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I had wanted to get into computer-controlled scanning for quite some time. I
was considering an Optoelectronics controlled PRO-2035/2042 versus the new
WinRADIO from Rosetta Laboratories when I saw a For Sale ad posting a PRO-2035
with an installed OS535 board and PROBE software. I took the jump and after
being astounded with the capabilities of this setup, I decided I'd write a
little something to share my experience and excitement.
What follows are my personal impressions regarding the features and performance of this computer-controlled radio setup. This, in no way, should be viewed as an endorsement to purchase this radio/hardware/software nor is it intended to discourage anyone from buying it. I have no personal or business relations with Tandy/GRE Corporations, Optoelectronics, Inc. or DataFile, Inc. These are simply thoughts offered to my fellow hobbyists who may be interested in purchasing this particular radio/hardware/software. I simply ask that this information be kept intact. A lot of hard work and effort has gone into the testing and writing of this review. I would appreciate it if every effort is made to keep this document whole with me as the original author. And if you want to share your thoughts about this review with me or have further questions, feel free to send e-mail. Thank you and enjoy!
Rich Wells |
| Channels | 1000 |
|---|---|
| Banks | 10 |
| Coverage | 25-520 760-1300 MHz |
| Scan | 50 channels/second |
| Search | 50 steps/second |
| Steps | 5, 12.5 & 50 kHz |
| Modes | AM, FM & WFM |
| Sensitivity | As listed in the manual : AM (20 dB S/N with 60% modulation) NFM (20 dB S/N at 3kHz deviation) WFM (30 dB S/N at 22.5kHz deviation) |
| Conversion | Triple |
| IFs | 1=609.005-613.5 2=48.5 MHz 3=10.7 MHz(WFM) 455 kHz (AM/FM) |
| Priority | 1 channel |
| Search limits | 10 |
| Search skip | 0 frequencies |
| Auto-store | Yes (dumb) |
| S-meter | No |
| Delay | 2 seconds during scan/search |
| Lockout | Yes |
| Attenuator | Yes |
| Lock | No |
| Tone codes | No |
| Computer intf | No (not standard) |
| Rotary control | Yes |
| Channel count | No |
| Data skip | Yes |
| Clock | No |
| Timers | No |
| Weather | Yes |
| Weather Alert | No |
| Light | Display |
| Power | 120V AC 14V DC |
| Audio | 1.8W |
| Size | 10.5"(W) x 4"(H) x 7.5"(D) |
| Weight | 3.5 lbs |
| Memory | non-volatile |
Instead, I will be focusing on the overall combination of radio, hardware and software. Since the features available are directly related to those built into the software of choice, this review will be dealing primarily with the PROBE functionality.
Let us not forget that the base functionality of the software used is directly dependent on the underlying power provided by the hardware. In this case it's the Optoelectronics OS535 board which is hard-wired inside the PRO-2035 case. A slick and well-designed piece of hardware, the OS535 is the heart and soul of this system and while it will get only cursory coverage here, it's importance and integration should not be forgotten.
OS535 Installation
Since I purchased this setup from another individual, I had the luxury of
skipping the Opto board installation. What I shall describe is the installation
process as related by the included documentation.
The ad for their Opto boards state that they "are very easy to install" in "about 1 hour". In a nutshell, installation requires you to open the receiver, remove its front panel and circuit board, nibble a slot in the rear panel, unplug three connectors, plug three connectors, solder two wires, fasten the OS535 board, plug three connectors, mount the rear panel connector board, set DIP switch settings and reassemble the 2035.
The included installation manual which details the steps given above is very well done. Warnings and hints are clearly stated throughout. On the front cover is a list of tools that will be needed for the install. The only tool that most people won't have is the nibbling tool from Radio Shack which goes for about $11. The other tools are usually found in most electronic hobbyist's collection : phillips screwdriver, wire cutters, wire strippers, scissors, Xacto knife, and soldering iron.
Looking through the detailed installation steps, I can understand why it states that the nibbling of the slot on the rear panel is probably the most difficult part of the installation process. And this is difficult simply because of the hand strength required to "nibble" through the metal rear panel.
The next most difficult task is probably that of the soldering the two wires. The other tasks simply include using a screwdriver and fastening and unfastening PC connectors. What makes the installation even easier are the 15 black and white photographs which detail most of the operations and point out physical components being worked on/with.
There are warnings on the front cover which clearly state that only you are responsible for what happens to your radio. By performing this installation you will be voiding your warranty so just keep that in mind. Optoelectronics will not do the installation for you so should you feel not up to the task, try giving a call to some of the larger radio dealers and see how much they would charge to perform it for you. Consider yourself lucky if you have a friend or neighbor who has the requisite knowledge and experience to help you out.
Just before sealing up the 2035 at the final step, the DIP switches on the board must be set. One is used to select the address of the board while the other is used to set the interface speed of the RS-232 port.
Once these are set, the 2035 can have its top cover put back on. Except for the rear panel connector, you can't tell this 2035 from a normal one. Plugging in the power cord and turning it on will reveal that it still operates just like a normal 2035.
Next, the supplied six foot DB-9 connector cable is attached to the rear of the 2035 and to the PC serial port you will be using to control it. To get you up and running quickly, Optoelectronics includes a checkout utility as well as a few demos of the well known computer control software packages.
PROBE Installation
For this review, I will be talking about PROBE version 3.0. It comes on a
singular diskette and installs easily with the supplied batch file.
Before we go any further, let's get one thing straight. PROBE is not what one would call a "glitzy" program. It is meant to appeal to the masses and cater to the lowest possible denominator. While this may sound bad, it should not be taken as such.
