Trouble with BCD436HP and Favorites

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TC10284

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Hey guys,

I recently purchased a BCD436HP scanner. I've had a BCT15x for a while now, but wanted to upgrade.
This thing has been sitting for a couple weeks because I haven't had time to figure out how to get the favorites list and quick keys working like I can on my BCT15x.

I've used the Sentinel software to setup a favorites list. I've given it a name and assigned Quick keys to the departments I want to hear. I've then saved the favorites and then uploaded the programming to my scanner.

The trouble is, at the top of my scanner I see F0: -------- and S0: --------
I've watched various youtube videos on how to do it, and I'm doing it right according to what they say. Yet, every time I type "1" and press E, it just beeps twice. Same for 2, 3, 4, 5, etc...

What am I doing wrong?
 

Ubbe

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It is a selection of three entities, Favorite list, system and department with a dot between them.

If you type 1 . 2 . 3 E you have selected the favorite list assigned to QK 1 and system with QK 2 and the department assigned to QK 3.

If you do not want to select departments you enter E instead of the dot, 1 . 2 E to select/unselect favorite list 1 and system 2.

You cannot go directly to system selection and skip the favorite list selection.

/Ubbe
 
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budevans

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Forgive me for my ignorance, but I'm not sure what I'm missing here:

http://i.imgur.com/BegdzKh.png

http://i.imgur.com/HFWlcPU.png
I've uploaded the above favorite list/quick keys to the scanner. After I do so, this is what I see at the top on my scanner:

http://i.imgur.com/9I5MzCd.jpg

You have to edit the Profile to turn Monitor & Download, On or Off.

You can open the Profile window by clicking on Edit - Profile. You can also open Profile by clicking on the 4th Icon from the left on the Icon bar.

Once the Profile Window is open, select (click on) the Favorite List Name that you want to make changes to (Turn Monitor or Download, On or Off).

After making your changes, connect your scanner and write to it.
 

ofd8001

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I suspect you have not set a Favorites List Quick Key for the Favorites List. That's probably why you are seeing blanks in the F0 and S0 lines.

The Quick Key hierarchy in the x36 line of scanners is kind of hard to grasp at first. There are three separate and distinct types of Quick Keys. They are: Favorites List Quick Keys (FLQK), System Quick Keys (SQK) and Department Quick Keys (DQK).

The process of toggling (turning off or on) Quick Keys is this: FF.SS.DD Eyes (the periods are important separators). FF is the Favorites List Quick Key, SS is the System Quick Key and DD is the Department Quick Key.

You appear to have assigned System Quick Keys correctly (Davidson is SQK 1 and VIPER is SQK 7). You have also assigned Department Quick Keys correctly (2, 3 ,4, 5 & 6). You might consider assigning Favorites List Quick Key 0 to your Tavis Favorites List. (It's in the Options tab when you edit the Favorites List in Sentinel).

After doing so, and writing the edited Favorites List to the scanner (being sure to check the Erase Favorites Lists in scanner box so you don't have duplicates), I believe you will see:

F0: 0--------
S0: -1-----7--

Moving forward from there: If you wanted to turn off the Davidson County Department (DQK 2) in the Davidson System (SQK 1) in the Tavis Favorites List (FLQK 0) you would press 0.1.2 Eyes.

A tip another user suggested, which I like a lot, is to incorporate the Quick Keys in the Favorites List, System and Department names. I find it helpful on remembering what is what. So using what you have, you might use:

F0 Tavis
S01 Davidson
D02 Davidson County
 

ofd8001

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I had a little extra time on my hands and tried something - duplicating your Favorites List as best as I could tell what you had.

Consistent with RR requirements, it is a zipped file. When you extract it, the fille should be F00 Tavis.hpe. Note where your computer stores this file.

You can then use your Sentinel to import this HPE file. File>Import from hpe file... You'll go to where your computer save the extracted file to open it.

