FreeScan Lockout Issues x2 - BCD996P2/BCD325P2

[ScannerSK]

What is the issue with FreeScan and lockouts not working properly? This is affecting both my scanners (BCD325P2 and BCD996P2). I am using Windows 8.1.

Two separate issues are occurring:

Conventional:
1.) I have four conventional channels in the same group selected as locked out in the FreeScan program however only three show up as locked out in the "Channel Lockout Manager" of FreeScan. What's up with this? This is true even after saving the database, reopening the program and selecting refresh in the "Channel Lockout Manager" of FreeScan. I can unselect the affected channel so it shows as no longer being locked out and reselect it as locked out once again and nothing changes in the "Channel Lockout Manager". When the FreeScan programming is programmed into the scanner, all four channels are locked out in the physical scanner. Is this just an issue with the Channel Lockout Manager not displaying conventional lockouts properly? Is this a known issue? Any idea as to the cause?

Digital
2.) The far more frustrating issue I am having with FreeScan is that the software keeps adding previous talkgroup lockouts (talkgroups since deleted entirely from FreeScan and the physical scanners) back into the scanners for no reason at all. Each time I upload the programming from FreeScan, talkgroup lockouts appear in the physical scanner itself under "Rvw ID:Srch L/O" for no reason at all. It's the craziest thing. During ID Search these talkgroups are not being received because talkgroup lockouts are being populated by FreeScan under "Rvw ID:Srch L/O" in the physical scanner even when these talkgroups are no longer programmed anywhere in FreeScan or the physical scanner. Why is this occurring???

I can manually remove from the scanner every lockout appearing under "Rvw ID:Srch L/O" and then as soon as I upload the programming from FreeScan into the scanner the same list of locked out talkgroups reappears under "Rvw ID:Srch L/O" even though the talkgroups are not programmed anywhere in FreeScan or the physical scanner whatsoever at all. Is there some FreeScan file that needs to be flushed? Where are these talkgroup lockouts coming from within the FreeScan program (even after these talkgroups have long ago been deleted) so that they continue to be programmed back into the scanner itself (just the talkgroup lockouts and not the talkgroups themselves) for no reason at all?

Does this ring a bell with anyone? Any solutions? As a workaround, I can update the physical scanner and then download the scanner memory into FreeScan however the same issue continues to resurface over time where old lockouts for talkgroups no longer programmed into FreeScan or the scanner itself continue to get programmed back into the physical scanner under lockouts. How is it even possible to lockout a talkgroup that is not programmed into the scanner?? Strange...

Shawn

 

[jtwalker]

I would demand my money back!

Your outrage is humorous considering this is abandoned software that hasn’t been updated in many years.

Perhaps someone will have a useful suggestion for you in regards to Frrescan. My advice would be to license ProScan.

 

[ScannerSK]

Lol. I know, I know. I downloaded ProScan and played with it for a while. I'm just curious about issue #2 with FreeScan and would prefer to keep using it if possible.

 

[ScannerSK]

I may have figured something out with regard to #2. I noticed multiple lockouts for the same talkgroup in the scanner (one under the talkgroup number and one under the talkgroup text tag).

Apparently, there is some confusion occurring in the FreeScan software when a talkgroup is renamed while it is locked out or something along this line. When the talkgroup is later deleted from FreeScan (possibly only while still locked out), the software attempts to remove a lockout for that talkgroup which no longer exists due to it being renamed however inadvertently leaves in place the lockout for that talkgroup under the new name even though the talkgroup itself is no longer programmed in the software. At least, it appears something along this line is taking place. Interesting...

How to prevent? I imagine a person could avoid renaming talkgroups while they are marked as locked out and also avoid deleting talkgroups while they are marked as locked out and this would prevent issue #2.

Who knows? I should play around with ProScan to make sure it does not have the same unknown issue.

