Best Way to Display and Control Department Quick Keys

[BHinAZ]

How does one go about viewing the status of assigned Department quick keys while using the scanner in order to then activate or de-activate a department?

The prior gen 996XT and 396XT radios displayed two lines, one for the Systems status and one for the Group status of assigned quick keys. The Group line (now called Departments) appears to be gone on the new scanners, which instead has a line for Favorite Lists.

Is there a way in the new X36HP scanners to display a line for the Department quick keys? If not, then how can you determine, while using the scanner, if a Department is activated or not?

(I am using a BCD536HP but I assume the processes the same for a BCD436HP.)

Thanks.

 

[signal500]

BCDx36HP Best Way to Display and Control Department Quick Keys

How does one go about viewing the status of assigned Department quick keys while using the scanner in order to then activate or de-activate a department?

The prior gen 996XT and 396XT radios displayed two lines, one for the Systems status and one for the Group status of assigned quick keys. The Group line (now called Departments) appears to be gone on the new scanners, which instead has a line for Favorite Lists.

Is there a way in the new X36HP scanners to display a line for the Department quick keys? If not, then how can you determine, while using the scanner, if a Department is activated or not?

(I am using a BCD536HP but I assume the processes the same for a BCD436HP.)

Thanks.

Check out this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNmIiSuAHvE

 

[BHinAZ]

Doug, I appreciate the help. Actually, I did see that video plus some of your others while waiting for the arrival of the scanner and they were very helpful.

The approach does address my question to some degree but is not as accommodating as before. Once the process is started, monitoring stops. The biggest issue is I cannot figure out from the display what quick group number is associated with which Department. How do you match them up?

 

[mitbr]

First off you need to set up a favorites list. I also have a 996xt and had trouble with this at first.
I treat each system as a favorite.
I give the favorite and system a quick key number that is the same.
Then I assign a quick key to each department.

Lets say your local system is called Arizona public service that I would assign to favorites list 1

Lets assign the system key the same quick key 1

Lets assign the Phoenix FD to dept quick key 1.
Lets assign the Phoenix PD to dept key 2

If your on the system you are listening too here is what you do to listen to the fd.
With the scanner in scan mode hit the no button twice then the number 1

So it would look like ..1 then hit enter it will say whether the department is enabled or disabled

If you wanted to listen to police it would be ..2 then enter.
If the dept was enabled when you did this it would disable it and vice versa.

This keeps it real simple so you can remember your selections off the top of your head.

If you were not on the favorites list which you wanted to listen to but you wanted to listen to the above pd it would be favorite number the system number then dept number then enter.

So in are above e.g. it would be 1.1.2 enter real easy to remember.

If you want to see what dept.s are enabled push the silver knob in which is the function button.
You will see D then the dept quick keys that are enabled the disabled dept show as *
hope this helps.
Tim

 

[ofd8001]

I use a tip from Wise871 (I believer). That is to incorporate the Quick Key number (Favorite/System/Department) in the name.

Thus my Home Favorite List with a FLQK 1 is "F01 Home". The Louisville system with SQK 1 is "S01 Louisville". The fire department with DQK 1 is "D01 Fire".

So when I'm scanning (3 line display mode off), here's what I see:

Lower Right hand corner (which is the favorites list): F01 Home

Third line down from top (which is the system): S01 Louisville

Fourth line down from top (which is the department and what I think you are most interested in): D01 Fire

This "convention" seems to be catching on. If I remember correctly (but could be wrong), the ARC536Pro has a feature where it will automatically include quick keys in names.

 

[signal500]

BCDx36HP Best Way to Display and Control Department Quick Keys

I use a tip from Wise871 (I believer). That is to incorporate the Quick Key number (Favorite/System/Department) in the name.

Thus my Home Favorite List with a FLQK 1 is "F01 Home". The Louisville system with SQK 1 is "S01 Louisville". The fire department with DQK 1 is "D01 Fire".

So when I'm scanning (3 line display mode off), here's what I see:

Lower Right hand corner (which is the favorites list): F01 Home

Third line down from top (which is the system): S01 Louisville

Fourth line down from top (which is the department and what I think you are most interested in): D01 Fire

This "convention" seems to be catching on. If I remember correctly (but could be wrong), the ARC536Pro has a feature where it will automatically include quick keys in names.

Thanks for the good tip!

 

[ofd8001]

All the credit goes to Dan down there in the great state of Florida. . .

 

[BHinAZ]

...........................
If you want to see what dept.s are enabled push the silver knob in which is the function button.
You will see D then the dept quick keys that are enabled the disabled dept show as *
hope this helps.
Tim

Mitbr - Thanks, the last part answered my question, meaning the Function button acts as a display toggle effectively swapping the Favorites QK status line with a Departments QK status line.

ofd8001 - That is a good suggestion. I have been doing that since day one when I first got a 396T. However with the new x36HP, I have been appending systems from the Database for exploring purposes and those entries do not have the reference numbers in the supplied alpha tags. Since most of these lists are temporary, I did not take the time to edit the names.


One thing I noticed when trying the suggestion from Mitbr, is that holding in the Function button for a few seconds no longer locks the scanner in Function Mode. That was the case with the original 396T and 996T. Uniden listened to the requests of their customers and changed the 396XT and 996XT to remain in the Function Mode if the Function button was held down for a few seconds. Unless I am missing something, they removed that great feature and took a step backwards with the current models. Anyone know what is going on with this or if there is a way to remain in Function Mode rather than timing out after 3 seconds?

 

[JoeyC]

Unless I am missing something, they removed that great feature and took a step backwards with the current models. Anyone know what is going on with this or if there is a way to remain in Function Mode rather than timing out after 3 seconds?

They sure did! There is no way to hold the Function knob in Dept mode longer than that 3 seconds and it is probably my most desired change in this radios firmware (besides getting the lousy digital decoding right) as well as many others. It is sure beginning to look like there are much bigger problems going on with Uniden in the advanced development of these scanners given the long silence and long waits for the Wifi and Analyze functions. Its my opinion that the weak CPU in these units has caused problems that Uniden did not anticipate and we may be stuck with the subpar features that exist today. As a side note, I wonder why practically every model of scanner is "Out of Stock" and has been for a while on their website?