Uniden BCD325P2 Questions for First Responder

I am a first responder for a Expressway in North Fort Worth. Our dispatch is not tied into the 911 system, so usually when accidents are called in, they go to the local city dispatch. A lot of the times our dispatch isn’t notified by the city and we only find out about it when we are able to locate the incident on our cameras or if I drive by it. To help with issue and to make my job less boring, I decided to buy a scanner so that if and call comes in along our highway I can respond to assist the motorists and other first responders (as 99% of the time we are usually closer).

I am trying to get the following departments entered in Beford FD, Hurst FD, North Richland Hills FD, Haltom City FD and Fort Worth FD (North). However when entering in the talk groups on freescan, and selecting the channels I want, my scanner is still scanning all of the talk groups with in that channel. For example with Hurst, I’m getting the water department when all I want is fire dispatch.

I apologize in advance for my ignorance. I understand these things are quite technical and I may be a bit over my head. But id be greatly appreciative of any help that can be provided...

Id scan/id search

nikkotine said:

I am a first responder for a Expressway in North Fort Worth. Our dispatch is not tied into the 911 system, so usually when accidents are called in, they go to the local city dispatch. A lot of the times our dispatch isn’t notified by the city and we only find out about it when we are able to locate the incident on our cameras or if I drive by it. To help with issue and to make my job less boring, I decided to buy a scanner so that if and call comes in along our highway I can respond to assist the motorists and other first responders (as 99% of the time we are usually closer).

I am trying to get the following departments entered in Beford FD, Hurst FD, North Richland Hills FD, Haltom City FD and Fort Worth FD (North). However when entering in the talk groups on freescan, and selecting the channels I want, my scanner is still scanning all of the talk groups with in that channel. For example with Hurst, I’m getting the water department when all I want is fire dispatch.

I apologize in advance for my ignorance. I understand these things are quite technical and I may be a bit over my head. But id be greatly appreciative of any help that can be provided...

Click to expand...

You are in "ID SEARCH" Mode. You want to be in "ID SCAN" mode.

To toggle between ID Scan or ID Search Mode while scanning each trunked system, press Func then Scan/Srch.

Manual:

http://www.marksscanners.com/325/325.shtml#id scan/search

Good luck!

Are you programming in conventional or trunked data? Cuz I don’t think freescan can handle P25 systems.

nickthequick0 said:

Are you programming in conventional or trunked data? Cuz I don’t think freescan can handle P25 systems.

Click to expand...

Nevermind I misspoke, i got the wrong information from the website itself... ill just stop talking now

When adding layers to the group, do I have to have all the frequencies listed? It seems it takes forever for my scanner to go through just 5 channels...

Scanners are nice to know what is going on in your response area. But they are not designed for emergency use also you may also want to check with your department Chief for something called SELF DISPATCH and see what can of worms you may be opening. In my Department if you SELF DISPATCH and anything goes wrong YOU ARE OPERATING OUTSIDE THE CITY SOP's and the City will not back you.

buddrousa said:

Scanners are nice to know what is going on in your response area. But they are not designed for emergency use also you may also want to check with your department Chief for something called SELF DISPATCH and see what can of worms you may be opening. In my Department if you SELF DISPATCH and anything goes wrong YOU ARE OPERATING OUTSIDE THE CITY SOP's and the City will not back you.

Click to expand...

I don’t work for a department. I work for the owners of a private highway. Any accident or incident that happens along our project is our business and the departments that respond welcome our help.

nikkotine said:

I am a first responder for a Expressway in North Fort Worth. Our dispatch is not tied into the 911 system, so usually when accidents are called in, they go to the local city dispatch. A lot of the times our dispatch isn’t notified by the city and we only find out about it when we are able to locate the incident on our cameras or if I drive by it. To help with issue and to make my job less boring, I decided to buy a scanner so that if and call comes in along our highway I can respond to assist the motorists and other first responders (as 99% of the time we are usually closer).

I am trying to get the following departments entered in Beford FD, Hurst FD, North Richland Hills FD, Haltom City FD and Fort Worth FD (North). However when entering in the talk groups on freescan, and selecting the channels I want, my scanner is still scanning all of the talk groups with in that channel. For example with Hurst, I’m getting the water department when all I want is fire dispatch.

I apologize in advance for my ignorance. I understand these things are quite technical and I may be a bit over my head. But id be greatly appreciative of any help that can be provided...

Click to expand...

nikkotine said:

When adding layers to the group, do I have to have all the frequencies listed? It seems it takes forever for my scanner to go through just 5 channels...

Click to expand...

buddrousa said:

Scanners are nice to know what is going on in your response area. But they are not designed for emergency use also you may also want to check with your department Chief for something called SELF DISPATCH and see what can of worms you may be opening. In my Department if you SELF DISPATCH and anything goes wrong YOU ARE OPERATING OUTSIDE THE CITY SOP's and the City will not back you.

Click to expand...

Nik,
It sounds like you are not with a public safety agency as such. As you are talking about response on an expressway, are you part of the response group for the Express lanes? Such as providing an arrow board to divert traffic around an accident? (I see your response to Budd, which confirms what I was thinking.)

Of the agencies you mention, Hurst is on it's own trunked system. Ft Worth Fire is on 'layer 2' of FWRRS. Haltom City & North Richland Hills are on the same layer, dispatched under the Combined Dispatch group which also includes Richland Hills and Watauga. Bedford is on the Northeast Tarrant (Layer 3) sites of FWRRS.

To cover what you want, you'd need a separate system for Hurst, and the others would be covered under FWRRS, with layers (or sites if you prefer that term) 2 & 3 entered. For your specific group, are you dispatched on a different system? I know on the Dallas side, some of the non-public safety responders are on the Megahertz DMR system.

