BCD396XT/BCD996XT: I'm having trouble programming a Uniden BearCat BCD996XT

[RJBTVTech]

I work in the Engineering department at a TV station in the Albany, NY market. We have several scanners, each monitoring different services, Law Enforcement, Fire, EMS, ect. I'm a complete novice where radio scanners are concerned. My only experience is with the scanners my father and grandmother used 40 years ago. A few months ago I accidentally Factory Restored the Uniden BearCat BCD996XT that we were using to monitor Law Enforcement. I need to reprogram it with all (Local, County, and State Police) of the Law Dispatch frequencies and Talk Groups for the surrounding 13 counties; Albany, Schenectady, Rensselaer, Columbia, Greene, Schoharie, Montgomery, Fulton, Hamilton, Warren, Saratoga, and Washington Counties. Unfortunately, the person who programmed these units has long since passed away.

I'm trying to reprogram it using FreeScan 2.16, but I'm running into problems with programming Trunked systems in particular. I've already programmed in all of the "Site" frequencies for Capital Digitronics (Capital District Public Safety), an EDACS system, but I have no idea how to program the talk groups. There is nowhere to enter the DEC, AFS, Mode info in FreeScan, that I can see. Do I need to enter these setting directly through the faceplate on the scanner?

It seems that all this info would be exported from RadioReference.com, into the BCD996XT automatically if I had a premium account, but I don't think my company will want to pay for that. We may need to get a new scanner anyway, because it appears that the BCD996XT can't handle Project 25 Phase II APCO-25, which is also being used in the area.

Thank you, for any info you can provide!

 

[doctordialtone]

It seems that all this info would be exported from RadioReference.com,

Enter what's in the DEC column. Those are the Talk Groups.

Read this "Easier to Read" manual for further instruction.

Good luck!

 

[eaf1956]

The 996P2 will handle the P 25 phase 2 stuff but as you say a new scanner. BTW, ARC XT would probably be better software to use. If not ProScan!

 

[RJBTVTech]

Thank you for the quick responses. My Chief Engineer seems to think that a new scanner will come with software to program it. Is this true?

I also wonder why we have so many scanners running at once. We have 4 Uniden Bearcat scanners running, the BCD996XT (for Law Enforcement), a BC-760XLT (for what I don't know), a BCD0996T (for Fire/EMS, and a BC895XLT (for what I don't know). They are at the Assignment Desk in the News Room. I don't know what the logic was for having 4 separate scanners running all at once. We aren't recording what they're monitoring. I guess a LE and Fire/EMS dispatch could be listened to at the same time, but that would be confusing. Wouldn't one newer scanner, like a BCD996P2, be able to handle Police, Fire, and EMS by itself?

Should I be telling my Chief Engineer that we need an SDS200, or an BCD996P2?

 

[eaf1956]

Thank you for the quick responses. My Chief Engineer seems to think that a new scanner will come with software to program it. Is this true?

I also wonder why we have so many scanners running at once. We have 4 Uniden Bearcat scanners running, the BCD996XT (for Law Enforcement), a BC-760XLT (for what I don't know), a BCD0996T (for Fire/EMS, and a BC895XLT (for what I don't know). They are at the Assignment Desk in the News Room. I don't know what the logic was for having 4 separate scanners running all at once. We aren't recording what they're monitoring. I guess a LE and Fire/EMS dispatch could be listened to at the same time, but that would be confusing. Wouldn't one newer scanner, like a BCD996P2, be able to handle Police, Fire, and EMS by itself?

Should I be telling my Chief Engineer that we need an SDS200, or an BCD996P2?

If you do Not have Simulcast towers to deal with the 996P2 would be the least expensive option. The idea of having a scanner dedicated to one service is not to miss a lot of traffic. The more you put on one scanner the more you will miss out on. If it were my choice I'd use the 996XT for Fire/EMS and get a 996P2 for LAW on Phase 2 systems. And the only scanners that come with software to program for FREE are the SDS and X36 series with Sentinel software. (HP series too if you like that format)

 

[wtp]

can you actually receive from 13 counties around ?

 

[ofd8001]

Best I can from the database, a simulcast system is involved. So for the most reliable decoding the SDS line of scanners is the way to go. Albany/Schenectady Counties Trunking System, Regional, New York Using the 536 or the 996 MAY work, then it may not. It's all owing to where you are with respect to the towers.

The 536 and SDS are a lot easier to program. The 996 is challenging for the newbie, but can be done. You may reach out in the New York page and offer some $ for someone to program the scanner(s). From there you can make updates later.

You may want to see if there are Broadcastify Feeds for your area, which may reduce scanner dependence. But you are at the mercy of the feed provider on what you hear.

They do use encryption on some of their channels, which no scanner can deal with. Owing to how good of a rapport you have with the law enforcement folks, you may want to have a conversation on the following. First, they may be unwilling, second if willing there may be a ton of caveats and third it might be costly. That being to purchase a radio, have their radio shop program it as receive only, so that you can receive some of those encrypted talkgroups. It has been known to happen elsewhere, but other places have had interesting ways of saying to pound sand.

