bcd996xt NEED HELP BAD!

[Hexmaster]

I just decided to get back into this hobby. I am 39 yr old man (ugh!). Last time I held a scanner I was 15 years old and things where so much more simple!

I purchased a top end Uniden BCD996XT. and paid $460 some dollars for it new, plus an Extra $50 for winzip to unzip the darn zip files Undien gives you on their site to upgrade the firmware on it. Then Uniden gives out a freeking serial connector to plug into your computer! Come on Uniden!!! SERIAL??? That is so 1990's!! Scam!! I had to go to their web site and purchase their special cable (only their cable will work) and that cost me another $37.00 bucks after shipping and handling. So after all the hidden costs, this scanner set me back over $500 dollars.

I live in Northern IL. I have been reading and catching up on this old hobby and starting to realize I might have jumped back into a hobby that is going to be encrypted in the whole country soon! Thank the jerks that did the 911 I guess. They started all this security change stuff.

I am 40 some odd miles away from Chicago, Cook county is huge and is a major part of Chicago and comes close to bordering me within 15 miles to suburbs. I just found out on this site Cook has gone P25 and is fully encrypted. California I think is going to be fully encrypted.So Point being it's only a matter of time before the whole country is encrypted I just know this and it won't be long.

I must say this sucks. I am going to keep my scanner but for what??? I can still here my county sheriff (I live in unincorporated but close by town police I can't hear either just that encryption noise. I am aggravated! What a waist of money. I am not going to return my scanner either, I am not like that. I bought it on E-bay from a good seller and that is not fair to the seller to eat the sale just because I am finding out emergency, planes, you name are all getting encrypted.

So there is my point! Did I waist my $$ on a dying hobby? I am already looking for other stuff to tune into. anyone have any Idea's. It does not have to be police I guess.

Here are my frequency's I can pick up with my Uniden (by the way this is a brand new scanner from them)

25-512Mhz
758-823.9875Mhz
849-0125-868.9875Mhz
984.0125-960Mhz
1.24-1.3Ghz
Here are the trunking options, I understand P25 a little bit, then it has Mot which I believe stands for Motorola, then it has another one but it's doing a close call right now and Uniden did not know even know what it was so I don't think it's important..

YES I NEED HELP WITH THIS THING BIG TIME!! SOMEONE PLEASE! I am typing off the box it came with. Undien does not even have a real owners manual out for it yet! They give you a C.D calling it a manual but it just how to put antenna on and plug it in and turn it on and very basic stuff and that is it! Here is a link someone wrote on it to help people if it helps you help me.

Easier to Read BCD996XT Digital Scanner Manual

off box!

25,000 dynamic channels?
Location based Scanning?
Close call RF Capture (I understand that one)
Band Scope?
Fire Tone out?
Multi Color Display (understand it)
CTCSS/DCS/NAC/Decoding???????????????????????????
Audio ARC??????????????????
S.A.M.E. WEATHER ALERT?
ALPHA TAGGING (starting to understand it
back of box (Yes I bought a scanner way to advanced but I refuse to give up I am not a quitter but need help!

Trunk Tracker IV
allows you to follow all the action on the four major types of trucked systems:APCO 25 DIGITAL, Motorola, EDACS (including EDACS ESK systems) and LTR.System can be tracked on virtually all bands and all configurations, including narrowband and "re banded systems.

It has a G.P.S. Connection in back but I am not typing that part. I know I need more crap for that.

Key safe mode which I can't find because of no darn manual from uniden.

IF Exchange
Lets you switch the scanner to an alternative intermediate freq.
compatible g.p.s. Required (not included)

Then most important IF ANY ONE CAN HELP ME IT STATES ON BOX I CAN DO "PC PROGRAMING AND CONTROL!!!" HOW???. WHEN I NAME THINGS i HAVE TO TURN THE STUPID KNOB A BILLION TIME TO GET ONE NAME IN.

S.O.S. GOING INSANE. NEED HELP AND WHAT ELSE is there to listen to or tune into?
in my search it has news, marine, military air, racing, special public safety and few more.

kind of looking for someone with same scanner but i will take any advice at this point because I wish I would have just studied for my ham license and went that route. this scanner is tough!!!!

I know how to program conventional basic stuff and add freq's manually. took me a few days of trial and error but that is about it.

Thank you!! and any all help will be appreciated and passed on to the next guy who is stuck.

