Hillsborough County Sherifff's Office

[MorbidAndrew]

I just bought a Uniden BCT8 and I am having problems programming this thing....

I'm confused over which Trunking system HCSO Fire/Sheriff's Office Use. Is it the standard EDACS (ED when programming) or EDACS SCE (Ed-SCE) when programming? When I use the SCE mode, the scanner stops as if it's picking up traffic, but nothing is heard on my end. Am I missing something? Anyone have any ideas or anything that can help. Thanks,

 

[Bolt21]

Use the standard EDACS setting for Hillsborough.

 

[MorbidAndrew]

ok, I think I got it.....thanks. I think USF needs to offer a degree in scanner programming!

 

[Bolt21]

Roger that!

At one point I faded out of the scanner picture for about ten years. The last time I listened to HCSO they were on VHF. When I made it back they were on EDACS. Talk about a learning curve trying to set up a trunked system without any help. I thought I was gonna have to break down and get professional help (as in a psychiatrist).

 

[MorbidAndrew]

Well, I don't know what the heck I did, but now my scanner isn't going into trunk mode. It's just scanning all the LCN Frequencies as if it was a conventional scanner. The first frequency in the order is just giving me garble non-stop. Any clue what I need to do to fix this. I checked, rechecked, and triple checked that all my freqencies are in order and in the proper sequence. Hillsborough has a east and west LCN and I listed both in banks 01-through 30. I have the scanner on ED (EDACS) mode.

Many of the frequencies that I entered are not giving me the "E" for EDACS that it says I should see when I program in a compatible frequency. I swear I had the thing working for a week...I must of screwed something up!

 

[Bolt21]

When you say "banks 01-30" I assume you meant "channels." You need to separate each site into two different banks, i.e. east site in bank 1, west site in bank 2 (with each system's channels on 1 through 15 on each bank). You can't have two EDACS systems in the same bank. Hope this helps.

 

[MorbidAndrew]

ok, I put the east frequencies in Bank 1, but I still have two frequencies that are just giving me garble, and not allowing the scanner to scan anything because it keeps stopping at these two frequencies. I also noticed these two freqencies do not give me the "E" in my digital display like the other 13 frequencies that I entered. I have triple checked all my frequencies and they are correct as radioreference.com listed under Hillsborough Frequencies. I don't think I'm suppose to, but I locked out those two frequencies (they are 866.3750 and 866.7000) and the scanner scans like a normal scanner, but still isn't trunking anything. GRRRR! If I unlock these frequencies I just get noise!

I'm located in the area of Big Bend and US 301....is it possible I'm just out of range? I was really just wanting to hear my local fire department getting calls for service in my area (the station is a mile away from me).

 

[Bolt21]

You should have only one channel per site (per bank) that sounds like a "motorboat." These are the control channels and if they're locked out, your scanner won't trunk track. EDACS control channels on this system change often (I'm not sure of the exact frequency, but at a minimum it's daily) and can be any of the 15 channels per site.

If the bank/channels are set up for EDACS Standard, the scanner shouldn't be stopping on them. Double check EVERYTHING (banks and individual channels/however the BCT8 works) and make sure it's set on EDACS.

The only other thing that I can think of is the way your scanner sets up channels. I'm not familiar with the BCT8, but if it's like my PRO-97, you can't start the LCN on channel x00, it has to start on channel x01 so that the LCN corresponds to the actual scanner channel order.

Also, you shouldn't have any trouble where you are as far as reception (see map).

 

[MorbidAndrew]

Well, this scanner has two EDACS system to choose from. One says ED (for EDACS) and the other says ED SCE (or something like that). I've tried them both, but some one said just to leave it on EDACS (ED). And my scanner starts with Channel 1, there is no 00 channel.