The SDS and x56 scanners use the free Sentinel software that will get you going just fine. No cost for that and no cost for database access.

You could try ProScan software for programming existing scanners and become a premium subscriber. You can import "stuff" easier with this program. You can tell the upper management folks the old "You get what you pay for adage". Don't want to spend the money, won't get the reception.

I've been to all of the news rooms in the Louisville market. Multiple scanners is common. Some set them up by area, some set them up by discipline (Police, Fire, etc.) Multiple scanners are very helpful when major incidents occur, or during busy hours so you reduce the odds of missing something. Of course that means each scanner is programmed a little different so you are not duplicating scanlists and hear the same stuff twice.

Big thing will be assignment desk/editor education so they don't tinker and mess up programming. (Another good point for the SDS/x36 scanners - they use SD cards for programming and you can tape a spare to the underside. That way if someone goofs up something, they can put the spare card in and not call you in for re-programming at a bad time.)

 

[tvengr]

The Albany and Schenectady County sites are simulcast. The Schenectady County talkgroups are all Phase 2. You will need a SDS200 to handle that system. Please click on the red envelope to the right of your username at the top of the screen.

 

[n1chu]

Tell your people there are 3 purchases they need to upgrade the scanner portion of your business… Uniden SDS100 or SDS200, PROSCAN or Butel software, and a premium membership to Radio Reference. The Uniden SDS200 has free software (Sentinel) available for download that includes the ability to access RadioReference.com and download data into the Sentinel software, which in turn allows for editing and then writing what you have just edited to the scanner. “ProScan” or “Butel ARC x36” do the same thing but in both cases require a premium membership to Radio Reference. (ProScan is the more popular of the two due to its ability to program numerous scanner models where the Butel software is limited to the BCDx36HP and the SDS series of Uniden scanners [4 models].) Neither the Butel or ProScan softwares offer the ability to update the scanner firmware however, only Sentinel will do that but people who have traditionally used the Butel or ProScan products have become used to what they percieve as an easier way to edit the data, so they stick with those and need to buy the premium membership to Radio Reference, whereas the Sentinel software includes the ability at no cost… it’s included in the price of the scanner. Just include the Uniden SDS200, a copy of ProScan and the Radio Reference premium membership to the shopping list and you are good to go.

I’d also add the cost of a spare SD Card. In the event the card becomes corrupted, you have an identical programmed SD Card ready to go. Keep it with the radio. And of course, as always, back up your programming to the software. I run 2 DSD200’s and one SDS100… I back up and save everything to Butel, ProScan, Sentinel, and the spare SD Card. Most news stations run numerous scanners, dedicating each to just a few agencies they monitor. The SDS200 would be dedicated to the trunking systems that use simulcast and the other (possibly older models that don’t handle simulcast well) are dedicated to the conventional analogue stuff.

 

[RJBTVTech]

can you actually receive from 13 counties around ?

We seem just have an antenna on a 20' tower, on the roof of our 2 story building.

 

[RJBTVTech]

can you actually receive from 13 counties around ?

I should have said 12 counties. I don't know if we can actually receive them all, but I was told that we had Law Dispatch frequencies from all those counties programmed. Those counties are all in our viewing area, that's why they were monitored.

 

[jtwalker]

We seem just have an antenna on a 20' tower, on the roof of our 2 story building.

Unlikely you can receive 13 counties with a 20’ tower, unless there are other mitigating circumstances.

Like the 20’ tower is on a mountain which is the highest point for 60 miles in every direction? Or the traffic is on multi-county system and carried on sites throughout all the counties.

I have a 30’ tower and I am on the highest point from my location to the southeast all the way to the ocean. I can receive seven counties pretty well in mostly that direction.

 

[wtp]

i live in Flatland (Florida) and can not get the county 15 miles from my house.
OK, i don't have a tower, but this is florida, the land of lightning, in fact there is one over my house right now.

 

[tvengr]

I live at a high location in a 2-story home and use a tri-band mobile antenna on a base adapter with an N connector in my attic. The antenna is on a 4' mast to raise it as high as possible. I am able to receive all of my surrounding counties quite well. It is only a 25' cable run using LMR400 to a Stridsberg MCA204M 4-output multicoupler inside a 3-gang electrical box mounted in my family room wall. The multicoupler is attached to the metal cover plate with 4 holes drilled so that the 4 BNC output connectors on the multicoupler extend through the plate into the room. There is also a 12vdc power jack on the cover plate to plug in the AC adapter for the multicoupler. The scanners are all in a bookcase adjacent to the wall plate. There are four 3' RG58 BNC jumpers through the side of the bookcase to the scanners.

 

[wtp]

housekeeping...
if you put in 13 trunking systems (as a guess)
it will take the radio about 24 seconds to come back to the first system.
and that is if nothing else is going on.
the radio takes 2 seconds to look at each system (housekeeping) and can not be shortened.
the saying is "the more you try and listen to, the less you will hear"
that is why we ask, do you need them all ?