Help with BCT8 Scanner!

[olalfer]

Hi:

I have been given a Uniden BCT8 Scanner that belongs to one of our local fire chief's that he would like me to program for him.

I have been using both RS PRO-96 & 2096 of my own and I do understand how trunking systems work.

We are in central Ontario Canada and the ambulance system here has moved to a Motorola Type II VHF system which is part digital for the OPP and regular trunking for the ambulance system.

There are conventional non trunk channels in the scanner that are working fine.

I programed the tunking information along with ID tags etc. according to the manual but get no audio from the trunking side at all. When you look at the display it looks like it is stopping on the data channel but I get no audio. I think that when I see the scanner stop on the data channel it might be the digital side which this radio will not receive.

I am at a loss as to what might be wrong and have gone over the set up numerous times and everything looks fine ????

Am I missing something ???

I looked throught most of the msgs I could find on this forum and do not see anything on a BCT8 at all.

Thanks Frank.

 

[JMR]

Did you select e2-hi for system type, set the base space and offset, and program in TGID's?

 

[monroem]

The BCT 8 will not do digital systems, on the non digital side should work fine. unfortunatley have no idea why its not working, sorry. Also, on a type II system do not have to set the base.

 

[monroem]

The BCT 8 will not do digital systems, on the non digital side should work fine. unfortunatley have no idea why its not working, sorry. Also, on a type II system do not have to set the base or offset.

 

[JMR]

On a VHF typeII the base, space and offset info is required.

 

[monroem]

On a VHF typeII the base, space and offset info is required.

sorry you are correct, my bad.

 

[mciupa]

Page 45 -46 in the BCT- 8 owners manual gives instructions how to set up a VHF -HI system, and all the particulars can be found at this link for the system you are trying to track.
http://www.radioreference.com/modules.php?name=TRSDB&sid=861

 

[John_M]

Even though the BCT-8 is non-digital can you still program in the system and receive the
analog talk groups on a Motorola Type II Smartzone system? If you can you won't be able to search for talkgroups you will only be able to scan the ones you have programmed in the scanner. Every digital TG will be garbled.

 

[Forts]

You might want to look into software such as Arc-8 from Butel, or even the Uniden BCT-8 software. That would make things a little easier to program, I'm sure. I have a BCT-8 in my truck and it works just great with the analog side of Fleetnet.

 

[olalfer]

No Go

Thanks to everyone who has responded, I have done as all of you have said, yes I have programmed the base, offset's etc. and programmed in the control channels for this area, and I have programmed in the talk groups for the MOH, BUT I still do NOT hear anything.

I can hear the analog channels great, but no trunking channels ???

The manual is very confusing on how to set the scanner into scan mode, it says if you are in trunking mode, press SRCH to find active ID's. When I press SRCH I don't see anything happening on the display to tell me that anything has changed as far as what I am receiving.

I have the conventional channels in Bank "1", and the trunking data in Bank "2".

I might be missing something in how to get the scanner to scan trunking ??

The display shows TRUNK with the "M" flashing,
Bank 1 & 2 alternate,
PVT is under the flashing "M",
The channel numbers are rolling,
And the word "SCAN" is scolling from right to left,

Still at a loss ...

Frank

 

[flafiretwo]

Please Read my BCT 8 Post

I may have found something that will help you program a BCT 8 with a PC and the free software from barghis.com

 

[JMR]

Which voice channels did you use?

 

[Forts]

Try just turning on the trunked bank. Do you see the scanner pausing on the control channel? You should be able to press the down arrow button I believe to see which frequency it's on. Perhaps it's not seeing the control channel for some reason. In a nutshell, when programming a bank for trunking, you will have to set the bank to Motorola type II, set your base and offset, then set each channel for the site you wish to monitor as Motorola too. Let me know what you are seeing and maybe I can walk you thru it using my BCT-8 as a reference.

 

[olalfer]

BCT8 Problems

I have put it on just the trunk bank, it scan's the 4 local data channels I have installed,

CH-1 142.500
CH-2 142.965
CH-3 142.350
CH-4 143.070

When I hit the Hold/Resume button it is just scanning the 4 data channels on our local towers (Edgar) and the word -S C A N - mooves across the display.

For some reason I canot get it to ID Scan as it says in the book ??? When I hit the SRCH button in Trunk mode I get no change.

Stll Lost ....

Thanks ALfer ...

 

[JMR]

Control channel only is not an option on VHF systems. It will not work if the voice channels are not programmed as well.

 

[olalfer]

Re: Control Channels

Any idea how I enter the voice channels, or for that matter what they are ?????

You do not have to do this on the RS Pro-96 or Pro-2096, is this not why you put in the base,offset, & step so the trunking software calculates what voice channel the system is on at the time of transmission ???

Or am I missing something ,

ALfer

 

[olalfer]

Re:Msg

Forts I have left a personal msg for you if you can please check them.

Thanks ...

ALfer