Need advice on setting up a 396T

[ozztheozz]

I'm new to the scanning world and need some help figuring out the 396T. I live in Nebraska in Box Butte county and am trying to program the scanner with Police, Fire, and Sheriff's dept. I found the data base here on RR and looked up the freq. for these departments and was wondering if I programmed them right. Here's how I programmed it into the scanner:

1: New conventional system named it Box Butte Co.
system options I entered quick key #1

2: Groups
1: Police quick key #1 entered freq. 460.07500
2: Sheriff quick key #2 entered freq. 39.90000 and 460.12500
3: Hemingford QK #3 entered freq. 458.20000
4: Fire QK #4 entered freq. 453.05000

In my scanner disply it shows its scanning Box Butte Co below it shows SO 1 and GRP 1234. Is SO in the display for System Option? and GRP I take it is for group names I entered and assigned them to quick keys. My other question is if you click on license it shows other freq and Long and Lat information, with regards to the other freq listed do I need to enter them in the the scanner so it scans all the freq for each department so I'm not missing transmissions on those freq. or will the way I have it programmed now cover everything. If not could you please explain how you would set it up and if it's a conventional system or other type of system. I would like to program the State Patrol and other groups in but want to make sure I'm doing it right. Thanks in advance for taking the time and answering my questions.

Thank you
Randy

 

[hiegtx]

I'm new to the scanning world and need some help figuring out the 396T. I live in Nebraska in Box Butte county and am trying to program the scanner with Police, Fire, and Sheriff's dept. I found the data base here on RR and looked up the freq. for these departments and was wondering if I programmed them right. Here's how I programmed it into the scanner:

1: New conventional system named it Box Butte Co.
system options I entered quick key #1

2: Groups
1: Police quick key #1 entered freq. 460.07500
2: Sheriff quick key #2 entered freq. 39.90000 and 460.12500
3: Hemingford QK #3 entered freq. 458.20000
4: Fire QK #4 entered freq. 453.05000

In my scanner disply it shows its scanning Box Butte Co below it shows SO 1 and GRP 1234. Is SO in the display for System Option? and GRP I take it is for group names I entered and assigned them to quick keys. My other question is if you click on license it shows other freq and Long and Lat information, with regards to the other freq listed do I need to enter them in the the scanner so it scans all the freq for each department so I'm not missing transmissions on those freq. or will the way I have it programmed now cover everything. If not could you please explain how you would set it up and if it's a conventional system or other type of system. I would like to program the State Patrol and other groups in but want to make sure I'm doing it right. Thanks in advance for taking the time and answering my questions.

Thank you
Randy

Welcome to the site Randy.
The way you have the county programmed is personal preference. That is the way that I would set it up, in all likelihood, if I were trying to monitor that county. The frequencies are conventional, so you were correct in choosing to set as a "conventional system" instead of one of the trunked system options. The name you choose for the system alternates in the display with the 'group' name on one line, with the channel name entered displayed below it. The latitude/longitude information shows the transmitter location from the FCC license. Often, you'll find the same frequency listed at more than one location, because the city, county, etc, uses repeaters to ensure better signal coverage over their jurisdiction.

The frequencies shown on the database page for that county are the ones that have been reported with the use listed, i.e.460.1250 is used for Box Butte County Sheriff.
The other frequencies are mostly licensed to the same agencies (such as county or city), but nobody has submitted details as to how they are used, if, in fact, they are being used at this time.

You might want to program them in to see if they are being used. What I do for similar situaltions is put the frequency in a group with the city, county, or whoever, I think is using it, then make the channel text tag the frequency.

For example, take license call sign KNIW862, for the City of Alliance. The only listing on the database page for the county is 453.0500, and it's input, 458.0500, used for Fire Dept. But they also have 453.4000 & 453.5250 (plus the repeater inputs 458.4000 & 458.5250). Could one of them be used as an additional fire channel, like fireground? Or maybe they are used for public works, parks, water dept, who knows. Throw them in the scanner & see. When I'm trying out new frequencies, I carry a small notepad to capture results.

The state patrol will be another conventional system. I would set it up by troops, then identify the towers with text tags. Looks like they reuse some of the same frequencies, just use differing PL/CTCSS tones or DCS codes.

One suggestion: Make the modulation FM for these rather than the default "Auto". Auto in the 396 seems to really be 'narrow FM' (FMN) rather than true FM, and sensitivity suffers some.

 

[ozztheozz]

Thanks for the reply I really appreciate it.

Thanks
Randy