Determining LCN numbers on a BCD396T

[Kirk]

I'm a total novice at LTR decoding, but have decided to give it a try. I read that if you program the same frequency into each of the LCN positions (1-20) and then go into ID search mode, the # it stops on will be the LCN position for that frequency.

I've looked at the FCC data for a particular name, and I'm showing about a half dozen LTR freqs for the same site. I put one frequency into 20 systems in each of the 1-20 LCN positions, and start scanning. I find traffic on 464.275 on group LTR Test 5. I listen a while, and log only hits on the system with the frequency in position 5.

So I go to the next one. This one shows hits on LTR Test 3, 11, 15 and 7. Uh... Most of them were on 3, so maybe some anomaly?

The next frequency shows even more puzzling results. The frequency log on BCT396T Advanced Scanner Control shows a DIFFERENT frequency than is actually in the radio.

Does this make sense? Do I need to forget it, do a discriminator tap, get a DOS box, software, slicer and go that route, or am I on to something?

 

[pro92b]

I read that if you program the same frequency into each of the LCN positions (1-20) and then go into ID search mode, the # it stops on will be the LCN position for that frequency.

Not necessarily. If two users homed to the same LCN use the system at the same time, you may erroneously pick up the LCN of the overflow channel rather than the home channel. To reduce the odds of this happening, choose a time when the system is not busy and check the log for LCN hits. One of the LCN's should have many more hits than the others and that is the one you want.

Each time you identify an LCN, take it out of the rotation for testing the next frequency. Things should get easier with each new LCN identified.

 

[PanJurekMrJerry]

As an example 0-03-201 will alwasy appear on LCN 3 unless LCN 3 gets busy so it might appear on another frequency within that system.