BC72XLT service search frequencies

[dawntreader]

My first scanner from several years ago was (still have it) a Uniden BC72XLT. I got bit by the interesting things I could hear about the communities around me, and the information that helped me feel more a part of the community. Loved the way the scanner is so easy to use and program on the fly.

Recently I was using the BC72XLT for some repeater scanning, and got to thinking about the service search capability. What are the frequency ranges (or discrete frequencies) that are pre-programmed for the ham, pol, fire, air and marine search bands? I know that there are probably 7 frequencies programmed for the wx (weather) bands - NOAA publishes these frequencies. What are the other ranges for the other service bands? I can guess what they may be for the ham (2, 6 and 10 meters), and the marine, but does anyone (maybe Upman) know where I can find documentation for these ranges that are preprogrammed in the scanner?

 

[WA1ATA]

You can easily determine most the the freqs simply by activating the various service searches and noting the frequencies scanned. It helps to turn the squelch control all the way down, so the receiver will lock on the first freq to be scanned, even if there isn't a signal. Then use the down key (Function, then 8) to see the uppermost freq.

If you press "Hold", and then continously press the up button or down button, the scanner will scroll through the freqs at about 5 per second. You can pretty easily catch where there are breaks or discontinuities and then scroll back to jot them down.

My BC72XLT is a few thousand miles away, but here's info the the BC95XLT, which in most things is identical to the 72 except for the addition of 800MHz and the "do not disturb" option on the close call.

The Airband service search is pretty straightforward.... 118.000 to 136.9875 in 12.5kHz increments.

Marine service search has the standard Marine VHF channel freqs (see the Wiki) for 1,3, 5-23. 156MHz + 50kHz x channel number. Then 24-28 have the 161.8 to 162MHz freqs, 61-83 are standard 156/157MHz freqs, except 62 is omitted. 84-87 are the standard 161.825-161..975 freqs. The 95XLT doesn't have the 157 MHz freqs for the 24-28 and 84-87 Public Correspondence, aka Marine Radiotelephone operator channels.

Wx has 10 channels total. There are in the order they were introduced, not the frequency order that is often found on newer weather radios. 162.400 to 162.550 in 250kHz increments, and then three channels which I think are Canadian: 161.650 and 161.775 and 163.275

The Police and Fire search bands have numerous segments and spacings. You are on your own to extract those. I will note that the list is obsolete in that it doesn't search the T-band such as the 482.xx freqs that are used by some of my local police departments.

 

[dawntreader]

Thanks!

Thanks for the great reply! I had not used some of the BC72XLT features in quite the way your post described, so I really appreciate the time you took to inform me and other interested people. I plan on posting the Police and Fire search bands that are pre-programmed here when I get a chance to review them on the radio in the next couple days.

The WX number of frequencies surprised me, I thought that there were only 7, as posted on the NOAA website here: NOAA Weather Radio
But now I see from your post that this radio may have the Canadian frequencies also, which then equals the 10 total you referenced.

I have been using my other scanner, a BC346XT to scan my local area, since it is an analog trunking system (Motorola Smartnet), so the 72 is basically used now for listening to traffic on the local 2 meter and 70 cm repeaters, while not missing the traffic on the trunk system.

Thanks for taking the time to be a great "Elmer", I am grateful for the help!

 

[dawntreader]

BC72XLT service scan frequencies

This evening I began to write down the frequency ranges associated with the police band on the BC72XLT. After about 3 pages of frequency ranges/steps ranging from 29 mHz up through the 400 mHz range I realized why the question I asked was not an easy one to answer - there are TONS of frequencies, ranges (with different step increments) programmed in the radio.

I thought these might be a few simple ranges, taking about 5-10 minutes to write down, but that was certainly not the case. Someone who programmed these ranges obviously know something about the various police radio frequencies that have existed through time!

Anyways, thanks for the VERY gracious reply, your advice to manually step through the range if you really want to know what is on a particular service band on the BC72XLT is good, practical advice.

BTW, I verified that there are 10 weather frequencies programmed in the radio, the 7 in America and the 3 in Canada as your post stated.

 

[WA1ATA]

The service search freqs were probably based upon FCC lists such as Section and Section .

And similar listing, but easier to read is http://agora.rdrop.com/users/billmc/freq_list.4

I haven't found any decent listing of who gets what in the 470-512MHz band.

 

[dawntreader]

The service search freqs were probably based upon FCC lists such as Section and Section .

And similar listing, but easier to read is http://agora.rdrop.com/users/billmc/freq_list.4

I haven't found any decent listing of who gets what in the 470-512MHz band.

I cross-referenced the bandplans above with what I wrote down - sure enough, they match. Got more questions now about the lower freqs (37-46 mHz) and what they are used for. I'm going to scan them here in the D/FW area, but I would be surprised if I heard anything on them.

Thanks for giving me the opportunity to learn something new this morning by your post!

 

[SCPD]

I have the Australian model (UBC73XLT) and have found except for the air band and marine band it is better to use one of the 10 CUSTOM search ranges and program this just how you want with the frequencies you want.

Paul

 

[dawntreader]

Thanks for the advice. When there is a range of frequencies to look for, that is a great way to scan them. When I know the repeaters I want to listen to, I usually program them in a bank and scan the bank.