Harford County 800mhz programming help

[abkinsey]

I am new to the TrunkTracking scanners. I have a new Uniden bc796d.

I have tried to program in the 800Mhx frequencies for Harford County. I doesn't seem to pick much up.

My questions are as follows:

1. Can you program just Fire/EMS without the Police?


2. Do I need to enter all Frequencies or just the control Channels?

3. If I have to program in just the control channels, do I program them as truncked?

So far I have programmed in the following:

868.8125 Primary
0868.7750 Secondary
0868.7750 Secondary
0868.3750 Secondary
0868.7875 Secondary



Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank You


Andrew

 

[doctordave]

Andrew,

You could save yourself a lot of headaches by using the software provided and just programming via PC. Total piece of cake. Doing it by hand w/ just the radio is a hassle. Do you have access to a PC? You'll need a cheap cable (about $10 at Radio Shack). Either way (PC or not), we'll help you through it. Yes, you can choose which talkgroups you want.....so you choose which particular PD/FD/EMS/etc comms you monitor. I always dump all of the freqs in, so I honestly don't know about control channel only programming w/ the 796.

The 796 is a great radio. I have several and love them.

In fact, if you get the cable and use the software, I can e-mail you my Harford Co 796 file.

 

[abkinsey]

Software and Cable

Ok, I do have the Butel Software and Cable. Still a little unsure of what to put into the software.


Andrew

 

[TinEar]

Andrew, enter all the freqs for the Harford County trunked system. Then enter the talkgroups for the fire department if that's all you want. All of them are listed in the database at this site.

alan

 

[ka3jjz]

Speaking of which, anyone have any news on the migration? August 1st isn't that far away, and news on the subject has been notably quiet. Last I heard, all the PDs have moved off the old UHF system (and those freqs will eventually go to MDTs, right?), and I would assume fire has already made the transition.

73s Mike

 

[doctordave]

Andrew,

Figure out how to navigate through the software? My Harford file is for the free Uniden software....will be happy to e-mail it to you. I honestly do not know if the file can be utilized w/ your commercial software. Frankly, though, programming via PC is so quick that you may prefer to just set up your own file. Let us know how it's coming along.

 

[TinEar]

Mike, Harford has made very few changes to the the old UHF freqs. The four county sheriff freqs are still operating, Aberdeen is still operating and the fire department still dispatches on 460.60. Near as I can tell, only Bel Air and Havre de Grace have stopped operating on their UHF freqs.

 

[abkinsey]

Talk Group ID's

Ok, I got all of the 800mhz frequencies programmed in.

I also programmed in all of the Fire/EMS talkgroups.

Now the problem is that I can't get it to just scan the Talkgroups. I set the scanner to do so and it just seems to ignore it.

Am I still missing something?


Andrew

 

[doctordave]

Andrew,

What exactly happens when you attempt to scan the talkgroup lists on the 796? If you can provide a bit more detail, we'll probably be able to tell you what's wrong.

 

[abkinsey]

Problem Description

Ok, Here's what I am doing and the results

This is specific for the 796:

I hold in the Trunk button until it says "Ready To ID Scan"

It then starts to scan. I picks up a bunch of things but never lists them by Talkgroup ID. In addition, it seems as if It still picks up some of the Police talk. Eventually I'll want that, but for now, I am trying to concentrate on the Fire Side.

According to the Manual, I thought it said that it would just scan the talkgropups programmed in while in ID scan.

Should it not display the Talkgroup when that group is broascasting? I did add alpha tags to all the talkgroups I entered.

One additional question is: How many total 800mhz frquencies should I have entered for Harford County. At this time I have entered a total of 10.

Thanks again for the help

Andrew

 

[abkinsey]

Problem Resolved!!!!

I was able to resolve the issue!!! The ID Scan is working perfectly now!!!!

I think it was a combination of the following:


1. I had not set up any Scan lists

2. I was configuring the wrong Control Channel Plan (I had it set to 1 and it should be 2)

3. Some of the Control Channel frequencies were not trunked.


THank you all for the assistance. I greatly appreciate it!!!!!!!!!!


Andrew