BCT15X question.

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daneg

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Lancaster County pa
So I am wanting a new scanner for the summer, I don't know if it should be analog or digital. I kind of want the BCT15X but I want it to work for not only my counties current system, but the planned one. Plus since I go between Lancaster and Dauphin I want it to work for Dauphin county as well.

Is it possible to set it up for each county, and divide it into groups? Like for example.

Bank A, Lancaster.
Group A, PD.
Group B, FD
Group C, EMS.

Bank B, Dauphin
Group A, PD.
Group B, FD
Group C, EMS.

Is this possible?

Also how hard is it to program dauphin county?

They have like primary controls, and secondary. then there is this?
DEC HEX Alpha Tag Description
11001 2af9 PD Disp 1 Police Ch. 1 - Dispatch 1

How would I program something that, with like DEC and HEX? Is there any FREE software I could use to program it?
 
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captclint

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Dec 31, 2005
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2,452
Location
Mountaintop, PA
I kind of want the BCT15X but I want it to work for not only my counties current system, but the planned one. Plus since I go between Lancaster and Dauphin I want it to work for Dauphin county as well.

Is it possible to set it up for each county, and divide it into groups? Like for example.

Bank A, Lancaster.
Group A, PD.
Group B, FD
Group C, EMS.

Bank B, Dauphin
Group A, PD.
Group B, FD
Group C, EMS.
Well, sort of. There are no banks in the 15X, or the 996, but substitute System for bank, and you certainly can easily do that.
How would I program something that, with like DEC and HEX? Is there any FREE software I could use to program it?
Just need to program primary and alt control channels, and use dec.

To answer your question, I think it is fairly difficult to program the 15X or 996XT without software. Yes, there is free software called FreeSCAN However, you really need to consider that Dauphin County Public Safety Trunking System, and York County Public Safety Trunking System are digital, and the 15X is NOT. The 996XT is good choice for digital, as is the PSR-600

Now if you really want to simply this, become a paid subscriber to this site to get the automatic down loads, but this is also very reasonable($7.5 for 3 months). This can save you countless hours of programming and frustration. FreeScan will automatically connect tor RR, and download all those dec talk groups, including the alpha tag descriptions, and set up your digital system parameters, as well as and conventional(it will probably organize the systems and groups very similar to what you suggested above, assuming those agencies are not all on the digital systems)
 
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daneg

Member
Joined
Jan 17, 2007
Messages
307
Location
Lancaster County pa
Well, sort of. There are no banks in the 15X, or the 996, but substitute System for bank, and you certainly can easily do that.
Just need to program primary and alt control channels, and use dec.

To answer your question, I think it is fairly difficult to program the 15X or 996XT without software. Yes, there is free software called FreeSCAN However, you really need to consider that Dauphin County Public Safety Trunking System, and York County Public Safety Trunking System are digital, and the 15X is NOT. The 996XT is good choice for digital, as is the PSR-600

Now if you really want to simply this, become a paid subscriber to this site to get the automatic down loads, but this is also very reasonable($7.5 for 3 months). This can save you countless hours of programming and frustration. FreeScan will automatically connect tor RR, and download all those dec talk groups, including the alpha tag descriptions, and set up your digital system parameters, as well as and conventional(it will probably organize the systems and groups very similar to what you suggested above, assuming those agencies are not all on the digital systems)

Sweet thanks!

What is the model under 996XT? or is the 996XT better then the model before it? I just dont want to pay the 500+ for it lol
 

ka3jjz

Wiki Admin Emeritus
Joined
Jul 22, 2002
Messages
25,361
Location
Bowie, Md.
The 996T (and it's handheld brother the 396T) came before the XT models. There is also the Pro-96, Pro-2096 (Radio Shack) and the much older BC296 and 796. I'm not in that area anymore (I used to live in Dauphin county, years ago) so I don't know if these older scanners would work well in that area.

The 996T ad 396T have poorer digital audio recovery, from all reports. I'm a 396T owner, and I'm not nearly as critical about such issues - if it's understandable, to me it's fine - but others are more critical.

You can read up on all of these by clicking on the link below, then clicking on the model number...

Category:Digital Scanners - The RadioReference Wiki

73 Mike
 

daneg

Member
Joined
Jan 17, 2007
Messages
307
Location
Lancaster County pa
The 996T (and it's handheld brother the 396T) came before the XT models. There is also the Pro-96, Pro-2096 (Radio Shack) and the much older BC296 and 796. I'm not in that area anymore (I used to live in Dauphin county, years ago) so I don't know if these older scanners would work well in that area.

The 996T ad 396T have poorer digital audio recovery, from all reports. I'm a 396T owner, and I'm not nearly as critical about such issues - if it's understandable, to me it's fine - but others are more critical.

You can read up on all of these by clicking on the link below, then clicking on the model number...

Category:Digital Scanners - The RadioReference Wiki

73 Mike

Thanks!
 
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