PROBE is able to run with the most minimum of systems and that's bound to please a lot of people. Should you simply have an older machine or maybe you have your last PC lying around doing nothing since being replaced by your new multimedia, voice-activated, coffee-making, dog-walking, do everything computer.
In either case, PROBE can do the job. It only needs DOS 3.3, 640K, a serial port and hard drive. What could be simpler? No extended memory, no expanded memory (although it will make use of EMS/XMS if available), no CD-ROM driver and multimedia extensions installed. You get the point.
The only thing to really consider is that the older the machine, the slower it will run. The slower it runs, the slower your scanning and searching will be. It may also be the case that older PCs may have older UARTs which can not handle the higher data rates for the serial port that we are all accustomed to seeing these days. This too will slow your performance.
Other than that, you are ready to get down. Don't be expecting any fancy Windows program interface. It's all DOS character based I/O which helps to keep the performance up. And yes, that's plenty for some of us who just want the tools to work with and not the glitz. And no, I'm not old enough to be your grandfather. And probably not your father either, for that matter!
I'm running PROBE on a 486 DX2 66MHz PC. Under DOS, I get about 55 channels per second scanning. When I run it under a session in OS/2, I get about 45 channels/second. I have seen it running on a Pentium 120MHz under Windows 95 at 80 channels/sec. So be aware that your mileage will vary. Regardless, you'll probably be running at a speed much higher than most of today's scanners (the real scan rate and not that turbo-inflated value you see on the pretty box).
PROBE User's Guide
No doubt about it, PROBE really knows how to pack the features in. At first it
will seem daunting. There is new terminology to learn and a lot of new
concepts. The User's Guide does an admirable job of explaining it all and how
it all works together.
It starts with a nice Contents section which gives a blow by blow accord of what's inside. Very handy when you have so many subjects to cover. We then have the typical warnings, copyrights, disclaimers and minimum requirements.
These are followed by two very nice sections dedicated to detailing the new features and enhancements in versions 2.0 and 3.0. For the new user it won't give you a lot since most of the terminology is foreign. But for the PROBE user that's been around the block, it's very helpful.
There's then a short section for the installation whose length is equaled only by its simplicity. Lucky for us.
We then enter the Quick Start section designed to get the new user up and running as quickly as possible. No good User's Guide would be without such a section.
The basics of Quick Start entail getting you familiar with the new terminology involved and how to conceptualize what you're doing. The minimum approach is taken to explain how data is entered and all of its various options. With the frequency data entered and some options set, you start a scan and watch the fireworks! Some screen shots are given too, which help to visualize what's going on if you like to read ahead without being right at the computer.
This is followed by a section which details the contents of the scanning screen where all the good info is presented as it actually happens. What follows next is a wealth of information for explaining every facet of the program. All options are covered in nauseating detail (luckily for us) with lots of important reminders and hints sprinkled in.
This info is followed by a section which details the utilities available. These include options for importing and exporting frequency data, testing the serial port, viewing log records and other less often used functions.
Next are sections for Hints and Tips, database format info, Troubleshooting and Technical Support.
I don't have to tell you that this User's Guide covers a lot of ground. So read, read and reread. Use everything. And as the manual states so well "experiment, try new things, and most of all, have fun." I couldn't agree more!
Just take it slow. Learn a little bit at a time. It's a lot like getting an AOR AR8000. Those of you who have this radio will know what I mean. It can be very intimidating at first. But with practice and time come the skills with which you'll build new monitoring experiences. And before you know it, you'll be wondering how you ever got along without PROBE and your computer controlled scanner!
Memory Layout
The first thing we should do is gain an understanding of the channel memory.
This will help us to visualize the system and how it can best serve our needs.
On a normal scanner, there are a set number of channels which are usually
divided up evenly among a set number of banks.
The stock PRO-2035 comes with 1000 channels divided into 10 banks of 100 channels each. Typically, one bank is used to hold the frequencies for one agency. This allows contents to be easily looked up as well as selective listening on command.
PROBE goes one level further by not only offering banks of channels but a new entity called a group. Just as banks are composed of channels, groups are composed of banks. And PROBE supports up to 4000 groups! But wait, there's more! Each group consists of 99 banks! And each bank consists of 1000 channels! Breaking out the calculator, that comes to a grand total of 396,000,000 channels. Who thinks they will run out of available channels with this setup?
Since each group, bank and channel can have its own alpha-tag, you don't have to worry about finding things if you group everything logically. Groups and banks are allowed 25 characters per tag while channels can have up to 40 characters.
Now that we have this new group capability, how can it best be used to our advantage? Most people will probably find it useful to think of each group as a separate scanner dedicated to a particular agency (EMS, airplanes, etc.) or a group of agencies acting together as a logical function (state police + local police + sheriff = law enforcement).
You might keep one group for all frequencies related to disasters should a natural or man-made emergency arise in your area. You might keep one group dedicated to monitoring commercial or military aviation. One group can be used to hold all federal government frequencies. And you can always keep one group as your "everyday" scanner which can be setup like a normal scanner which has the several agencies you listen to on a regular basis.
Considering just one group, you can see that with 99 banks of 1000 channels, even this setup gives you much more flexibility than what is available in most stock scanners. When you think of the 4000 groups at your disposal, the amount of information contained will be vast. But the ability to group your monitoring subjects without the usual constraints can be much more efficient once you decide exactly how to use it best for your monitoring needs.
One important constraint to keep in mind is that only one group is active at a time. Once a group has been selected, only the banks and channels within that group can be accessed.
