Hi, I am new to this; I bought a BC346XT today and I am not sure how to set it up exactly. I would like to listen to ems, and airline traffic.
I see when I go into the program system option it doesn't have any of the Canadian cities listed, it only shows the US ones so that's about how far I have been able to get; the manually doesn't really tell me how to setup it up so that's why I am here.
Thanks
Andrew
Save yourself trouble and get a piece of free software called "Freescan" from
ScanNow.org - The Home of FreeSCAN!
As the name implies, it's free. Subscribe to RadioReference so you can directly access the database with Freescan. Plug your scanner into a USB port, install Freescan and start it up. You will then be able to load most frequencies in your area, and probably all the Trunking systems, from the RadioReference database. Upload them to the scanner and away you go.
The software ain't perfect but it's fine, and worlds easier than trying to program your 346 manually. It's a great little scanner and it always goes with me when I'm away from home. Buy a proper base antenna for home and use the rubber ducky it comes with on the road. Or buy a better rubber ducky on the web somewhere.
It doesn't do P25 digital so it won't decode audio from Trunking systems that are all digital, but most have at least some analogue talk groups as well. The other night I listened to the local fire department fighting a brush fire in a local park for a couple of hours and it was gripping. The police in my area use P25 so I can't hear them, but Busses, Fire departments, and ambulances all use the same system only they use analog talkgroups.
You'll still have to search out some frequencies such as local Ham repeaters and small local airports and such, but the web has lots of resources for this. It's easy to program "manually" from Freescan as well.
Just don't think further, get Freescan and a subscription to RadioReference and you'll be off and running in no time.
