BCD396XT Programming Question

[ginky4]

I am trying to manually program a BCD396XT for Balto County Maryland which uses the P25 system. How do you input the 800mghz frequencies into this scanner that are required before you input the TGIDs?

 

[ka3jjz]

2 words for you - Good Luck! Hopefully we won't hear that someone has been taken to Belleview..all that button pushing and knob twisting is enough to drive anyone mad...

Here are a couple of things to help you along...

Easier to Read BCD396XT Digital Scanner Manual

and see the bottom of...

Programming the Baltimore County (P25) System - The RadioReference Wiki

for important information

HTH..Mike

 

[ginky4]

I did my analog 346T manually. It took so time but was perfect when I was done. I am just struggling right now trying to find out how to enter the twenty four 800mhz frequencies in the BCD396XT that are required for digital trunk tracking in Balto County.

 

[ka3jjz]

You neither need to enter both sites (unless you head far enough North to hear the North site, and only interested in some talkgroups), or enter all the frequencies. Since this is a P25 system, control channel only trunking is the default. So you only need 4 frequencies or so for each site.

You might profit from reading the article in the wiki on the Baltimore County system...

Baltimore County (P25) System Information - The RadioReference Wiki

HTH...Mike

 

[ginky4]

I just got done programming my BCD396XT. I did the firmware update first with no problem and then set my P25 adjust level to 8 and this thing is crystal clear. I first tried it at 11 and was receving a little bit of garbled traffic. When I set it to 8 it is totally clear. I am in White Marsh Maryland.

 

[kd8x]

I just got done programming my BCD396XT. I did the firmware update first with no problem and then set my P25 adjust level to 8 and this thing is crystal clear. I first tried it at 11 and was receving a little bit of garbled traffic. When I set it to 8 it is totally clear. I am in White Marsh Maryland.

I use the same setting at 8....i have my level set to 125....works better for me on the P25 systems around me.

 

[ginky4]

Since I have my scanner programmed exactly how I want how would I go about uploading my settings into some software on a computer? I have the cable that came with the scanner hooked up to my serial port on my computer. I do have BC Tools but am not quite sure how to use that software. I would like to save my scanner configuration in some type of file format on my computer for future reference.

 

[ka3jjz]

I don't use BCTool (not BCTools - that's a virus checker), but FreeScan (which frankly I think is more popular) makes that pretty easy. Make sure you check off the relevant options for the scanner settings and quick key status (I'm assuming here you didn't do any custom search ranges, but if you did, it'll capture that too)

Freescan Downloads - The RadioReference Wiki

There's gotta be something similar in BCTool - Mike