Free advise or will pay for help programming

[diverdown97]

Hello, newb here. I bought a new Uniden BC346XT but cannot receive Renton PD. I know I can buy a programming adapter to link with my PC but am wondering how much help it will be, is it worth it and then buy the premium membership with Radio Reference? Is it fairly painless? Last time I had a scanner it was easy to program freqs (16 years ago). Not so easy now... I guess Renton is on a talk group- how ever that works..
-OR-
I would gladly pay a reasonable price to have Renton PD and any other (KING County- Tacoma PD- Pierce County-WSP ) ect programmed in, all channels. I assume someone out there already has all the tools to program and can do this pretty easy.

P.S. "Close call" did not work and we were in the same room with Renton PD-

 

[SouthSoundScanner]

I can help.

 

[diverdown97]

Great! How would you like to proceed from here?

 

[DickH]

... I guess Renton is on a talk group- how ever that works..

You can find out how it works by studying about trunking. There's plenty of free info. around.if you do some reading. Try WIKI.

 

[SouthSoundScanner]

Great! How would you like to proceed from here?

I sent you a "Private Message"

 

[Moose71]

Hell, I'll program it if your paying.. why not? lol

 

[SouthSoundScanner]

My programming fee is a cup of 7/11 coffee. :lol:

 

[beaver_scott]

I am a newbie too. Just got a bcd 396xt for Christmas and I just don't know enough about scanners to do much programming and the instructions look like a foreign language. I got some King co sherrif and Renton pd but I don't know if there is a better way to program.....I have read some stuff about programming via computer but I can't figure any of that out either. Any good books I should read or anybody interested in programming this scanner for me for a fee?

 

[K7CAR]

If you go to the Uniden section on Radio Reference you'll find a number of people that received a 396 for xmas, so there's plenty of links to Wiki pages and easier to read manuals that can help you. I know how frustrating it is as I went through the same thing about a year ago with my BCT15X. You'll do yourself a big favor if you learn the radio and not have someone program it for you. There's several free software programs that make it relatively painless. FreeScan is the most popular and it's free, so grab that and dig in.

You'll most likely need a USB-Serial cable if you don't have a Serial port on your computer. You can find one here For only $5.87 each when QTY 50+ purchased - USB to Serial Convert Cable(DB9M/USB B female converter and USB A/B cable) | USB to Serial/Parallel Converters that works well and save you about $25 over a RS or Uniden cable. You can then go to www.interceptradio.com which is a local radio group and find a downloadable Uniden file that will get you a ton of frequencies. PM me if you have any troubles.

 

[diverdown97]

I am a newbie too. Just got a bcd 396xt for Christmas and I just don't know enough about scanners to do much programming and the instructions look like a foreign language. I got some King co sherrif and Renton pd but I don't know if there is a better way to program.....I have read some stuff about programming via computer but I can't figure any of that out either. Any good books I should read or anybody interested in programming this scanner for me for a fee?

Well I will have help soon and if I can make sense of it I will gladly pay it forward if no one else does once i am shown. I plan on learning the programming but it seemed to make sense to get the important stuff programmed by asking for help then take time learning the rest. You are one step ahead of me- I have not received Renton yet.

"What you share multiplies, what you withhold diminishes"

 

[beaver_scott]

Thanks for the help k7car! I found a manual on the wiki site you mentioned and it was much easier to understand. I learned a lot of new functions on my scanner. The programming is starting to make more sense although there is still a ton of stuff I need to read up on. diverdown97, thanks for the offer to help. As far as the renton stations go, I just programed their talk group id into the scanner.....choose program system (i named my system king co)/ edit group (mot system)/ edit channel(make a new channel)/ just enter the tgid (talk group id #) and enter a name for each tgid. renton dispatch is 37232, renton tac is 37264 and renton admin is 37296. hope that makes sense?