Need Help with Baltimore County TRS Programming of Uniden BCDx36HP Scanners

[K4EET]

It would normally appear within a second or two of acquiring a signal with the tower so there wouldn't be a need to have to watch the screen for long...

Well John, and for @tvengr too, I am learning some things from TVEngr's file that they kindly provided. There is definitely a difference in programming between my file and their file. I won't go in to the differences right now but with TVEngr's file loaded, I immediately started to receive transmissions. Then I was able to improve reception by changing the location of my indoor 800 MHz quarter-wave antenna which was selected mainly because of the AACo simulcast system reception challenges. As it turns out for Baltimore County, I believe a majority of reasons why I was not receiving anything was antenna location-location-location. The initial RSSI values as I recall were in the low 100s and now with the new antenna location (still an indoor 800 MHz quarter-wave) the RSSI values are now reaching the high 200s and low 300s.

One difference that @tvengr has in their file is they only put in the four frequencies that are assigned for use by the control channel. I have all thirty-two system frequencies in there so whenever the control channel lost lock due to a signal fade, the system had to potentially search a lot more frequencies to reacquire the control channel. Since I had a very low received signal, the system probably did a lot of hunting in my case based on my file construction. Between that and low signal levels, this is probably one reason I wasn't seeing "DAT" being indicated on the screen. Nothing was apparently being successfully decoded to begin with.

Now I have to find out when Kirk KC3PIT will be available to try out a new file for Baltimore County. I'll keep y'all posted. Thanks a million for getting us this far. I'll have to thoroughly scrutinize my file to see what all I have messed up in it.

73, Dave K4EET

 

[tvengr]

Hi Dave! Here is a list of the quick keys for the Baltimore Co MD file. It is optimized for firefighters. The zones are setup like the fire radios. I used a template directly from Baltimore County Fire. The numbers to the right of the divisions are the main talkgroups where you will hear command at an incident. If you hear dispatch tell units to respond on Tac 12, you can see that is in Zone B in the central division on their radios. If Zone B is busy with another incident, the units will be advised to respond on Tac 62 which is in Zone C in the central division on their radios. All of the Baltimore Co Police is on department quick key 9.

FAVORITES LIST QUICK KEY:

1. Baltimore Co MD

SYSTEM QUICK KEY:

0. Baltimore Co MD

DEPARTMENT QUICK KEYS:

0. Fire Zone-A Main

1. Fire Zone-B Cent Div 12

1. Fire Zone-C Cent Div 62

2. Fire Zone-D West Div 22

2. Fire Zone-E West Div 52

3. Fire Zone-F East Div 32

3. Fire Zone-G East Div 42

4. Fire Zone-H Overflow 72

4. Fire Zone-I Overflow 82

5. Fire Zone-J Northern 112

5. Fire Zone-K Northern 122

6. Fire Zone-L Medical/EMRC

7. Fire Zone-M Sta/Sta

8. Fire Zone-N Training

8. Fire Zone-V Interop

8. Fire Zone-Z Emerg Mgmt

9. Precinct-1 Wilkens

9. Precinct-2 Woodlawn

9. Precinct-3 Franklin

9. Precinct-4 Pikesville

9. Precinct-6 Towson

9. Precinct-7 Cockeysville

9. Precinct-8 Parkville

9. Precinct-9 White Marsh

9. Precinct-11 Essex

9. Precinct-12 North Point

9. Police RATT

 

[Dispatcher308]

Hi Dave! Here is a list of the quick keys for the Baltimore Co MD file. It is optimized for firefighters. The zones are setup like the fire radios. I used a template directly from Baltimore County Fire. The numbers to the right of the divisions are the main talkgroups where you will hear command at an incident. If you hear dispatch tell units to respond on Tac 12, you can see that is in Zone B in the central division on their radios. If Zone B is busy with another incident, the units will be advised to respond on Tac 62 which is in Zone C in the central division on their radios. All of the Baltimore Co Police is on department quick key 9.

FAVORITES LIST QUICK KEY:

1. Baltimore Co MD

SYSTEM QUICK KEY:

0. Baltimore Co MD

DEPARTMENT QUICK KEYS:

0. Fire Zone-A Main

1. Fire Zone-B Cent Div 12

1. Fire Zone-C Cent Div 62

2. Fire Zone-D West Div 22

2. Fire Zone-E West Div 52

3. Fire Zone-F East Div 32

3. Fire Zone-G East Div 42

4. Fire Zone-H Overflow 72

4. Fire Zone-I Overflow 82

5. Fire Zone-J Northern 112

5. Fire Zone-K Northern 122

6. Fire Zone-L Medical/EMRC

7. Fire Zone-M Sta/Sta

8. Fire Zone-N Training

8. Fire Zone-V Interop

8. Fire Zone-Z Emerg Mgmt

9. Precinct-1 Wilkens

9. Precinct-2 Woodlawn

9. Precinct-3 Franklin

9. Precinct-4 Pikesville

9. Precinct-6 Towson

9. Precinct-7 Cockeysville

9. Precinct-8 Parkville

9. Precinct-9 White Marsh

9. Precinct-11 Essex

9. Precinct-12 North Point

9. Police RATT

What happened to Central Ops, East Ops and West Ops, the most used talkgroups?
Dave yes, only use the 4 control channels, delete the remaining.