If you are taking a long time to scan through the systems (once you've shifted to ID Scan instead of ID Search), make sure that you do not have a hold time entered for one or more of your systems. Also make sure that you don't have Close Call, Weather Priority, and Search with Scan active.

You might also consider attaching your FreeSCAN programming file to a post, so that someone can assist by looking for anything that possibly should be changed. The file type used by FreeSCAN, 8.996, is not one that can be attached without modification. You can 'zip' the file with a file utility such as 7-Zip, then attach that. Or, you can simply rename the file. If your file is labeled as 'MyFile.996' in FreeSCAN (just to make an example), then if using a file utility, it would create a file named MyFile.zip. Or, use Windows Explorer to rename your file to MyFile.txt or MyFile.996.txt. Once you've done that, then you can attach the modified or renamed file to a post.

hiegtx said:

Nik,
It sounds like you are not with a public safety agency as such. As you are talking about response on an expressway, are you part of the response group for the Express lanes? Such as providing an arrow board to divert traffic around an accident? (I see your response to Budd, which confirms what I was thinking.)

Of the agencies you mention, Hurst is on it's own trunked system. Ft Worth Fire is on 'layer 2' of FWRRS. Haltom City & North Richland Hills are on the same layer, dispatched under the Combined Dispatch group which also includes Richland Hills and Watauga. Bedford is on the Northeast Tarrant (Layer 3) sites of FWRRS.

To cover what you want, you'd need a separate system for Hurst, and the others would be covered under FWRRS, with layers (or sites if you prefer that term) 2 & 3 entered. For your specific group, are you dispatched on a different system? I know on the Dallas side, some of the non-public safety responders are on the Megahertz DMR system.

If you are taking a long time to scan through the systems (once you've shifted to ID Scan instead of ID Search), make sure that you do not have a hold time entered for one or more of your systems. Also make sure that you don't have Close Call, Weather Priority, and Search with Scan active.

You might also consider attaching your FreeSCAN programming file to a post, so that someone can assist by looking for anything that possibly should be changed. The file type used by FreeSCAN, 8.996, is not one that can be attached without modification. You can 'zip' the file with a file utility such as 7-Zip, then attach that. Or, you can simply rename the file. If your file is labeled as 'MyFile.996' in FreeSCAN (just to make an example), then if using a file utility, it would create a file named MyFile.zip. Or, use Windows Explorer to rename your file to MyFile.txt or MyFile.996.txt. Once you've done that, then you can attach the modified or renamed file to a post.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the response! That’s exactly what I do, among other things. We do everything from flats, fuel calls, debris removal etc. I work the overnight shift on the weekends, so I see mostly accidents. Our vehicles are certified emergency vehicles so we are able to respond to incidents just as other first responders do. I’m a former volunteer firefighter/EMT (certs expired), and I lost count long ago of how many times I’ve beat the police and EMS to the scene. Most of the departments along our highway don’t patrol the highways, so I’m usually the only eyes on the stretch of 40+ miles of highway each night. It’s a great job and I wouldn’t trade it for the world. So with the amount of highway we have, a scanner is the perfect tool to respond to incidents we aren’t aware of.

Again thanks for the help, I’ll try what you suggested!

hiegtx said:

Nik,
It sounds like you are not with a public safety agency as such. As you are talking about response on an expressway, are you part of the response group for the Express lanes? Such as providing an arrow board to divert traffic around an accident? (I see your response to Budd, which confirms what I was thinking.)

Of the agencies you mention, Hurst is on it's own trunked system. Ft Worth Fire is on 'layer 2' of FWRRS. Haltom City & North Richland Hills are on the same layer, dispatched under the Combined Dispatch group which also includes Richland Hills and Watauga. Bedford is on the Northeast Tarrant (Layer 3) sites of FWRRS.

To cover what you want, you'd need a separate system for Hurst, and the others would be covered under FWRRS, with layers (or sites if you prefer that term) 2 & 3 entered. For your specific group, are you dispatched on a different system? I know on the Dallas side, some of the non-public safety responders are on the Megahertz DMR system.

If you are taking a long time to scan through the systems (once you've shifted to ID Scan instead of ID Search), make sure that you do not have a hold time entered for one or more of your systems. Also make sure that you don't have Close Call, Weather Priority, and Search with Scan active.

You might also consider attaching your FreeSCAN programming file to a post, so that someone can assist by looking for anything that possibly should be changed. The file type used by FreeSCAN, 8.996, is not one that can be attached without modification. You can 'zip' the file with a file utility such as 7-Zip, then attach that. Or, you can simply rename the file. If your file is labeled as 'MyFile.996' in FreeSCAN (just to make an example), then if using a file utility, it would create a file named MyFile.zip. Or, use Windows Explorer to rename your file to MyFile.txt or MyFile.996.txt. Once you've done that, then you can attach the modified or renamed file to a post.

Click to expand...

To answer your question we are on the megahertz system apparently (just found it) under North Tarrant Express. Doesn’t work for me tho for some reason.

nikkotine said:

To answer your question we are on the megahertz system apparently (just found it) under North Tarrant Express. Doesn’t work for me tho for some reason.

Click to expand...

To make Megahertz work, you would need to get the DMR Upgrade from Uniden for your 325P2. I have it installed on my 325, and it works very well. I mainly monitor Megahertz for the CareFlite medevac helicopters. I'm in southern Dallas County, so there are no Express lanes close to me. But the Megahertz system has very good coverage here in the metro area, so you you should have no trouble hearing them should you decide to get the upgrade.

Thank you! Never have I joined a forum that had offered so much help. I truly appreciate it.