need help with BCT8

[Hemipwr07]

well i give up lol. ive been reading and going over the manual until my eyes hurt and have been searching around on here and have found some great info...i just cant get it. im very new to this and its just going to take some time i suppose. i wanted to start off just scanning and not worrying about trunk tracking for now until i get better accustomed to using my scanner. i just want to sit there and listen to the local cops and fire/ems for now. my first problem is programming my unit. i looked at these....Scanner Frequencies: Loudoun County Trunking System, Ashburn, Virginia, Loudoun County, Virginia (VA) Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference

and tried to program in the frequencies mainly for the Purcellville police but it just gives me an error message for the frequency. and all the other info on those pages just confuse me even more. but im sure its important

so my next approach was to use the svc button and scan the police and ems/fire channels and all the channels it stops on are just static. so i continue the scan and it just lands on another static channel. i adjusted the squeltch for a better signal..nothing just less static channels to listen to. i dont know what going on. do i need to start trunk tracking sooner than i thought? any help or advice on how to get started would be greatly appreciated. thanks alot guys

 

[rvictor]

The first URL that you included in your post describes a trunked system, so you will have to get involved in trunking to hear that one. The other one shows various conventional frequencies and you should be able to listen to them if you are in range, by merely entering the frequencies that you want to listen to. What type of error message are you getting and at what stage of the process does that message appear?

Dick

 

[ka3jjz]

Another point here- Loudoun's trunk system has digital (with some encryption) talkgroups. While nothing will handle the encrypted stuff, the BCT8 will not handle the digital trunk. You will need a digital trunktracker for this system. The conventional stuff should be OK on the BCT8, but it will not handle DPLs (I see one or two freqs that have them...). See the blue link above for more.

73 Mike

 

[Hemipwr07]

hmm..well that would explain why i may not be hearing as much as i was thinking that i would. ill check into that link though.

The first URL that you included in your post describes a trunked system, so you will have to get involved in trunking to hear that one. The other one shows various conventional frequencies and you should be able to listen to them if you are in range, by merely entering the frequencies that you want to listen to. What type of error message are you getting and at what stage of the process does that message appear?

Dick

im getting an error message when i manually type in the Purcellville police frequency (460.0375) and enter it in it beeps and gives me an error message. the manual says that it will do that when the frequency does not exist or something like that? they must have changed it or something not sure. will keep researching. but thanks for this info fellas