 

[kd7lxl]

Maybe this will help: Programming Your Uniden Scanner - The RadioReference Wiki

 

[ka3jjz]

Please HexMaster, settle down and take a deep breath.

Not everything is going encrypted - that's just sheer nonsense. However, to better help you, it would be helpful to know precisely what it is you'd like to hear.

This article from our wiki is targeted toward newcomers to the DMA radios. It has links to just about everything you need - however that Easier to Read manual is a very good starting point.

Program your DMA Scanner - The RadioReference Wiki

Now exactly what is it you want to hear? Specifics count! The devil, as they say, is in the details

HTH...Mike

 

[rckydenver]

Some of those that you had questions marks to you might try this link too.

Category:RR Glossary - The RadioReference Wiki

 

[Hexmaster]

Thanks guys. I'll clam down! Just got scared when I found your encryted page and the states on it. Besides This thing can pick up lots of stuff I just have to learn it and what I want to hear I guess. Does not exactly have to be EMS serves. I am frustrated Uniden put this out before putting together a proper owerner manual that's all. By the time they finish one I will probably have figured it all out.

Thank you for the reply so fast and I am going to check out those links right now. .

I promise in the future to keep my new post shorter and not so dramatic. I spend allot of lute that's all.

Have a nice day folks!

 

[russellmaher]

Hi Hexmaster:

Welcome back! The Uniden scanners can be a bit overwhelming when you've not used them before; it sure is a lot different from the conventional system days of scanning. The links provided above should make it somewhat clearer for you, I believe.

It was courageous of you to jump in with both feet and go right to the top of the heap in the choice of your new scanner. I'm sure once that you learn the "ropes" regarding the 996XT, you'll be happy with it.

Good Luck.....


Russell

 

[Hexmaster]

Thanks Russell!

I am happy with it don't get me wrong. I just bit off more than I realized.!
I already am programing the basics, making it blink different colors for different freq's and tones of choice. Learning what is best for delay times and hold times so forth and so on.

I have not had time yet to look at the link links above but I will do it soon tonight.. I want to program from the PC, turning that knob is annoying and I am a perfectionist when it comes to the names being as correct as possible.

Thanks for the reply.

I can blame Radio Shack for all this. I went in a few weeks ago for some batteries, saw the pro 106 anolog on sale for $119 I believe if I remember right. I love that thing also. One thing led to another, applied for bill me later, got approved (wife smacked me) and I got a better toy. Long version short.

 

[ilgrant]

To program your scanner I use Freescan. It will be alot easier than piddling around with the buttons. I took baby steps on programming it to make sure I understood what was being done.

Next...head on over to CARMA's Home Page. They have a profiles index of every county in the state of Illinois. There is also some club information and meetings on every odd month. Maybe we'll catch you at the November one.

 

[Hexmaster]

thanks ilgrant

I just found six spot software and it's working great so far. virtual machine on my pc. I think I can upload and download with this . This just rewrote the arthritis in my hands!!! If this does not work I'll try yours. I was just into this about five minutes when I got got your post.

Thanks to all. Now I'll be programing away with a smile and not taking aspirin for the sore hands and knuckles of hours of turn and turn and Oops go back! .

 

[Mojaveflyer]

Help With 996XT

I saw your post and understand your frustration... I take it from what you posted that you are primarily interested in monitoring public safety. Many people are but there's a whole world beyond public safety to listen to. I primarily listen to aircraft and railroads. With O'Hare Airport near you, there should be a lot of interesting air traffic control traffic to listen to between approach for Chicago, St Louis and other airports as well as Chicago ARTCC for the enroute flights across country. Scott AFB is in southern Illinois that I'm sure has some interesting traffic passing through. The railroads are NFM although there is some talk of them going digital some day, I don't think it will be soon. Aircraft are AM, both the civilian aircraft on 118 - 136 MHz and the military 225- 400 MHz unless there is something special going on. With the presidential campaign going this fall, I bet you can monitor Air Force 1 as well as Marine 1 if he's flying in one of his helos... Monitor the tower and approach freqs for the airport to hear that. Good luck with the radio!

 

[Hexmaster]

Mojaveflyer

Thanks for that information. Yes I am looking for other stuff to listen for!! getting tired of hearing people getting caught at wal-mart stealing underwear and lipstick.

And drunk after drunk. lol.

I will check into this! I am about 30 min drive from the Air Ports if the interstates are open!

