I have my new BCD536HP but can't figure out how to listen to just favorites

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hydrasports

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I downloaded sentinel to the scanner and updated the firmware and everything but the dongle. So I uploaded or at least I believe I uploaded my favorites list and see then under the select favorites. How do I get the scanner to just listen to the favorites that I installed??
 

hydrasports

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When I go to Manage Favorites it says Select Favorites on top. Then under that it says New Favorites List. Then under that it gives my favorites such as Ledyard, Jewett City, Montville and so on one under the other.

Now how do I just listen to all the favorites I have such as Ledyard, Jewett City and so on but not all the other stuff in the Full Database when I do my Zip Code?
 

simplec6

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I downloaded sentinel to the scanner and updated the firmware and everything but the dongle. So I uploaded or at least I believe I uploaded my favorites list and see then under the select favorites. How do I get the scanner to just listen to the favorites that I installed??

It actually is kind of confusing, and I had the same question. In Sentinel, go to Edit -> Edit Profile.
On the first tab, called Scan Selection, if you uncheck both check boxes there, it is telling the scanner to only scan your Favorite Lists.

There is another step after that, if you decide to do it, where you can assign Quick Keys to each of your Fave lists and easily enable/disable them on the fly.
 

hydrasports

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It actually is kind of confusing, and I had the same question. In Sentinel, go to Edit -> Edit Profile.
On the first tab, called Scan Selection, if you uncheck both check boxes there, it is telling the scanner to only scan your Favorite Lists.

There is another step after that, if you decide to do it, where you can assign Quick Keys to each of your Fave lists and easily enable/disable them on the fly.

I found what you said and now if I uncheck both... Only the top one "Monitor Full Database" was checked. So if I uncheck both then when I download again it will only scan my favorites?

Also when I connect the computer to scanner via USB it asks "Erase Favorites List On Scanner" and "Force Write Full Database" Do I uncheck both or check both all the time?

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I just tried doing this and now it says Scan Mode, Nothing to Scan

When trying to put my zip code in it says full database it turned off
 

lacadien72

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Also make sure the configuration to scan the Full Database is set to Off.

Press Menu => Set Scan Selection => Select Lists to Monitor => Full Database = OFF
 

hydrasports

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The scan to Full Database is off. I just don't understand why it doesn't "see" my favorites?? Like I said they are there as I saved them by the town but it doesn't scan them. The favorites bar where scanning shows there are no favorites saved but when I go to manage favorites they are listed under the new favorites list
 

hydrasports

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Do I need to do anything with the Review/Edit System, Set FL Quick Key, Set FL Number Tag, Set FL Startup Key, Use Location Control, Review Avoids or any of the other settings under each favorite?
 

alex5774

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Go to MENU > Set Scan Selection > Select Lists to Monitor > Turn off both Full Database & Search with Scan and turn on the favourites lists you wish to monitor
 

rwier

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The "terminology" used in this thread may not be understood the same by all parties, thus making a solution problematical.

Definitions

1) "My Favorites" are individual Frequencies or Talk Groups that one would like to be able to listen to.

2) "Favorite List" or Favorites List" is a single entity that contains one, or more, of "my favorites".

3) "Favorite Lists" or Favorites Lists" are two, or more, entities that each contain one, or more, of "my favorites". As per Alex, " ... turn on the favorites lists you wish to monitor ...". These will be shown as the name/names you gave them. You can also turn these FLs on and off with Quick Keys".

The easiest solution is to make multiple FLs, each containing a small number of Freq's/TGs (my favorites), and only control FLs from the scanner. Selecting from "my favorites" for scanning or not scanning using the scanner menu is a very difficult task.
 
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marksmith

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I found what you said and now if I uncheck both... Only the top one "Monitor Full Database" was checked. So if I uncheck both then when I download again it will only scan my favorites?

Also when I connect the computer to scanner via USB it asks "Erase Favorites List On Scanner" and "Force Write Full Database" Do I uncheck both or check both all the time?

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I just tried doing this and now it says Scan Mode, Nothing to Scan

When trying to put my zip code in it says full database it turned off
You need to in the profile go to favorites lists and select which ones you want to download and which you want to monitor.

