BC346XT and Trunking Programming

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Drowsiness

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Hi all.

Just wondering if someone can point me in the right direction for programming trunked systems into the scanner. I have read the manual, the wiki on this site and lots of other sites and I just cannot wrap my head around it. I guess the main problem is that the tables with TGIDs and Hex Codes and such all may as well be written in hieroglyphics or something because I have no idea how to use all of those confusing tables with one another.

Sorry for being so noobish with this, but I'd truly appreciate any help you can give. If you can package it in a "Trunking for Dummies" kind of style, then you will be my new savior.

Thanks for any help you can give!
 

ka3jjz

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The first thing you should supply when asking questions like this is 'what are you trying to monitor'? The 346XT is a very good analog trunking only scanner - it will not track digital systems.

You can completely ignore the hex codes for the talkgroup IDs. These are supplied for professional (and some GRE scanner owners) use, and the Uniden can't use them.

Since you didn't mention what system you are trying to program, in general terms, you would set up groups associated with a given site within a system that contains the talkgroup(s) you want to hear. The trick here is to understand that you need to associate each group with a quick key that needs to be active and enabled before the scanner will 'hear' it.

Some more specific questions, please.

73 Mike
 

Drowsiness

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@ka3jjz:
I am trying to monitor the MBTA in Boston as well as Mass. State Police trunked systems. Sorry I didn't reference that in my original post, just didn't know if it mattered a lot.

I think I get what you are saying. Maybe the problem is that FreeScan seemingly doesn't have such a robust trunk entry system? I tried to set it up through that application but it never allows me to enter a frequency. I may have missed something, though, since it was so early in the morning and I hadn't gotten to sleep yet/

Thanks for your help, though. You may have me on the right track! If I missed any more specific which you may need, please bonk me on the head or something.

@UPMan:
Thanks. I have read the manual and even set up a test group with it containing some of the channels I wanted to monitor, but it just didn't seem like it was working.
 

ka3jjz

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When you are defining a new site, there are 3 tabs - the 2nd tab called 'Trunk Frequencies' is where you would put these. You really only need to put in the freqs that are in red and blue; these are control channels. Make sure the 'Control Channel Only' box is checked on the site setup page.

Doing this manually (which I suspect is how you are doing it) is challenging; using the RR import is the way a lot of folks go.

You might be better off if you were to purchase a premium subscription; this will allow Freescan to import everything (well almost - you still have to set up your own quick keys, although FS will try to set some of this up for you..) from our online database. You can then go to the Scan New England wiki to adjust whatever needs changing, as sometimes this area has more up to date information.

To find out about this, float your mouse under the Scanner Master ad on the blue toolbar that says About then select Our Premium Services

The other way to go about this would be to go to the Mass.forum, tell people you have FreeScan and want a file for those systems, or see if the programming files section of Scan New England has something you can use. Remember that FS can also import UASD (Uniden's original DMA software) or ARC (BuTel) files, although you will need to adjust them a bit for your use. There is a forum on SNE devoted to these files if you have questions about them.

You will need a USB cable to connect the 346 to your PC; our wiki also has an extensive article on this subject;

Connecting scanners via USB - The RadioReference Wiki

By the way, we have the user's manual for FreeScan in our wiki here.

73 Mike
 

Drowsiness

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@ka3jjz:
Thank you VERY much for your help here. You actually -did- manage to get me started in the right direction!

With your previous post, I figured out what I was doing wrong and I corrected it. Trunking is now working fine after the changes I made according to your advice/insight and I even managed to figure out what I was doing wrong in FreeScan because of this.

Thanks a ton to both of you, especially you ka3jjz.
 
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