Programming
So now that you have a high level understanding of the memory arrangement and
have decided how you will organize your listening by splitting it up into
groups, banks and channels, you are ready to enter your frequency data.
First, you'll have to add a new group and give it a meaningful alpha-tag. Once done, you'll have a new group to play with. And it will be listed with any other defined groups in the Groups window. At any time, you can come to this window and select the active group.
With a group now defined, it's time to define the banks it will be composed of. Bringing up the Configure Banks window displays a list of all banks. It is here that you will enter your alpha-tags and select/deselect which banks are to be scanned once scanning starts. So we add a new bank and give it a good name indicative of the frequencies it will be holding.
Speaking of frequencies, we are now set to add some to our newly created bank(s). From the menu system we select 'Frequencies' and up comes the frequency viewer. At this point, it is good to have the radio powered on and connected to the computer because PROBE makes a check for communications to our target scanner. This is done because once the viewer is up, selecting any frequency (by placing the highlight cursor on its display line) automatically tunes the radio to it.
So we start with an empty frequency viewer which is a simple table of vertical columns. Each column represents a particular piece of data for each frequency record like Bank, Tone, Mode, Name, etc. Each line is used to display the contents for a particular channel. To view all of the data, you'll need to move the highlight cursor to the right to view those columns which are off screen to the right. To fill in these columns with real data, we'll have to add some frequencies and associated info.
To add a frequency, you simply press 'A' for add. This brings up a dialog for you to fill out. The arrow and Tab keys are used to navigate easily through the various fields to enter our data.
First we have to pick a bank to put our data in. This is simply typed in or if Enter is pressed, a list of banks is displayed from which to choose! Our frequency is then entered along with any CTCSS/DCS tone we might care to assign to it as well as a receive mode (AM/FM/WFM).
We can then choose Yes/No values for Delay, Lockout, Log, Record and Alarm (which all default to No). We are all familiar with delay and lockout but PROBE manages to put another twist on them as we shall see later. The log setting allows activity to be placed in a PROBE log file for viewing and storage. Record is used to control a remote activated tape recorder so that active transmissions can be recorded to tape. And alarm is used for visual and/or audible notification that a particular channel frequency has been detected as active.
We can then choose to enter a 40 character name, a two-letter service code, address, city, state, county, callsign and even latitude and longitude if you feel so inclined! If you have an FCC frequency database, many of these fields will get filled in when you import such a database into PROBE.
The service codes are used to help identify agencies based on logical groupings. PROBE supports the "official" FCC service code list which you are able to bring up and display for help when entering frequency data. You've seen these codes in Police Call where PP stands for Police, PF for Fire and so forth.
The latitude and longitude coordinates usually come from FCC records. If entered, PROBE can use this information, along with the latitude and longitude of your monitoring station, to calculate and display the straight-line distance between you and the transmitter when a frequency becomes active.
Once done entering data, simply press the PageDown key to have PROBE accept it. It will ask you for confirmation and then enter the data. It will also prompt you to continue adding data or return to the frequency viewer. At any time, you can press the Esc key to cancel the data entry process.
If you have a lot of entry to do of similar records, you can use the F9 key to copy the data from the last record entered. This feature can save you a lot of typing so be sure to make use of it!
Gradually, the frequency viewer begins to fill up with useful data. But the data entered here in PROBE will in no way effect the frequency data stored in the memory banks of the PRO-2035. The two are totally separate. Disconnect the serial interface and the PRO-2035 reverts to using its 1000 channels just like you left them. That's one of the many great benefits to using this type of setup; the scanner can still operate exactly the same way it did when you took it out of its box. No need to boot up the PC or worry about serial port connections. Just turn it on and you're ready to go. It's like having two scanners in one!
Frequency Viewer
Now that we have some frequency data entered, we can discuss some of the great
features built into the frequency viewer. Not only is it a viewer but it's also
an editor. Using the arrow and page up/down keys, we can move the highlight
cursor around to various cells on the screen.
To edit a cell value, Enter is pressed, the new value keyed in and then finished by pressing Enter again. So as we scroll around looking at all our pretty data, if we find an error or wish to update some information, it's easy to correct on the spot.
There is also the ability to do full screen editing of the entire frequency data record by pressing the E key. To get a look at all the cell values for a record (memory channel), simply pressing 'V' will view that record. From here it is possible to view the next or previous record. If you desire to edit a record being viewed, press the E key and you're good to go.
Speaking of scrolling around, there are several helpful keystrokes available which allow us to scroll to the start or beginning of a line, to the start or end of the viewer contents or page left/right to view columns of data which can not fit on the screen all at once.
Earlier we were adding frequency data to build our frequency listing for all our group and bank contents. It's just as easy to delete records we no longer wish to have around by simply moving to any cell within that record and then pressing the D key.
Once the number of channels (frequency data records) gets to be pretty big, we can start to see how it is going to be troublesome to find something easily. Luckily, PROBE has a number of nifty features to make all of this worthwhile.
Data displayed in the frequency viewer is sorted by using one or more of the record fields as keys. By default, the records are sorted using the bank number, then by frequency and last by CTCSS/DCS tone. This ranks the banks numerically from top to bottom as well as keeping all of the frequency data sorted by frequency value. Using the CTCSS/DCS tone as the last sort key lists these tones in numerical order should you be using the same frequency within a bank with multiple tones.
As I said, the bank+freq+tone sort is the default method used. There are four other sorts available which include freq+tone, name, radio service code and lockout. At any time, you can select which of these is used to sort the viewer contents.