I assigned a Favorites List Quick Key (FLQK 0). Also changed the names of the Systems and Departments to include their respective Quick Keys.

On the VIPER system I included a couple of other Departments (which you can delete if you don't want them). You'll note on the sites I gave them Department Quick Keys of 61 and 62. My "style" is to assign Site Quick Keys beginning in the 60s.

In the scheme of things, for trunked systems, site Quick Keys are on the same "level" as Department Quick Keys. (If you want to toggle the High Rock Lake site, the keypress sequence is 0.7.61 Eyes.)

A comment - you'll note that in the VIPER system I used Department Quick Keys 1, 2, 3 and 4. You might question why they are being "re-used" since these Department Quick Keys have already been used in the Davidson System.

There is no harm/foul, because of being in different systems. In other words Department Quick Key 2 in System Quick Key 1 is a different "entity" from Department Quick Key 2 in System Quick Key 7. (Just like 123 Apple Street is a different house from 123 Orange Street.)

Once you look this over (after importing into Sentinel) and are satisfied, you can write it to your scanner. You'll need to edit the current Profile to be sure this new Favorites List has Download set to On along with Monitor set to On.

(Download On means the Favorites List is written to the scanner. Monitor On means the Favorites List is turned on once it gets to the scanner.)

Sorry for being so long winded. Quick Keys are complicated and can't be explained in few words.
 
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TC10284

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You have to edit the Profile to turn Monitor & Download, On or Off.

You can open the Profile window by clicking on Edit - Profile. You can also open Profile by clicking on the 4th Icon from the left on the Icon bar.

Once the Profile Window is open, select (click on) the Favorite List Name that you want to make changes to (Turn Monitor or Download, On or Off).

After making your changes, connect your scanner and write to it.

So this got me going. Thanks!

The only other issue I'm having right now is with NC VIPER. After I reworked my Favorites list, I have F0: 0------- and S0: 0-234----

NC VIPER is not showing up by default in my list on the scanner.

http://i.imgur.com/zMxFudB.png
 

TC10284

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I had a little extra time on my hands and tried something - duplicating your Favorites List as best as I could tell what you had.

Consistent with RR requirements, it is a zipped file. When you extract it, the fille should be F00 Tavis.hpe. Note where your computer stores this file.

You can then use your Sentinel to import this HPE file. File>Import from hpe file... You'll go to where your computer save the extracted file to open it.

I assigned a Favorites List Quick Key (FLQK 0). Also changed the names of the Systems and Departments to include their respective Quick Keys.

On the VIPER system I included a couple of other Departments (which you can delete if you don't want them). You'll note on the sites I gave them Department Quick Keys of 61 and 62. My "style" is to assign Site Quick Keys beginning in the 60s.

In the scheme of things, for trunked systems, site Quick Keys are on the same "level" as Department Quick Keys. (If you want to toggle the High Rock Lake site, the keypress sequence is 0.7.61 Eyes.)

A comment - you'll note that in the VIPER system I used Department Quick Keys 1, 2, 3 and 4. You might question why they are being "re-used" since these Department Quick Keys have already been used in the Davidson System.

There is no harm/foul, because of being in different systems. In other words Department Quick Key 2 in System Quick Key 1 is a different "entity" from Department Quick Key 2 in System Quick Key 7. (Just like 123 Apple Street is a different house from 123 Orange Street.)

Once you look this over (after importing into Sentinel) and are satisfied, you can write it to your scanner. You'll need to edit the current Profile to be sure this new Favorites List has Download set to On along with Monitor set to On.

(Download On means the Favorites List is written to the scanner. Monitor On means the Favorites List is turned on once it gets to the scanner.)

Sorry for being so long winded. Quick Keys are complicated and can't be explained in few words.

Thank you so much! I didn't expect you guys to spend that much time on this question. You are really nice and I very much appreciate it!!
 

marksmith

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Also note that if you want to scan just the favorites lists then you should turn off the full database in the profile where you advise which favorites lists to download or monitor.

