Prevent damage to your radio's SMA antenna connection due to having to change antennas for base, mobile, or to a different style than stock antenna use. Adapter will take all the wear and tear; instead of the chassis connector being subjected to wear or from coming loose. You can now quickly and safely change the more popular and wider selection of available BNC antennas, and help to protect your radio from damage, all at a low cost.

VX-5R with adapter

Adapter has gold contacts with a neoprene rubber covering. A low profile design adds only 1/2"-to-5/8" depending on radio model to the overall antenna length. The rubber base seals to the top of the radio with no spacers needed to prevent moisture and dirt from entering. The base also provides a positive support for all your antenna applications and a better overall appearance than other available adapters. There's no need to remove adapter once installed to make a quick and safe antenna change.

Sizes to fit radio models:

Yaesu: VX-5R, VX-1R, FT-50R

Icom: IC-T8A, IC-Q7A, IC-R2

Kenwood: TH-G71, TH-D7

Alinco: DJ-V5

Standard: C508A

Aor: AR-16

Part #BGA-76
Yaesu: VX-1, VX-5
Icom: IC-Q7A
Kenwood: TH-G71, TH-D7
Alinco: DJ-V5
Aor: AR-16

Part #BGA-77
Icom: IC-R2, IC-T8A

Part #BGA-78
Yaesu: FT-50R

Stephen G. Gulyas
706 Lalor St.
Trenton, NJ 08610
USA

Until now, scanner owner's interested in programming their scanner for use in the United States' largest cities were forced to spend an hour or more to look up and enter public safety and aircraft frequency information into their Uniden BC-245XLT or BC-895XLT scanner or software. The only option to programming this information in yourself (either manually or using PC software) for your own city, as well as the cities you travel to, has been to use an unreliable pay-per-call "data dump" of FCC records. But this system uses little if any logical ordering for your scanners banks, and has been plagued by problems and complaints since its start. Scanner owners have often said, "I wish there was another way." Now there is! Enter the Scanner Programming System, by Scannerstuff. Available on-line and in stores on Windows9x CD-ROM now, this CD contains WinScan Special Edition and WinScan frequency / trunked system data files for forty-two of the United States’ largest metro areas.

WinScan Special Edition, written by Pozilla Software (the makers of WinScan) especially for the Scanner Programming System is a sort of cross between the freeware WinScan Demo and the deluxe WinScan that retails for around $60 separately. Like the free WinScan Demo, WinScan SE allows the user to fully experience the functionality and user-friendliness of the full WinScan for <15> days. But while the free WinScan Demo is completely disabled after this 15-day trial, WinScan SE disables only radio control and special functions. The ability to open and edit frequency data files, as well as upload the files to your BC-245 or BC-895 scanner, using the familiar WinScan software, remains without limitation. This function makes the Scanner Programming System a great way for hobbyists to try out WinScan (using the SE version) and decide later if they'd like to purchase the full WinScan software, but not loose the ability to automatically program their radio in the mean time.

In addition to WinScan Special Edition, the Scanner Programming System CD will include sample data files for major metro areas like Los Angeles, San Francisco, Phoenix, Chicago, Denver, Miami, Boston, New York, and many, many more! These files are already created for you, including frequencies for police, fire, medical, aircraft, and public safety trunked radio systems in the area. Not only does this system allow you to program your scanner in less than a minute, without any frequency research of your own, the system also allows you to print text-based reports for each included city that clearly shows how your scanner banks and channels are now set up. Consider it a simple "manual" to operating your scanner and monitoring exactly what you want, in any of these cities. The printout includes channel number, frequency, agency or user, and a description of the use (e.g. "1-Dispatch"; "2-Fireground"; "A1-West District Patrol"; "Ground Control - North"; etc.).

Instead of programming your scanner in no logical order like other FCC data based systems may, the Scanner Programming System sets your scanner up by bank. That’s because that’s how most hobbyists want it, and the SPS files are created by hand for each metro area, not generated from a simple and inaccurate radius search by zip code. By putting trunked systems each in their own bank, fire departments in another bank, law enforcement in another, aircraft in another, etc., and varying by each metro area depending upon what’s appropriate in that area, the system makes sense! Users can logically turn on and off banks depending on what they’re interested in monitoring at the time, similar to how most users would program their own scanner themselves. Users are also able to edit the included frequency data to reflect their own personal preferences, as well as add trunked system talkgroups, prior to saving and uploading the file to the radio.

Though certainly not perfect for every user, these data files are a great foundation to build on. One or more banks in each metro areas file is left wide-open, allowing users to add special interest frequencies or areas themselves, then save their own files to their hard disk for back-up or use later. This flexible system is sure to save hobbyists hours of data entry work, while giving travelers the ability to program their scanner for "the basics" of another city in less than sixty seconds, without any prior frequency knowledge of that city.

Don't have a BC245 or BC895 scanner (those WinScan is capable of programming)? No problem! The Scanner Programming System is the perfect CD to use to print simple, easy to read bank and channel (300 ch) layouts for each of these cities for manual programming. No need to type up your programming list yourself and spend time researching what and where to program things. Let the Scanner Programming System do that work for you! Then keep the CD handy for use when travelling. Simply print the data files for other cities and take them with you as you travel!

Don't live in one of the larger metro areas? Want to use your own frequency data only? Great! Use the WinScan SE software contained on the Scanner Programming System CD to create your own data file, save it, and program your BC245 and BC895 scanner!

