bc296d progrmming help, Please....

[billy245]

Hi,
I am in South Dakota and the Hwy. Patrol is on 157-60 MHZ trunked. I am not sure what system that is. I tried programming the info from Police Call in the bc296d but the instructions seem way confusing for me. I don't pick up anything. Is there somewhere where I can learn the talkgroups and simpler instructions for programming this trunked system and the frequencies? I have been scanning for 20 years on analog but this is baffling to me... any links or help is appreciated.
Thanks,
Bill
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[ka3jjz]

Bill, you're not the first one to complain about programming the Uniden digitals. Do yourself a favor - go purchase ARC250 from Scanner Master. It will make your life a lot easier.

As for finding out talkgroups and such, check here:

http://www.radioreference.com/modules.php?name=RR&stid=46

There's also a South Dakota state forum on this board, and there's a Yahoo reflector devoted to scanning in your state at:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scansd/

73s and GL...Mike

 

[CoryCooper]

ARC250 Pro from BuTel is awesome...so much easier. I highly recommend it. I use it on my 796D.

Cory

 

[Dubbin]

Bill, you're not the first one to complain about programming the Uniden digitals. Do yourself a favor - go purchase ARC250 from Scanner Master. It will make your life a lot easier.

Why not get it straight from butel? Thats what I did with ARC246 and had the registration info within a couple minutes.

 

[loumaag]

I am in South Dakota and the Hwy. Patrol is on 157-60 MHZ trunked. I am not sure what system that is.

The SD State TRS can be found here on the site. Please note that the system uses a set of Three BASE/OFFSET/SPACING setups to properly decode the control channel. Since you have a Uniden radio, you will not be able to Control Channel only trunk the system and you will not be able to put more than one site per bank (at least within hearing range of each other) so you need to pick and choose the sites you need and load the banks accordingly. I have a BC796d and a Pro-96 and on this system the Pro-96 is far superior in capability although you do have to have Win96 (for the Pro-96) software to set up the system. I will agree with the others that getting ARC250 software is probably the way to go for the Uniden models.

 

[doctordave]

Bill,

The ARC250 software is nice, but I actually find the free Uniden 296/796 software quit functional for basic programming and exclusively use it for my 296s/796s....doesn't quite have all the bells & whistles, but will do the trick. Whatever software package you select, the advantage over programming the radio by hand will be tremendous. Let us know if you have any difficulty w/ the process.

Dave

 

[billy245]

Hi again,
Let's see. We have 3 base channel configurations/control channels . Are you saying that these three should be in seperate banks from each other? Also there are 5 frequencies, do I program these 5 in every bank seperately with each conrtol channel in seperate banks?
Thanks,
Bill

 

[loumaag]

Let's see. We have 3 base channel configurations/control channels . Are you saying that these three should be in seperate banks from each other? Also there are 5 frequencies, do I program these 5 in every bank seperately with each conrtol channel in seperate banks?

As you are programming each bank, you will see the opportunity to set up 3 sets of BASE/SPACE/OFFSET (as Uniden calls them on this series of radios). Instructions start of page 46 of my manual (796) but the 296 manual should be the same (but maybe a different page number). Each bank that you set up for the SD TRS will have to have this set of three BASE/SPACE/OFFSET values set up.

You say that there are 5 frequencies, I assume that is for whatever site you are planning to put in your radio. Each site must go into a seperate bank. Each site only requires one bank. It does not matter what frequency is the control channel, as Uniden radios are incapable of doing Control Channel trunking on VHF or UHF systems. (Not counting true APCO-25 systems which SD is not.) So pick a bank, set it up and put the 5 frequencies in it.

This should clear up any confusion you might have about this.

 

[billy245]

lets say that I am going to program bank 8. Do I have to program each control channel in to a seperate channel in that bank or do they go in together? Also, talk groups, do I program them into a channel or text them in to one of the frequencies or what? Police Call from radio shack has 3 talk groups listed as 16 32 and 64. What is that about?
By the way, I appreciate all the help...
Bill

 

[billy245]

I am also seeing a different primary control channel than police call has in it. The frequency is 157.4125. how do I find the offset and spacing for this ?
Thanks,
Bill

 

[loumaag]

Bill, I have explained all of this already. Look at my last post. Next thing is to quit looking at Police Call. It is wrong, the publishers of Police Call were fed information that was purposely wrong. Look at the system here on the database. Do not trust any frequencies that Police Call has for the system and just as an example, there are no talkgroups 16, 32, or 64 on this system. If you look in the front of the Police Call book you will notice that South Dakota does not have 1 trunking frequency listed. And if I were you I would take what you get on the ScanSD yahoo group with a tablespoon of salt. The known spoilers of information for the SD system do hang on there attempting to pass bad info out, as long as I am here in SD I will do my best to make sure that garbage does not get into the DB here on RR.com. :wink:

Another point, you own a Uniden, forget about control channels, this is a VHF system and Unidens must have every channel programmed in for each site to work.