The 50 channel GRE PSR-255 “Professional Scanning Receiver” is often overlooked and considered as a cheap low-end radio scanner. But after owning one for many years, and putting up against other scanners, I can say from experience that it is a bit of a dark horse. It always put up a good fight against scanners that are considered much better. And in many cases it actually beat them in some of the comparison tests I performed.

The tests were mostly based around which one could pull in the weaker signals and how well each radio sounded when using the exact same settings and same antenna’s. Like I said, the GRE 255 performed really well. It’s a great receiver that can be picked up very cheaply.

Where it might fall short for some is its receive frequency range. So many users want a radio that can receive airband. The GRE 255 does not cover airband frequencies, so that puts a lot of potential buyers off right there. Thankfully, it does cover the CB bands. And for that it is mostly really good.

The exact frequency coverage is as follows:

26MHz – 54MHz
68MHz – 88MHz
137MHz – 174MHz
380MHz – 512MHz

It works great in all its bands. A few negatives for me, if compared to using a Quansheng K6, are that it takes 6 AA batteries. I use rechargeable batteries, and they do last long. But it still seems a little inconvenient when compared to using a Quansheng UV-K6, which takes a lithium-Ion battery, or ICOM IC-R6 that takes 2 AA batteries. And, many older scanners use a battery tray that holds the batteries.

Sometimes they start to crack with age due to the tight batteries pushing against the top and bottom plastic areas when inserted. Mine is one of them. It has cracked and needed to be taped up. Problem is, if the cracks / damage gets too bad, its hard to find a correct battery holder tray replacement for sale online. I’ve tried to find one myself and wasn’t successful.

As mentioned already, for CB frequencies the GRE PSR 255 is really good if you’re going after local / your country CB transmissions. For me, though, I’m in the UK, but for the past few months I’ve enjoyed listening to the American CB transmissions on a Quansheng UV K6 [K5-8].

Sadly, CB radio transmissions from the USA can’t be heard very well on the GRE 255 due to the GRE not having AM mode. The Quansheng has the ability to change from FM, AM or USB mode on any frequency, which makes it quite decent for hearing the CB transmissions from America.

This certainly isn’t a deal breaker though. Many other CB transmissions can be heard from the UK, and other countries like Italy, France, Russia etc. Not to mention the HAM radio frequencies, which it picks up really well. Overall the GRE 255 is a great scanner, and I wouldn’t hesitate to buy another. They are really cheap on eBay.