In summary, the Scanner Programming System is sure to be the ultimate scanner-programming tool for novices and experts alike! And upgrading to the full WinScan once you decide the additional control features (beyond simple data editing and programming) are for you is easy! The Scanner Programming System CD is available for about $25 in radio stores across the nation, including all 12 of Ham Radio Outlet’s stores and on the HRO E-Commerce website (www.hamradio.com).

Joe Carr's Loop Antenna Handbook is a complete guide to understanding and building high performance large and small loop antennas. Various easy to build designs are offered for models covering longwave, medium wave, shortwave and even VHF. Chapters include:

Introducing the Radio Shack PRO-92

Up until now, the one unanswered question posed by many scanner enthusiasts was: "Why can't they make a hand-held scanner that does everything in one radio?" Now that question can be answered, and with the arrival of the Radio Shack PRO-92, that answer is: "They have!!". Made by G.R.E. in Japan, the company that brought you the now legendary PR0-43 and PRO-2006, and that helped build the revolutionary "Optocom" (TM) (along with Optoelectronics), the PRO-92 is the culmination of years of thought, using absolutely state of the art technology; the result of listening to what scanner users say they want in a hand-held radio.

Features such as Multi-System Trunking (TM) to track Motorola, LTR, and EDACS trunked systems; 12 character alpha-numeric display for channel names, scan bank names, search bank names, and trunking ID's; PL and DPL decode and tone reading; computer interfacability; and commercial grade performance make this the radio that every scanner buff has been waiting for, and at a price lower than most high-end hand-helds.

Nothing has been sacrificed to obtain all of this in one package, especially sound quality and performance. Even things like user friendliness and scan/search speed were optimized. In spite of the many things under the user's control, such as display contrast and key beep, etc., this radio is almost as easy to use as a starter radio.

The method of inputting text is the easiest and fastest approach yet to come along, while still using the keyboard. Having the ability not only to specify a PL or DPL tone for decoding signals, but also to instantly read and display the tone, is an added and valuable bonus, eliminating the need to buy an expensive tone reader.

Being a hand-held that is able to track any of the 3 major trunking systems is, of course, a first in history. The ability of the radio to interface to a PC makes it even more of a unique package.

All of the things that scanner users like to control in a radio, such as step size (9-choices), attenuator, and delay (selectable for individual channels), lock out in search mode (a total of 5OO search lockouts), priority on any channel, display contrast adjustment, key beep on or off, storing from search mode, choice of individual AA batteries or a solid nicad pack, make this one of the most versatile hand-helds ever.

With the introduction of many brand-new features, such as: Weather SAME (gives text message as to the nature of weather alert), OPEN and CLOSED modes, auto shut off when the batteries get extremely low, 60 preset search frequency ranges, the PRO-92 offers things unique to this model. Of course its most unique feature is its ability to track Motorola, EDACS and LTR trunking making it a must for people who live in areas that use all of these trunking systems. In addition to displaying trunked ID's, it also displays user inputted text describing that ID (in its ID memory mode) which even the competitor's trunk tracking radios cannot do.

In summary, the groundbreaking Multi-System Trunking PRO-92 is a scanner buffs "dream hand-held", so that the question: "Why can't they make a hand-held that does everything?" has been answered. The answer is: "It has been, it's here, and it is called the Radio Shack PR0-92".

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Police Call CD-ROM - 2000 Edition

All nine volumes of the popular Police Call Books to be available on one CD-ROM!

Pozilla Software, working under a joint venture with Hollins Radio Data is pleased to announce the release of Police Call CD-ROM - 2000 Edition! For over 25 years, the Police Call books have been a staple in the scanning community. And now, after years of requests from readers, Police Call is now available on CD-ROM!

The long-awaited Police Call CD-ROM frequency guide, which includes every feature of all nine printed volumes of Police Call, updated, and fully searchable across all volumes at a blazing speed, thanks to full "indexing" of all data.

Regular users of the Police Call guides will recognize all the familiar sections: Public Safety licensees listed by location and cross referenced by frequency; "Beyond Police Call" lists of dozens of categories of radio users; group talk codes for trunked systems; U.S. Government frequencies; aircraft, aviation and railroad channels; radio codes; maps; and, review lessons for both beginners and experienced hobbyists and professionals.

Designed by a team that included experts in both software and scanners, the Police Call CD-ROM project was perfected over a two year period and withheld from public release until every stringent design parameter was met 100%.

You will be able to use the CD to search for Police, Fire, Medical, Schools, Railroads, Government, Aircraft, Military, Businesses, Hospitals, Trunked ID's, 10-Codes, Abbreviations, Radio Codes, The Glossary of Terms, Maps, and much, much, more. If it is in the book, it is on the CD!

The CD also allows you to create a personal database of your favorite frequencies for quick recall at a later date. You can also export your favorite frequencies to an APF file for upload to a computer-controlled scanner (Scanner control software and scanner sold separately). Users will have the ability to view their search results in a grid format or in a printable page format that is styled just like the books!

The Police Call CD-ROM is the perfect companion to the books!

The CD will be available this fall in select Radio Shack stores and electronics retailers nationwide. For more details, please visit our web site at http://www.mghusa.com/pozilla/ and select Police Call from the pull down menu.