HRM Fire Ops on a BCD 996T

[Edken]

Hi, I’ve bought a Uniden Bearcat BCD996T and having a heck of a time receiving the Op channels for HRM Fire. I receive the paging channels which are on the lower 150 frequencies, but the Op channels are trunking channels. Best I can sort out up in the 700 and 800 range. I’ve followed all the instructions I can find on setting these up but no luck yet. Any help will be appreciated.
Thank you
Ed

 

[marksmith]

I have a 996T which should be capable of Phase1 digital systems which is used by the fire department. The fire department talkgroups appear not to be encrypted. In other words as long as you set up as a p25 phase 1 system on the radio, it should work.

You need to pick your closest site, create a new system of type p25 phase 1 (the only kind of p25 system that radio can handle) and enter the frequencies and run in trunking search mode to look for signal activity and fire talkgroups acttivity. There may be several sites you need to try based on how the system is set up.

 

[ve1sef]

The Owner's Manual can be hard to follow for a first timer. If you go online and search for the BCD 996T Manual, there is an "Easier to Follow Guide".
There are also some videos on YouTube on programming the 996T both by hand or with software. A basic knowledge of how the scanner works does help.

Having said that, is this your first scanner? or have you had other? what speed bump(s) are you running into?



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[Deziel0495]

@Edken this is the manual @ve1sef was referring to:

Easier to Read BCD996T/UBCD996T Digital Scanner Manual

 

[BC_Scan]

Edken, have you first determined what your scanner with antennae will hear from your home? Load up two search banks one 700 MHz and one 800. Jot down which control channels you can hear (characteristic by what seems to be a machine gun sound coming from speaker)

From there determine which tower you can hear and program into one bank of the scanner (all freqs is good) if you hear multiple control channels you need to figure out which tower they belong to by looking at list and then scan from there.

 

[ve1sef]

Not to confuse you further.

Since you are in Dartmouth the only sites you need to program are , Giezer's Hill, Maritime Centre, Lower Sackville, Preston.
These overlap the Halifax Dartmouth area.

The 700MHz frequencies are the Trunk System repeaters and the 800MHz are simplex frequencies,

 

[Edken]

Thank you, I’ll try it with just the few towers currently I have all the towers in HRM programmed. Also do I add the control channels as a subgroup under each tower or do I program them separate? I’m using the FreeScan software

 

[ve1sef]

If you program in the frequencies to the sites, the 996T will figure out the control channel .
I use also use FreeScan for my 996T,

There is a video on YouTube by K4DPS on programming 996's with FreeScan.