Seems to be lots of people looking for a walkthru for setting up Fleetnet by hand, so I will give it a stab (perhaps this can be made a sticky if deemed fit). This is based on my 396XT, but I imagine the 996 and perhaps BCT15x will be very similar. My example will use the Byron (London) tower in Zone 1 so you will need to substitute in the information for your area.
All information used in this example can be found at the following link:
Bell Fleetnet - Ontario Provincial Government Zone 1 Trunking System, Southwest Zone, Ontario - Scanner Frequencies
Links to the other Zones can be found here:
Bell Fleetnet - Ontario Provincial Government Zone 2 Trunking System, Southeast Zone, Ontario - Scanner Frequencies
Bell Fleetnet - Ontario Provincial Government Zone 3 Trunking System, Northeast Zone, Ontario - Scanner Frequencies
Bell Fleetnet - Ontario Provincial Government Zone 4 Trunking System, Northwest Zone, Ontario - Scanner Frequencies
Setting up a new system:
MENU -> Program System
Hit 'E' for Enter
Rotate the scroll knob to 'New System' and hit 'E'
The radio now wants you to select the system type. Rotate the scroll knob again and select 'MOT' then 'E'
** Note:Fleetnet is NOT a P25 system. The radio will ask you to confirm your selection. Hit 'E' one more time.
You will now be presented with a new list of options, with the first one on the list being 'Edit Name'. Hit the 'E' button to enter this sub menu (or you can skip this till later). Use the scroll knob to select characters and the 4 & 6 buttons to move left and right across the screen. Use 'E' to save your edits and return back to the options menu.
Scroll down to 'Edit Site' and hit 'E', then hit 'E' again to select 'New Site'. Once again the first item on the next list is 'Edit Name'. Hit 'E' once more then you can edit the name of the site using the same procedure that you used to name the System. In my case I will name the site '18 - Byron'. When finished with your edits hit 'E' again to exit out of this section.
Scroll down to 'Set Quick Key' and hit 'E'. For ease of demonstration lets make this site Quick Key 1, so scroll down to '1' and hit 'E'. Using Quick Key 1 will let you enable/disable this site for scanning. Now you should be back to the options menu, so rotate the scroll knob a few clicks and go down to 'Set Band Plan', and hit 'E'... Followed by a couple of clicks down to 'Custom' and 'E' one more time. You should now see a listing of Band Plan 1, 2 and 3. Hit 'E' on 'Band Plan 1', then you will be presented with a new set of options. Hit 'E' on 'Set Base Freq' and the scanner will ask you to 'Input Lower'. Now according to the database entry for Fleetnet Zone 1, the first base frequency is 141.015mhz. So enter '141.015' followed by 'E'. You will now be prompted for the Upper Frequency. This information is NOT on the database page, so pay attention... the Upper Frequency for Plan 1 is 143.985. Enter '143.985' into the radio, followed by 'E'. Now scroll down to 'Offset' and enter '380' followed by 'E'. Hit 'E' one more time to select '+ Polarity'. Now scroll down to 'Spacing' and hit 'E'. The default selection is 25.00kHz, but we want 15 so spin the dial over a few clicks to 15.00 and hit 'E' once more. That completes the setup for Band Plan 1, so hit the 'MENU' button once to back out one level and you should be back at the Band Plan 1/2/3 selection menu. Repeat the same procedure as above to Band Plan 2 and 3 using these values:
Band Plan 2
Base Lower: 151.730
Base Upper: 152.510
Offset: 579
Spacing: 15.00
Band Plan 3
Base Lower: 154.320
Base Upper: 156.225
Offset: 632
Spacing: 15.00
After entering the Spacing for Band Plan 3, hit the 'MENU' button 3 times... this should back you out to the main site setup screen once again. Scroll down to 'Set Frequencies' and hit 'E', followed by another 'E' when presented with 'New Frequency'. In my case, using the Byron site, I will enter '141.420' followed by 'E', then scroll down to 'New Frequency' again and hit 'E' once more. Here I will enter '142.665' followed by 'E' (these are the Primary and Alternate control channels for the Byron site). Tap the 'MENU' button 4 times to get back to the main System options screen.
Now at this point you should be able to hit the 'Scan' button and start monitoring for activity (watch for the Signal Strength indicator on the display... you should see some bars appearing when the radio scans the control channel for the site you have programmed. If you don't see any bars, you are perhaps in a poor reception area or have programmed in a site that you cannot hear at your location). But now of course all you will see is raw talkgroup information... no fancy labels or anything. To setup talkgroup info, hit 'MENU' -> 'Program System' -> Select the system you just made -> Edit Group -> New Group. Name your Group (ie 'OPP' or 'EMS') using the same steps as before, then select 'Set Quick Key' to assign a QK to this group (you could use 1 for OPP, 2 for EMS, 3 for MTO etc etc). Next select 'Edit Channel' followed by 'New Channel'. This is where you enter your talkgroup data. So I want to listen to Middlesex OPP, so for my first entry I would enter 8336 for the talkgroup (and edit the name if I so desired). You can repeat this section and enter as many talkgroups as you like.
That's a pretty basic run thru but hopefully it will help some of you out. Programming via a PC is incredibly easier, not to mention it gives you a much better overview of what is in your radio and how it's laid out. That being said, it's always a good idea to know how to do things by hand because you never know when you might need to change or add something.
