BCD996xt Programming Assistance

[jrwarner]

Hi Everyone,

I'm a freelance photojournalist that moved to southwest Michigan a few months ago. I realized that all the PD's were digital so I bought a BCD996xt. In short - holy crap - I'm lost and starting to get irritated.

I want to program all the PD's, Sheriffs, MDOT, MSP, MDNR, Rail PD, Air Ambulances, etc into the scanner for Berrien, Van Buren and Allegan counties - the counties I cover. The expense of having Scannermaster do it is out of the question. And I just can't get my head around it.

Any suggestions?

Thanks for any help you might be able to offer.

 

[SCPD]

Hi Everyone,

I'm a freelance photojournalist that moved to southwest Michigan a few months ago. I realized that all the PD's were digital so I bought a BCD996xt. In short - holy crap - I'm lost and starting to get irritated.

I want to program all the PD's, Sheriffs, MDOT, MSP, MDNR, Rail PD, Air Ambulances, etc into the scanner for Berrien, Van Buren and Allegan counties - the counties I cover. The expense of having Scannermaster do it is out of the question. And I just can't get my head around it.

Any suggestions?

Thanks for any help you might be able to offer.

You might want to ask on the Uniden forum. http://forums.radioreference.com/uniden-scanners/

 

[jshaffer50]

Download FreeScan and then pull the frequencies from RadioReference that you want and upload it to your scanner. You'll need a USB to Serial cable if you don't have one to connect to your scanner.

 

[ka3jjz]

You can start here...

Uniden DMA FAQ - The RadioReference Wiki

At the bottom of this article are the links to the Easier to Read manuals. Download the one for the 996XT so you can refer to it even if you're offline.

Whoever it was at Uniden that wrote their manuals should have to sit in front of Donald Trump and let him utter those 2 most famous words.....

73 Mike

 

[markbart]

The same could be said for any scanner manual.

 

[jrwarner]

Thanks for the help everybody - I already have freescan and I pulled information from radioreference.com. Call me stupid, I just can't get my head around how digital systems are organized within the radio. Even after pulling the current program from the radio and looking at it. I've hand-programmed every scanner I've ever had (10 to 15 of them over the years including my current 15XT and 346XT) and this just doesn't register to my brain.

My 15XT and 346XT are programmed as follows:

Berrien County (system)
EMS (group) channel, channel, channel, channel, etc.
Fire (group) channel, channel, channel, channel, etc.
Police (group) channel, channel, channel, channel, etc.
Air Ops (group) channel, channel, channel, channel, etc.
MDOT (group) channel, channel, channel, channel, etc.
Schools (group) channel, channel, channel, channel, etc.

Van Buren County (system)
(same)

Allegan County (system)
same

My goal is to program the 996XT the same way, but as you are aware, it does not seem to work that way. If I had the money, honestly I'd pay to have it programmed.

 

[Mac2]

996XT and Michigan P25 System

I too just purchased a new 996XT. It arrived empty. On the Uniden site you can follow the help I received and the crib that I developed. I first loaded (from internal memory) the information for many States. The radio then started to scan Alaska's frequencies. I locked out Alaska. I then enabled Michigan and now the radio scans the whole Michigan digital system.

Details, which are lacking in the worthless CD, are on the other site.
Regards, Mac2

 

[eaf1956]

996xt

I too just purchased a new 996XT. It arrived empty. On the Uniden site you can follow the help I received and the crib that I developed. I first loaded (from internal memory) the information for many States. The radio then started to scan Alaska's frequencies. I locked out Alaska. I then enabled Michigan and now the radio scans the whole Michigan digital system.

Details, which are lacking in the worthless CD, are on the other site.
Regards, Mac2

The 1st thing I did with the 996XT was to delete ALL the preloaded crap. Having a 996T, I just d/led the info from it into the XT. Worked for a start but later I changed a few things on the XT. The preloaded stuff IMHO is a waste of time and effort. May be OK for the HP-1 but I wonder if anyone ever uses it on the 996 series

 

[Mac2]

Dear EAF: If one has a set of settings in a 996T that can be transfered into a 996XT, your plan is OK. I was addressing those in Michigan with a new 996XT who wish the State wide P25 system and do not have another radio or software. Of course, if memory is an issue one could delete all of the other State systems except for Michigan;s MPSCS. Regards, Mac2