Banks and lists

Old Scanners

A term used to describe the traditional type of memory architecture of scanners as opposed to the newer Dynamic memory architecture (DMA) types.

It consists of a scanner memory configured in a number of banks of available channels which are used to load frequencies to scan for activity. The lists part of the phrase typically refers to lists of talk group ID's when the bank is used to monitor a trunking radio system. The number of banks and lists differ from scanner model to scanner model and you should refer to your owner's manual or other references to determine the capacity of your particular scanner.

Newer Scanners

Newer digital non-DMA scanners, are often based upon an object-oriented design that uses ScanLists, which is different than the older design that used banks.

The object oriented design allows the user to enter an object once, and assign it to one or more ScanLists. This design prevents duplication formerly experienced with older scanners, which occurred when the same frequency or talkgroup had to be entered repeatedly to assign it to multiple banks.

The ScanLists can behave much like banks, in that they usually can be enabled or disabled by pressing a number on the scanner's keypad.

A single ScanList usually can hold all of the objects, unlike a bank which often can hold only no more than 100 memories.