounter when traveling. Finally, threw in frequencies that I could encounter. I don’t have all the AAR frequencies programmed. But there’s a few dozen which I’m unlikely to ever encounter. Lastly, I program local police, fire, emergency and other frequencies in the remaining banks. There should be programming instructions included. One can also ‘range scan’. That is, one could pick a high and low frequency and continually scan everything in the range. I’ve found some of the most interesting frequencies that way. Local ESDA frequencies are great during tornado season. You’ll hear the spotter call in a tornado as it happens.
Each bank covers channels x1 through (size of bank - I have a 100 channel scanner that does banks of 50). In your case, probably 1-20, 21-40, etc.
Setting the scanner up in banks by function is the best way to go, even to duplicating channels that you might hear in two different places. F’rinstance, when railfanning in Podunk, you use bank 1. In East Podunk, you might be on the same line for one railroad, but don’t need a couple of freqs for railroads in Podunk, while you need a couple of others for railroads that you’ll only want to monitor in East Podunk, so you set up a separate bank for East Podunk.
Unless you will be frequently travelling all over the country, there is little value in putting all of the AAR channels in your scanner. You’ll spend all your time trying to figure out who’s talking on which channel. If you set up in banks based on your usual haunts, you’ll know that 1/21/41 is UP road, etc.
In my experience, pressing a number key while scanning activates/deactivates a bank.
Putting in ESDA, etc, in a separate bank means you can keep that one quiet unless you know there’s weather in the area.
The usual caveat about local scanner laws applies, and doubly so if you intend to include public safety.