Frustrated Las Vegas BCD396XT Newb

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JohnnyPotPie

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Gang,

First off - I appreciate this website and all the work that's gone into it, especially when it comes to newbs like me with more money than scanner brains. Before you beat me down - I have a B.S. in C.S. - so I'm not a dunce when it comes to 1's and 0's. ;)

I had an old clunky scanner 20 years ago, and stumbled back into this with a couple of iPhone apps. Went out and bought a Uniden BCD396XT, and figured that with the database files and the Freescan utility, I'd be in business (I live about 5 miles from Nellis - really wanted to listen to their trunked traffic in addition to Clark County police/fire). So....I downloaded and "installed" the Clark County database 2 days ago. And.....I'm not hearing anything as far as Nellis goes, no fire tone outs (or fire calls of any kind), and really only traffic on the same 2 or 3 police channels. I've subsequently followed the "Easier to follow" webpage's instructions for this scanner, using the .CSV file as a guide to setting things up, but that didn't help at all. I hope it's okay to ask a few questions -

1. Does anyone have a pre-config'd Clark County + Nellis file they can email me that I can download that does receive trunked comms? Seems that'd be the easiest...
2. If not, does anyone have any tips for me? I have the downloader software (works great once you buy a serial-to-usb) and the appropriate .CSV file for this area; is there something in the config of my scanner that would keep me from hearing more police and any fire/mil comms?
3. Are the .CSV files available on this site supposed to be all-in-one solutions to getting this scanner to hear everything going on around me, or are they just a "good start"? They seemed to be AllInOne's to me, but I assumed that after looking at the file's contents. Assume....ugh!!!

Thanks so much in advance. There's nothing worse than a piece of technology beating you, when you spend days programming things that are supposedly more complicated.

Take care,

JPP
 

AZScanner

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Somewhere in this room. Right now, you're very col
We techies sometimes tend to over think these things. I find myself doing that all the time. "I am a programmer like my father before me" ha ha, sorry I couldn't resist the spin on an old Star Wars line... but my dad, a mainframe programmer for well over 35 years, gave me a great bit of advice: "K.I.S.S. Keep it simple, ___" (I'm sure you can fill in the other S yourself). ;)

So let's keep it simple. Since you are a premium subscriber, Freescan will let you load up that scanner directly from the RRDB, so I'd start there. Wipe the scanner clean and load just the system for Nellis and see if that works. Seeing as it's a UHF trunked system, I'm guessing it won't work without some tweaks, but it might. At least the frequencies and talkgroups will be loaded which will make fixing any other things about it much easier. I'd suggest starting there and then follow up in the Nevada forum to see if someone else has figured out how to get it listening to Nellis. I'm sure you'll find someone who has.

Good luck!
-AZ
 

737mech

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Snacc/Nellis

Ok so you have this system in there Nellis/Creech Air Force Base Trunking System, Las Vegas, Nevada - Scanner Frequencies and this system Clark County - Southern Nevada Area Communications Council (SNACC) Trunking System, Clark County, Nevada - Scanner Frequencies and you don't have ATT on and you have a good antenna right? Then you have the scanner to id search? Your delay times are about 2 ms. You have the snacc system band plan set to motorola type II custom/rebanded? The Nellis system is set for P25 Auto? Check all this first and let me know if you still can't hear anything.
 

JohnnyPotPie

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AZ....

Took me a while to get my wits after smacking my forehead.... :) Thanks for the troubleshooting tip; will try that, then move this to the NV thread.

Thanks!!!
 

JohnnyPotPie

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Frazpo - No...not SNACC (I used the "All Clark County..." database file downloaded from here). Is the SNACC file a different .XLS file that's more comprehensive?

737 - Antenna is the default Uniden one. I read elsewhere that it's "ok" for a stock antenna; would you recommend another? I don't think the ATT was set on, but I'll check ASAP. I did download the Nellis file; the other one was labelled All Clark County. Will verify the timeouts, ID search, and all others then report back.

Thanks for the assistance, guys! I truly do appreciate the input!!

Take care,

John
 

JohnnyPotPie

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BIG tip o' the Uniden to Frazpo and 737 - your hints have made me a happy boy. Seems I set my delays WAY to high (newb mistake) and I didn't have the entire SNACC file downloaded. :)

Thanks again so much!!

Have a good one.....

John
 

teufler

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ST PETERS, MISSOURI
Is it possible nellis went to the usaf trunk system. The air force academy left their trunking system and went to a usaf system
 
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