How to Program in Talkgroup BCD996XT

I'm trying to program in a single talkgroup into a BCD996XT.
I want to record the audio output of a single talk group. Our network is a Motorola P25
Smartzone network. I want to capture the traffic from a tower with four freqs one being the control channel. Right now the scanner will pick up any talkgroup traffic that is authorized to traverse thru the network and thru our tower.
The talkgroup can use any one of the 3 freqs.at the tower.
I'm using Scancat-Lite software. I don't see anywhere that a talkgroup ID is entered.

Thanks
Dave

I use FreeScan and had to download another file for my local system and then "cut, paste, and butcher" it for my own use. Basically you will need to do the same thing. I have a BCD996XT, for two months I could not use it, then I finally d/l a ready-made file and figured it out. The Uniden manual is crap, there is a better manual on the net, marksscanners.com, I would have never figured out the protocol by myself. My best suggestion would be to find someone in your area that already has the same scanner and computer program, and go from there.

Never use Scancrap! It's a total POS software package, and has been known to screw scanners up royally. As the prev poster mentions, FreeScan can do this and there's absolutely no need to 'butcher' anything. I'm assuming here that you've installed it and downloaded the current contents of your scanner;

a. Create the new group
b. Make sure that the new group has an allocated quick key.
c, Add the talkgroup
d. Mark it for recording. Make sure the 'SIMPLE VIEW' box is NOT checked. The REC OUT box is all the way to the right, next to the COMMENTS
e. On the system screen, in the TAPE OUT area, make sure that MARKED CHANNELS is set. In the TGID Group Quick Key area, the new quick key you just allocated is checked.
f. Upload with the REPLACE option

It seems like a lot, but once you get the hang of it, it's not bad.

As the name implies, FreeScan is freeware...you will need a connection from the scanner to the PC for this, and this article goes into some things to check for in detail...

Connecting Radios to Soundcards - The RadioReference Wiki

best regards..Mike

Talkgroup Programming

I installed Freescan yesterday and started playing around with it.
I deleted the contents of the scanner first thing as I don't want anything
on this scanner but one talkgroup. Have to be able to turn it on and the only thing it can do
is receive the one talkgroup.

Talkgroup Problem

I just manually programmed the unit because I kept getting a APCO Band Plan error when uploading
the Freescan file.
It is scanning the freqs for the talkgroup OK. I'm still working on eliminating all traffic except the specific talkgroup I want, the TGID is programmed.
I'm also scanning some freqs in the 100 & 400 bands as well as CC garbage including a FM radio station. Trying to eliminate them right now.

CC Gone

Was able to figure out how to get get rid of CC garbage using Freescan.
Working on getting rid of News 455.xxx now.

I think I have eliminated all the garbage traffic.(News is gone)
I plugged in a talkgroup that I don't want to record/scan and then locked it out
and it works. My problem is that Wyolink has hundreds of talkgroups that could
pass traffic thru my tower.
Looking for a easier way to filter everything but the one talkgroup out.
I hope I don't have to enter every Wyolink talkgroup and then lock them out.

Think I'm done

Ended up plugging in the 29 talkgroups that are in our 800MHz portables and locked 28 of them out.
Since tower site, 800MHz, is for our portables only, shouldn't have to worry about talkgroups that aren't in the portables

dadsit said:

I think I have eliminated all the garbage traffic.(News is gone)
I plugged in a talkgroup that I don't want to record/scan and then locked it out
and it works. My problem is that Wyolink has hundreds of talkgroups that could
pass traffic thru my tower.
Looking for a easier way to filter everything but the one talkgroup out.
I hope I don't have to enter every Wyolink talkgroup and then lock them out.

Click to expand...

If all you want to hear is one talk group (or two, or whatever the number is), program in the desired talk group id's.

Then, make sure that under the system options, you select "ID Scan", not "ID Search"".
ID Scan will tell the scanner to only receive the programmed talk group id's (presuming they are not locked out).
ID Search will let the scanner receive any active ID on the system that the scanner encounters, provided it is not locked out. I suspect you may be in 'ID Search' mode, and that's why you are getting the 'garbage' (unwanted tak groups).

The only 'band plan error' I get doing a quick test, importing all the sites, and some of the counties using FreeScan, then downloading into into my 396XT, is an informational alert only, 'no band plan' for the various sites. But that's not a concern, as the scanner gets the information it needs from the control channel data on a P25 system. Are you trying to use the table data entries that are on the database page? Those are for the Pro-96. Needless to say, I can't test reception on the test download on WyoLink, from where I am, but if the database is correct, I'm sure it would work just fine.

You were right, it was in ID Search.
One little button caused so much pain :-(
Thanks for the info guys.

dadsit, Glad to know you got it figured out. It was a bear for me, locked out the TG I did not want to hear. So far here in southern MN the State Patrol/ Snow plows are the only users. The 996XT has a really good receiver. I am using a second-story roof-mounted R/S 19" antenna.

I was chasing a very annoying talkgroup and could not figure out where it was coming from.

On the Radio Shack digital scanner I think they called open or closed

Once I set the scanner to ID scan all was good. Is there an option in FreeScan to do this? I could not find it and had to use the front panel to set.

Thanks!

aalonzo said:

On the Radio Shack digital scanner I think they called open or closed

Click to expand...

Yep.
GRE/Radio Shack "Open Mode"=Uniden ID Search.
GRE/Radio Shack "Closed Mode"=Uniden ID Scan.

aalonzo said:

Is there an option in FreeScan to do this? I could not find it and had to use the front panel to set.

Click to expand...

Yep. Look under the "System Setup" screen...I have drawn a box around the option in this pic:


Hope this helps!
Happy Monitoring
Marshall KE4ZNR

Perfect!!

73 DE N1LOB

ka3jjz said:

Never use Scancrap! It's a total POS software package, and has been known to screw scanners up royally. As the prev poster mentions, FreeScan can do this and there's absolutely no need to 'butcher' anything. I'm assuming here that you've installed it and downloaded the current contents of your scanner;

Click to expand...

My use of the words "cut, paste, and butcher" were in reference to the file I used. The file I had was for a different part of the state. Snowplow TG's were mixed w/ State Patrol TG's, many tower sites I could not receive... There was never anything wrong with Freescan, my Uniden BCD996XT, or my Win XP computer.