In your original photo, you were not monitoring favorites lists but we're monitoring the full database.

536/436/ws1095/996p2/996xt/325p2/396xt/psr800/396t/HP-1/HP-2 & others
 

ofd8001

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NC VIPER is not showing up by default in my list on the scanner.

You may wish to confirm you have a site programmed in your VIPER System. It appears you only have the Davidson County Department. If you do not include a site, things will act strange.

If you want to export your Favorites List to an HPE file, zip it and attach to a post, I'll be happy to give it a look.
 

TC10284

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You may wish to confirm you have a site programmed in your VIPER System. It appears you only have the Davidson County Department. If you do not include a site, things will act strange.

If you want to export your Favorites List to an HPE file, zip it and attach to a post, I'll be happy to give it a look.

I've attached my favorites list that I have exported.

To be more up front, I work in IT as a Sys Admin, so I'm not afraid of getting technical if need be. I'm kinda new to the radio stuff though. I'm also a volunteer fire fighter.
 

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ofd8001

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I was able to download your file and read into Sentinel. From there I programmed it to my scanner.

I see the issue. It is because there are no sites programmed into the VIPER system. I deleted the Viper system, went to the full database and appended it back into the Favorites List. It worked fine after doing that, including see Viper as System 1.

After re-appending, you'll probably want to either delete, avoid, or set department quick keys for those departments and sites too far away from you. (Department Quick keys may be better. That way "stuff" is still in scanner if you go elsewhere).
 

ofd8001

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Another thought for you to consider:

Rather than having VIPER as a system in your Favorites List, create a second Favorites List with only VIPER. When editing that "VIPER" Favorites List (such as setting Quick Keys) you might set Location Control to "On".

By setting Location Control On, the scanner will turn off those sites too far away for you to monitor. The same for Departments too far away (for example Randolph County).

This would leverage the full power of the Location Based scanning feature of the scanner.
 

TC10284

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Another thought for you to consider:

Rather than having VIPER as a system in your Favorites List, create a second Favorites List with only VIPER. When editing that "VIPER" Favorites List (such as setting Quick Keys) you might set Location Control to "On".

By setting Location Control On, the scanner will turn off those sites too far away for you to monitor. The same for Departments too far away (for example Randolph County).

This would leverage the full power of the Location Based scanning feature of the scanner.

Thank you so much for your help!
I reworked my favorites. Take a look at this and see if it's any better. Right now I'm only monitoring County and VIPER.

Also note that I have a Uniden Universal GPS Receiver (BC-GPSK) that I'd like to learn to setup eventually.
 

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ofd8001

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Looks pretty good.

You haven't set Quick Keys for each Favorites List. (Of course you might be waiting to see if you are the right track before doing so, which you are.) That means they will always be scanned and the only way to turn them off is with a cumbersome keypress sequence.

I encourage you to set Location Control to On for your VIPER Favorites List. Otherwise the scanner will probably spend a lot of time trying to monitor sites too far away to receive. With there being some 215 sites and 5 frequencies per site or so, the scanner is going through 1,000 frequencies, which is time consuming and will lead to missed transmissions. You can try it both ways and will see what I mean.

I use the GPS device for mobile scanning and consider it almost "essential equipment". Setting the scanner location via keypad/zip code is efficient when the scanner is stationary. When the GPS device is connected, it feeds correct location information to the scanner as the scanner moves around. Very helpful for travel.

FWIW, my typical way of doing things is to use Favorites List only scanning for when I'm at home or a travel destination. When I'm on the road, I'll turn the full database on and let the GPS/Scanner combo do its thing to turn on/off "stuff" as I get in the area.

As Upman said, the setup is pretty easy. The only issue I had and it was my "doing" was the Baud Rate for the port. I use a Virtual Control program with the Baud Rate of 115200. The GPS works on a Baud Rate of 4800. If I forget to change it back, some bad language is involved.
 
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