 

[Ronaldski]

You could leave your programming file in this thread and it can be checked out. TBH it does seem to be well... user error is all.
Could it be you dont have the check mark in the popup box next to the red Erase all systems & settings ?
Otherwise you might be uploading the new settings, but keeping your prior items. I realize you mentioned entirely deleted, but this is an item that has happened multiple times before in programming help threads.

FYI been using freescan very successfully for many years and current. Most replies in the forums always mention oh it hasnt been updated in years, don't know of proscan, but freescan works short of DMR.

 

[ScannerSK]

You could leave your programming file in this thread and it can be checked out. TBH it does seem to be well... user error is all.
Could it be you dont have the check mark in the popup box next to the red Erase all systems & settings ?
Otherwise you might be uploading the new settings, but keeping your prior items. I realize you mentioned entirely deleted, but this is an item that has happened multiple times before in programming help threads.

FYI been using freescan very successfully for many years and current. Most replies in the forums always mention oh it hasnt been updated in years, don't know of proscan, but freescan works short of DMR.

I attached a file as an example.

If you upload this file into a scanner, you will notice there are lockouts being populated to the physical scanner under "FRCC Paging" under the "Rvw ID:Srch L/O" menu of the scanner even when these talkgroups are not programmed into FreeScan.

Also, you will notice I have four conventional channels locked out however only three appear in the Channel Lockout Manager.

 

[Ronaldski]

Yeah the "lockouts being populated..." does strongly suggest not using the ->


Be sure to use that option each time. Granted it may not be the issue, been wrong before but worth it as a possibility.

Further review-
I checked here Front Range Communications Consortium (FRCC) Trunking System, Weld County, Colorado and when you downloaded from radioreference that the Talkgroups listed under MODE as DE or TE - Encrypted so those were flagged as being locked out on the download.
In your download from radioreference this area when you click the Options tab you must have likely checked the skip channels marked as encrypted -



I would re-download as it 'appears' from here some of these set as locked out as encrypted arent showing being so currently.

I noticed for the Xcel you have the input frequency instead of the repeater frequency 153.560

 

[ScannerSK]

I make all updates in FreeScan and then upload them to the scanner. Even when "Erase All Systems & Settings" is selected, lockouts are still populated into the scanner for talkgroups under "FRCC Paging" which have long since been deleted from FreeScan. Also, some conventional channels which are locked out still do not appear in the Channel Lockout Manager. It's the strangest thing.

For now, I made changes to the scanner itself and then uploaded the programming into FreeScan as a new file. This fixed the issue with talkgroup lockouts being populated in error by FreeScan into the scanner for deleted talkgroups, at least temporarily, however this did not fix the problem with some locked out conventional channels not appearing in the Channel Lockout Manager of FreeScan.

It seems there is a bigger problem somewhere with regard to lockout handling by FreeScan. My guess is this has something to do with renaming channels/talkgroups while they are locked out which can in essence create duplicate lockouts (one under the talkgroup number and one under the talkgroup alpha-numeric tag). It's strange that FreeScan can have lockouts stored in the memory for talkgroups no longer programmed in the software and pass these along to the scanner.

 

[Ronaldski]

Check at that same area as Options for 'My Skip Tags' if you have something checked there. Mine shows none checked.
Might be you did find an item that freescan does with locking out.

Honestly I normally rarely ever use software to download from the database as anytime there is a change in MI that I see or do as admin I just make that change instead of re-downloading all over again.

FYI while checking this out I did make a couple option changes on my end if-when I do use the download again, mainly if I download other states just to be quick.

 

[ScannerSK]

I enter everything manually into FreeScan. I don't download anything directly from RadioReference. So, this would not explain the issues.

I have used the EZ-Grab feature built into FreeScan when I first transferred channels/talkgroups from a spreadsheet into the FreeScan. However, this was using the feature as intended so I cannot see that this created a problem.

I've corrected the issue with lockouts for deleted talkgroups repopulating into the scanner about a year ago by creating a new file in FreeScan however the issue continues to resurface.

