BCD436HP/BCD536HP: Dept/Site QK's - I must have goofed up somewhere

I've checked the owner's manual & haven't found the answer to this.

I was travelling the other day & using a Favorites List that I had set up for that destination and the route taken. One of the systems I scan is the statewide P25 system. I assigned it a SysQK, and also assigned DQK's within the system. (For departments I use DQK's 00-79; for the sites, I use DQK's 80-99.) So as I moved from one county to the next, I wanted to turn off the sites in the county behind me. There are 7 sites covering that county, and I assigned all of them to DQK 80. So.......When I entered ".00.80 E", the scanner told me that DQK 80 was now ON. So I entered it again: ".00.80 E", and the scanner told me again that DQK was now ON. WHAT??? So I entered the same thing a third time, and a fourth time, and I kept getting the message that DQK 80 was now on. It did the same thing when I tried to turn off DQK 81 & 82, which had 3 sites and 2 sites, respectively, assigned to them. It just kept saying that they were now on. I checked in Sentinel when I got home to make sure that I had them enabled to begin with in the Department/Site Quick Key tab; so what I entered the first time SHOULD have turned them OFF, then when I entered it the second time it should have turned them ON......Right?

Obviously I am missing something, but for the life of me cannot figure out what it is.

drdispatch said:

I've checked the owner's manual & haven't found the answer to this.

I was travelling the other day & using a Favorites List that I had set up for that destination and the route taken. One of the systems I scan is the statewide P25 system. I assigned it a SysQK, and also assigned DQK's within the system. (For departments I use DQK's 00-79; for the sites, I use DQK's 80-99.) So as I moved from one county to the next, I wanted to turn off the sites in the county behind me. There are 7 sites covering that county, and I assigned all of them to DQK 80. So.......When I entered ".00.80 E", the scanner told me that DQK 80 was now ON. So I entered it again: ".00.80 E", and the scanner told me again that DQK was now ON. WHAT??? So I entered the same thing a third time, and a fourth time, and I kept getting the message that DQK 80 was now on. It did the same thing when I tried to turn off DQK 81 & 82, which had 3 sites and 2 sites, respectively, assigned to them. It just kept saying that they were now on. I checked in Sentinel when I got home to make sure that I had them enabled to begin with in the Department/Site Quick Key tab; so what I entered the first time SHOULD have turned them OFF, then when I entered it the second time it should have turned them ON......Right?

Obviously I am missing something, but for the life of me cannot figure out what it is.

Click to expand...

It's much too late in the evening for me to follow your scenario, so I would not even conjecture at this point as to what the issue might be. Having the 436 and the 536, my advice to you is to learn the operation of the Quick Keys while at home and relaxed so that you can experiment, and not on the road. It took me a while to master the use of the QK's, and sometimes I think that they are more of a pain than they are worth, but admittedly, when mastered, they can be useful. I use them primarily (albeit rarely) for turning sites on and off

As for myself, I found using the Startup Key configurations much more useful and less confusing. A lot of the learning on the 436/536 is by trial & error, and it will occasionally take a few tries (perhaps intermingled with a few stiff drinks) to get the hang of it.

Keep us posted on your progress.

Another thought after 2 hours of sleep and no caffeine, so take it for what it's worth. Your entry of ".00.80 E" doesn't seem right to me. Try ". . 80 E", dropping the zeros. You might also try hitting the "System" or "Dept/Site" key first.

Do this operation while the radio is scanning---- don't hit "Channel" first as you do with some of the functions. If you hit Channel first, you go into "Direct Entry" mode, which is a whole different animal.

For example, when I am turning sites off or on, I hit the "Dept/Site" key first, then ". . 98 E" and that alternates turning on or off the site I have programmed into slot 98.

In terms of using multiple sites with the same number key, I haven't gotten that far yet--- maybe I'll play with that later.

These radios are so darn confusing, that I love them. Yes, it is a challenge to learn all the functions, and it's easy to get confused, especially in the "heat of battle", when you're on the road and up against oncoming traffic and other distractions.

But the confusion occurs because the radios offer so much flexibility. I want the bells and whistles, but it takes time to learn how to use them properly.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I use the "Startup" configuration keys a lot more than the quick keys. Here in New York City, when I turn on the radio in Manhattan, I hit the "on" key and then the number "6" ---- that brings up all my Manhattan configurations. As soon as I get to the Brooklyn Bridge to cross over into Brooklyn, I turn the radio off, and then right back on again, this time holding key number "7", which puts me in my Brooklyn configuration.

Hitting (or pressing) the on/off key is with regard to the 436--- for the 536, you get the same effect by using the volume control switch to turn the radio on and off, and then hit the appropriate configuration key number.

Quick key problems

I have both brands of scanners, and the PSR-800 V-Scan folders of the GRE/Whistler don't require a shut down and restart while holding another key routine. Not only easier and quicker, but allows for 200 folders if you have the time, need, or patience to build that many lists. You can see the folder name as you scroll through the list, which makes it easy to select.

These threads can be very helpful but MANY posters don't really reply to a posters question / concern / bug, etc.

My scanner does the same and I just haven't got around yet to posting it. I believe it is a bug?

If you own a BCD436hp, duplicate what the original poster did. Create a fake favorite list and try it.
For me it happened this way.
1) I have a FL with QK = 1
2) It has multiple systems within it. My home county is QK = 4
3) One night I turned on ID search and kept track of every hit the search found and put all of the freqs in the same department and I assigned it DQK = 99 within my home county System (QK=4) within my FL=1. I did this so when I was at home I could quickly turn on and off anything that I knew was within reach of my home antenna even though it might not be in the county I'm in.

