Equipment and Software

Welcome to the RadioReference Equipment and Software Gateway.
Getting the receiver is only half the battle. There are other things that go along with them; antennas, power supplies, software for programming (and in some cases, logging and control). The topics below should give you some leads to articles with lots of links on each subject.

Equipment

• Scanner Antennas Mobile, base, handheld - and even a few homebrew designs and some technical notes, too
• A variety of Scanner Accessories are linked here.
• A variety of schematics for data slicers are presented here. These devices convert a signal tapped from the discriminator of your scanner into something the PC can recognize. Important for some utilities that read trunked systems' control channel data.
• If you live in an urban area, at times your scanner may hear pagers and other things in areas where you don't want to. Adding a filter is one answer to this annoying problem
• Whether you are listening in a car, house or portable, reading the Powering Your Scanner article should help in choosing the right power supply for your application
• Would you like to share a single antenna among many radios? Then check out the splitters links.

Software

• Where can I find software downloads?
• Popular Software for GRE Scanners
• Popular Software for Radio Shack Scanners
  • Note: When looking for software for RS scanners, be sure to choose the correct software for your scanner. With the exception of the Pro-2052, scanners prior to the Pro-106 were limited to download/upload operations only.
  • The user guide for FreeScan (freeware for the Uniden DMA Scanners) is here.
  • If your scanner's software cannot connect to the web service, but you have Excel, you can use it to act as an intermediary to hold data that you can copy. See the Excel Copy/Paste Special to Software article for instructions
• Programming Files - Check these links out for programming files for your scanner, if you can't get anything from a request on your state forum
• Radio Control Software - This is a more concise listing of all software packages for scanners and wideband receivers
• What software exists for Non Windows OS such as Linux?
• Rebanding introduces several changes to scanner programming.
  • If you are using a Uniden scanner, the Software Support for Uniden Rebanding article has several examples of software and how to apply changes for rebanding
  • For the GRE PSR-500/600 or the PRO-197/106/107 see the Object Oriented Scanner Software article for specific information
  • For the GRE PSR-300/400 or the RS PRO-163/164, see the PSR-300/400 Software and USB Support article for specific information
  • Win96 - for the RS Pro-96 and Pro-2096 only
• Want to record audio from your scanner? Then see the Recording Software and Tips article
• Links to articles describing applications for older AOR and Icom radios can be found here

Connecting the PC and Scanner

Getting the right software is a start; now how do I connect the scanner and PC? These articles discuss this question.

• Connecting Radios to Soundcards
• Connecting scanners via USB