BC895XLT Question

[SlipNutz15]

I have a question about the Uniden BC895XLT. Is there any way to speed up the decode speed of the CTCSS? It takes a few seconds to decode and it's a little bothersome when I'm using it for my live scanner feed and it takes about 1 second to start decoding. I figure the answer is probably going to be "no" but I figured I'd ask just in case.

 

[Mick]

I've had a BC895 since it came out and have never been able to speed it up.

 

[SlipNutz15]

That's what I kind of figured but I figured I'd give it a go and ask anyway

 

[jastx]

When it searches for the tone, it is slow. But when the tone is stored with the frequency in a channel, it seems instantaneous.

 

[Al42]

If it acts as a counter when it's searching for the tone, it requires at least a 1 second gate time (and that's looking it up in the table, not decoding to the nearest 0.1 Hz), so the decode takes 1 second plus whatever the CPU takes to display it.

 

[pro92b]

The BC895 uses an AK2345 chip which was marketed as a CTCSS encoder/decoder for FRS radios. Tone detection is by means of a programmable filter tuned by a variable division of the chip clock frequency. CTCSS search is slow since each PL tone is step tuned and checked for detector output in succession.

 

[Al42]

The BC895 uses an AK2345 chip which was marketed as a CTCSS encoder/decoder for FRS radios. Tone detection is by means of a programmable filter tuned by a variable division of the chip clock frequency. CTCSS search is slow since each PL tone is step tuned and checked for detector output in succession.

Any idea what the lockup time of the AK2345 is?

 

[pro92b]

There are two modes, normal and fast. I don't know which one the BC895 uses. Specs are below.


NORMAL
67 Hz 240ms typ 370ms max
100 Hz 160ms typ 250ms max

FAST
67 Hz 150ms typ 210ms max
100 Hz 95ms typ 150ms max

 

[SlipNutz15]

My question still remains. This there any way of having it so that it decodes faster? I have two channels (Med 9) 462.950 and one is for my county and the other is for the neighboring county and they are PLd at 156.7 and 162.2 . I just seem to get the first second of all their tranmissions cut off

 

[jastx]

My question still remains. This there any way of having it so that it decodes faster? I have two channels (Med 9) 462.950 and one is for my county and the other is for the neighboring county and they are PLd at 156.7 and 162.2 . I just seem to get the first second of all their tranmissions cut off

Do you have the scanner searching for the tone every time or have you stored the tone with the channel? My BC895XLT seems almost immediate when the tone is stored with the channel. Tone search mode on a channel does take several seconds.

If you know the tones, there is no need to search for them on each transmission, store them with the channel. To store the tone with the channel, first display the channel. Then press the CTCSS button until the display shows "CTCSS" (steady, not blinking) in the lower right corner. Press "E" - this will cause 000.0 to blink on the display just above "CTCSS". Enter the tone and press "E". To clear a tone, use the above procedure with a tone of "0".

Another factor is the total number of channels being scanned. I believe it does about 100 per second. If you are scanning a lot of channels, it is possible to miss the beginning of a transmission while it is looking for a conversation to monitor. If this is the case, try turning some banks off or locking out some channels. This will reduce the amount of time it takes to cycle through the channels.