I quickly discovered while scanning if I type 1.4.99 E, it says that QK is now on. Regardless of how many times I type it, it still claims that that department is ON.

What the original poster didn't include in his post, is that these higher numbered DQKs are functionally correct; i.e. the scanner is indeed actually not scanning all the channels in my DQK 99 (until I turn it back on), however the message it displays contains a typo. It always says "DQK 99 is ON"

The next question is which numbers are affected? Obviously, DQK 99, 80, 81 contain this bug. And it's not related to sites either because in my case "99" is just a bunch of TGIDs and not a site, yet I still get the same typo displayed on the scanner.

Once we confirm this is indeed a bug, we should report it to Uniden.

You might have a card going bad if it keeps responding that it's turning it ON.

jaspence said:

I have both brands of scanners, and the PSR-800 V-Scan folders of the GRE/Whistler don't require a shut down and restart while holding another key routine. Not only easier and quicker, but allows for 200 folders if you have the time, need, or patience to build that many lists. You can see the folder name as you scroll through the list, which makes it easy to select.

Click to expand...

Neither do the x36 series require a shutdown or keypress on power-up. You can add a hundred FLs and enable/disable them using FL (ENTER). As each FL can contain 100 Systems each with a unique QK, this allows for 10,000 systems all available instantly, and unlike the V-folders you can mix-n-match any at any time. You are not restricted to only ones in that folder.

Voyager said:

You might have a card going bad if it keeps responding that it's turning it ON.

Click to expand...

I guess what I'm trying to confirm (or deny) is that when I enter "xx.xx.80E", that it SHOULD be turning off ALL sites/departments that are assigned to DQK 80, not just the first one it sees. The SQK turns off all systems assigned to that QK number, so I would think that the DQK operates on the same premise. (The SQK worked fine during this particular incident, turning OFF & then ON the system which were assigned to it.)

Only those sites/departments in the FL/System defined by the "xx.xx" in your example.

Correct. "xx.xx.80E" should toggle (on or off) any Department or Site assigned QK 80 (for FLQK/SQK "xx.xx").

The only times I've heard of that it will not is when a card was going bad.

You might want to try re-writing your FLs (erasing them first) and see if that clears things up.

Could someone else please try to duplicate this? It happens for me as well. I'd be surprised if we both have bad cards. I have so far confirmed it happens on any Department/Site assigned a QK higher than 39.

Example it happens when I type 1.4.39 and 1.4.40 and 1.4.41. However I have not tested all numbers from 39-99. But every number I have test exhibits this bug? Odd behavior.


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I routinely use D/SQKs in the 90s (well, across the board really) and have not had any issues enabling or disabling them. I can't say I've tested every single one, but I've tested many. My 90s are primarily Sites, but I think I've read that Site vs Department doesn't matter.

The problem we are experiencing is NOT enabling / disabling them. It is the message displayed when we do.

When disabling them it says
Quick Key
01.04.51 = ON

When it should read:
Quick Key
01.04.51 = OFF

Can you test this scenario on yours and confirm is does NOT do this?


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Thanks. I type mine out using a different method than you do. However regardless if I do it 1.4.99 E or using your method . . 99 E I always receive either:
Quick Key
--.--.99 = ON or
Quick Key
01.04.99 = ON

However the * in the display for the corresponding QK toggles accordingly so I'm fairly certain the channels are not being scanned when disabled but the displayed message is incorrect.
Odd.


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pingdew said:

....However the * in the display for the corresponding QK toggles accordingly so I'm fairly certain the channels are not being scanned when disabled but the displayed message is incorrect.
Odd.


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Click to expand...

To be honest, I don't remember looking at the display closely enough to determine if the "*" was there or if it was the DQK number...
That gives me something else to check; I'll play around with it a bit at home, in a more "controlled environment".
Thanks everybody for the replies. I will report my findings.

Department/Site Quick Keys

I had a chance to test this a little further at a time when I could pay attention to the display more closely.

I had sites programmed in DQK's 80 - 84. I made sure that they were all enabled in Sentinel & wrote the FL to the scanner.
While scanning, I entered ". . 80".
(After pressing "8", I paused to look at what the display showed. It read: D:8 01234***** which would mean that site 80 is ON.)
After I pressed "E" to finish my command, the display read:
Quick Key
--.--.80 = ON
I retried the entry to see what would happen, and after pressing "8", the display showed:
D:8 *1234***** which told me that site 80 was in fact turned off & no longer scanning.

It did this with DQK's 81-84 as well. Each time it said the QK was ON, but then showed in the list that it was off.

When I turned off a department that was assigned to DQK 01, it appeared to work fine; It showed after I entered ". . 01 E" that QK 01 was now OFF:
Quick Key
--.--.01 = OFF

These are the only quick keys that I tested, but I think my preliminary findings are sufficient to indicate that something is awry.

Perhaps a corrupt SD card? Which version of firmware are you running?

Voyager said:

Perhaps a corrupt SD card? Which version of firmware are you running?

Click to expand...

I don't have the scanner or the laptop with Sentinel in front of me, but I updated the firmware back when the last update was announced by UpMan here on the forums. Early or mid September, I'm guessing?

I don't care much for, nor can I really remember 10 billion quick keys. So I just created a system for travel and got a gps.