BCD396T Issues in Ocean City

[Larry51]

I spent a great week in Ocean City but had some issues receiving the EDACS system on my BCD396T handheld. Using the Butel computer program, I entered the EDACS frequencies in the order listed in the RR database. I then entered most (but not all) of the talkgroups. I left out a few of the talkgroups like "Recreation", "Airport" and "Worcester Co."

When scanning, I had no trouble picking up a variety of different city services, but I noticed that I wasn't picking up much PD traffic. I put the scanner on "hold" and scrolled to "Channel 2 Disp North". I initially heard what appeared to be a police transmission. The next transmission I heard was soemthing from public works. That was followed by a transmission from the airport.

While still on "hold" I was able to scroll past the talkgroup channels to the control channel, and then on to the different EDACS frequencies. There I heard plenty of police traffic bouncing around from one freq to the next.

Any ideas as to what I did wrong? I'm sure the problem lies with me and not the scanner.

 

[TinEar]

Can't help you but hope you find out because I'm having the same problem with the 996 and the PG County EDACS system. I created it using the Butel program from a radioreference download and it seems to have loaded the freqs and talkgroups okay. But I'm seeing the same thing you are...scroll to the individual freqs and hear plenty of activity but it's not picking it up on the talkgroups.

 

[ka3jjz]

Just an offhand thought here - both conditions sound like the wrong kind of trunk system was programmed. Now I'm sure that you both programmed your individual system as EDACS, and you put in the freqs in LCN order - but did you select the right type of EDACS system? I think both the 996 and 396 support EDACS wide, narrow and SCAT. SCAT is very rare (Single Channel Autonomous Trunking, per the wiki), so that leaves wide and narrow.

Or are there other EDACS types these scanners also supports?

A question on the respective Yahoo groups and/or the Uniden forum might be in order. 73s Mike

 

[TinEar]

PG is a wide system as far as I know Mike. However, with the new scanners, the Butel program and radioreference downloads, you don't have to do a thing. The Butel program opens RR, you select the trunked system you want from the county list, hit the "Create System" button and the program enters everything for you. You don't have to do a thing. I did check to make sure it's set to Wide. So it's something else we're doing wrong.

I should add that the Butel program for the 996 is still in Beta mode so I suppose it could be a problem within the software.

 

[troymail]

I've experienced two different problems with the Ocean City and Worcester County systems.

I believe the first was that is had to be programmed as a WIDE system.

I also gave my father a PRO-97 and when I programmed it for him with the Win-97 software, I deleted an empty slot in the frequency list (row/entry "0"?).

Really strange things happened until I realized that the frequencies were very specific to LCNs, etc. Once I entered the frequencies in the specific LCN "slots", everything worked fine. So if the database says LCN 01 is 859.98750 it must be entered as LCN 1, etc.

Sorry if I'm not more clear on this but I don't routinely work with EDCAS systems.

 

[bwhite]

Might be some info for you here, sounds like EDACS wide is the setting for OC.
http://www.radioreference.com/forums/showthread.php?t=21585

 

[WCRadioGuy]

FYI, Ocean City, Worcester County and PG County are all wide band systems.

 

[bwhite]

I only go down for a 3 day weekend 1x/yr.
Took me about 3 years to get it right, I think I remember that the RR database is correct......the database doesn't describe wide/narrow, but, you now have that info.
If you have any more tips once successful please pass them on.
Thanx

 

[troymail]

I only go down for a 3 day weekend 1x/yr.
Took me about 3 years to get it right, I think I remember that the RR database is correct......the database doesn't describe wide/narrow, but, you now have that info.
If you have any more tips once successful please pass them on.
Thanx

That's what I remember - the database either was wrong or did not specify....

 

[maus92]

My 396T works great with OC's EDACS. However, I program the radio using UASD. I also use decimal TGID's, and the system is defined as EDACS Wide. You may want to double check the LCN order, the number of frequencies in the system (11), and make sure the frequencies are entered accurately.

CA
Annapolis