BCT8 HELP

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kb7nuv

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I'm new to the scanner radio world. I'm trying to program my bct8 for Clackamas county both fire and police with NO luck. I have ARC8 with RRdatabase access. I payed for both hoping it would be a breeze programming this scanner but have had no luck in the past two weeks of playing with it. I am hoping someone can help me figure this out. I receive simplex frequencies fine so I'm fairly sure it isn't a antenna issue although I am using the stock antenna that came with the scanner but i live less then 5 miles from goat mtn site. BTW I have re-banded it as well
 
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kb7nuv

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ive tried all frequencies listed.
goat mtn site is East Clackamas County Simulcast Clackamas 851.93750 852.72500 852.83750c 852.98750c 853.51250c
 

PMJ2kx

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Utah County, Utah
You'll actually want Site 2, the main simulcast site, of the system, as the east simulcast (if I recall correctly) is a fill-in site that doesn't carry all the traffic. Goat Mountain is the same. As a side note, the East Simulcast site is Site 3 while Goat Mtn. is SIte 7.

A trunked radio system (what you want to listen to) takes different steps to program than conventional frequencies. Looks like the BCT8 uses Control Channel Only, which means you only need the control channel (in red) and the alternates (in blue):

852.43750a
852.86250a
853.26250c
853.76250a

Once you get those programmed into a Motorola Type II 800 system (however ARC 8 sets that up), you can program in talkgroups you want to listen to. I'm not familliar with ARC 8, so I don't know the steps to get that done. However, I do speak "Uniden Technical Manual" and could help you program it by hand. :)
 

DickH

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... BTW I have re-banded it as well

You may already know this, but if not ...
Clackamas county uses 2 freqs. that are affected by re-banding, thus you need to enter 2 custom band plans. For most systems you enter Plan 1, then Plan 2. BUT the Clacka,as system is peculiar and will not work unless the plans are entered in reverse; Plan 2, then Plan 1. I call it "re-ordered". I have had to do that on my PRO-162 that has rebanding capability already in the firmware.

Listed below are various configurations you can try if the Uniden Plus and Minus settings do not correct this problem. I hope that all makes sense.

In re-banded Motorola trunking systems, there are several configurations of Custom Band Plans being used.
1. Normal
Lo Chan Hi Chan Offset Base Freq Step
PLAN 1 0 439 0 851.012500 25.000
PLAN 2 440 559 440 851.025000 25.000
2. Re-ordered
Lo Chan Hi Chan Offset Base Freq Step
PLAN 1 440 559 440 851.02500 25.000
PLAN 2 0 439 0 851.01250 25.000
3. Pseudo (if Normal and Re-ordered do not work)
Lo Freq. Hi Freq. Offset Spacing
PLAN 1 851.3125 854.0000 560 12.5
PLAN 2 851.0125 861.9875 0 25.0
PLAN 3 851.0250 854.0000 440 25.0
4. Polarity
PLUS Polarity - Channel numbers in ascending order (default in non Uniden scanners)
MINUS Polarity - Channel numbers in descending order (Uniden scanners)
 
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