Cannot remove Digital Trunk Frequencies in Sentinel

I just got a BCD536 and am setting it up for the Phoenix (AZ) RWC Motorola Trunking system.

I am using the database that Sentinel downloaded. However, on a couple of the sites, it has a number of frequencies that are not control frequencies and I'd like to remove them.

What I did is create a favorites list and added a couple of departments from the master database to it. This resulted in the sites automatically being added. Now I want to remove the frequencies I don't need. Can I do that somehow in Sentinel?

As a side question: is it true that removing unused frequencies will speed up scanning/reduce missed calls on a trunked system like this? If not, I'm wasting my time anyway.

To edit a Favorites List in Sentinel do the following.

Click on the Star with Pencil on the Icon Bar or click on Edit - Edit Favorites Lists on the Task Bar. The Select Favorites List window should open.

Click on the Favorites list to select it.

Click on OK

Click on the Site, should be at the bottom of the Department list.

You should now see the frequencies listed.

Click on the Freq you want to delete, then click on the red X at the top of the list.

To save your changes, look at the upper left hand corner. Click on file save.

You're done with the changes.

Next make sure the Profile has both Monitor and Download set to On.

Last but not least upload to your scanner.

Regarding the scan speed. Having the extra frequencies should not slow down your scanning. Your scanner will only stop on the active control channel. But it won't hurt to remove the receive only freqs.

Thanks!
Another question... Apparently I have to do this with the scanner in USB Mass Storage mode. Is there a way to get it out of that mode when I am done, short of physically unplugging the USB cable?

mesocyclone said:

Thanks!
Another question... Apparently I have to do this with the scanner in USB Mass Storage mode. Is there a way to get it out of that mode when I am done, short of physically unplugging the USB cable?

Click to expand...

Press the power button. Your scanner will power down and reboot. After your scanner reboots you can see if it monitors the way you want.

When done press the power button to shut down the scanner and remove the USB cable.

One suggestion

Since you are new to using a Uniden scanner and Sentinel, I suggest you keep your Favorites Lists concise (small) as you learn how things work.

Once you get a handle on the many options, you can then create more customized and complex Lists. As an example, don't try to load an entire State system into one Favorites List.

Good luck, have fun.

My preference is to leave all frequencies programmed. One never knows if a voice channel ends up becoming a control channel. Not very likely but since there is probably is lots of memory available, why chance it?

The only inefficiency you might run into is attempting to scan sites that are too far away to receive. If the scanner attempts to receive an out of range site, it will go through each frequency as a possible control channel. So if you have ten sites too far away and each site has eight frequencies, it'll cost you about a second as the scan speed is about 85 channels per second according to the manual.