This will avoid the nothing to scan issue.

You also want to not scan the full database, and always use the delete favorites lists on scanner when doing a download. It will cleanly download the data you have in Sentinel instead of leaving them on the scanner and also trying to download over top of them. You sometime get strange results.

I would also strongly suggest you establish quick keys for each of the favorites lists and each of the systems on your favorites lists so that using g the 536 menu on the radio would can easily turn them on and off on the fly.

Mark
536/436/WS1095/HP1/HP2/996T/996XT/996P2/396XT/325P2/PSR800/15X/others
 

hydrasports

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I worked on it a while last night and think I figured it out. I do have one question if I can relay it correctly.

Under say my favorite "Ledyard" it then has a sub called "New London/Ledyard" as New London is the county Ledyard is in. Then there is the sub under this sub with all the frequencies listed.

Should I just make a FL called Ledyard then skip the sub called New London/Ledyard due to is has no direct frequencies under this just the other sub with all the frequencies listed?

So instead of...

Ledyard
New London/Ledyard
Frequencies

Just save as...

Ledyard
Frequencies

Just go to Connecticut in New London County then look up Ledyard and you will see what I mean. Basically cutting out the middle man or "Sub Category" of New London/Ledyard.
 

jonwienke

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You can't do that. Frequencies/talkgroups can only go in the bottom tier of the System/Department/Channel hierarchy.
 

hydrasports

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OK so in other words I need to redo my favorites so that it has the name such as Ledyard then the list of frequencies under it and skip the sub category or middle category.
 

jonwienke

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You can name a favorite list whatever you want, but you can't add frequencies directly to a System. You have to create a Department under the System and add the frequencies to the Department.
 

djpaulino

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When I go to Manage Favorites it says Select Favorites on top. Then under that it says New Favorites List. Then under that it gives my favorites such as Ledyard, Jewett City, Montville and so on one under the other.

Now how do I just listen to all the favorites I have such as Ledyard, Jewett City and so on but not all the other stuff in the Full Database when I do my Zip Code?

Good luck, Along with the 436, This has to be the most complicated , cumbersome most difficult scanner to program.
 

marksmith

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You can name a favorite list whatever you want, but you can't add frequencies directly to a System. You have to create a Department under the System and add the frequencies to the Department.
Actually, you have to add a SITE, and then add the frequencies.

Mark
536/436/WS1095/HP1/HP2/996T/996XT/996P2/396XT/325P2/PSR800/15X/others
 

hydrasports

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New London County, CT
I want to say thank you to all of you who helped me. Now that I am getting to understand my new BCD536HP scanner I am loving it. I have not yet upgraded the dongle but I still don't know if I will be using it. I will probably upgrade it later but no need to right now. However, I have upgraded the firmware and the Update Master HPDB.

There are so many frequencies I never knew you could listen to it's pretty awesome! And even better is you don't have to manually input each individual one at a time!!

BCD536HP and Lovin it!
 

K1IWN

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Dec 31, 2007
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Kennebunk, ME
I want to say thank you to all of you who helped me. Now that I am getting to understand my new BCD536HP scanner I am loving it. I have not yet upgraded the dongle but I still don't know if I will be using it. I will probably upgrade it later but no need to right now. However, I have upgraded the firmware and the Update Master HPDB.

There are so many frequencies I never knew you could listen to it's pretty awesome! And even better is you don't have to manually input each individual one at a time!!

BCD536HP and Lovin it!

I am also going through the initial learning curve with the 536 and it is a fabulous unit. It was a bit of a challenge at first to set it up, do the upgrades, the firmware, install the DMR & ProVoice options, and get to know Sentinel and how that works. I still have a lot to learn with it, but I agree it is a great radio.

I had a bit of a chore getting the wifi dongle upgraded and then syncing it with my phone. It's still kind of flaky I've noticed and I battle with the Siren app, but I am sure I will figure it out. When it works, it is so slick. It's like having an HP-2 in the palm of you hand, with all the features of the 536.

My challenge now it to figure out how to offload the data from the unit to examine it and make further tweaks as I go along.
 
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