Just ordered Scanner, BCD396T & Saying Hello

[BillC73]

Thought I would check in and say hello. I just ordered a scanner today, hope to be up and listening to something by this weekend, im in Hillsdale county. It's been awhile since I've been to this forum as it says "you last visited: 12-31-1969, maybe in the previous life. Anyways im new to scanners, had an old RS model years ago, it was simple to use, no trunk tracking, digital etc. I figure this will keep me busy for awhile! First off im gonna see if there is software that I should get for this scanner, perhaps that will make programing much easier, so im open to any recomendations! Thanks and Hello!

Bill

 

[tusker305]

Hi Bill
Welcome back, 1969, boy have some things changed. LOL
By all means use software, the best I have found is a program called FreeScan. Written by a guy on this board goes by the name of "cpuerror" It is simple to use, copy freqs, etc from the database on this site, one click imports it into FreeScan. When you are done importing, another click uploads it to the radio, and your rockin. And best of all its completely FREE. You can even control your radio via the program. You can download at http://scannow.org/
I don't know how much you know about these new radios but they are a bit different, Think of a "SYSTEM" as one radio, a "SITE" as a Bank in that radio and a "GROUP" as a group channels within that Bank. You may already know this, but it was a great deal of help to me when I first made the up grade. If you enjoy monitoring severe weather check out the Southern Michigan Skywarn Map thread in the Michigan Forum. Any questions feel free to ask, somebody will have an answer foy you.

Good Luck and Welcome

 

[BillC73]

Hi Bill
Welcome back, 1969, boy have some things changed. LOL
By all means use software, the best I have found is a program called FreeScan. Written by a guy on this board goes by the name of "cpuerror" It is simple to use, copy freqs, etc from the database on this site, one click imports it into FreeScan. When you are done importing, another click uploads it to the radio, and your rockin. And best of all its completely FREE. You can even control your radio via the program. You can download at http://scannow.org/
I don't know how much you know about these new radios but they are a bit different, Think of a "SYSTEM" as one radio, a "SITE" as a Bank in that radio and a "GROUP" as a group channels within that Bank. You may already know this, but it was a great deal of help to me when I first made the up grade. If you enjoy monitoring severe weather check out the Southern Michigan Skywarn Map thread in the Michigan Forum. Any questions feel free to ask, somebody will have an answer foy you.

Good Luck and Welcome

Tusker, thankyou very much for the help! Its amazing all the technology these days. I've never used a trunk tracker so this will be new also, I used to live pretty close to you, we moved here to the Hillsdale area from Lincoln Park just south of Detroit, use to listen to alot of hams on the 2 meter band from Ontario also, Im a Ham from a few years ago, and I have not been active in about 18 years, those radios have changed a bit too. My last radio was a Yasue FT-8800, I had it for a few months and it was a real pain to program with all the menus, the software made it sooooo much easier, I spent most of my time listening, and really never transmitted much as I was always a CW junkie on HF, so it was used more as a scanner so I ended up selling her before we moved, I think the Uniden should fill the void pretty good, probably better for my intent of just listening. Im gonna download the software you recomended, im not exactly sure what software comes with the Uniden, but I knew it was PC compatible, so I wasn't concerned. I hope to talk with you again!

73
Bill