Anyone have a bcd39xt and a mobile vhf radio?

[Rastaman147]

Hi all,

I am in the beginning stages of shopping for a mobile vhf or dual band radio, and I have a question about scanning.

On my bcd396xt, when I am scanning and the scanner stops on a channel that has a very poor signal, a long conversation that doesn't interest me, or maybe just loud radio noise / static, I can press the temporary lockout key to stop scanning that frequency, for my current session.

Do any / most / all mobile radios have a similar key? I can't imagine scanning while I am driving if there is not a quick safe way to temporarily disable an annoying frequency. If they do have this feature, it must be called something other than lockout, because the only thing I am seeing when I google this is a feature called busy channel lockout, which is something totally different -- It prevents me from transmitting on channel that is being used by someone else.

I have a Baofeng UV-5r HT, which scans every channel in memory, with no way to exclude any channels, and also a Yaesu FT-60, which allows me to exclude a channel from scanning, but it is permanent, and must be done through the menu system. This is a little better than the UV-5r, but would not be practical while driving.

If anyone familiar with this key on the 396xt could tell what mobile radio they have, and whether it has this feature or not, I'd appreciate it.

 

[scannersnstuff]

i don't think that there are any portables or mobiles with a temp.lockout feature. in commercial grade radios, lockout is usually referred to as "nuisance channel delete".

 

[w8srb]

Hi all,

I am in the beginning stages of shopping for a mobile vhf or dual band radio, and I have a question about scanning.

On my bcd396xt, when I am scanning and the scanner stops on a channel that has a very poor signal, a long conversation that doesn't interest me, or maybe just loud radio noise / static, I can press the temporary lockout key to stop scanning that frequency, for my current session.

Do any / most / all mobile radios have a similar key? I can't imagine scanning while I am driving if there is not a quick safe way to temporarily disable an annoying frequency. If they do have this feature, it must be called something other than lockout, because the only thing I am seeing when I google this is a feature called busy channel lockout, which is something totally different -- It prevents me from transmitting on channel that is being used by someone else.

I have a Baofeng UV-5r HT, which scans every channel in memory, with no way to exclude any channels, and also a Yaesu FT-60, which allows me to exclude a channel from scanning, but it is permanent, and must be done through the menu system. This is a little better than the UV-5r, but would not be practical while driving.

If anyone familiar with this key on the 396xt could tell what mobile radio they have, and whether it has this feature or not, I'd appreciate it.

I just recently got the BCD996Xt and still working on it figuring things out, but you can temp lockout a frequency on your scanner you don't want to listen to by hitting the L/O button. As far as the dual band radios, when programming them, any frequencies you put in there, if you know the pl tones to them or obtain them when you program them, that will stop a lot of the unnecessary stopping on the channels. Hope this helps?

 

[jaspence]

Lockout/nuisance key

Most of the amateur gear I have used does not have a key like you describe in the bcd396xt. I have a large HT collection, and none of the amateur radios have a nuisance key for temporary lockout. This feature is found in some professional radios, but amateur gear does not usually reactivate the frequency when you cycle the power.

 

[Rastaman147]

I guess I will have to find another way to accomplish this. I'm looking at the Yaseu FT-7900, which has 5 "one touch hyper-memories" which sounds like they could be used to create different scanning configurations. It also has a "smart search" feature, which scans for local active frequencies. I guess both options still have the potential to stop on a frequency I don't want, but it doesn't sound like temporary lockout will be an option. Ok, thanks all for the info!

 

[SCPD]

That's what "scanning" does, you never know what your receiver will pull in depending on your location and other factors. Listen and program only what you wish to hear.

 

[Rastaman147]

"That's what "scanning" does, you never know what your receiver will pull in depending on your location and other factors. Listen and program only what you wish to hear."

..... So are you saying that when you are scanning, your radio never stops on frequencies you don't want to hear?

 

[AF5JQ]

I don't know of any amateur radios that have a temporary lock-out feature. Some of the commercial Kenwood, RELM, and Icom radios have the ability to add/delete channels from the scan bank using the keypad, but you may need to tweak the programming to get them to transmit on amateur frequencies.

 

[SCPD]

With the 396 you can set up a system, groups and enter the frequencies you wish to scan and use quick keys. Or you can use the custom search and set up what you would like also.

 

[DaveNF2G]

You have discovered Stark's Second Law of Radio Scanning:

"When scanning, especially in a mobile environment, the busiest channel will be the one with the weakest signal."

For ham radio, just substitute "repeater" for "channel."

 

[K8LEA]

Rastaman:

Then there was the night that I was listening to the local 147.000 repeater and didn't hear about a nasty traffic pile-up right in the middle of my route home. Nasty weather that night, too. I sorted it out and went another way, but I'd have saved 20 minutes if I'd been just listening to the local PD. (No "Priority" function in the radio in car at that time.)

Radio Shack used to sell a cigarette-pack sized HT for 2M (and another one for 450mhz) that DOES have a temporary lock out function. Press the lock out button (or something or other - I forget) and it'll ignore that channel until powered down and back up. You can also make that permanent easily enough, but as I recall, not while driving. HT-200 or something like that - they've been out of print for about ten years, though. Two or three watts, or maybe a lot less, using some alkalines and a cute little micro-duck on an SMA connector. $100-ish during the close-out. I have no idea why I bought the thing , other than having it with me in the hospital back about 2005 so I could "listen in" once I felt up to it without bothering with special batteries, chargers, etc.

Regards,