And if this isn't enough, pressing the S key puts you in search mode. This allows a search value to be typed in a character at a time. Each time a character is entered, the search tries to match the string entered thus far to be matched with the fields used to sort the display. If a match is found, the viewer scrolls to the matching entry for your verification. From here, you can type more characters to help narrow down the search, use the backspace to delete characters to try a different approach, or press the Esc key to stop searching where you are.
To help tailor the display to present you with the most relevant data, there are a few functions available. The first is called subset. It allows you to specify limits to the sort index mentioned above. Say you were using the default bank+freq+tone sort. And say you only wanted to see the contents of banks 12 through 15. Pressing Alt-S prompts you to enter the upper and lower limits of the subset you are defining which in this case are 12 and 15. Once done, only banks that fall within this specified subset are displayed!
To help further configure the viewer display, the + and - keys can be used to increase or decrease the number of columns each cell size occupies. Simply move the highlight to the desired cell and adjust it to suit your particular tastes. Obviously with 20 fields to display for each record, the smaller each cell is, the more cells can be fit across the width of the screen and the less you'll have to scroll to data beyond the screen edges.
Another viewer configuration option allows you to specify the order in which the columns are displayed from left to right. You'll want to put those items of importance to you toward the left so that they are immediately visible whenever you bring up the frequency viewer. The fields of lessor importance can be put off to the far right which puts them off of the screen.
The last configurable item for the viewer relates to how columns are scrolled horizontally. Normally, as you move the highlight to the right of the screen, columns on the left fall off as columns to the right are brought on. Using viewer lock, you are able to specify how many of the leftmost columns remain on the screen regardless of how far right you move the highlight cursor. It is usually useful to lock the bank and frequency columns so that they are always visible and can therefore be immediately related to any data on a particular row.
Using the lock function I immediately saw two problems. The first is that the column spacing (which I had modified above) was changed slightly. The other problem I see is that once a column is included in those that are locked, it is no longer possible to move the highlight cursor onto it. I find that I like to keep the highlight on the frequency column just as a creature of habit and how I am use to using radios in general. This is also a problem since I can not edit a cell in a locked column directly. I must press the E key to get the entire record contents, navigate to the desired field, change it and then exit. Not quite as flexible as I would like.
With all these viewer configuration settings, it allows you a level of customization making you feel more at home and in control. Not only are these options useful for display purposes, but the contents of the display (exactly as seen on the screen) dictate what will be seen on your printer if you use PROBE's Output function.
Last but not least are the "Extra Options". These are basically a VERY handy set of memory management functions that you will come to depend on and be grateful for. These include your copy, move, delete, unlock and unmark functions. They work on entire banks, marked records, marked records within a bank, unmarked records or unmarked records within a bank.
There are two types of mark operation of which you should be aware. For your own benefit, you can mark (or unmark) any entry in the frequency viewer by simply using the space bar. By default, frequency viewer text is white on a black background. When marked, it becomes yellow text on a blue background. Using this method, you are free to mark your memory channel records as you see fit and that helps you increase the productivity of your monitoring sessions. Especially when used in conjunction with one of the Extra Options mentioned above (copy, move, delete, etc.).
The second type of marking is performed by PROBE and is called automark. Once enabled, automark marks every frequency entry that becomes active while scanning. We'll talk more about this later.
There is also a duplicate frequency check option which simulates the function of the same name found on many Uniden scanners. If you enter a frequency which is already programmed into any channel of the current group, a warning dialog will be displayed indicating such. You can ignore the warning (and store the frequency anyway) or cancel the store operation.
Configuration
Now that we are at a point ready to start some real work with our frequency
data, we should gain a better understanding of the options available once we do
start scanning and searching. This section, and the one that follows, will
cover the various configure options and settings that we should know about.
Options available for us to configure to our personal liking are available under the program's Configure pull-down menu. The first selection is related to scanning/searching and is covered under the following section titled Settings.
The next selection covers groups which we have already talked about. This set of options allows new groups to be added, existing groups to be deleted, group names to be edited and searched for and last, the list of groups and subsequent data can be printed.
The next selection brings up the Bank listing allowing for banks to be selected or deselected for scanning as well as being able to edit a bank name.
Another selection allows for the service codes to be added, deleted or edited. New two-letter service codes can be added along with a 40 character alpha-tag description.
The Alarms selection allows us to edit the nine available alarm options. Mentioned earlier, memory channels can be linked to one of the nine alarms so that you can be visually/audibly notified when a channel's frequency becomes active.
Selecting this option brings up a small dialog containing a table of all the current alarm data. All the alarms have been configured by default with differing visual and audible settings. For the audible options, you have control over the pitch of the tone as well as its duration and the number of times it is sounded. For color, you select the text color, background color and whether or not the text blinks.
Next up are the display options. These allow you to select the number of display lines (25, 43 or 50), changing colors of various screens, whether or not blinking colors are allowed (this control is useful on monochrome monitors), configuration of the scan indicator and scanning frequency counter.
The scan indicator selects the data displayed while scanning in the status box. This data can be the scanning speed in channels per second, the next frequency to be tuned, or simple graphics options like a rotating box or pulsing dot!
The scanning frequency counter can be enabled to give an indication of the total number of channels being scanned from the selected banks.
Our next selection allows the settings of the COM port to be adjusted. These include a port number, base I/O address, IRQ and baud rate.
Next, we can enter the latitude and longitude of our monitoring location. If this info is entered and activity is detected on a frequency which also has its coordinates entered in its channel memory, the display is able to show us the distance to the transmitter.
