Close Call Questions BCD396XT

[jjudson]

I have a couple of questions regarding close call - which I'm having some difficulty getting my arms around.

As an example, I know that my local police department uses channels to talk locally between cars and with their station, but I don't know what those channels are. Can close call help me find them?

If I don't know what the frequency of these channels are, do I just select all seven bands and search that way? Does the scanner scan across all seven bands when they are all selected?

Lastly, what do the graphics on the screen mean when I'm in Close Call only? I see the band numbers 1-7 at the bottom, but what do the blocks above them mean? What does it mean when one is flashing?

Well, that was more than a couple, but your help is appreciated. Thanks!

 

[jcpd9720]

I have a couple of questions regarding close call - which I'm having some difficulty getting my arms around.

1. As an example, I know that my local police department uses channels to talk locally between cars and with their station, but I don't know what those channels are. Can close call help me find them?

2. If I don't know what the frequency of these channels are, do I just select all seven bands and search that way? Does the scanner scan across all seven bands when they are all selected?

3. Lastly, what do the graphics on the screen mean when I'm in Close Call only? I see the band numbers 1-7 at the bottom, but what do the blocks above them mean? What does it mean when one is flashing?

Well, that was more than a couple, but your help is appreciated. Thanks!

I added question numbers to help with answering...

1. This is what it was designed for. You have to be fairly close to the transmitter (police car of station) for it to work though.

2. I would. You might find something else worth listening to in the process.

3. The blocks show that something is being received. If it isn't alerting, it's not too strong or close by.


When it alerts (says "Close Call Received" I think), hit hold real quick, and it will lock onto that frequency, and should decode ctcss for you.


Happy Scanning!

 

[ab8sn]

Close Call

I have a couple of questions regarding close call - which I'm having some difficulty getting my arms around.

As an example, I know that my local police department uses channels to talk locally between cars and with their station, but I don't know what those channels are. Can close call help me find them?

If I don't know what the frequency of these channels are, do I just select all seven bands and search that way? Does the scanner scan across all seven bands when they are all selected?

Lastly, what do the graphics on the screen mean when I'm in Close Call only? I see the band numbers 1-7 at the bottom, but what do the blocks above them mean? What does it mean when one is flashing?

Well, that was more than a couple, but your help is appreciated. Thanks!

Close Call function can help find unknown frequencies and transmissions if you are very close to them. Something that I've found helpful when I'm trying to find unknown frequencies such as tac channels is to search the same frequency band as the main dispatch frequency. If the primary frequency is VHF high then I would search that part of the band. Same with UHF. That's how I found the "secret" frequencies by police and fire in my area.

Since I do not have the Uniden digital scanners I'm unable to help with that, but I hope that this little bit of info. helps you out.

73s

Chad

 

[jcpd9720]

Close Call function can help find unknown frequencies and transmissions if you are very close to them. Something that I've found helpful when I'm trying to find unknown frequencies such as tac channels is to search the same frequency band as the main dispatch frequency. If the primary frequency is VHF high then I would search that part of the band. Same with UHF. That's how I found the "secret" frequencies by police and fire in my area.

Since I do not have the Uniden digital scanners I'm unable to help with that, but I hope that this little bit of info. helps you out.

73s

Chad

I totally agree if you are using a quick search kind of thing, but the awesome thing about the close call system on the 396xt and 996xt is that you can listen for any band that the scanner will receive, and nail the exact frequency and ctcss of someone transmitting close by (as long as your scanner can receive their transmission.)

 

[jjudson]

Still slightly confused...

Okay, thanks for the answers so far. I'm still a little vague on how to use the feature. In particular:

I'm still not sure of what I'm looking at on the display. I have all of the 7 bands active, but the 2 band block is constantly flashing. The others are not. There is no sound coming from the unit. Does that mean that data is stored from that band somewhere? By the same token, how do I find out what frequencies were found and what the data on those frequencies was? Is it stored somewhere that I can retrieve.

Boy, I sure wish the manual for this unit was better.

Thanks ahead for all of the help.

 

[jcpd9720]

Close call is really easy to use. You will know if you are getting what the scanner deems as a "close call"... it flashes "CC FOUND! - PRESS ANY KEY", when it does that, if you are not doing auto store, hit "HOLD", and it will be on that frequency. When anyone talks on it, you'll hear it as if you were listening to anything else you have in the scanner.

Most of the bands will have some sort of activity, somewhere, and that is why you see the bars above them fluctuating. Those aren't "Close Calls", they are just activity somewhere on that band.

If you choose CC AUTO STORE, the same screen appears, and if you get a "Close Call", is will say "CC FOUND!", then "MEMORY CHECK', then "STORING". The channels auto stored will be in a group called "Close Call Hits", with the frequency and ctcss. They are also stored in a system called "CLOSE CALL FOUND CHANNELS", that will be downloaded when you read the scanner into a computer.

 

[jjudson]

One last...

Thanks Lee, for the answers. Your description is a whole lot easier to understand than that hideous manual they put out.

So the only other question I have is: How does the unit determine what is a "Close Call?" What is the cutoff?

I wonder because when I go to Close Call, I don't hear anything at all. There doesn't seem to be any hits. But when I'm in scan mode, I get tons of traffic. Why doesn't any of that traffic show up as a Close Call?

Again, thanks much for the responses.

 

[dracer777]

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Not strong enough.

 

[UPMan]

http://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/Close_Call

 

[jjudson]

Thanks Paul. The Wiki explained it better. On a related note, how can Close Call data that has been stored using Auto Store be retrieved?

 

[UPMan]

They are stored / retrieved like any other conventional system.

 

[jcpd9720]

UPMan, shouldn't you be asleep?!?

I would think that if the close call function just alerted to every signal recieved, that it would be pretty useless for what it was designed for... close calls. What I envision using it for would be one of two things:

1. You have something in hand that is putting out a signal, and you want to know the frequency and/or ctcss tone. I have done this several times. My personal ht1250 (vhf) on the night I got the scanner. There was a channel that I couldn't for the life of me remember what PL tone we used, and didn't want to climb the stairs to get on my radio programming computer for fear that I would awaken my sleeping 3 month old. I fired up close call, transmitted for less than a second, and had the frequency and pl tone. Another time was when we got a new radio system in our area, P25 simulcast, with a few conventional frequencies for this and that (including the 8tac/8call channels). I wanted the frequencies, so I fired up close call, hit the big oval button, and had all of the frequencies and pl tones.

2. You see someone talking on a radio, and want to listen in. You are sitting in a fast food joint innocently listening in, when you see a traffic stop out front. Fire up close call, and wait for the officer to start transmitting.... bam! you are now listening to him!