396XT new user question #2

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novascotian

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Maybe this question should be posted somewhere else.... if so please be gentle! I have just acquired a 396XT that had been programmed already for my area, so I am listening and getting to know it, but I want to program it diffferently. I have freescan and have another person's file that is like what I want, though I have made some changes. Okay here is the problem. I only received the serial cable and I do not have a serial port on my Acer laptop which has Vista Basic. So I bought a Sabrent usb2.0 to Serial Cable Adapter. It did come with a disk but with Vista I figure I can just plug this in and it will find drivers.... It did so... but when I go first of all to download the existing program so I can save it (I do not have it on disk) before loading my desired programming, it won't do it... I do not want to try to upload to the scanner until I get the existing file off the scanner.
The comports do not match... I may be an experienced scanner user but sure not a computer expert.... I went into Control Panel to change the comport to what Freescan expected, and vice versa... but no go.... At this point I am thinking I will have to find a computer with a serial port or buy the dedicated USB-1 cable... Does anyone have any suggestions before I do that? Like a short step by step on how to make this work.... thanks....
 

ka3jjz

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From your description I'd say you got everything on the PC side OK, but there's one step you missed on the scanner side - you didn't go into the setup menu to configure the port

Freescan - Connecting Scanner to PC - The RadioReference Wiki

And make sure that the driver you have for that USB cable is up to date and compatible with Vista Basic. You'd need to find the manufacturer or distributor's website and check.

HTH...Mike
 

novascotian

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Oct 27, 2008
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Location
Halifax, Nova Scotia
Okay it looks good now.... matched in Freescan and on the computer both the ports and the speed..and now it is uploading and downloading.... thanks for all assistance....
 
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