The next selection pertains to the keyboard and allows us to enter values for time delay and repeat rate. These will effect the scrolling rates within the frequency viewer, log viewer and various lookup tables.
The last selection allows us to set the column order of displayed data in the frequency and log viewers.
Settings
This section will describe the settings which are available during scanning and
searching. These can be accessed from the pull-down menus before scanning
starts or during scanning by pressing the S key.
Our first batch of settings relate to the log file. If logging is enabled, a file is kept for each group that keeps track of information associated with each active frequency. This information can consist of frequency, channel alpha-tag and receive mode, date and time of activity, hit counter, signal strength, duration of signal, CTCSS/DCS tone, tape recorder setting, and any detected DTMF digits.
Settings for the log file allow you to set the information and how it is logged. You can enable or disable the logging of tones, DTMF data and time/ date stamps. You can also select whether all activity is logged or just those channels whose log setting has been enabled. The last option controls whether the log is maintained chronologically or cumulatively. If chronological, a new entry is added to the log file for each and every active frequency. If cumulative is selected, a search is done to locate if the frequency is already in the log file. If it is, the latest data is used to update this log entry (signal strength, tone, time/date stamp, hit count, etc.).
The next settings relate to the delay feature. At this level, delay can be globally added for all channels. This global delay time is also specified here. If this global delay is turned off, the delay is controlled on a per channel basis by a separate delay time which is specified here also.
Next up are the monitoring settings. These allow a pause time to be enabled as well as for the pause time value to be specified. If pause is enabled, the scan will only remain on an active frequency for at most the pause specified time. Another setting here allows for an edit dialog to be presented if the scan detects activity on a frequency whose memory alpha-tag is blank. This allows channel memory contents to be updated but you obviously don't want this mode selected for unattended monitoring sessions.
Tone settings are covered next. These will dictate how PROBE reacts to detected CTCSS and DCS tones on active frequencies. The first setting allows for CTCSS/DCS squelch action to be enabled. In this mode, if a channel is detected as active and it has a tone programmed with it, the squelch will only be broken if a matching tone is detected. If a bank contains the same frequency multiple times but each with a different tone, the radio will only be tuned once for that frequency but all tones will be tested for a match.
There is also a delay time associated for CTCSS and DCS detection which can be adjusted. Such delays allow for settling times in tuning as well as for tone detection on weak or noisy signals.
If the continuous tone check option is enabled, PROBE will constantly check for the existence of the specified tone during the entire active transmission. If the tone ceases, scanning will resume. Normally this setting is disabled and the tone is only checked once for opening the squelch.
For the OS535 board, false tones at the beginning and end of a transmission can be a problem especially in dense RF locales where intermod may be a problem. PROBE helps users adapt their monitoring sessions by enabling this setting as well as some additional settling/delay times to help increase the reliability of accurate tone detection.
The last tone settings dictate what happens if an existing frequency is found active but has a tone which has not been programmed for that frequency in the bank in which it resides. By enabling the add new tones found setting, new tones on existing frequencies will automatically add a new memory record to the current bank including the frequency, receive mode and new tone detected. If the copy data setting is enabled, the new memory record will take its contents from the first frequency record found in the current bank. If you use this functionality, I assume you would give the first memory record in each bank a unique alpha-tag like "New Tone Record" so that it could be easily found using the search option of the frequency or log viewer.
The next setting controls the automark feature. When enabled, automark marks a frequency record with specially colored text so that it is clearly visible when using the frequency viewer. This allows active frequencies to be easily recognized as well as allowing them to be moved, copied or deleted.
One way in which automark can be used is to detect which channels are active after you've just loaded up some new frequencies. Let the radio scan these new channels and come back after a few hours. Each active frequency will be marked for an easy indication of activity. From here, you can then use one of the Extra Options to say, copy or move all the marked (active) frequencies to their own bank. Or perhaps you could just delete all the unmarked (inactive) channels. This level of functionality is great and speaks of a software developer who actually uses what they make as well as listening to what their customers want.
Squelch control settings are covered next. We first start with signal squelch which can be enabled or disabled. When enabled, it allows you to set the minimum signal level necessary to receive a signal. Any signal whose strength is below this level is simply ignored. Associated with these settings is a false signal delay which is used to provide more settling time after a signal is detected to help insure a more reliable signal strength reading. The other squelch settings relate to the display. One setting determines whether signal level is displayed as a numeric value or a bar graph. The other setting controls whether the signal level is displayed each time it is read or as a running average.
The lockout setting determines whether or not the lockout field of each memory record is checked or not. Or in other words, this setting must be enabled in order for frequencies to be individually locked out.
Related to lockout we have the templock setting. A templock is used to temporarily lock out a frequency. The templock setting is expressed in hours, minutes and seconds. During scanning, if an active frequency is unwanted for a period of time, simply press the T key. This memory channel is now templocked and will not be scanned until the templock time setting expires. At any time all templocks can be removed with the kill templock feature. Pretty nifty stuff huh?
Our next batch of settings relate to the tape recorder functions. When hooked up to a tape recorder, the Opto board can control a tape recorder to log active frequency transmissions. PROBE has several features to make this useful feature even better.
To start there is a global switch used to enable and disable recording. The next setting tells PROBE to record those memory channels whose record field has been enabled. This allows selective recording of only individual channels. The record time limit setting is used to limit the amount of time any one channel can "hog" the recorder. The reverse switch polarity setting allows for differences in the active level of the tape recorder control line. Lastly we have the two pause settings; one is used to turn on pause which basically inserts a blank between all recorded transmissions for easier location and the other is used to express the pause time in seconds.
