Help Programming BCT8 for Trunk Tracking

[bigpotter]

PLEASE HELP!!!! This trunk tracking thing has been driving me absolutely crazy. I purchased a uniden BCT8 just to see if it will pick up Jacksonville Police Department before I start investing a ton of money into a digital trunk tracking scanner. I have no idea what I am doing when it comes to programming the trunk tracker portion of the scanner. When I think I have it programmed it comes across stops on a frequency and its all static, to the point it is unbearable and it doesn’t begin to scan again unless I hit the HOLD/SCAN button again. Can someone PLEASE help me to program this thing correctly? I have it picking up the sheriffs department it seems but nothing from the police department.

Thanks in advance!!!

 

[KE4ZNR]

Bigpotter-
Welcome to RR.com!
Are you trying to monitor the following system?
Scanner Frequencies: Jacksonville / Onslow County Trunking System, Jacksonville, North Carolina
If so you might have the scanner in ID Search instead of ID Scan.
If you have the radio in ID Search and it comes across one of the
county EMS talkgroups you would only hear buzzing due to the fact that the County EMS talkgroups are digital and cannot be received by your BCT8.
Look in the 3rd column for the system under "Mode". The BCT8 should be able to monitor the A (Analog) talkgroups but not the D (Digital) Talkgroups which include the County EMS talkgroups.
Give us a little more info on what system you have programmed in so we can accurately help you out.
Thanks and happy Monitoring!
Marshall KE4ZNR

 

[bigpotter]

Thanks for the welcome I am pretty new to all this so please bear with me. I am trying to scan Jacksonville Police Department which from the link that was posted is an analog signal. As far as if it is on ID Search or ID Scan I am not 100% sure. The user manual for the BCT8 isnt very detailed if you ask me. The funny thing is the way I had it programmed in before I would pick up a broadcast from Jacksonville Police Department....then the next 10 broadcasts would come across as static. Sometimes it would stay stuck on that channel until I hit the Hold/Scan button again. Now I set the scanner to one of the preset scanning modes instead of scanning the PVT frequenceis (which would be frequencies I have manually programmed in) and it picks up what appears to be the sheriffs department for onslow county (and if I am not mistaken the holy ridge police department) with no problem. Just let me know what other information you might need and I will be more than happy to try and give it to you

Thanks again for the help!

 

[KM4WLV]

Bigpotter,

Since you're new to scanning I'm going to assume you don't have software, or a programming cable for your BCT8. That is by far the easiest way to program this paticular model. I have one, I know LOL. I'll try to walk you through step by step :

1 - In which ever bank you choose you need to enter all frequencies for the system you are wanting to monitor. I'm not familiar with the Jacksonville system & haven't looked at it in the DB, but if it is a SmartZone system there is no need to enter duplicate frequencies.

2 - Enter the frequencies in decending order meaning from highest to lowest. Some people may disagree, but I have always had more sucess monitoring this way.

3 - After entering all your frequencies do the following in order :
1 - Press the FUNC key
2 - Press the TRUNK key
3 - Press the number that cooresponds to the bank you put the frequencies in

4 - These scanners automatically default to monitor Motorola Type II systems, so if it is a different type system (i.e. EDACS, etc) you will have to change the type of system you monitoring.

5 - After you have completed these steps the scanner should go into ID search mode which is indicated by the numeric display portion showing all dashes.

6 - Press the HOLD button & that will park it on 1-1. These scanner are capable of 5 banks (per system) with 10 talkgroups in each bank. If you press the PROG button you should be able to enter then ID for the talkgroups you wish to monitor.

Do remember like Marshall stated that these are not digital capable, nor are they able to be upgraded to that capacity. However if you are interested, they will monitor the new VIPER system that is now up & running. You can monitor the majority of the NCSHP dispatch talkgroups, as well as other agencies statewide that use the system & operate in analog mode. This scanner will also do Control Channel only operation. For instance, if you choose to monitor VIPER, you can enter ALL the control channels statewide, and follow the system as you travel throughout the state.

I hope this helps, & if I have missed a step I apologize. I use software for all my scanners & the last time I actually entered something by hand on my BCT-8 was about a year & a half ago. If you need anymore help please feel free to PM me & I'll do what I can !!!!

 

[gts1983]

Just got my bct8 used, works great, have a cable, and demo version of the software. I have all my local frequiences programed but i don't understand what trunk scanning is, how it works, or what i have to do to use it. Any help would be appreciated.