First BCD396XT Has arrived, first look and discussion!

[wise871]

My XT will be here Wednesday and I want it to do what you have setup. If I set the backlight off, I only want the frequency color to flash that I configured, “red-fire, blue-police, white-EMS) to illuminate and not have it switch to the default backlight.

Have you tried the other backlight options to see if you get the same results?

 

[bonus1331]

As far as I can see, there is no backlight "off" option, and even if there was; I would think it would turn off the alert light function.

 

[STA75]

396xt

While doing a ID search on a Mot type II /P25 system .When it stop on a TG it is showing double ID'S is this normal or do I have something set wrong?

 

[W6KRU]

As far as I can see, there is no backlight "off" option, and even if there was; I would think it would turn off the alert light function.

Set the backlight to infinite. The alert will work and when it turns off there is no backlight. The backlight only comes on when you press the backlight button, the alert works as you would expect and when it turns off the backlight comes back on.

 

[KE4ZNR]

While doing a ID search on a Mot type II /P25 system .When it stop on a TG it is showing double ID'S is this normal or do I have something set wrong?

That would be a TGID patch.
Marshall KE4ZNR

 

[STA75]

396xt

That would be a TGID patch.
Marshall KE4ZNR

No it is showing the same numbers

 

[bonus1331]

While doing a ID search on a Mot type II /P25 system .When it stop on a TG it is showing double ID'S is this normal or do I have something set wrong?

I-call?

 

[bonus1331]

Set the backlight to infinite. The alert will work and when it turns off there is no backlight. The backlight only comes on when you press the backlight button, the alert works as you would expect and when it turns off the backlight comes back on.

Worked like a charm!
Thanks

 

[KE4ZNR]

No it is showing the same numbers

I am 99.99% sure it is a patch...Raleigh, NC PD does this on our Statewide VIPER system. You will sometimes see the same TGID twice with the way they have patches setup. so on my 396xt you will
end up seeing 40096 40096.
Marshall KE4ZNR

 

[STA75]

I am 99.99% sure it is a patch...Raleigh, NC PD does this on our Statewide VIPER system. You will sometimes see the same TGID twice with the way they have patches setup. so on my 396xt you will
end up seeing 40096 40096.
Marshall KE4ZNR

Ok Thanks I'll watch and see what goes on.

 

[DaveNF2G]

Hi Scott, The way I understand it the pop is due to the scanner turning the audio amp off and on. The amp is off until squelch is broken and my speculation is that this is an energy saving mechanism not used on all scanners.

A hardware modification probably can be devised to deal with the pop. Maybe an R-C or L-C network to smooth the audio waveform at the beginning - or something like a very fast AGC.

 

[jnewell]

I set certain TG's and conventional channels to an alert backlight color.
I'm finding that the alert backlight color timing expires before the transmission ends, which I would expect.
However, I'm finding that the alert color will then revert to the backlight color before shutting off.
So I will get a few seconds of blue (alert color) and then a few seconds of white (backlight color) before turning off.
I have the backlight set to "squelch".
Doesn't look to be a way to set the backlight color to "off" so that only the "alert" color is used.
I would assume everyone else is seeing this?

Yes, I mentioned it a few days ago in another thread. I don't find it a problem. I use the squelch setting as a sort of generic alert, and use color-coded alerts for channels/TGs of special interest. If you set the backlight to any setting other than squelch or infinite, it won't happen.

 

[DaveNF2G]

Dropouts / Sensitivity -

Quote:
Originally Posted by DaveIN
Weak signal is usually the cause of my dropout on P25. Do you think the sensitivity or selectivity has changed at all? I think mine is about the same.

Quote:
Originally Posted by KE4ZNR
I concur that it is about the same, perhaps a little bit better...

Quote:
Originally Posted by DaveIN
Sensitivity, unfortunately hasn't changed, at least on my 396XT vs. the classic.

Sensitivity was one of the big things I was interested in hearing about. I’m glad to hear about all the positive feedback but the sensitivity being the same as the classic 396 makes me hold off for a few more reviews.

I haven't seen anyone mention using the ATTenuator yet (although I am on page 5 out of the current 10+ pages of the thread so far). It might seem counterintuitive to some users, but the attenuator might be more useful, especially in high-RF environments, than adding a "better" antenna. Pulling more signal into the scanner's front end might actually make things worse.

 

[jnewell]

Worked like a charm!
Thanks

You'll get the same results with "10" or "30"

 

[GTO_04]

Can the color of the backlight be changed or is it always white?

GTO_04

 

[W6KRU]

Can the color of the backlight be changed or is it always white?

GTO_04

It can be changed.

 

[KC1UA]

Location Based Scanning for Conventional Systems

I searched this thread but found nothing, sorry if I missed it. I apparently completely missed this "feature"...I understand that location based scanning can be used for groups in a conventional system, but am I correct in stating that there is no longer any way to set a conventional system globally based on one set of coordinates and a range?

If so, I find that a major irritation. If I'm wrong, please kindly point me to that magical part of the menu that I'm missing.

 

[bpsmicro]

I can only go by what I see in FreeScan, since my actual scanner is still in transit. But from what I can see, a Conventional system's GPS settings are per-system, not per-group. That's the same as how my 996's work.

Brad.

 

[DaveIN]

I searched this thread but found nothing, sorry if I missed it. I apparently completely missed this "feature"...I understand that location based scanning can be used for groups in a conventional system, but am I correct in stating that there is no longer any way to set a conventional system globally based on one set of coordinates and a range?

If so, I find that a major irritation. If I'm wrong, please kindly point me to that magical part of the menu that I'm missing.

Yes, yopu are right. This article only mentions per channel location settings.
http://info.uniden.com/twiki/bin/view/UnidenMan4/ProgrammingLocations

I agree, a "System" location setting is a menu I'd like to see as well. I guess the other idea is to use the numbered startup configuration.

 

[DaveIN]

Can the color of the backlight be changed or is it always white?

GTO_04

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