Alarm settings are covered next. Mentioned earlier, there are nine alarms which come with default settings but you are allowed to change their audio and video characteristics to suit your preferences. Any memory channel can then be tagged with an alarm number. Each time the frequency for that channel becomes active, its alarm will be triggered.
Our first alarm setting is the global enable/disable switch. Next is the alarm level which is used to filter alarms. Alarm 1 is considered as having the highest priority while 9 is the lowest on the totem pole. By setting the alarm level, only those alarms which have levels equal to or greater than this level will be let through to trigger their alarms. If you have used the levels judiciously for each of your memory channels, you can use this setting to let only the most important alarms through at any particular time.
The last alarm settings control whether or not the audio and video features are enabled or disabled. With the proper use of alarms and their settings, you should be able to turn your receiver into one heck of a notification system!
Priority settings are covered next. Unlike many conventional radios, the priority channel is not based on a one or a few channels. When using PROBE, priority relates to an entire bank of your choosing. You can use one of your existing banks or set aside a specific bank, say bank 99, to hold all those frequencies you would like to sample on a priority basis.
The chosen bank is then specified for priority action and sampling can be enabled or disabled at will. The rate at which the priority bank is sampled is dependent on a setting which specifies the number of normal memory channels that are to be scanned before the priority bank is scanned. So rather than being time dependent like most radios, it is based on a count of the number of channels which have been scanned.
This setting is expressed in the number of channels being between 1 and 999. If you set it to, say 20 channels, after 20 normal memory channels have been scanned, the priority bank is scanned for active frequencies and then you start the process over again.
While this is a novel approach and may appeal to some, I find that I miss the predictable timed rate associated with most radios. Perhaps there is some technical reason this can not be easily accomplished. But this scheme does not take into account normal channel memory frequency activity. If the scan stops on a normal memory channel conversation and it takes a lengthy amount of time to complete, the priority sampling is blocked for the length of this conversation. I can't say I consider this a "priority" approach.
We next turn to speed settings which can be used to extract the most performance from the radio tuning and frequency detection processes. First we have the settling time which can be varied from 0 to 999 milliseconds. This is the amount of time PROBE will wait after tuning a frequency before it tries to detect a valid transmission on the that frequency. Obviously the the longer the time, the better the detection rate will be. Similarly, the longer the settling time, the slower the scan rate.
Due to the nifty implementation of the serial interface by Optoelectronics, it is possible to send down the next pair of frequency and receive mode parameters while the radio is "settling". They are stored in temporary locations until the command is given to use them. This pipelined approach helps the Opto interface and controlling software to run as fast as possible.
While not an exact science, this tuning and settling process has been computed for users of the OS456 and OS535 boards which results in the default settling times for PROBE. If you feel overly adventurous, you can tweak the settling time value to try and gain improved scanning speeds.
Another setting which effects the scanning speed and active frequency detection is the false signal delay. This value can be thought of as an additional settling time to help weed out spurious signals especially present in locales with strong signals (no pun intended; consciously that is) where intermodulation can be a problem.
Mentioned earlier, such additional settling times can help for proper detection of tone codes on weak or fading signals. A minimum signal level can also be specified as mentioned previously to help with valid signal detection.
To help increase the selectivity of adjacent channels while scanning, there is a special feature of the Opto boards that enables a 5 kHz search window. When searching and using a step size of 5 kHz, this zerotune setting can be used to enable this Opto feature. By doing so, it helps tune a frequency very precisely instead of stopping 5 or 10 kHz away due to lackluster filtering.
We now turn to the SmartScan feature. Associated with every memory channel is a value for a SmartBank. Should the SmartScan feature be enabled and a frequency is detected active which has a SmartBank specified, PROBE will enable scanning of the specified SmartBank. If the memory channel also has the exclusive value set, the SmartBank specified will be scanned exclusively or in other words, the banks that were being scanned are temporarily disabled while the SmartBank is scanned.
The Exclusive Time setting is used to determine how long an exclusive SmartBank will be scanned. If no activity is detected on any of the frequencies in the SmartBank, PROBE will disable the SmartBank and enable all the banks that were being scanned. If activity is detected in the SmartBank, this timer value is reset.
The Non-Exclusive Time setting is used to determine how long a SmartBank is to be scanned when it was added to the rest of the banks being scanned. Similarly, no activity within the specified time disables the SmartBank and detected activity resets the timer.
Last, but not least, is the duplicate frequency checking setting. This is an interactive feature which prompts you if a duplicate frequency is attempted to be programmed into memory. A list is provided of the duplicate frequency, and multiples if they exist, as well as having the option of rejecting the frequency entry or deleting the duplicate(s).
Since this is an interactive feature, it should not be left enabled during unattended monitoring sessions since PROBE can be instructed to automatically program memory. If I am correct, there are three methods whereby data is programmed into memory; by importing a database, by manually entering a frequency and when PROBE has been instructed to put a new channel memory record for a previously undetected tone code.
If these are the cases, then the duplicate frequency checking should only provide a user prompt for the first two when it is fairly safe to assume that a human being is sitting at the keyboard and therefore able to see this interface dialog. If the dialog is disabled for the third case then there is no risk of halting an unattended monitoring session due to a user not being there to handle it appropriately and let the session continue.
Scanning
Well, the moment you have waited for is here. The memory is programmed with all
your juicy data and ready to scan away. Don't worry if you don't have a handle
on all the various settings and options. Just tackle them one at a time until
you have them mastered. PROBE comes ready out of the box with no adjustments
necessary; all the defaults will get you up and running just fine.
