Hi;
I haven't been in the scanner market so please tell what exactly 
is radio reference and which scanners have it as an option?
richard
sent from my braille note

 ----- Original Message -----
From: Colin McDonald <[log in to unmask]
To: [log in to unmask]
Date sent: Thu, 14 Aug 2014 19:13:10 -0600
Subject: Re: accessible scanners

that is a pretty subjective question...
It really depends on how familiar you are with programming logic, 
and how
trunked systems are programmed, or if you use radio reference and 
that sort
of thing.
These days, using radio reference to program your scanner makes 
them nearly
plug and play devices...but for those of us who have used 
scanners for many
years had to deal with manual programming on radios that didn't 
offer any
sort of real accessible feedback...but were also all programmable 
via the
keypad...so as long as you can work out a key chart for a 
particular
scanner, most of them are usable, though not to the point where 
you can
always be sure of a particular state, IE, which banks or groups 
are turned
on or off at any given point etc, or what the display shows and 
so on.
Anyway, out of the box, with a little learning, you should be 
fine.
The manuals are online and the best way to learn any new piece of 
gear is
through trial and error...you really can't screw anything up 
beyond what a
reset can fix.
I usually learn the programming by entering a system in a few 
times and
resetting so I can get the hang of it before entering a whole 
bunch of
systems and frequencies in, just to find out after that I did 
something
wrong.
Plugging into radio reference will program the scanner for you 
and set
everything up in a nice easy to use manner...but I believe there 
is a
fee...but it works well if you travel or go between counties or 
cities where
there are allot of systems.
Upgrade to the psr800 and you get an SD card that you can load 
all your
systems on to, and record scanner audio as well.

73
Colin, V A6BKX
--------------------------------------------------
From: "Matthew Chao" <[log in to unmask]
Sent: Thursday, August 14, 2014 6:20 PM
To: <[log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: accessible scanners

 How easy is it to program out of the box?--Matt, N1IBB.

 At 05:23 PM 8/14/2014, you wrote:
I highly recommend the PSR-500...on tests with very high end test
equipment
the GRE PSR-500 has measurably better receiver sensativity.
The audio is excellent as well and very easy to hear even in 
noisy
environments.

73
Colin, V A6BKX
--------------------------------------------------
From: "Matthew Chao" <[log in to unmask]
Sent: Thursday, August 14, 2014 2:43 PM
To: <[log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: accessible scanners

 Which one would you guys recommend:  the bcd396, or this 
one?--Matt,
 N1IBB.

 At 02:33 PM 8/14/2014, you wrote:
Russ, It's a handheld scanner.  Jim WA6EKS

 ----- Original Message -----
From: Russ Kiehne <[log in to unmask]
To: [log in to unmask]
Date sent: Thu, 14 Aug 2014 08:37:24 -0700
Subject: Re: accessible scanners

       Is the psr500 a base or handheld scanner?

On 8/14/2014 8:27 AM, Ron Miller wrote:
 Hi  ,
 Yes it does decode P25.

 Also, Jim, I am most definitely not saying that we should
discourage Whistle=
 r from designing accessibility features into their scanner
receivers.  Quite t=
 he contrary, I am all for it.  In fact, I had begun a dialog
with the folks a=
 t GRE America on this very subject.

 The intent of my post was simply to respond to a previous
message about Whis=
 tler's current scanner line and to say that I'm successfully
using the PSR-5=
 00 along with PSREdit and the Whistler version of this scanner
should be equ=
 ally usable.

 BTW, Russ, if we can work out a time, I would be glad to chat
with you about=
   how I use PSREdit.

 73,

 Ron Miller
 N6MSA

 Ron Miller

 On Aug 14, 2014, at 10:11 AM, Russ Kiehne <[log in to unmask]
wrote:
 =20
 Does the psr500 do p25?