BCD396XT/BCD996XT: BCD396XT won't pick up anything

[MURSman]

Hi all, I recently picked up a BCD396XT to replace my BC75XLT, I watched a video on how to program it manually as I don't have a USB cable at the moment, I programmed in all the frequencies for my County, and TGID's for my City, as well as a few others.

This scanner has the 12 preset groups that come on it, which I locked out because when I try to scan my County, it will just keep saying "ID SCAN" which seems to be doing so on one of the control frequencies and not the others programmed onto the system, and if the other systems are not locked out, it will immediately switch and start to scan on those instead of the one I programmed, if I lock out all the preset systems, it stays stuck with just the one control frequency with "ID SCAN" just scrolling, and not picking up any talk group within the system.

Could anyone explain what is going on here? My County is on a P25 Phase I system, and when it was scanning on the preset Public Safety system, I picked up a few P25 talk groups, but would only be audible for a short time before being silent. I'm no expert on radios or scanners, but I suspect I did something wrong when programming my County in it.

 

[tvengr]

It is impossible to help without knowing your city or town, county, and state and the systems and agencies you want to monitor so we can check the database for potential problems. Are you using programming software? If so, we will be able to look at your programming file to check for errors.

 

[dave3825]

I recently picked up a BCD396XT

I programmed in all the frequencies for my County, and TGID's for my City, as well as a few others.

This scanner has the 12 preset groups that come on it, which I locked out because when I try to scan my County,

when it was scanning on the preset Public Safety system, I picked up a few P25 talk groups, but would only be audible for a short time before being silent.

You said you locked out preprogrammed stuff but then say you scanned preset PS and received a few tg's.

Anything preprogrammed into that scanner (from Uniden) would be quite old and most likely outdated.

 

[Whiskey3JMC]

Please provide specific agency(ies) city, county, state or better yet, post the RRDB link(s) to whatever you're having trouble monitoring. Not all of us have crystal balls

 

[MURSman]

It is impossible to help without knowing your city or town, county, and state and the systems and agencies you want to monitor so we can check the database for potential problems. Are you using programming software? If so, we will be able to look at your programming file to check for errors.

I’m in Orange County, CA. I’m trying to Scan Huntington Beach, Placentia, and Yorba Linda.

I put in all the frequencies for Countywide, North, Northwest, South, and Southwest.

Currently did everything manually as I don’t have a usb cable yet, but it’s on the way.

 

[Whiskey3JMC]

Thanks for giving the specifics. I see two issues:
Firstly (not sure if you're aware), law enforcement is fully encrypted (mode "DE") in all three cities you mentioned. Looks like Yorba Linda relies on the sheriff dept which too is fully encrypted. You'll only be able to monitor talkgroups ID'ed as mode "D" on the system
Secondly, all sites you mentioned are simulcast across three or more towers. You'll face simulcast distortion depending on your location to two or more towers on any given simulcast. Read about what it is & feel free to try the multipath mitigation workarounds in the wiki I linked below, they may or may not work for you. Ultimately you'd be much better off with a Uniden SDS100 or SDS200 to track this and other simulcast systems

Simulcast Distortion - The RadioReference Wiki

wiki.radioreference.com

 

[MURSman]

You said you locked out preprogrammed stuff but then say you scanned preset PS and received a few tg's.

Anything preprogrammed into that scanner (from Uniden) would be quite old and most likely outdated.

Correct. Also, is there a way to scan just one P25 frequency? I’m in Orange County, CA, and I want to listen to Huntington Beach EOC.

In the database for Orange County, CA, it shows individual frequencies, and then you have the Countywide Coordinated Communications System.

In the CCCS, for Huntington Beach, there’s EMS dispatch under a TGID. I’m not sure if the single frequency is the same as the EMS dispatch TGID in the CCCS or not.

 

[Whiskey3JMC]

Correct. Also, is there a way to scan just one P25 frequency? I’m in Orange County, CA, and I want to listen to Huntington Beach EOC.