With a "normal" scanner, you program the memory, select the banks to be scanned and start scanning. PROBE is no different. As soon as you start scanning, the scanning screen is displayed which is composed of six sections.
The first section is titled "Frequency Data". When no signal is being received, the status is displayed as "SCAN" with a numeric value indicating the number of channels per second being tuned. The current time is displayed is as well which is a nice touch.
As soon as an active signal is detected, this section displays most of the frequency data and settings/options associated with that frequency's memory channel as well as signal level, tone code, signal duration timer, and an indicator which indicates if carrier modulation is detected.
The second section is titled "Group/Log/Bank Data" and is used to display which group is being scanned, the log file that activity is being saved to, the bank being scanned at a given time as well as the number of channels in that bank. If a valid signal is received, the number of channels is replaced with the bank name if one has been programmed.
One suggestion I would have for this section would be to display the total number of channels for the scan banks involved. I would like to see this at a minimum. What would be even better is for this number to be divided by the current scan rate to get an indication of how long it is taking to scan the entire set of banks. I find myself doing this calculation in my head to see what kind of throughput I am getting so that I can decrease the number of banks if I feel that the scan rate is not sufficient for the number of channels involved to guarantee adequate sampling on a timely basis. Man...my English teachers would love to see how well they taught me with that sentence!
The next section is titled "Licensee Data" and is used to display the data normally associated with FCC licenses. These include address, city, state, county, transmitter latitude and longitude, callsign, etc. If this memory channel's license information includes latitude/longitude and you have told PROBE what your monitoring post lat/long is, it displays the line-of-sight distance between you and the transmitter.
The next section is quite small and is used to display a list of up to 50 DTMF digits if any are detected.
The next section is titled "Latest Activity" and is used to keep a running list of frequency activity. Every time a frequency is detected as active, a line is entered in this section which indicates the frequency, tone code, name (if programmed), if tape recorder was activated, if activity was saved to the log file, time the frequency ceased transmitting and a hit count of the number of times this frequency has been active. Mentioned earlier was the ability to set the display to use 25, 43 or 50 lines. The more lines you use the larger this section will be giving you more "latest activity" data.
The sixth and last section is optional for display but if present, it lists most of the features available and the keyboard characters necessary to access them. These include hyperbank editing (more later), bank selection, frequency viewer, edit record, tape recorder enable/disable, log viewer, kill templocks, edit settings, manual tuning (a VFO with tones) and clear active SmartBank.
The manual tuner is really a separate dialog that, while displayed, pauses the scanning operation. It is really a VFO that allows you to enter a frequency, receive mode and step size. You can then tune up and down using the + and - keys. Detected signals register on the displayed S-meter and any detected tones as well. Dismissing this dialog returns the scanning to normal operation. I really like this ability and wish that we had access to it as a "real" mode rather than as an extension of scanning. I am use to the AORs and Yupiterus which have one or two VFOs allowing frequencies to be tried on the fly. I think the addition of one or more VFOs to the PROBE interface would be a great benefit.
Once a frequency becomes active, another list of features become available which include lockout, templock, logging, resume scanning, pause scanning on this frequency, and resume scanning after a pause.
New for PROBE v3.0 are Hyperbanks. This neat feature allows one or more memory banks to be associated with one of the function keys F1 - F10. Pressing the appropriate function key while scanning activates this set of banks and disables those currently being scanned. There is a Hyperbank menu which lists all Hyperbanks and their 40 character user-specified alpha-tags as well as allowing you to edit the key assignments.
With the description of PROBE thus far and the features available from the scanning screen, you can get some idea of the power at your fingertips. At its simplest, you can just sit back and watch the interface do its thing as it scans channels, displays frequency data for active channels, displays relevant data to the activity list, saves data to the log file, shows you modulation, signal strength, DTMF digits and CTCSS/DCS tones.
If a frequency becomes active and you don't want it to be, you press L to lock it out or T to templock and K to remove the templock later. If you want to update that record for some reason, simply pressing E will bring up the record editor where you can tweak the data to your heart's content. Or bring up the frequency viewer to look through all of memory and change it at will.
As situations change, you can adjust the banks being scanned by bringing up the Bank configuration window or perhaps use your existing Hyperbanks. Enabling SmartScan will do its thing if you have programmed any of the memory channel records with SmartBanks. As these SmartBanks are enabled and disabled, this screen will keep you abreast of all that's going on.
If alarms are on and set, audible activity will get your attention and colored text in the activity section will be easily seen. Especially if you've set it to blink.
As you can see, this is an impressive and powerful repertoire of tools at your fingertips. Once you get up to speed with how it all works together, you'll be amazed at the increased productivity and number of signals you are able to log. Long live PROBE!
Searching
One thing that threw me for a loop when I first saw it was how searching was
implemented. On a normal scanner, you usually just pick a starting and ending
frequency limit and let it rip. PROBE does things a bit differently. You still
specify the frequency limits, as well as the receive mode and step size used,
but instead of doing a "search", it instead uses theses value to generate a
list of frequencies which are then programmed into a memory bank of your
choosing. You can then scan this bank.
So instead of dynamically creating frequencies on the fly, it generates them once and places them in a bank. You then treat this bank like any other. While this does seem a bit "weird" for those of us who are use to conventional radios, implementing a search in this way allows the use of all the powerful features discussed under scanning.
I have chosen to dedicate one group for "searches". Each bank in my search group has been given an alpha-tag indicative of the frequency range and step size it covers. Using an FCC frequency bandplan, I was able to fill up almost all 99 banks to cover the various bands between 25 and 1000 MHz.
