New To This And Need Help

[mpolnika]

I want to have scanners set up with fire and police frequencies. I want one scanner to have just fire frequencies and one to have just police. I see the frequencies in the data base but when I program the scanners, I get mostly police and never fires.

Can anyone post here just fire frequencies for Baltimore County and Baltimore City? Also, do I need to know or program other information into the scanners? Thanks

 

[TinEar]

Let's start with this question: What is your scanner make and model number?

 

[n4voxgill]

If the police are conventional, then you just need to program in the frequencies. If they are part of a trunked system you would need to program in the frequencies and then enter the police talkgroups and scan in the closed mode.

Same for fire.

If any are digital you would need a digital capable scanner. Hope none of agencies are on a non-scanable system using vSelp or Provoice or encrypted.

 

[mpolnika]

I have the digital Uniden Bearcat model BC796D

 

[TinEar]

Okay, so you've got the right tools for both Baltimore County and City.

You've got to program all the frequencies for the system, using the database at this site, which you've already found. Then, you've got to program all the talkgroups also found at that same place in the database. If you want just fire, then enter only those talkgroups identified as being for the fire department. The same goes for police.

The talkgroups are the key to hearing what you want to hear.

Baltimore County is an analog system and the City is digital but your scanner will handle both with no problems. The Uniden manual is fairly good at explaining these trunked systems but tends to gloss over some points and doesn't really give a good understanding of trunked systems to a newcomer to the hobby. There are several forums at this site that get into the details of trunked systems and might be good at giving more explanation.

This is a very tedious task if you're programming by hand. Let me suggest you buy the most popular and easiest to use of all software programs. It's from Butel Software and can be found here:
http://www.butel.nl/
It might be good to program one of the trunked nets by hand just to learn the ins and outs of the scanner but it gets old in a hurry doing it that way.

 

[fmon]

I have the digital Uniden Bearcat model BC796D

Are you programming manually or with software, and if the latter...which?

 

[mpolnika]

Great TinEar, so if I understand correctly the only information I need to program into the radio is Baltimore County Frequencies
856.2125, 856.4625, 856.7125, 856.9625, 857.2125, 857.4625, 857.7125, 857.9625, 858.2125, 858.4625, 858.7125, 858.9625, 859.2125, 859.4625, 859.7125, 859.9625, 860.2125, 860.4625, 860.7125, 860.9625.

I did purchase the programming software that you suggested but it's also confusing. I see where to plug in the Freq and Tag but do I need to plug in the truck, what should the delay time be, Do I want the beep alert? Finally whats PL/DPL, Lock Out, Attenuator and Mode?

Thanks,

 

[TinEar]

I'll try to answer some of those questions about signal features later when I have a bit more time. However, if you'd like, since you're already using the ARC250 program, I can email you the program I've got for my scanner. It includes both Baltimore City and County systems along with hundreds of other freqs for this area. Then you can delete what you don't want. The files within ARC250 that contain your programs are called .mem files. So, you'd just download my file into ARC250, use the buttons to send it to your scanner and you'd be in business.

By the way, just in case you haven't realized this yet, you can only program one trunked system in each bank of the scanner. Baltimore County will go in one bank and Baltimore City in another bank.

If you want my file, let me know. Can I assume the email address you've listed for this site is correct? Or send your email address to me at boston@erols.com

Alan

 

[mpolnika]

Alan:

My email is mpolnika@yahoo.com. Thanks for your help and how will I know what to delete so I only hear fires? How will I know what is just police?

Thanks again

 

[TinEar]

Okay, it'll be a little bit before I can get it sent off to you...too many things happening at the moment. You'll know what is what because everything in the program is alpha tagged...everything. Everything is also tagged with CTCSS/DCS tones where they are available and applicable. The talkgroup lists are separated into police and fire so you can turn off the lists you don't want. I'll try to send more info along with the file when I get it sent off to you.

Alan

 

[rayveedub]

tinear you think you could send me that too:?: i am stuggling to get my 796d programmed and i'd appreciate anything else you have programmed to yours already

 

[TinEar]

I'd be happy to send it to you rayveedub. All I need is your email address. Since I have my scanner streaming on the web site, I'll have to wait till after midnight to send it since I can't get into that PC while it's running. If you don't want to put your email address up here, just send it to my email address that's in the post above.

Alan