March 1, 2007 Generally speaking, people like different brands of software just as they like different brands of scanners, vehicles or soft drinks. Usually different brands all get the job done, but do it in a different manner or perhaps with different features. If opinions are solicited, it is likely that there will be at least one person who favors a brand that someone else does not. Rarely is there a major defect that keeps people from using one specific brand. Over the past year I have been progressively checking out "newer" scanners, antennas and software related to them. While I have read and heard that people generally do not favor ScanCat(Lite), it was never clear to me how DEFECTIVE this product is. Lou Maag wrote a review regarding an experience using ScanCatLite and a PRO-96; this review is a more extensive look what happened when using ScanCatLite with two separate PRO-97s. Version of ScanCatLite: 1.2.7 Firmware version of PRO-97s: 1.01 VISUAL TEST: Each channel on the scanner can have DELAY ON or OFF. However ScanCatLite provides delay settings of BLANK, None, 1 sec, 2 sec, 4 sec, -2, -5, -10, infinite. Only BLANK and 2 sec are effective. ScanCatLite provides MODE settings for each channel of BLANK, AM, FM, FMN, FMW or Auto. However the scanner has MODE settings of AM, FM, CT, DC, MO, ED and LT. ScanCatLite seems to provide all of the CT and DC tones supported by the scanner, except there is no way to set a channel to CT: Search mode. If any tone is selected, ScanCatLite assumes the associated setting. If you select "None" as the tone, FM is set. Each bank can have one channel set as the PRIority channel. However, the PRO-97 does not function that way. There is only ONE PRIority channel for the entire scanner; and ScanCatLite provides NO MEANS to set it. There is no way to set a bank to CLOSED mode. EXAMINATION OF FILES: Each profile created generated two RSD files when saved. One file contained all frequencies and text for conventional channels and some talkgroup data. The second file contained the rest of the talkgroup data. The SETTINGS information is NOT saved. This means anything edited on the SETTINGS screen, such as the WELCOME message, banks selected and battery voltages are not saved (whether part of the profile or not). UPLOAD TEST (from scanner): A PRO-97 was initialized to factory settings and then programmed by hand. All 10 banks were virtually filled, including 2 banks with Motorola II trunked systems. A custom sign on message was programmed; the priority channel was programmed; each bank had a text tag; channels were programmed with AM, FM, MO or CT: Search. Most of the data was read correctly. However, any channel programmed with a mode of CT: Search was shown just as FM. The battery voltage settings (the PRO-97 has two of them) were not read, but a default for ScanCatLite of 2.0 volts was shown. The contrast was not read, a default of 5 was shown. The welcome message was read and shown correctly. However, since it is not saved with the rest of the data, when a read is reloaded from disc, the welcome message is changed to the ScanCatLite default of an ad for itself. If the delay is on for a channel, 2 seconds was shown. DOWNLOAD TEST (to scanner): The welcome message is programmed to what is shown at the time of download. If a profile is loaded from disc, whatever was programmed at that time was not saved. The message must be manually edited prior to downloading. The battery voltage displayed is 2.0 volts; however the PRO-97 has two settings. One sets when the low battery indicator comes on and the other sets where the scanner shuts down. ScanCatLite programmed BOTH voltages to 2.0 volts REGARDLESS of what was entered on the SETTINGS page!!!! This essentially makes the low battery function disabled and useless. Regardless of what is displayed on the SETTINGS screen for the CONTRAST setting, ScanCatLite always sets the CONTRAST to 5 (on a scale of 1 to 7). The contrast range on the PRO-97 is 1-8 (as displayed when you press FUNC 9). Regardless of whether "Key Beep" is selected, ScanCatLite always sets the key beep to OFF. ScanCatLite ALWAYS sets the scan direction to DOWN. There is no on screen option. ScanCatLite essentially does not support the PRIORITY channel on the PRO-97. It is ALWAYS programmed with ZEROS. ScanCatLite ALWAYS programs the banks OPEN. There is no means to set a bank to CLOSED. All unprogrammed channels are programmed with ZEROS and LOCKED OUT. This is NOT the same as ERASING the channel (done by hand in program mode by FUNC CL). One issue is when finding the next locked out channel (FUNC L/O) the user must wade through all of the unprogrammed channels of each bank to find what is locked out in subsequent banks. TONE FREQUENCIES are NOT always programmed correctly. No obvious pattern was discovered as to when or why tone frequencies were incorrectly set. All channels set to no tone (FM mode) were set correctly. However, channels were randomly set to the wrong tone frequency (analog or digital). CONFIRMATION: After programming a PRO-97 from ScanCatLite, it was read by WIN97. WIN97 showed that the two battery voltages had been set to 0.78 volts!!!!! A PRO-97 was re-initialized to factory defaults (0 1 at power on) and read again by WIN97. The values read this time were LO: 3.94 volts & Hi: 4.63 volts. The PRO-97 was re-programmed by ScanCatLite, the Battery voltage on the SETTING screen set to 3.94 and programmed. The PRO-97 was re-read again by WIN97 to confirm ScanCatLite sets the voltages to 0.78!!!! SUMMARY: ScanCat(Lite) is JUNK! Seriously, you are better off programming the scanner by hand than you are to use something that changes settings to dangerous values. If that is not enough, keep in mind that many items are not actually set to what you see on the PC screen. Trunked systems pick up everything because the bank(s) are not closed. Channels with CT or DC settings are not received because the tone value is not correct. Who really knows what else is going on?