Within the actual FreeScan data file attached above (Master File (Old).996), it shows the lockouts that are being populated into the scanner even though the talkgroups are no longer programmed anywhere in FreeScan. This must be some bug that nobody else ever noticed.

"ECOBUDULQAGZKOHG"
"11"
"ECOBUDULQAGZKOHG"
"28"
"ECOBUDULQAGZKOHG"
"29"
"ECOBUDULQAGZKOHG"
"38"
"ECOBUDULQAGZKOHG"
"1902"
"ECOBUDULQAGZKOHG"
"1903"
"ECOBUDULQAGZKOHG"
"1904"
"ECOBUDULQAGZKOHG"
"1905"
"ECOBUDULQAGZKOHG"
"1932"
"ECOBUDULQAGZKOHG"
"1934"
"ECOBUDULQAGZKOHG"
"1935"
"ECOBUDULQAGZKOHG"
"1953"
"ECOBUDULQAGZKOHG"
"1954"
"ECOBUDULQAGZKOHG"
"1960"
"ECOBUDULQAGZKOHG"
"1978"
"ECOBUDULQAGZKOHG"
"1979"
"ECOBUDULQAGZKOHG"
"1980"
"ECOBUDULQAGZKOHG"
"1982"
"ECOBUDULQAGZKOHG"
"1983"
"ECOBUDULQAGZKOHG"
"1984"
"ECOBUDULQAGZKOHG"
"2007"
"ECOBUDULQAGZKOHG"
"2009"
"ECOBUDULQAGZKOHG"
"2017"
"ECOBUDULQAGZKOHG"
"2028"
"ECOBUDULQAGZKOHG"
"2031"
"ECOBUDULQAGZKOHG"
"2039"
"ECOBUDULQAGZKOHG"
"2047"
"ECOBUDULQAGZKOHG"
"2059"
"ECOBUDULQAGZKOHG"
"9012"
"ECOBUDULQAGZKOHG"
"9014"
"ECOBUDULQAGZKOHG"
"9017"
"ECOBUDULQAGZKOHG"
"9020"
"ECOBUDULQAGZKOHG"
"9024"
"ECOBUDULQAGZKOHG"
"9031"
"ECOBUDULQAGZKOHG"
"9032"
"ECOBUDULQAGZKOHG"
"9034"
"ECOBUDULQAGZKOHG"
"9035"
"ECOBUDULQAGZKOHG"
"9037"
"ECOBUDULQAGZKOHG"
"9040"
"ECOBUDULQAGZKOHG"
"9559"

 

[ScannerSK]

Check at that same area as Options for 'My Skip Tags' if you have something checked there. Mine shows none checked.
Might be you did find an item that freescan does with locking out.

Honestly I normally rarely ever use software to download from the database as anytime there is a change in MI that I see or do as admin I just make that change instead of re-downloading all over again.

I never download anything from RadioReference; I enter it all by hand into FreeScan.

 

[Ronaldski]

Okay I started a new file in freescan, then I brought up the new one and yours side by side. I replected hopefully most all your settings into the new.
Uploaded and I dont see any locked out under Rvw ID:Srch L/O in the scanner.

 

[ScannerSK]

Your newly created file appears to be working okay. My actual working file has over 600 channels/talkgroups in it so I have my work cut out for me.

Now, if only we understood why a new file had to be created in order for FreeScan to function properly. Hopefully, a new file fixes the issues once and for all!

Thank you!

 

[Ronaldski]

Super. Be sure to highlight copy-paste a lot to make it easier, including I use Excel as well to make it easier, been doing this for many years.
May have brought these other locked outs from another file and/or had downloaded at sometime in the past and they were carried over?

600? I have ~3/4 of the state of MI and 8,426 in 83 quickkeys - different counties, agencies!

 

[ScannerSK]

I ran across one additional issue with the old FreeScan software. For the "record out" option on custom searches, FreeScan stores the setting in the file as "False" and "True" however the scanner is expecting "0" and "1" instead. Maybe it's just about time for ProScan.