dainom89 said:
I don't mind programming all the system frequencies and talk groups myself. But i'm still a little iffy oh how to do that and have a few questions still.
Sorry for the delay in replying - I wanted to be at my radio programming software computer so I could do it step-by-step and answer you properly.
I'm using the 396 software, but the 246's should be close enough for you to follow along.
dainom89 said:
1. Where i enter the system frequencies
2. do i enter ALL of the system frequencies or do i just enter the control and alternate control channels
3. Where do i enter the talk groups?
4. and when i enter the talk groups do i put in the DECIMAL number or do i have to change it to another format.
First step: With the program open and running, click "Add System" on the bottom left corner. (Or, if it's not there, go File>New>Trunk System.)
Second step: On the subsequent page, edit the fields as follows:
System Name: "Calgary Trunk", or whatever you wish to call it;
Quick Key: Any number - this is what you will press to enable/disable it;
System Type: "Motorola Type 2 800MHz Standard";
Lockout System: UNCHECKED;
Data Skip: UNCHECKED;
Channel Delay Time: 5 Seconds (or personal preference - this is how long you want the scanner to wait after a transmission is over);
System Hold Time: 0 Seconds (I set mine up this way so it will go thru the trunk system "once" and then resume scanning; experiment with it to your liking);
Leave any other items on that page unaltered. On the top of that page, there should be a number of tabs including "General" (you're on it), "Location", "Trunk System Parameters", and "Trunk Frequencies". Move to the "Trunk System Parameters" one.
ID Scan/Search: "ID Scan Mode" - that way, it will only scan the talkgroups we enter (later on down this tutorial).
Icall: Your choice, either "On" or "Off" - I-Calls are private calls, direct radio-to-radio, and are VERY rarely used on this system. I have it set to "On" just in case someone does bother doing one. Don't set this to "Only", or you won't hear normal dispatch traffic!
Mode (Trunk): "Auto"
Alert Tone: Personal preference. This is useful if you want to hear a beep when someone hits their emergency button on the radio. If you want to hear it, select an Alert Tone and hit the button beside (the play button) to hear a sample of it.. stop on the one you like.
Alert Level: Only relevant if you choose an alert tone above. This is the volume level the scanner will change to if an alert goes off. If you set it to a number, it will auto-reset the volume to this level when an alert comes. If you leave it at "Auto" (like I have done), the scanner doesn't change volume when an alert comes in.
End code: "Yes/detect". This is kind of like CTCSS/PL/DCS codes for trunk systems. What it does is listen for the sub-audible code from the trunk system that says "xyz is done talking", and shuts off the audio at that point, instead of waiting for the actual audio to stop coming. This is handy in areas where the channel might stay open if there's lots of noise on the frequency.
Status Bit ON: UNCHECK. Motorola type II systems use a status bit to define certain properties of the current activity. See the "Calgary Storms" thread for a description of this. If you set the Status Bit "On" in ARC396/246, the system will treat any talkgroup with a status bit value as a new, separate talkgroup from the real one. There's a longer explanation for this, but the gist is, you don't want status bit reading to be enabled.
Control Channel Only: You can have this CHECKED. For this particular system, it saves a lot of space in your radio and makes it easier to program.
Move to the "Trunk Frequencies" tab.
This is where you enter the frequencies. In ARC396, it allows for naming the channels and locking them out, but I wouldn't bother with either of them. However, for a SmartZone system like Calgary is (with six separate trunk sites), you have to do things a little unusual at this stage. What I did on my 396 was put in all the control channel/alternate control channel frequencies, for all six sites. I did it this way, rather than create six separate entire Systems - one per site - in the scanner, because if I did it this way, I wouldn't have to worry about entering talkgroups over and over in six separate systems. The only downside to this (I'm assuming the 246 will behave the same way my 396 does) is that once the scanner has picked up a control channel, it will not release that control channel or go to check for any others in the same system, until it is turned off and on again. This, for me, becomes a big hassle as I drive across the city. I begin in the Fish Creek tower's coverage area, bounce back and forth between Spy Hill and TransAlta for a bit, and cross through Banker's Hall on the way ultimately to the Forest Lawn site, on an average commute to work. If I want to have my 396 remain on the strongest control channel (and thus hear all the conversations without static and dropouts), I have to repeatedly turn my radio off and on to force it to search for a new control channel. This is unfortunate but seems to be the only way to get things done in the current batch of Uniden handhelds.
Once done entering the frequencies, you want to add one (or more) Groups. A Group inside a (trunk) System is where the actual talkgroups go. In ARC396, I can either click "Add Group" in the lower left corner or go "File>New>Group". Actually, you may not have to add groups; in ARC396, the new system I just created automatically has 10 groups created, they're just hidden from your view right now. Click the plus beside "New System 123" (or whatever you called your system) in the left pane, and you should find a bunch of red dots and "Group1", "Group2", etc. Click on "Group1".
You should see the right-hand page change. On mine, I get a spreadsheet-like page with "Trunk ID", "Name", "L/Out", "Alert", "Alert Level", and "Comments" along the top, and numbered rows on the left side. I'll walk you through entering the four Fire dispatch channels.
In Row 1, under Trunk ID, enter "304".
Move to the Name field and enter "C13 Zone 1".
Leave L/Out empty or, if it auto-fills as "Off", that's cool too.
Alert and Alert Level work the same way as they do on the system programming page earlier, except this is specifically for this talkgroup only. Regardless of what type of traffic is being transmitted here, if you set an Alert in this field, you will hear noise every time the scanner stops on this talkgroup.
Comments doesn't really matter. It's not stored in the scanner and is only for interest's sake when you're reading this page.
Repeat the same for Row 2 with the following information:
Trunk ID: 336
Name: C14 Zone 2
Row 3:
Trunk ID: 368
Name: C15 Zone 3
Row 4:
Trunk ID: 400
Name: C16 Zone 4
That's almost all there is to the group setup. Click directly on the tab marked "Group1". The line above it should change, and you can set a number of things from here:
GroupName: Whatever you want to identify the group as. Following the example above, I'd say "Fire Dispatch".
Qkey: This is which "quick key" you want to set the group into. You can turn groups on and off like you can turn banks on and off in older scanners, by pushing a number key on the keypad. This is entirely your choice what you put here. Leaving it as "None" will not lock out the group - you have to select LockOut Group (to the right of this) for that. Instead, leaving this as group "None" will mean it is not assigned to a group key, but will be unlocked and scanning.
You can make as many as 20 groups if you need to. They can each have as many as 200 lines/rows or just 1. If you wanted to leave the above example group as just "Fire Dispatch" and move on and create one for the tac channels, and another for EMS Dispatch, and another for EMS tacs, etc., you could. It's entirely up to you.
Once that's done, all you need to do is program it into the scanner. That in itself should be fairly visible in the program.. on mine, it's either the little icon of the scanner with a red arrow pointing into it, or on the menu, under "BCD396T>Send Data".
Hope this helps!
I've had my 396 for a few weeks and am thouroughly enjoying it. Storm night was crazy! Thanks as well for posting your EMS/FIRE mem file. I also found that useful in confirming my programming. Would you be so kind as to post your CPS file as well? I would love to see how a "pro" configured it! 
