BearTracker Emulation

[STiMULi]

Many people have no use for it or have a scanner with the feature and have never used it. Some feel that using the BearTracker is a way to cheat the system and one should not have to drive in a manner that would make the feature useful.

The BearTracker function for me has indeed saved me from tickets that I would have otherwise recieved either because of my intentional or unintentional activities on the road. While I found it was very usefull I felt I did not have full control of the feature other than to choose what state I was in or whether I should be scanning with or without the private frequencies active. I wished everytime I turned on the BCT8 that I could control the types of inputs and agencies that would be scanned and in what manner.

The BCD396T allows channel alert and individual attenuation. The BCD996T adds to that the usefullness of the location based scanning.

I have started the creation of Systems or groups for my area and the areas I travel within. These systemes are designed to support BearTracker emulation. I am sure many of you are already doing this with your 396's. I see some additional usefullness with the location based scanning.

My own personal rules pertaining to the setup of these systems/groups are

Frequencies include:
Inputs, Mobile Extenders, Mobile Repeaters, Vehicle Locators and Mobile to Mobile freqs.

Agencies include:
Police, Emergency Services (Fire, Rescue, Ambulance) and DOT

Attributes include:
Channel alert based on agency type, Priority on, Attenuation on. Programming them as systems to control the Delay and Hold time to ZERO for faster scanning. Choosing GPS enable based on the coverage area of the agency monitored.

Because I am new to the BCDXXXT Line I am not sure how the attenuation will workout for me. The BCT8 came with a cheapo wire antenna that was perfect for it's use but I will now be connecting this scanner to a high-end wideband antenna. I feel that antenuation will be a requirement. I may find that while monitoring the highway patrol agencies that distance may be my friend so it may stay off for those guys. I plan on keeping the emergency services system on all the time so I can be more aware of emergency vehicles moving in my direction.

I have started the creation of "BearTracker Emulation" system files. I have been adding them to the YAHOO BCD996T site at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BCD996T/files/

I am not sure how close the BCD996T and BCD396T system files are to each other ( I am sure they are just a comma or character or two off of each other.

I look forward to your comments, kudos and brickbats. I look forward to your additions and corrections to my files and train of thought concerning this.

 

[STiMULi]

BearTracker Emulation (BTE) Files currently on the YAHOO site are:

AZ DPS Tracker.usd
Arizona (DPS) Highway Patrol BearTracker file 2 KB

AZ EMSCOM Tracker.usd
AZ EMSCOM BearTracker File 2 KB

Tucson PD Tracker.usd
Tucson City PD BearTracker file 2 KB

 

[hotdjdave]

Cool Idea

Very good idea - I will look at your files and see what I can do for the Los Angeles area of California (maybe even all of CA) to emulate what you have done to submit to you.

I already do this for where I live on my BCD396T. In fact, I have been doing it for many years with my other scanners.

As my signature reads, I have a BCT7, and it has actually saved me from a ticket (tickets, actually), both in CA and NV. I don't use my BCT7 anymore. I use my BCD396T with the mobile extender freqs programmed in different groups.

The only problem I have is that in the large metropolitan area of Los Angeles, with its massive freeway systems, and its over-population of CHP units, there is always a CHP unit within three miles. Using this in LA is almost overkill. When I enable the mobile extender group for CHP on my BCD396T, it goes off like every minute when I am on the freeways. I even hear it from my home about two or three times an hour, which is about one and a half miles from the US 101 Ventura FWY in Encino.

The only thing I don't like is that if you opt to put the scanner in "priority mode" it breaks off the transmissions every two seconds to determine if there is a transmission on the priority channels...quite annoying.

I thought of a way around this. Put the main "alert" channels in every system, unassigned to a group. That way, for one, you would not necessarily need to use the priority mode; and two, this would alleviate the problem of not being able to turn back on the groups that occurs if/when you lock out all channels or disable all groups within a system - as long as there is a channel to scan, the system/group will be available. I guess this would not be conducive to someone who was running low on memory - not a problem for most I would assume, though.

 

[hotdjdave]

Many people have no use for it or have a scanner with the feature and have never used it. Some feel that using the BearTracker is a way to cheat the system and one should not have to drive in a manner that would make the feature useful.

The same could be said about radar detectors, license plate obscuring covers, and laser deflectors/jammers.

The BearTracker function for me has indeed saved me from tickets that I would have otherwise recieved either because of my intentional or unintentional activities on the road. While I found it was very usefull I felt I did not have full control of the feature other than to choose what state I was in or whether I should be scanning with or without the private frequencies active. I wished everytime I turned on the BCT8 that I could control the types of inputs and agencies that would be scanned and in what manner.

The BCD396T allows channel alert and individual attenuation. The BCD996T adds to that the usefullness of the location based scanning.

Personally, I think the BCT series scanners were created for the entry level monitor or the motorist who doesn't know or want to know that much about a scanner. In other words, idiot proof. Having to program in all those frequencies was not what was in mind when creating the BCT series. In fact, in the earlier models, there was nothing to program except what state you were in. Later models allowed "limited" programming.



Again, a very cool idea. :wink:

 

[schriber]

Ahhh, a great idea. I still have my BCT-10!

