Is the BC-780 updatable for new PL tones?

[jmp883]

I read through all the threads here and didn't see it......and I've posted this question on several other sites with no reply yet....so let me try it here.

There are several new PL tones that are not included in the BC-780. Several of the agencies in my scanning area have upgraded to those new tones. I was just wondering if the BC-780 could be updated. Since I see there is no firmware update for the rebanding of the radio I imagine there is no PL update available either.....

Thanking you all in advance for anyone who could shed a little light on this....

 

[yaesumofo]

Interesting. he idea of "NEW" tones. I suspect that these may just be one or some of the non standard tones in infrequent use. The reason is because they tend to be close to other tones and can cause false positives. ICOM has a "standard" set of tones which are 50 in number. I believe the normal set contains 37 tones.
Why the agency you refer to did not go over to a digital tone system is strange. There are a couple of hundred codes available. Use an icom scanner to decode the tones. if they are not there they may be using a digital tone the 396 will decode these.
Yaesumofo

I read through all the threads here and didn't see it......and I've posted this question on several other sites with no reply yet....so let me try it here.

There are several new PL tones that are not included in the BC-780. Several of the agencies in my scanning area have upgraded to those new tones. I was just wondering if the BC-780 could be updated. Since I see there is no firmware update for the rebanding of the radio I imagine there is no PL update available either.....

Thanking you all in advance for anyone who could shed a little light on this....

 

[SCPD]

the BC780XLT Covers all Standard and Non-Standard PL tones and DPL as well. with the exception of Digital Digital Codes, I was un-aware that there are ad-ons to the regular CTCSS PL/DPL or DCS tones. I think its a falsie too.

 

[jmp883]

The one FD I know of off the top of my head originally used a PL of 203.5 Hz. They switched from VHF-Lo to UHF, staying conventional, and changed their PL to 206.5 Hz. I discovered this one night at work when my dispatch partner's portable picked them up being dispatched on a fire alarm. His radio picked it up, my Yaesu FT-60R HT was silent. I put it in PL search mode and found out the PL was now 206.5 Hz. My FT-60R and the Yaesu FT-7800 in my truck have the additional PL tones in them so it isn't THAT much of an issue....yet.

Right now the few agencies that have switched to the 'new' PL tones are still the only agencies on those particular frequencies so there really isn't a need for PL, at least from a monitoring standpoint. I just like to keep my equipment as current as possible and since I have 2 780's (as well as 2 895's and an 890) in my listening post I was just wondering if there was an update.

No big deal if there's not.....and thanks for the all the information posted!

 

[N9JIG]

While 206.5 is not a "New" PL as it has been in use for decades, it is not one of the 37 or 38 "Standard" PL tones most often used. It is one of the 12 or so tones that are included in some radios and not others.

These are the most common "Non-Standard" PL's seen that are not included in the 780:

69.3 159.8 165.5 171.3 177.3 183.5 189.9 196.6 199.5 206.5 229.1 254.1

These are the tones included in the 780:
67.0 71.9 74.4 77.0 79.7 82.5 85.4 88.5 91.5 94.8 97.4 100.0 103.5 107.2 110.9 114.8 118.8 123.0 127.3 131.8 136.5 141.3 146.2 151.4 156.7 162.2 167.9 173.8 179.9 186.2 192.8 203.5 210.7 218.1 225.7 233.6 241.8 250.3

There is a similar issue with DPL codes. There are some codes that are not included in certian radios and included in others. We had an issue with a 4 channel repeater system here. They bought 4 Motorola repeaters but all the portable radios were Kenwoods. They selected 4 DPL codes pretty much at random on the Moto repeaters and programmed the portables to match. When we later tried to program the freqs into Motorola mobiles and portables we found that 2 of the DPL codes were not included in the list of acceptable codes, and eventually had to reprogram the repeaters and Kenwood HT's to new DPL codes.

 

[Progline]

Is this an issue for the 785 as well, or does it have the extra tone set?

 

[N9JIG]

The 785 and 796 both have the same 38 tone set as the 780. The 396 and 996 have the extended 50 tone set.