Technical information
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of some of the primary objectives:
The first objective was to take full advantage of the capabilities of the OptoScan. That would seem only
natural, but because of the uniqueness of the OptoScan interface, it meant the market for Probe would be
limited to OptoScan users making it difficult to recover development costs. To overcome this hurdle, and to
keep the price of Probe competitive, a different marketing strategy was developed. Probe would be sold by
mail order only to eliminate the expense of staffing a telephone. Support would be substituted with electronic
mail, thorough documentation, and a very stable and tested program. Advertising would be minimal and
supplemented by endorsements from satisfied users and product reviews. And no time would be spent
developing "demo" programs. In short, the majority of my time would be devoted to trying to make
Probe the best software for the OptoScannist.
The second objective was scanning speed. OptoScan’s unique and exclusive "pipeline tuning" provides a
major increase in scanning speed over slower conventional means used by most other OptoScan programs.
Pipeline tuning also requires a substantial hurdle in programming. We wanted the fastest possible scanning
speed, and as a result, spent over three months scratch building Probe’s engine before adding features,
functions and screens.
The third objective was to make Probe easy to use and versatile while providing as many features as possible.
It is a delicate balance to develop a program for both novices and power users. As a result, Probe
can be run on the lowliest of computers without any sacrifices to features and performance. Probe uses a true
dBASE engine allowing the user to work directly with a dBASE file, and uses a data structure
modeled from the FCC databases.
The fourth and final objective was to provide features specifically for the scanning enthusiast. The other
software packages had their roots in shortwave and seemed to miss many of the finer points of scanning. One
of these points is having immediate control over your scanner which can make a major difference when your
are trying to follow fast breaking action.
Some of Probe’s Unique Features:
Probe is a DOS based program and runs on virtually any computer capable of running at least DOS V3.1.
Unlike other programs (which I fondly refer to as "bloatware"; no offense to competing products) which can
only be run on more expensive Window’s based computers, Probe can be run on virtually any IBM compatible
computer including Hewlett Packard’s HP200 palmtop computer. Many Probe users find it more efficient and
practical to run Probe on a computer dedicated to their scanner. In most cases, these older computers can be
purchased used for less than the price of the OptoScan, or Probe for that matter. In fact, we’re now starting to
see some of the older laptops showing up at giveaway prices. These laptops make an excellent addition to the
monitoring hobbyist for all sorts of uses. But that doesn’t mean you can’t run Probe on a Window’s based
computer either; it works fine there as well. With Probe, you can have your cake and eat it too. I believe in
versatility even if that means sacrificing "pretty graphics" which can require additional,
and many times, substantial computer resources which can cut into processing time and otherwise be used to
expedite an important function required to stay on top of fast breaking action. In short, Probe may not
be pretty to some, but it is efficient and functional.
Probe has a number of unique functions which go far beyond the usual features provided by computer
controlled scanning found in most software products; usual features including displaying a name of the
frequency’s user and logging the date and time of activity. An example of this is Probe’s exclusive
"SmartScan".
SmartScan allows you to focus in on fast breaking action. Key frequencies are assigned as triggers. When
activity is detected on one of these key frequencies, PROBE activates an assigned bank of
frequencies, called a "SmartBank", for a specified amount of dwell time. A SmartBank can be any bank of a
few frequencies or as many as 1000. For each key frequency, you can choose whether the SmartBank is the