BCT15X Preprogrammed State Banks

[eriepascannist]

I will be traveling to Central Pennsylvania soon and will be taking along my BCT 15X. We do not have trunked systems up here, but they do where we are going. I have never programmed one of these before and figured that a few daays would not be sufficient time to ensure accuracy.

Therefore, my question is, if I scan the preprogrammed public safety bank for PA, might these counties' trunked systems already be in there? If not, what exactly is in these banks, and is there a way to see a list of freqs/areas on the web? It would be great if I could take the radio without hours of programming. Help please!

 

[russellmaher]

You could tell us which specific counties you're going to monitor and then you might get answers to your question.

Also, remember that you're using a scanner with analog voice only...not digital..so that in itself could eliminate a number of systems to monitor.

Russell

 

[ka3jjz]

I would spend some time in the Pa. forum. If you're going to Dauphin County, they have a new P25 system that, as I understand it, has a fair amount of encryption, and Cumberland is, I think using Open Sky - neither of which you could monitor with that scanner.

As for the state preprogrammed stuff, I'd get FreeScan and a USB/serial cable, and simply dump the raw contents of the scanner and see what it has.

Mike

 

[eriepascannist]

The counties I want to monitor that have analog trunked systems are only Centre and Frederick, MD if possible. About a half dozen counties were eliminated once I checked out the system type and mode. I suppose if I missed out on two counties, it wouldn't be the end of thw world, but still, if these are already in the scanner, then I would definitely like to take advantage of it.