BC125AT: BC125AT Bank question

[RMason]

What are steps/second?

Steps/second is the rate at which the scanner steps through frequencies in the Search modes. See "Service Search Mode" and "Custom Search Mode" in the BC125AT manual. You can use Service Search (or Custom Search) to find active frequencies within a range of frequencies. The scanner searches starting with the lowest frequency in the search range and goes to the highest frequency in the range. The step size depends on the band of the frequencies being searched and varies between 5-12.5kHz.

The search rate is:

• 90 steps/second
• 270 steps/second (5kHz step)

https://www.uniden.info/download/ompdf/BC125ATom.pdf

If you do not have a reference to frequencies in your area, use a search to find a transmission. You can search for Police, Fire/Emergency, Ham, Marine, Railroad, Civil Air, Military Air, CB Radio, FRS/GMRS/MURS, and Racing frequencies without knowing the specific frequencies used in your area. The scanner is preprogrammed with all the frequencies allocated to these services.​

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To start a Service Search, press Func then Srch/Svc .​

 

[Zombiel3]

Whew so much to learn. I just looked up the frequencies for CFB Trenton and programmed them in and let it scan. Seemed to work pretty well at the air show a couple of weeks ago but I did notice I missed a lot of the arrivals checking in.
I tried reading through my manual but most of it may as well have been written in hieroglyphics. I find it more useful to read through this forum and search Youtube.

 

[JoeBearcat]

Haha very true!

I don't know how to tell how fast it's going. Mine doesn't display the channels when it's scanning. It just displays SCAN and the 1 and 2 at the bottom flash to let me know it's scanning banks 1 and 2. Is there another way I can check?

Sorry, like I said I'm very new to scanning.

If you really want to test your specific unit, program (however many) channels, and program the active weather channel in a channel. When it stops on that weather channel, scroll to continue and see how long it takes to return to that active weather channel. Divide the number of channels (minus one) by the time and that is the channels per second it took to scan all other active (enabled) channels.

There are many things that can affect scan speed.

 

[Ubbe]

For 10 channels in each bank, the 1 in the display should flash about 4 times per second for a 80channel/sec scan rate. (It would flash about 1 time every 2 seconds for a 9channel/sec rate)

I believe it uses a fixed flash time for all the indicators on the display, something like 4 flashes a second seems to be correct, and are not related to the scan speed. If you have fewer channels in a bank it doesn't have long enough time to make several flashes and sometimes when the flash are in its off state it can scan over a whole bank with a few channels in it and not lit up that bank number for that scan cycle.

/Ubbe

 

[Zombiel3]

I think you're right. The 2 banks I am currently using flash erratically with no sense of pattern that I can figure out. I also don't have very many channels programmed in each bank.

 

[Zombiel3]

If you really want to test your specific unit, program (however many) channels, and program the active weather channel in a channel. When it stops on that weather channel, scroll to continue and see how long it takes to return to that active weather channel. Divide the number of channels (minus one) by the time and that is the channels per second it took to scan all other active (enabled) channels.

There are many things that can affect scan speed.

I did this with two ATIS channels (UHF and VHF). I had one programmed on Bank 1-01 and the other on Bank 1-13. When I set it to scan I would lock out the first ATIS and it would get to the second ATIS almost instantly. I am going to try and fill an entire bank and put the second ATIS on 1-50 and see how long it takes.
Thanks for the advise!