BCT-15 problem

[Eric61]

I have Fort Worth PD as one of the systems in my BCT-15, with 9 different groups in the system, each with between 7 and 27 talkgroups (channels). I scan in ID Scan mode, but most talkgroups do not receive anything. I can manually stop on a talkgroup and hear activity, and when scanning I do hear a few talkgroups but most never have activity. I know there is activity on talkgroups that I am not hearing because I hear it on my 246. The system is unlocked, the groups are unlocked and the talkgroups are all unlocked. The talkgroup ID's are correct (or I wouldn't hear activity when selecting them manually). Does anyone have any idea what could cause this. It has not always been this way, and I receive other systems just fine, including some that are also on Fort Worth's radio system (Ft Worth Fire, Haltom City, etc). I have already checked everything I know to check and have reprogrammed the radio using Uniden's software.

Eric

 

[garys]

Are you sure that some groups aren't locked out? When I first got my 996T, I used the UASD software to program it. After a few days of not hearing several busy agencies, I started to drill down into the menu system. I found out that a couple of groups had been set as locked out by the defaults in the UASD software. After I unlocked them, everything was fine.

I think this is a programming problem, not a scanner problem.

 

[Eric61]

Not a programming problem. I double checked this prior to reloading the system via software. I have also looked at the system file with notepad to make absolutely certain there were no lock-outs. Also, when you use the function key to hold on a system, you can view groups that are locked out. They appear as an * when locked out and the group number when unlocked. All of the groups are unlocked. There are no locked out ID's either.

 

[mlconnell]

I had an issue with my BCD996T just like that but it turned out to be locked out TGID's also. Thats weird.... if you say they are not locked out I believe you however I can't understand that then???

 

[Eric61]

OK, call me stupid, but I finally figured this out. Garys was right, the groups were locked out in the menu option. I forgot that there is a difference between the group lockout and enabling/disabling the groups with the group quick key. Group lockouts do not appear when scrolling through the system. You can only see this in the menu options. I saw the lockout when looking at the system file, but thought this was the group quick key lockout, which I changed after reloading the data via software. Thanks to you both for your suggestions which made me take another look at everything.

 

[mlconnell]

Great Eric. Glad you got it figured out. Yeah the setup is pretty tricky or at least it was for me when I started messing arounnd in there.

 

[garys]

OK, call me stupid, but I finally figured this out. Garys was right, the groups were locked out in the menu option.

Not stupid at all. One of the things that baffled me for a while with the 396 and the 996 is that locking out a group or system in the menu system is not the same as locking it out using a SQKs. That makes sense because you don't need to assign a SQK to every system and still need a way to look a system out. That goes for GQKs as well. Once you figure that out, it's fairly simple to unlock the groups that are locked out.

This is a very complex, feature rich, scanner but it takes some getting used to.

Gary