Help programming new digital scanner in Rochester

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MightySlam

Member
Joined
Feb 12, 2010
Messages
6
Location
Rochester, NY
With the change over to digital in Monroe County, we just picked up a BCD996XT. Programming it has been a little daunting. We have the frequencies in for both RPD and County Sheriff programmed and we are hearing communications, but we seem to be hearing fewer than when it was analog which makes me think that a setting is off somewhere... frequency/tone/CTCSS/etc. I learned early on that this is far more complicated than it used to be.

I was hoping someone could shed some light on how to program for the new digital system... maybe share how your scanner is set up to get the most out of our scanner.

Thanks in advance!
 

Warthog1

Silent Key
Joined
May 12, 2003
Messages
455
Location
Northville, NY
Get the ARC 996 software, then programming is a breeze !
Otherwise you tend to drink quite a bit and mumble to yourself.
 

Nightjock

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Joined
Jan 7, 2010
Messages
81
Location
Rochester/Victor, NY
What are you hearing, and what do you think you're missing? Do you have the NAC codes?
Also, are you using software to program? Makes life MUCH easier.
 

MightySlam

Member
Joined
Feb 12, 2010
Messages
6
Location
Rochester, NY
Thanks for the replies.

We are using FreeSCAN to program the scanner.

I think we are missing the car-to-base traffic. I can hear dispatch, but I rarely hear any communication back from the cars. I wasn't sure if there was a setting/frequency that needs to be put in to hear that, or if they are just on the same frequency as dispatch.

As for NAC codes... that's the kind of thing that's tripping me up. I've read about them, but I didn't enter them because I wasn't sure what they were. In FreeSCAN I don't see where I can input them.

Likewise, on the RadioReference database they have "tones" for the channels. When I plug those into the "tone" column of FreeSCAN, we get nothing. It will scan the channels but the scanner doesn't receive anything.

And I see on NF2G.com they have numbers or number/letter combos after the frequencies... I'm not sure what they are and where they are supposed to be input, or even if they need to be.

The scanner is set up with 2 conventional systems w/ one group in each. The first being the suburb police/fire and the 2nd system being city police and sheriff.

I was pretty good at programming an analog scanner, but this has just thrown me for a loop. I just want to make sure I'm doing this right.
 

Nightjock

Member
Joined
Jan 7, 2010
Messages
81
Location
Rochester/Victor, NY
Once I get back to my PC I can help you out. (Why is there no Mac software for scanning?)

If you'd like to direct message me your email, I should be able to send you my Freescan database for Monroe County.
 

MightySlam

Member
Joined
Feb 12, 2010
Messages
6
Location
Rochester, NY
Once I get back to my PC I can help you out. (Why is there no Mac software for scanning?)

If you'd like to direct message me your email, I should be able to send you my Freescan database for Monroe County.

Thanks so much... I'd love to take a look at it. Send it to mightyslam (at) gmail.com.
 
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