Getting back into scanning.

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ScanSR

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After several years of letting my scanning hobby lie dormant, I decided to jump back in. i fear I may have gotten into deeper water, or swifter current, than I can successfully navigate. My lovely wife bought me a Uniden BCD396XT for Christmas. My previous scanner was a Realistic base nodel - a PRO 2052, I think. Since I live in Austin (Travis County) Texas the older analog model wasn't up to snuff as all the things I wanted to listen to have switched to digital, so I needed an upgrade. I also wanted the convenience of a portable, handheld, model.

Beore you tell me the obvious, I've read and studied all if the things I can find on the web - (Wiki; the "Easier to Read Manual"; information on trunking systems, etc.) I even managed to manually program a very large trunked system (GATRRS - "Greater Austin Travis Regional Radio System" and a few odd Conventional sytems). I've downloaded Freescan and have a Premium RR subscription which seems to connect and work well. Right now my scanner is on the charger and I'm considering deleting all of the bloatware that came pre-programmed. I don't plan on taking any trips to Alaska soon, and from what I've read all of that is stored in some hidden memory, which can be reinstalled with a 'factory reset', in case of a major FUBAR.

If anyone has any tips that could point me in the right direction to get this machine set up and running in a logical and efficient manner, I would appreciate that very much.
 

UPMan

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Absolutely delete the preset stuff. It is primarily intended to give you something to listen to while you get your own setup ready. Never intended to be used day-to-day.

Based on what you've done so far, you are likely beyond the need for the basic radio system tutorials at: http://info.uniden.com/twiki/bin/view/UnidenMan4/ScannerManuals#Other_Resources

The biggest concept useful for making the scanner easy to use is that of Quick Keys. Read up on them at UsingQuickKeysStartupKeysAndSearchKeys < UnidenMan4 < TWiki
and
QuickKeys < UnidenMan4 < TWiki
 

RadioDaze

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The important thing to realize here is that the guy's wife bought him an awesome scanner. This story is an inspiration to the scanning community at large and will provide hope for millions of scannists.
 

UPMan

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Well, I would have highlighted it thusly:

the guys wife bought him an awesome scanner

(but maybe I'm biased more toward the scanner's awesomeness than most)
 

N0WEF

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The important thing to realize here is that the guy's wife bought him an awesome scanner. This story is an inspiration to the scanning community at large and will provide hope for millions of scannists.

I was wondering when someone would mention his wife is a keeper!
 

ScanSR

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Jan 30, 2012
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Yeah. She's definitely a keeper. Thanks for the tips, and Ill pass along the compliments. They will make her fel good. I'm a lucky man tohave such a jewel.. ]
 
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