 

[Mojaveflyer]

996XT Help

With aircraft you can frequently hear them 50 - 200 miles away, depending on altitude. I live north of Denver and have heard aircraft over western Nebraska and eastern Wyoming so it's not that unusual. If you go to the RR databases, Look for the air traffic control centers with remote transmitters (ARTCCs). You may have remote transmitter sites from more than one Center in your state if the coverage overlaps. Sometimes having a good map to find some of the remote locations helps. Railroads are usually simplex VHF and may be good for 10 - 20 miles on flat land, farther if you're fortunate to have hills. The issue with railroads is that they frequently use station names that are long gone but they still use that landmark as a location. I'm sure you can get help with your area by going to the RR Railroad forum and asking or trying a website like Trainorders.com on the Western Board (Western Board = west of Chicago). Good luck!

 

[ilgrant]

By the way...there is still plenty to listen to. Chicago PD is staying on their analog frequencies. Their EMS is digital with Fire switching soon.

All Kane and DuPage county agencies are still in the clear with the exception of Naperville and Aurora. Some Cook agencies are available as well and getting ready to switch to digital (Palatine, Elk Grove Village area). It is expected that they will be in the clear. Cook County is the only one that I know of in this area at this point that is encrypted.

 

[Clark]

Almost all the information on the things that you are complaining about could have been obtained with a little research before purchasing this very fine scanner. Most in this same radioreference .com
location. Don't give up, slow down and eventually it will all become clear.
The new breed of scanners are somewhat comlicated to learn because of the advance of radio technology.

Clark

 

[Hexmaster]

don't mean to complain

let's just leave it at that please.
But i have got this thing rocking already with everyone's help just today.

with free scan, I wipe my scanner out and started over from scratch. now I am listening to all kinds of things. Yes, wow. More than just police and ambulances to listen to out their. ALLOT more especially where I live.

I want to thank everyone. I guess I had to cry a little to get allot of attention but that was not my point of writing that article.

Just downloaded all off IL Air traffic in less than a min and uploaded to scanner off pc. It's so easy a cave man could do it. Now I feel a bit stupid about crying in the original post. someone pass me a tissue!

Here is a good question though. I always seem to get allot more static interference at night especially around the 154 MHz bands. It's weird, every night I have to temp lock these out. Come day the interference is gone.
Sometimes it gets so bad it makes any one speaking on any freq sound like a hiccup or watching the signal Rx bar go up down up down.. First thing I did when I took this out of the box was update the firmware.

Better antenna maybe? I used to run a c.b. base station and had the same problem at night here. I could watch the needle jump up and down at night and gone in the day. worse on the Uni den so I know the scanner is o.k. Till this day I cannot pin point this problem.

Time for bed. this thing is addicting.

Thanks to everyone.

 

[Hexmaster]

I guess we can consider this post closed for me. thanks one more time.

my future posts will be a more to the point and shorter. No complaining either.

I think I am going to stay up another hour and program in some stuff into the Radio Shack 106 analog handheld. I want rail and air on that now after listening on the uni den. I CAN'T STOP!!!

 

[AK9R]

...plus an Extra $50 for winzip to unzip the darn zip files Undien gives you on their site to upgrade the firmware on it...

I didn't see where anyone addressed this.

Depending on the version of Windows you are running, buying an un-zip program may have been unnecessary. Windows 7 understands how to un-zip a .ZIP file without any additional tools. Also, the 7-zip program (7-Zip) is free and has most of the same features as WinZip.

 

[ka3jjz]

Windows Explorer's unzip feature is well documented to have issues - I've had it unzip and corrupt files a number of times (I have Win7 Starter on my netbook). I use 7-Zip almost exclusively and never had any issues since

Mike

 

[Sybex7254]

Sounds like a Home Patrol would have been a better purchase choice.

 

[ad5kl]

Quick Keys saved the day for me. With FreeScan, set up your Quick Keys for each service (or each county.) It is then easy to enable/disable the things you hear.

I set mine up using the troop map for our state police as a guide. One Quick Key contains all of the counties for that troop. I did 2 sets - separate quick keys for digital & conventional. It's not just state police, I entered all agencies (state, county & local freqs.)

If I'm going through Troop A area, I would enable Quick Keys 1 and 21 - 1 for digital & 21 for conventional. If I go into B, I disable 1 & 21 and enable 2 & 22. We have Troops A through L & all are setup like this.

I can now drive though the state & hear most anything public service that is not encrypted or using a proprietary mode like MotoTurbo, OpenSky, etc.