I hate BCD396XT trunked 'systems'

[Diggie]

Posting this out of frustration.

I hate the BCD396XT's "Systems". If you put trunked systems into the scanner then when you browse those "systems" using Func+Encoder you're actually browsing sites, not systems. If any system has lots of sites that long list of sites pollutes the system navigation, you have to scroll through all of them. I used ArcXT to pull the trunked systems down from radioreference, and I named all of the systems. But those names don't even show up when you're scrolling through the systems menu. The site names do, and sometimes they're obscure or the same as site names in other systems, and you have no idea at a glance what you're looking at. I've had to manually rename lots of site names pulled down from RR to work around this. Then comes trying to enable/disable trunked systems with multiple sites. It seems like you can't lockout such a system, only individual sites? And to do that you have to set startup keys for every single one of them? Ugh!

For systems with many sites, this has lead me to simply leave them off the scanner altogether, even though I'd like to have them programmed in so I can listen to them occasionally, simply because the trunked systems management seems so poor.

A firmware upgrade that at least showed the system name + site when you were scrolling through systems and let you easily lockout entire systems would be huge IMO. Then I could leave all the local systems programmed in.

Am I doing something completely wrong? I feel like I must be...

 

[Dewey]

While I understand your frustration, there is a work-around. You can use the number tagging feature to get around this. I like to give my systems number tags that are the same as the system quick keys. This enables me to go directly to my system of choice just by pressing {number tag}.[MENU], and also makes it easy to remember since the system quick keys and system number tags are the same. Since the number before the period defines the system and not the site, it will enable you to go directly to that system. When I have more than one system assigned to a system quick key, I still give them all the same number tag as the quick key. This way, I can keep pressing {number tag}.[MENU] to scroll through each system in that system quick key. Finally, if you would still like to be able to scroll through the systems with the function key, you can always assign a number tag to the system that follows a system with a large number of sites. That will enable you to at least bypass the system with the large number of site, then function key scroll through the remaining system.

Again, I understand your frustration, but I personally find this to be a very acceptable work-around. I would also rather see the system name in the display scrolling instead of the site name if we can't have both, or a user selectable switch, but this is a very minor inconvenience to me personally to an otherwise outstanding scanner.

Dewey

 

[KE4ZNR]

I understand your frustration but once you get used to Multi-Site Trunking you will find it is the easiest way to handle large trunked systems in a scanner.
My suggestion is to read over the Multi-Site Trunking article in the Wiki:
Uniden Multi-Site Trunking - The RadioReference Wiki

Example is the statewide Trunked system called VIPER here in NC.

With Multi-Site trunking I enter all 4,000 talkgroups for the system only once. I then enter the various sites to match up with those talkgroups and I am set.
Any other way of trying to program a large system is just an inefficient waste of radio resources.

Give it time. You will soon see how Multi-Site Trunking is the way to go.

Marshall KE4ZNR

Posting this out of frustration.

I hate the BCD396XT's "Systems". If you put trunked systems into the scanner then when you browse those "systems" using Func+Encoder you're actually browsing sites, not systems. If any system has lots of sites that long list of sites pollutes the system navigation, you have to scroll through all of them. I used ArcXT to pull the trunked systems down from radioreference, and I named all of the systems. But those names don't even show up when you're scrolling through the systems menu. The site names do, and sometimes they're obscure or the same as site names in other systems, and you have no idea at a glance what you're looking at. I've had to manually rename lots of site names pulled down from RR to work around this. Then comes trying to enable/disable trunked systems with multiple sites. It seems like you can't lockout such a system, only individual sites? And to do that you have to set startup keys for every single one of them? Ugh!

For systems with many sites, this has lead me to simply leave them off the scanner altogether, even though I'd like to have them programmed in so I can listen to them occasionally, simply because the trunked systems management seems so poor.

A firmware upgrade that at least showed the system name + site when you were scrolling through systems and let you easily lockout entire systems would be huge IMO. Then I could leave all the local systems programmed in.

Am I doing something completely wrong? I feel like I must be...