 

[K4EET]

Hi Dave! Here is a list of the quick keys for the Baltimore Co MD file.
<snip>

Thanks again! Thanks to you, I now have a working file. I was also able to figure out that I did not have a strong enough signal at the spot my indoor 800 MHz quarter-wave antenna was sitting at for the data to be decoded sufficiently. A little shuffling around of the antenna's location and voilà! The scanner comes alive! So I had two issues. Some programming and some signal strength. With everyone's help, I am now able to receive Baltimore County. Thanks again! Mission accomplished!

 

[K4EET]

What happened to Central Ops, East Ops and West Ops, the most used talkgroups?
Dave yes, only use the 4 control channels, delete the remaining.

The file from @tvengr has quite a few customizations. There are also a lot of talkgroups avoided that I saw. Now it is time to do our own customization. I just hope when I do mine, things don't go awry on me.

With respect to just having the four control channels, I didn't know that you could do that. Makes sense though. Just goes to show that yes, you can teach an old dog new tricks!

 

[tvengr]

What happened to Central Ops, East Ops and West Ops, the most used talkgroups?

The central divisional (ops) talkgroups are B1 and C1. The west divisional (ops) talkgroups are D1 and E1. The east divisional (ops) talkgroups are F1 and G1. Take a look at the file. They are in there exactly the same way as they are in the fire radios.
(Zone-B) B1=Central, B2=Main, B3=Tac 12
(Zone-C) C1=Central, C2=Main, C3=Tac 62
(Zone-D) D1=West, D2=Main, D3=Tac 22
(Zone-E) E1=West, E2=Main, E3=Tac 52
(Zone-F) F1=East, F2=Main, F3=Tac 32
(Zone-G) G1=East, G2=Main, G3=Tac 42

 

[tvengr]

There are also a lot of talkgroups avoided that I saw.

The talkgroups are avoided for a reason. In Zone-L, the divisional and tac talkgroups are avoided so that you only receive the EMRC talkgroups when scanning. If you go to Zone-L manual, all of the talkgroups are available just like in the fire radios. Likewise, there are divisional talkgroups in other zones you don't want when scanning, but they are available when manual. The quick keys are setup so that you can monitor only the selected division or divisions as well any other zones you wish to monitor. Let's say that you want to monitor only the central division and EMRC. You can turn off department quick keys 0,2,3,4,5,7,8, and 9 so that only 1 (Central Division) and 6 (Medical/EMRC) are enabled. If the talkgroups in Zone-L were not avoided, you would also receive, the west and east divisional talkgroups as well as West Tacs 22 and 52 and East Tacs 32 and 42 and also Tac 72. The avoids are there so that you can isolate exactly what you want to monitor.

 

[K4EET]

<snip> The avoids are there so that you can isolate exactly what you want to monitor.

You are a scanner programming architect genius! I have been lax in really learning the ins-n-outs of the whole shebang since all that I am really interested in is AACo Fire - North County operations and AACo Police - Western District. I keep the scanner on 24/7 and any more than that makes it too busy for me to comprehend as my MELAS Syndrome progresses. I rely on ProScan to neatly record the activity log. If and when I get a second Uniden BCD536HP scanner, I'll broaden the horizon and monitor a whole lot more while using a second instance of the @ProScan software. The second scanner would have multiple systems, both conventional and trunking, and I would probably want to hire you to come up with the best game plan to sort out a complicated mix. And when I say that you are a scanner programming architect genius, I truly mean that! No question about it...

Cheers! Dave K4EET

 

[tvengr]

If and when I get a second Uniden BCD536HP scanner

I would recommend a SDS200. You may run into simulcast issues when the new AA County P25 system comes online. The same programming file can be used for both the BCD536HP and SDS200. You just need to go to the Tools tab in Sentinel and select the BCDx36HP or SDS200 as the Target Model to have the applicable settings available for each scanner.

 

[K4EET]

I would recommend a SDS200. You may run into simulcast issues when the new AA County P25 system comes online. <snip>

My plan is to see what happens with my existing Uniden BCD536HP. With my 800 MHz quarter-wave indoor antenna and my proximity to one of the transmitter sites, I may be OK with the 536 model. Time will tell...

 

[tvengr]

My plan is to see what happens with my existing Uniden BCD536HP. With my 800 MHz quarter-wave indoor antenna and my proximity to one of the transmitter sites, I may be OK with the 536 model. Time will tell.

You have the advantage of having a BCD536HP to test how well it works with the new P25 system. At my location, the SDS100 and SDS200 are the only scanners that will work with the Baltimore County system. I have tried them all, including the 536, and they all fail miserably. I recently saw WA3TOY's thread in the General Scanning Discussion forum. Hopefully, the Baltimore County file will get him and KC3PIT n business also.

 

[maus92]

I have used a 536 on the state's FIRST system for the Anne Arundel simulcast site. It works for me in the Annapolis area, but then again their simulcast site has ~7 tower sites, whereas the new AACo P25 system has 22 sites in its simulcast cell - I can detect several providing coverage at my office, so I'm not confident that the 536 will work satisfactorily on the new system.

 

[K4EET]

<snip> the new AACo P25 system has 22 sites in its simulcast cell - I can detect several providing coverage at my office, so I'm not confident that the 536 will work satisfactorily on the new system.

It will be interesting to see the outcome. Somebody will have to do a thread to tabulate those Uniden BCDx36HPs that exist now and are working satisfactorily versus how they perform on the new system. I am "optimistically cautious" that I just might be pleasantly surprised.