Please feel free to point out anything that I've missed or any glaring errors on my part.... and as always READ THE MANUAL! I also recommend checking out the 'Easier to read' programming manual that can be found in the Wiki.
All information used in this example can be found at the following link:
Bell Fleetnet - Ontario Provincial Government Zone 1 Trunking System, Southwest Zone, Ontario - Scanner Frequencies
Links to the other Zones can be found here:
Bell Fleetnet - Ontario Provincial Government Zone 2 Trunking System, Southeast Zone, Ontario - Scanner Frequencies
Bell Fleetnet - Ontario Provincial Government Zone 3 Trunking System, Northeast Zone, Ontario - Scanner Frequencies
Bell Fleetnet - Ontario Provincial Government Zone 4 Trunking System, Northwest Zone, Ontario - Scanner Frequencies
Setting up a new system:
MENU -> Program System
Hit 'E' for Enter
Rotate the scroll knob to 'New System' and hit 'E'
The radio now wants you to select the system type. Rotate the scroll knob again and select 'MOT' then 'E'
** Note:Fleetnet is NOT a P25 system. The radio will ask you to confirm your selection. Hit 'E' one more time.
You will now be presented with a new list of options, with the first one on the list being 'Edit Name'. Hit the 'E' button to enter this sub menu (or you can skip this till later). Use the scroll knob to select characters and the 4 & 6 buttons to move left and right across the screen. Use 'E' to save your edits and return back to the options menu.
Scroll down to 'Edit Site' and hit 'E', then hit 'E' again to select 'New Site'. Once again the first item on the next list is 'Edit Name'. Hit 'E' once more then you can edit the name of the site using the same procedure that you used to name the System. In my case I will name the site '18 - Byron'. When finished with your edits hit 'E' again to exit out of this section.
Scroll down to 'Set Quick Key' and hit 'E'. For ease of demonstration lets make this site Quick Key 1, so scroll down to '1' and hit 'E'. Using Quick Key 1 will let you enable/disable this site for scanning. Now you should be back to the options menu, so rotate the scroll knob a few clicks and go down to 'Set Band Plan', and hit 'E'... Followed by a couple of clicks down to 'Custom' and 'E' one more time. You should now see a listing of Band Plan 1, 2 and 3. Hit 'E' on 'Band Plan 1', then you will be presented with a new set of options. Hit 'E' on 'Set Base Freq' and the scanner will ask you to 'Input Lower'. Now according to the database entry for Fleetnet Zone 1, the first base frequency is 141.015mhz. So enter '141.015' followed by 'E'. You will now be prompted for the Upper Frequency. This information is NOT on the database page, so pay attention... the Upper Frequency for Plan 1 is 143.985. Enter '143.985' into the radio, followed by 'E'. Now scroll down to 'Offset' and enter '380' followed by 'E'. Hit 'E' one more time to select '+ Polarity'. Now scroll down to 'Spacing' and hit 'E'. The default selection is 25.00kHz, but we want 15 so spin the dial over a few clicks to 15.00 and hit 'E' once more. That completes the setup for Band Plan 1, so hit the 'MENU' button once to back out one level and you should be back at the Band Plan 1/2/3 selection menu. Repeat the same procedure as above to Band Plan 2 and 3 using these values:
Band Plan 2
Base Lower: 151.730
Base Upper: 152.510
Offset: 579
Spacing: 15.00
Band Plan 3
Base Lower: 154.320
Base Upper: 156.225
Offset: 632
Spacing: 15.00
After entering the Spacing for Band Plan 3, hit the 'MENU' button 3 times... this should back you out to the main site setup screen once again. Scroll down to 'Set Frequencies' and hit 'E', followed by another 'E' when presented with 'New Frequency'. In my case, using the Byron site, I will enter '141.420' followed by 'E', then scroll down to 'New Frequency' again and hit 'E' once more. Here I will enter '142.665' followed by 'E' (these are the Primary and Alternate control channels for the Byron site). Tap the 'MENU' button 4 times to get back to the main System options screen.
Now at this point you should be able to hit the 'Scan' button and start monitoring for activity (watch for the Signal Strength indicator on the display... you should see some bars appearing when the radio scans the control channel for the site you have programmed. If you don't see any bars, you are perhaps in a poor reception area or have programmed in a site that you cannot hear at your location). But now of course all you will see is raw talkgroup information... no fancy labels or anything. To setup talkgroup info, hit 'MENU' -> 'Program System' -> Select the system you just made -> Edit Group -> New Group. Name your Group (ie 'OPP' or 'EMS') using the same steps as before, then select 'Set Quick Key' to assign a QK to this group (you could use 1 for OPP, 2 for EMS, 3 for MTO etc etc). Next select 'Edit Channel' followed by 'New Channel'. This is where you enter your talkgroup data. So I want to listen to Middlesex OPP, so for my first entry I would enter 8336 for the talkgroup (and edit the name if I so desired). You can repeat this section and enter as many talkgroups as you like.
That's a pretty basic run thru but hopefully it will help some of you out. Programming via a PC is incredibly easier, not to mention it gives you a much better overview of what is in your radio and how it's laid out. That being said, it's always a good idea to know how to do things by hand because you never know when you might need to change or add something.
Please feel free to point out anything that I've missed or any glaring errors on my part.... and as always READ THE MANUAL! I also recommend checking out the 'Easier to read' programming manual that can be found in the Wiki.
Last edited:
thanks forts
