996 And Federal Monitoring

[hvcap]

Is anyome using A Uniden 996 for federal monitoring? if I understand this correctly, the 996
can have one frequency set for analog with pl or dpl and not have to hear encryption noise
and program the same channel A second time digital only and the radio will mute when encryption is heard on 25 I would like to hear from someone that has one and can confirm this.




Thank you
Jerry

 

[ChrisP]

Yes, the 996 can have a channel defined as "analog only" or "digital only" and it does mute on an encrypted P-25 signal.

The only drawback to federal searching is that if you have the CTCSS/DCS search enabled on the Custom Search banks, it will not decode any P-25 transmissions.

- Chris

 

[hvcap]

Thanks Chris this is what I needed to know before I ordered one.






Jerry

 

[JASII]

I have been interested in this same aspect. Perhaps for searching you can run laod a sequential group of channels and scan them rather than search. One groups in analog with PL/DPL search on and the other group in digital only. I will get the Butel ARC996 and it should be good for logging activity in an unattended session.

A slightly different variation that I have done with my old BC796 under Butel ARC250PRO was to load up frequencies with all possibly PL/DPL combinations. With the BC796 I could load 7 different frequencies with every possible PL/DPL combination. That used all 1000 channels with a blank space betrween each group of channels. That gave the scanner something to do while I was at work and it was sort of interesting to look at the history log when I returned home. One of the good things about doing it this way is that it seemed to drastically reduce the number of false hits generated by intermodulation, mixing, or adjacent channel interference. Another routine that I have done recently is to search in a chain search routine using all 10 search banks with either PL or DPL enabled. When I return home from work or overnight I will find what frequencies were active under a particular PL or DPL.

It looks like the new BC996 has about 12 more code combinations than the BC796 did. A total of 154 vs. 142. Thus the 796s 1000 channels divided by 142 gave 7 total frequencies with all possible code combinations. The 996s 6000 channels divided by 154 (or 155 if I is digital only) gives over 38 frequency code combinations. That is actually pretty powerful capability for frequency sleuthing.

If it is possible to configure each of the 10 search banks with different PL/DPLs to search under that would also be quite handy, but I am not sure if that possibility exists. Think about it, You could search a certain frequency range, say 162-174 with 167.9 hZ in the first bank, 162-174 with 100.0 in the second bank, and so forth.

As you can probably tell, I am looking forward to my new BC996 arriving hopefully later this week. I want to get the ARC996 because I have some plans for it!

 

[JASII]

I forgot to mention that the ability to search and then scan may also be helpful for sleuthing federal frequencies. You could search with PL/DPL search on and then scan a group of federal channels that are programmed digital only modulation. Again, this should be a pretty versatile radio for all sorts of possibilities.

 

[Gilligan]

A slightly different variation that I have done with my old BC796 under Butel ARC250PRO was to load up frequencies with all possibly PL/DPL combinations. With the BC796 I could load 7 different frequencies with every possible PL/DPL combination. That used all 1000 channels with a blank space betrween each group of channels. That gave the scanner something to do while I was at work and it was sort of interesting to look at the history log when I returned home. One of the good things about doing it this way is that it seemed to drastically reduce the number of false hits generated by intermodulation, mixing, or adjacent channel interference.

I happened across this post and feel obligated to mention something about this scanning method in case somewhat sees it and wants to try it themself. It seems like this method would be great, I know. But actually it would be extremely slow in reality. Cause what it's doing is checking each and every channel to see if that tone is present. So trust me, this won't work. What can be okay is to load your scanner w/ a block of freqs all of the same tone.

 

[JASII]

Thanks for resurrecting my post. I have also done searching that way and you are right, it does work out very well. Back when, I would leave my scanning running day and night and logging with the computer. I found some neat stuff that way!

 

[Gilligan]

Back when, I would leave my scanning running day and night and logging with the computer. I found some neat stuff that way!

It sure makes it easy to figure out what they said when you can hear it 10 times over and over...