BCD436HP/BCD536HP: ID Scan / ID Search problems

[minasha]

Hello,
I am setting up my new bc436 and i don't understand the search /scan settings on this scanner.
On all previous Uniden scanners I enter my chosen TG's in the software and when i chose "ID scanning" it only receives those ID's I saved, if I switch to "ID searching" it receives all ID's in the system.
I attempted to do this in the Sentinel software but i am having problems:
I want to setup my favorites in the 436.
After getting all the info for each system from the database, I selected to "Avoid" any TG's I don't want to hear.
I believed that this would allow me to hear my selected TG's in ID scanning and allow all TG's to come in when I
switch to ID searching.
What happened is it worked fine in ID scan setting.I only heard my chosen TGs, but when i switch to ID search
there's no difference ! all the avoided TG's Do not come in, What am I doing wrong? both the original owners manual and the easier to read manuals don't explain this well at all.

Thank You

 

[jonwienke]

Hello,
I believed that this would allow me to hear my selected TG's in ID scanning and allow all TG's to come in when I
switch to ID searching.
What happened is it worked fine in ID scan setting.I only heard my chosen TGs, but when i switch to ID search
there's no difference ! all the avoided TG's Do not come in, What am I doing wrong? both the original owners manual and the easier to read manuals don't explain this well at all.

The difference between search and scan only affects UNPROGRAMMED talkgroups. If it's in a favorite list and you avoid it, you will not hear it, period.

 

[minasha]

Hi,
Yes i understand that avoiding Talkgroups in my favorite lists prevents me from hearing anything,
I went ahead and cleared my avoids and now all talkgroups come in.
Now how do I use Sentinel software to only select the talkgroups I want to hear and not all the others?

 

[W6KRU]

You can turn ID search off and on, on the options tab after selecting a system in your favorites list.

 

[minasha]

DDan
thank you but what I need to know is this:
In my 396xt I select ID search to hear all the talkgroups and ID scan to only hear talkgroups I want to hear.
Can the bc436 do this too? if yes how do i program a system to do it?
Thank You

 

[W6KRU]

DDan
thank you but what I need to know is this:
In my 396xt I select ID search to hear all the talkgroups and ID scan to only hear talkgroups I want to hear.
Can the bc436 do this too? if yes how do i program a system to do it?
Thank You

Yes. The 436 works the same way. Turn on ID Search for the system to hear all of the TGs. Turn off ID Search (ID Scan) to hear the TGs you have programmed and haven't avoided.

 

[minasha]

DDan,
This is what I am doing in sentinel :
I select USA, New jersey, county, middlesex, Woodbridge, That shows me 9 departments in these departments there are talkgroups with TGID's how do i select only the Talkgroups ID's I want and leave out the tgid's I don't want? thought i had to avoid the Talkgroups I didn't want but avoiding stops everything. This is much more complicated than doing it on the 346xt, or 396 xt etc.

 

[W6KRU]

DDan,
This is what I am doing in sentinel :
I select USA, New jersey, county, middlesex, Woodbridge, That shows me 9 departments in these departments there are talkgroups with TGID's how do i select only the Talkgroups ID's I want and leave out the tgid's I don't want? thought i had to avoid the Talkgroups I didn't want but avoiding stops everything. This is much more complicated than doing it on the 346xt, or 396 xt etc.

If you avoid the TGs you don't want to hear, you will still hear the TGs you didn't avoid.

 

[minasha]

Dan,
Yes I still can hear the tgi's I didn't avoid that's good but if I switch to ID search I will not hear all the avoided tg's. I would like to switch to ID search and hear everything once in a while how can i do this if i avoided them?

 

[wtp]

on my 396t

i have two systems programmed in,
one with the groups i want to hear (id scan)
and one with all groups. (id search)
even one for the inputs so i only get the close stuff (on scene)

 

[jonwienke]

Dan,
I would like to switch to ID search and hear everything once in a while how can i do this if i avoided them?