For an upcoming trip, I was just going to program the CHP extender frequencies into my 396T and throw on a stubby antenna or turn on the attenuator.

Mike

 

[STiMULi]

Here is an updated corrected UASD 996 Arizona (DPS) Highway Patrol Tracker File.

It has alert 7 for all freqs, attenuation off on all primary inputs (turn it on if you need it) and priority on for all freqs.

Again, I am new to this radio so I am guessing on the operation of it. I have included a series of unknown use freqs that are assigned to DPS. I did leave attenuation on for those. The reason why is the BCT8 (with it's lesser capapble receiver) would alert on those frequencies when the repeater freqs would go high. I am not sure of how well this receiver will discriminate so I felt they are best left off. I have yet to find them useful in the BearTracker mode in Arizona.

Arizona is a non Mobile Extender State which means that they are much harder to pick up on. This means that the priority should be in "Plus On" as only the priority enabled channels are heard when active. I know the Mic2Cam freqs work well but they are severely limited in range. I have includes the MIC2CAM freqs. Radar will probably work outside of the MIC2Cam range.

Leaving the scanner in PLUS ON in States that do not use Mobile extenders means alot of thought needs to go into what is really a priorty channel to increase the chances of timely hitting an active channel when it is active. I have set all Tracker channels as Priority channels for PLUS ON support.


Here are the tones...

I have the BCD tones for others that have yet to hear them.

Who knows if they are the same as the BCD996T as these are from the BCD396T (Butel Software)

http:///www.tronyx.com/sounds/alert1.wav
http:///www.tronyx.com/sounds/alert2.wav
http:///www.tronyx.com/sounds/alert3.wav
http:///www.tronyx.com/sounds/alert4.wav
http:///www.tronyx.com/sounds/alert5.wav
http:///www.tronyx.com/sounds/alert6.wav
http:///www.tronyx.com/sounds/alert7.wav
http:///www.tronyx.com/sounds/alert8.wav
http:///www.tronyx.com/sounds/alert9.wav

7 is the PD alert 4 will be Emergency Systems and 2 will be DOT (at least for me)

I will update and deliver more tracker files as files as I build/manage them.

 

[GTO_04]

Too bad they did away with mobile extenders with 800 MHz trunked systems. That would have given them more range with their handhelds and would have certainly been a benefit to patrol officers. But I was told that won't happen ever because that setup would be too costly.

One of my scanners (396?) does have the option to monitor the input channels instead of the repeater channels.

If speed limits were posted at or slightly above 85th percentile levels (instead of to raise revenue) we probably wouldn't even be having this discussion.

GTO_04

 

[schriber]

No kidding.

If they don't have extenders, the input frequency is the way to go!

I'm glad the CHP is still on their old (really old) system!

Mike

 

[STiMULi]

I may save Alert 9 for Local PD tracking as 4 would be to obnoxious when you are in a city and there are cops all over.

Ok, you guys that have radios that have the same capability build and put up some files. I at least want some references for NM NV CO CA (LA) (LV) (ABQ) et al..

 

[Yancy]

Because I am new to the BCDXXXT Line I am not sure how the attenuation will workout for me. The BCT8 came with a cheapo wire antenna that was perfect for it's use but I will now be connecting this scanner to a high-end wideband antenna. I feel that antenuation will be a requirement. I may find that while monitoring the highway patrol agencies that distance may be my friend so it may stay off for those guys. I plan on keeping the emergency services system on all the time so I can be more aware of emergency vehicles moving in my direction.

I have started the creation of "BearTracker Emulation" system files. I have been adding them to the YAHOO BCD996T site at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BCD996T/files/

STiMULi,

How has the attenuation worked out for you? The Beartracker function has been marketed as a "proximetry warning" feature. Have you been able to use the attenuation so that you recieve alerts only when the vehicles of interest are reletively close by? What type of antenna has worked best?

Question about the BCD996T - can you set the alert volume separately from the voice volume? this would be useful for those times when i don't want to listen to the conversaions but would still like alerts.

Sad to see only AZ files on the yahoo group.

Thanks,

Yancy

 

[UPMan]

Alert volume and voice volume are seperate settings (you can set the alert to any of 16 fixed levels or have it track with the volume control).

Actually, when scanning for input frequencies, attenuation shouldn't be needed. Input-side transmissions are typically only going to be receivable from a couple of miles away on an antenna at or near ground level (they can hit that antenna way up on that tower from much further away, though).

 

[Yancy]

Actually, when scanning for input frequencies, attenuation shouldn't be needed. Input-side transmissions are typically only going to be receivable from a couple of miles away on an antenna at or near ground level (they can hit that antenna way up on that tower from much further away, though).

That makes sense. We are talking about mobile repeaters right? or would the above apply to 800mhz systems also?

Would attenuation be useful when listening for 800mhz or trunked systems? In a metro area, i can see that attenuating a 800mhz signal would do the opposite of what you want ( weaker mobile signals would be attenuated while signals from the tower would come through). Dunno about rural/highway use.

 

[UPMan]

It would apply to 800 MHz systems, too. If you monitor the input side (806-821 MHz), you will only typically get hits within a couple of miles.

If you are getting interference or overload, attenuation can be useful on any band.