Kansas Statewide System on BC796D

[DptyNIVEK3]

I recently inherited a BCD796D scanner. I want to program it with the Kansas Statewide System. I am not getting any reception to adjust the APCO 25 Sound Quality. Please see if you can find where I went wrong. I just want it to search IDs because I don't want to spend hours entering all of them and I travel the whole state. I also don't have a cable for connecting it to the computer and I haven't found where you can buy one for this model. The following is what I did to program them.

System option - 0 P-25 Card - 1 enable
2 Scan option - 2 Trunk - Select Bank 7
1 Trunk Type - 1 On - 1 Type 2/p25 800 - Control Channel - 2 Plan 2
2 Trunk Channel - 601
1 Frequency (I enter the control channel frequency or secondary control channel frequency from RR)
Repeated the above two steps for all control channel/secondary control channels.

I did ignore the Alpha Tags on purpose.

Scan

Yes, I know about setting the APCO 25 Sound Quality, but I hear nothing to be able to adjust it.

 

[sjlamb]

There are about (39) tower sites in that system; each having their own set of trunking frequencies. The BC796D has a (10) bank memory which means you can program a single tower site (control channel and alt. control channels) in each bank. Thus, you can program up to (10) of the (39) possible sites in your BC796D.... or, about 25% of the Statewide System.

Now... which of the (39) sites have you programmed into the scanner? And.... how close are you to the nearest tower location? You won't be able to program the entire State system into the scanner (even though you only want to search for active IDs) due to the size of that system and the memory limitations of the BC796D.

Other questions:

(1) Has the State System gone through rebanding yet? (might want to confirm in the Kansas section of the forum)

(2) Does your BC796D have the latest firmware version and has it been programmed for custom band plan (re-banded) tables?

(3) Have you set your audio as "Analog", "Digital" or "Both"?

 

[DptyNIVEK3]

Kansas Statewide System Part 2

Since I inherited the scanner I can't tell you if it has the latest firmware or not.

I have a another BC796D scanner that I programmed when Kansas first went to the APCO Statewide System. I did exactly what I pointed out in my previous message and I travel with it in my truck all the time. I've have heard KHP, Turnpike, Emergency Management, Wildlife and Parks and KBI from one end of I70 to the other. Also, the Kansas Turnpike from Oklahoma to Missouri and every thing in between. Plus all of Southeast Kansas along 69 highway. I haven't had it in Southwest Kansas past Wichita. It seems to work just fine using ID Scan.

I thought I could do the same with the inherited scanner. I can't figure out what is different.

I live in Topeka so I am surrounded with towers. I also put both scanners side by side and the original was receiving traffic when the other was not.

I did have to program my BCD396T and limit how many sites I programmed to avoid using all of my memory.

Most of the state has gone through rebanding as far as I can tell.

I'm not sure about the Analog, Digital or both. Where in the manual does it address setting that and what should it be?

The inherited scanner already had been preprogrammed for KCKansas, KCMissouri, Johnson County, Shawnee County, Douglas County and they work just fine on various EDACS and Type II Trunk Tracking systems.

Any more ideas?

 

[sjlamb]

It starting to sound like one of your units has the latest firmware and has been programmed with the new Band Plan tables and the other hasn't.

The first thing you need to do is make sure you have the latest firmware version and have programmed the scanner for the new band plans. Failing to do that..... if you have everything else set-up perfectly but have not upgraded the firmware to deal with a re-banded system; you're just wasting your time.

Also keep in mind that while you might hear comms up and down the state as you travel with your other 796D, the only way to be sure you are picking up everything and receiving the best signal possible is to have each tower site and its' frequencies programmed in to the scanner. That means (39) sites in your case and also means that the BC796D in question is only programmed with SOME of the KS Statewide system because that is all is capable of taking. No big deal if all you want is to hear SOMETHING as you travel but, also not the way to completely cover that system. Just because you're receiving something does not mean that you are hearing the whole system nor receiving the best signal for your current location as you travel. At my location in Florida, covering just my County and another adjoining County takes up the entire memory in my BC796D..... and those two systems are big time smaller than your Kansas Statewide system.

 

[DptyNIVEK3]

Thanks. I will check the firmware. Perhaps I have lucked out on what frequencies actually are working on the towers. We have had some major incidents in Kansas within the last year, so I am at least sure the KHP is coming in on many of the towers around Kansas that I mentioned earlier.

I also often hear troopers and wildlife officers say they are on certain towers.

It is starting to sound like you need a whole scanner just dedicated to the Kansas Statewide System.
When do they come out with the super scanner? LOL

 

[sjlamb]

It is starting to sound like you need a whole scanner just dedicated to the Kansas Statewide System.
When do they come out with the super scanner? LOL

They already have: BCD996XT - The RadioReference Wiki

Channels: 25,000 maximum
Systems: 500 maximum
Groups per system: 20 maximum
Talkgroups per trunked system: 500 maximum
Channels per conventional system: 1000 maximum