Help Programming Uniden BC 780 XLT

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davidpjdcomps

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Just jumped into scanners buddy has one looked pretty decent picked one up for 100 bucks . Very frustrated in programming cloned his but seems like it's not picking up a darn thing any help would be appreciated. Purchased Proscan full version all cables . Live in Orange County New York . Thanks in advance for any help .


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ofd8001

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First thing to try is pressing the WX button which causes the scannner to scan the NOAA frequencies. That's a good test to determine whether the scanner receives.

If you receive a weather broadcast, then it might be something with the programming. If you do not, then the scanner has a reception problem. While it could be repaired (check the Uniden site), the scanner has some age on it.

There appears to be a lot of things in your area that could be received by this scanner as in conventional/analog. While they may be narrowband and this scanner pre-dates narrowbanding, all that means is you might experience low volume.

About the only other thing coming to mind is to confirm that you have the correct banks activated.
 

davidpjdcomps

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Thank you for the reply I do get NOAA and intermittent channels they is plenty of channels programmed doesn't seem to pick anything else up I replaced antenna new power supply i am fairly confident it's programming there is a scan list I saw when looking at software my patience and time if think is what I need to find and go through it thank you again for the tips was hoping someone had the same scanner with a better understanding of programming .


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ofd8001

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Are you seeing an attempt to scan channels, as in does it look like its running through programmed frequencies?

Do you have the manual? (If not, send me a PM with an e-mail address and I can e-mail you a PDF file of the manual).

I have this same scanner. Unfortunately I don't have ProScan (already tried the trial version), otherwise I'd offer to take a look at your programming. (I used Butel, but since Windows 8 came around, I can't use that either. Freescan doesn't support this model due to age.)
 

sparklehorse

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It looks like your sheriff and possibly a lot of your other local public safety agencies use this radio system:

NYCOMCO (EDACS) Trunking System, Various, New York - Scanner Frequencies

The BC780XLT should be able to track that EDACS trunked system OK. Most of the talkgroups are shown as being analog, which is good because that is not a digital scanner.

I see from that page that there are three transmitter sites for that system in your county. IIRC with the 780 you would have to devote a different bank to each site in order to scan all three of them. But I would start with just the Schunnemunk Mountain Site first as that has the most frequencies and is therefore likely to be the primary site for Orange County. It may well carry all the county traffic, with the other two being fill-in sites. Add the others later if that one doesn't seem to carry everything, or even if it does it might be good to know what can be heard on the other two sites. You will have to program this as an EDACS system. See the manual ofd8001 sent for detailed instructions on how to do that. You will add the talkgroups that are of interest from that page to your scan lists. Note that that is a big system and has a lot of stuff listed for other counties, so try to pick and choose only what is in your area and of interest to you.
The 780 was one of the best scanners of its time. It's a very good radio, especially for VHF and UHF conventional. I still use mine quite a bit. The country is slowly migrating to digital communications, which the 780 can not decode, but for areas like yours that still have some analog that radio can serve well once you know how to use it. Hope that helps.
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sparklehorse

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You might need a better antenna too. If you're using the one that comes with the scanner you should experiment with different lengths until you find a sweet spot. For that EDACS system the frequencies are all in the 800 MHz range, so try collapsing the antenna down to one segment and slowly work up from there. You might get some benefit at those frequencies from something like the Radio Shack RS800 antenna used with a right angle BNC adapter. Or a yagi type antenna pointed in the right direction.

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davidpjdcomps

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Holy crap I am so sorry Guys for not responding it's been like 3 weeks . Family emergency but thank god all is well . When I get home I will send a pic of 2 antennas I am using and see what you think .

ofd8001 thanks so much for Manual ..


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