I think you're getting "frequency" and "TGID" confused. The trunked system needs to be programmed as a trunked system. Read here if you're not familiar with how trunked radio systems work. Monitoring a single frequency on said system will give you transmissions from every affiliated talkgroup but you won't be able to follow a conversation by only staying on one frequency. You can hold the scanner on one particular TGID and as long as the trunked system is programmed as such it'll follow the conversation (Press HOLD, enter the TGID, Press HOLD again, Holding...). Again, simulcast distortion will likely be an issue as I touched upon in post #6

 

[MURSman]

I think you're getting "frequency" and "TGID" confused. The trunked system needs to be programmed as a trunked system. Read here if you're not familiar with how trunked radio systems work. Monitoring a single frequency on said system will give you transmissions from every affiliated talkgroup but you won't be able to follow a conversation by only staying on one frequency. You can hold the scanner on one particular TGID and as long as the trunked system is programmed as such it'll follow the conversation (Press HOLD, enter the TGID, Press HOLD again, Holding...). Again, simulcast distortion will likely be an issue as I touched upon in post #6

So basically what you are saying is that the control frequencies for the County are the Sheriff's and all are encrypted? I only looked for specific TGID's that don't say "DE".

 

[Whiskey3JMC]

So basically what you are saying is that the control frequencies for the County are the Shirreff's and all are encrypted?

Again you're getting frequencies confused with TGIDs. Yes, every sheriff TGID is fully encrypted

 

[MURSman]

Again you're getting frequencies confused with TGIDs. Yes, every sheriff TGID is fully encrypted
View attachment 179470

What about these that aren’t encrypted?

 

[Whiskey3JMC]

Correct. Mode "D" is clear

 

[MURSman]

Correct. Mode "D" is clear

I did pick up a few P25 talk groups. I just tried to scan the system I programmed for the County with all other systems locked out so that it doesn't switch and start to scan on those when it doesn't pick up anything on the system I programmed. It seems like it does pick up things every now and again, and it will show the encrypted TGID's but then move on to the next it finds, does it automatically search for an active talk group nearby where ever you are within the County as long as it's not encrypted?

Would Huntington's EOC be on the same control frequency that is encrypted? I plan to be down there later and I would like to pick up something specific that is on the EOC, so I'm hoping it picks up their ID, if the EOC frequency and EMS Dispatch TGID is the same thing.

 

[dave3825]

Are the sites on TRS (Countywide Coordinated Communications System) simulcasted?

If so, that's not the best scanner for simulcast.

Would Huntington's EOC be on the same control frequency that is encrypted? I

Anything you see on the main county page would be conventional and use just freqs.

Anything listed in Trunked systems are systems that use both freqs and talkgroups.

 

[Whiskey3JMC]

Are the sites on TRS (Countywide Coordinated Communications System) simulcasted?

If so, that's not the best scanner for simulcast.

Yes, I tried explaining that to the OP here...

 

[MURSman]

Anything you see on the main county page would be conventional and use just freqs.

Conventional as in Analog, or also P25 just not trunked?

Their EOC frequency is 856.2625 and is P25.

Would I just create a new system under conventional and put in that frequency, or can I used one of the preprogrammed systems like “public safety” and just tune to that frequency?

 

[dave3825]

Conventional as in conventional. Not part of a trunk system. Conventional can be digital and analog.

Trunked systems can be digital or analog.

 

[Whiskey3JMC]

Conventional as in Analog, or also P25 just not trunked?

Their EOC frequency is 856.2625 and is P25.

This is P25 conventional (not trunked) so it should be programmed conventionally

Freq Out	Freq In	Tone	Callsign	Description	Category	Agency/County	State
856.2625	811.2625	142 NAC	KNDN332	Emergency Operation Center	Huntington Beach Cities	Orange	CA

BUT...it is simulcast across 4 sites so you may still face simulcast distortion here if you're within range of two or more

 

[MURSman]

Conventional as in conventional. Not part of a trunk system. Conventional can be digital and analog.

Trunked systems can be digital or analog.

This is P25 conventional (not trunked) so it should be programmed conventionally

Freq Out	Freq In	Tone	Callsign	Description	Category	Agency/County	State
856.2625	811.2625	142 NAC	KNDN332	Emergency Operation Center	Huntington Beach Cities	Orange	CA

BUT...it is simulcast across 4 sites so you may still face simulcast distortion here if you're within range of two or more

Gotcha, sorry if I sound stupid on any of this. I am in no means an expert on radio, I'm learning certain things one thing at a time.