My suggestion is that I would still like to see some form form of "real" search to augment the default search method. A simple screen which allows me to enter the frequency limits, step size and receive mode would do just fine. There could also be settings for tape recorder control, logging, etc. Each hit could generate a log entry that lists frequency, tone codes, etc. Having the ability to pause a search as well as change direction would also be nice. I do see a problem with locking out search frequencies, but this could be handled by adding a new global search lockout list. Pressing the L key during a search could place that frequency in the lockout list which can later be edited to add or remove frequencies as well as remove all entries from the list.
Utilities
The last major section to cover is the utilities menu and the features which
are available under it. The first feature allows a dBase compatible FCC
frequency database file to be imported. This functionality allows you to create
a custom frequency database using any number of programs to extract license
data from FCC records available on CD-ROMs. Once you have chosen the data and
saved (exported) it to a dBase compatible file, you can then import it into
PROBE where it will be programmed into memory channels.
When specifying a file to be imported, you can also specify that only those records which represent transmitters within a certain radius of your location be imported. This obviously depends on PROBE knowing the latitude and longitude of your location as well as the imported file having the transmitter lat/long values in it as well. This is a great feature!
Similar to this is the ability to specify that only those records which match a specified radio service code should be imported. Say that you only wanted to import frequencies licenses to railroads. You would set the import radio service code to LR and only records with LR (railroad) radio service codes would be imported. If you choose to import all radio services, you have the option of specifying to PROBE that each radio service code should be placed within its own bank. These two features are very helpful for sorting and separating records that would normally involve many tedious manual operations.
Our next option under Utilities is for the creation of a search file. Mentioned in the previous section, this is how you create a list of frequencies which are really scanned. A nice touch is that the manual lists several of the more popular search ranges to help get you going right away.
Next we have the Export option which is used to save an ASCII representation of channel memory or log file contents to a file so that you can then load it into a word processor, spreadsheet or other database program for further manipulation. Selections include fixed or variable (delimted) length fields which are written to the file.
The next option is used to physically remove deleted records from memory, radio service and log files. Normally when you delete a record from one of these, it is simply marked as deleted so that it no longer be displayed. This means it is still taking up space in the file. By using this option, the files are processed to actually remove the deleted records making these files smaller.
The Reindex Active Files selection is used to perform housekeeping on the memory, radio service, log and program configuration files. It may be necessary to perform this operation should the program not terminate "normally" for any reason or if unusual or missing data is detected.
The Test Com Ports selection is used to simply detect devices attached to COM ports 1 - 4. Detected devices simply result in a display message.
The Viewlog selection is the same option used from within the program and mentioned previously. Using it here makes it a bit easier to view the log for any group rather than just the current group as is normally the case.
The last selection allows the Opto board, and therefore PROBE, to access the normally blocked/taboo cellular range. It only works on those units made before the '94 cellular band and requires a 20-digit password which is readily available on many Internet web pages.
The stock PRO-2035 is a great radio. It was replaced by an even greater PRO-2042. I currently own two 2042s; one stock and one with an OS535. I can't imagine being without them. Even with the OS535 boards installed, they still operate just as they did fresh out of the box. It's almost like getting two radios for the price of one. I consider it a BIG advantage over buying a comparable model from another manufacturer. It all comes down to getting what you pay for like most things in life.
The OS535 is a wonderful achievement. It installs easily and does a great number of things very well. The fact that it is supplied by almost every software package out there speaks for its reputation and power. Since it is internally based on the CI-V interface, the jacks on the back can be used for daisy-chaining other CI-V compliant radios.
Recommendations
It's really hard to go wrong with this package. It is a bit more expensive than
other computer controlled packages but this is due to the extra cost of the
OS535. Considering the abilities that this hardware board affords, I think it
is well worth it.
Considering your options, you can use a PRO-2035 or PRO-2042 with the OS535. Of these two great radios, only the 2042 is available new. It is currently on sale on for $300 which is a great price. You can pick up a used 2035 for around $200 or so. The OS535 runs $200 and PROBE is currently selling for $120. This puts the final cost in the $520 - $620 range.
You have the same abilities if you own or are thinking about getting one of the much revered PRO-2005 or PRO-2006. These typically run in the $250 to $350 range. You'll need to get an OS456 board which also runs $200 and of course, PROBE. You can save about $100 by going with the OS456 Lite which removes the CTCSS/DCS and DTMF capabilities.
There are also other options when it comes to software. These radios and Opto board combinations are also supported by a number of other software packages including Radio Manager, Scan*Star, ScannerWEAR, ScanCat, RadioMax, ScanSys, RadioCtl, Listening Post and Wave/WaveLinks.
All of these are pretty nice and fairly easy to use. Most are Windows programs for either 3.1 and/or 95. Prices run from about free to $200. Having used each of these in either regular or demo form, my opinion is that none of them come close to the feature content and power offered by PROBE. Some do have some unique and interesting features not found in any other package but overall I have to give the nod to PROBE. With this in mind, I feel you can get the most productivity and use from your radio using PROBE. I think it will be a shame if many people do not try it simply because it does not have a graphical user interface.
As for me, it gives me much more than I had ever hoped for when I first thought about getting into computer controlled monitoring. Now, when I look back to the time before I had this setup, I mentally kick myself for not having joined the revolution sooner. But I'm here now and hope that this introduction serves as a passport for others to join me in this fascinating blend of hi-tech hardware and software.
| Copyright © 2010 by Richard J. Wells |
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