You want to use a pretzel to pound wood screws into concrete.

The purpose of ID search is not to nullify all Avoids, it is to search for talkgroups that are not programmed into the scanner. Period.

If you want to hear a talkgroup sometimes, but not all the time, don't Avoid it, put it in a separate favorite list, activate the favorite list when you want to hear it, and deactivate it when you don't.

 

[minasha]

Hi,
The 396T or xt act the same, I use Freescan where I can program the tg's i want in the database.
Once programmed, I listen in "ID scan" if i want to hear ALL the Tg's I don't have to program anything I just switch to ID search and they all will come in. All uniden trunking scanners have done this for many years
except this new 436hp. No matter what I do switching between ID scan and ID search has no effect. It's the same thing both ways. I don't understand why the 436 has the ID search and ID scan because it has no effect.
Am I missing something?

 

[jonwienke]

Absolutely. Try reading page 39 of the x36 manual.

ID Scan only plays traffic from programmed talkgroups that match the Service Types you have selected active.

ID Search does the same, with the addition of playing all unprogrammed talkgroups.

The only difference from older models is that the 436 already has everything programmed in most cases. The only time you will see a difference is if the system adds new talkgroups not programmed in the database or Favorite List.

You've been using ID Search as a kludge to avoid actually having to program the scanner completely the way it was intended. Since the 436 is already programmed, your kludge doesn't work any more. Get over it, and try using the scanner the way it was designed to be used. You'll find that using Service Types and Favorite Lists to turn things on and off gives you better control over what you hear than ID Search did.

 

[minasha]

Jonwienke
Thank you for the help,
However I think Uniden goofed with this scanner big time.
Instead of using the HP style database they should have stayed with the design of the 396xt and just added p-25 phase 2 compatibility just my humble opinion.
Again thank you for the info you cleared this up for me.

 

[jonwienke]

I disagree. Having "banks" of channels is wasteful and inefficient, because systems don't have channels/talkgroups in even 50-channel increments. With the x36 design, there are no wasted channels in a bank. Also, try doing a multi-state road trip with a 396, programming it for everything you will hear along the way, and making sure out-of-range stuff is switched off as you go.

If you have the GPS attachment, it takes about 2 minutes to set up a x36 scanner to do this.

 

[W6KRU]

I disagree. Having "banks" of channels is wasteful and inefficient, because systems don't have channels/talkgroups in even 50-channel increments. With the x36 design, there are no wasted channels in a bank. Also, try doing a multi-state road trip with a 396, programming it for everything you will hear along the way, and making sure out-of-range stuff is switched off as you go.

If you have the GPS attachment, it takes about 2 minutes to set up a x36 scanner to do this.

Yes but if you don't travel, the HP feature has very little value(zero?). 396s don't have banks. The 436 has very little benefit over a 396.

 

[jonwienke]

The 436 has very little benefit over a 396.

If you only use it as a fixed base station, perhaps not. But if you ever use it as a mobile or portable, the x36 series has some major advantages over the x96 series.

 

[W6KRU]

If you only use it as a fixed base station, perhaps not. But if you ever use it as a mobile or portable, the x36 series has some major advantages over the x96 series.

Not really true for portable use either. I prefer either of my 396s for portable use due to form factor.

 

[wtp]

t and xt talk vs x36

i forgot to talk in x36, just set up two favorite lists.

 

[minasha]

Jonwienke,
Back to the bc436hp, I' spoke too soon still not clear:
You said if i turn on ID search in a favorite list it will receive all Tgrps in the system "Understood"
If I switch to ID scan it will only receive tkgrps I programmed into the system, Please tell me:
How do I program these selected tgrps I want for ID scanning?
If selecting "service types" is the answer I don't see how to do it in sentinel software, so I set service types manually in the scanner. What happened was whatever service type I shut off , remains off in ID search too.
Please give me a step by step on how to program my selected TGid's in a favorite list
Thank You