Bosniansboy said:
The best thing you can do is start your own thread and explain the problems you are having.
Almost DOA 996?
- Thread starter FlashSWT
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The best thing you can do is start your own thread and explain the problems you are having.
FlashSWT
Member
As an update for anyone keeping score: our defective 996 is on its was back to Scanner Master who will be sending out a replacement on Monday. On that note Scanner Master has been very easy to work with. The other 996 we got plus both 396s are working just fine and I'm hopeful the third 396 we have on order will also once it arrives.
Unfortunately we are out the $26 in return shipping (insured UPS) and the time we don't have it. Now if only a firmware update for the 396 would enable multi-site trunking support (or simply a software update so we could program it like it does) ....
.
Unfortunately we are out the $26 in return shipping (insured UPS) and the time we don't have it. Now if only a firmware update for the 396 would enable multi-site trunking support (or simply a software update so we could program it like it does) ....
.
FlashSWT said:
IMO it is complete BS that you have to pay the shipping. Scannermaster should pay it and then charge Uniden when they return the defective radio.
RFsponge
Member
For Bosniansboy
Bosniansboy-
Cool. Australia. I'd love to take a scanner or two down there myself and make a 4x4 trip across your country for three or four weeks. See the large rock formation which name escapes me at the moment... But I digress. Apart from starting a new thread, which is a good idea, I can offer the following. I am by no means an expert, but I would suggest these steps to help familarize you with your shiny new 996t:
1. Don't drop it. (kidding)
The REAL 1. Connect your scanner to your computer. If you're trying to use the keypad on the radio to program it, you and I will end up next door to each other due to Continential Drift before you finish. (and then I can just drive over there with my own 4x4)
2. If you haven't already, download the USAD program for the 996t from the Uniden website. You should be able to do this for free. This software is not very friendly or easy to use. Be patient. It took me DAYS to learn how to negotiate within and through it. There is better software out there, but it's not free. (Right everyone?)
3. On the first box that pops up after the title screen, click on "Scanner View." Then click on "Read from Scanner"
4. What should happen next is your computer absorbing all the pre-loaded data that already exists in the 996T.
5. Back out of that and click on "System Editor." Pick a system from the resulting list. I'll use "Colorado" as an example as that's where I am. Double-click on it. If you don't have multi-site trunking systems there, maybe try "Charlotte." It's the first one and is not a trunked system.
6. If you click on "Colorado," you'll have another box pop up with "Site Settings" and "Group Settings" buttons on top. Clicking on site settings will let you see how the different sites throughout the system are arranged in the radio, and should serve as a guide for how to set up a new system yourself. Same with "Group Settings." Use it as a guide for your new system if you know talkgroup numbers. A system like "Charlotte" is even easier. Just program frequency and alpha tag info in the same screen.
7. Hopefully, you have access to frequency and talkgroup information there. Once you've got the control channel frequencies programmed in for all your sites, (should be only one control channel for each different site - the Colorado pre-loaded system has 4 or 5 or 6 frequencies per site and really slowed the radio down until I locked out all the non-control channels) you can start to listen right there. Put the radio into "ID Search" mode, and you'll start to receive traffic from talkgroups. However, you won't know who you are listening to until you match the numbers that pop up with the agencies those numbers belong to.
If you don't have trunked systems there and are just listening to straight frequencies, the radio has "Close Call," "Service Search" and other frequency-seeking features that should prove quite helpful. The radio's manual does a decent job of explaining how those work.
I guess, in a nutshell, use the information that already exists in the radio as a guide for adding your own information.
If I've misguided you on any of the above steps, I'm sure others here will let you know it. As I've often told everyone, I'm someone who works the equipment but has no idea how the equipment works!
Good luck, mate!
Rob
Bosniansboy-
Cool. Australia. I'd love to take a scanner or two down there myself and make a 4x4 trip across your country for three or four weeks. See the large rock formation which name escapes me at the moment... But I digress. Apart from starting a new thread, which is a good idea, I can offer the following. I am by no means an expert, but I would suggest these steps to help familarize you with your shiny new 996t:
1. Don't drop it. (kidding)
The REAL 1. Connect your scanner to your computer. If you're trying to use the keypad on the radio to program it, you and I will end up next door to each other due to Continential Drift before you finish. (and then I can just drive over there with my own 4x4)
2. If you haven't already, download the USAD program for the 996t from the Uniden website. You should be able to do this for free. This software is not very friendly or easy to use. Be patient. It took me DAYS to learn how to negotiate within and through it. There is better software out there, but it's not free. (Right everyone?)
3. On the first box that pops up after the title screen, click on "Scanner View." Then click on "Read from Scanner"
4. What should happen next is your computer absorbing all the pre-loaded data that already exists in the 996T.
5. Back out of that and click on "System Editor." Pick a system from the resulting list. I'll use "Colorado" as an example as that's where I am. Double-click on it. If you don't have multi-site trunking systems there, maybe try "Charlotte." It's the first one and is not a trunked system.
6. If you click on "Colorado," you'll have another box pop up with "Site Settings" and "Group Settings" buttons on top. Clicking on site settings will let you see how the different sites throughout the system are arranged in the radio, and should serve as a guide for how to set up a new system yourself. Same with "Group Settings." Use it as a guide for your new system if you know talkgroup numbers. A system like "Charlotte" is even easier. Just program frequency and alpha tag info in the same screen.
7. Hopefully, you have access to frequency and talkgroup information there. Once you've got the control channel frequencies programmed in for all your sites, (should be only one control channel for each different site - the Colorado pre-loaded system has 4 or 5 or 6 frequencies per site and really slowed the radio down until I locked out all the non-control channels) you can start to listen right there. Put the radio into "ID Search" mode, and you'll start to receive traffic from talkgroups. However, you won't know who you are listening to until you match the numbers that pop up with the agencies those numbers belong to.
If you don't have trunked systems there and are just listening to straight frequencies, the radio has "Close Call," "Service Search" and other frequency-seeking features that should prove quite helpful. The radio's manual does a decent job of explaining how those work.
I guess, in a nutshell, use the information that already exists in the radio as a guide for adding your own information.
If I've misguided you on any of the above steps, I'm sure others here will let you know it. As I've often told everyone, I'm someone who works the equipment but has no idea how the equipment works!
Good luck, mate!
Rob
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