New to Race Scanners

[Typod]

Hey, I just picked up my first radio today (Uniden BC125AT) so I can listen in to driver radios at IndyCar and NASCAR races. I found it easy to program with my PC, but I don't fully understand all the info I need to program, namely the CTCSS/DCS tone codes. The first IndyCar list I found didn't include any, just the frequencies, so that's all I programmed. However, another list I found had all of their tone codes, so I added those. Then I added all the NASCAR frequencies, but I can't find any tone codes for them. Are they necessary? And if they are, but I don't have them, what should I program it to, "search", "off", "no tone"???

Finally, like I said, I'm very new to all of this. If there's anything I might need to know before I hit Talladega this weekend, I'd be very happy to be educated. lol

 

[racingfan360]

Welcome to the forum. In simple terms, you likely wont need to worry about adding the CTCSS/DCS tones. If you don't know them, program your 125 to 'Search' for them.

The detail:
Adding CTCSS/DCS tones to a frequency makes the scanner more 'selective' in what it hears (not to be confused with improving the selectivity of a radio). So if you add a CTCSS/DCS tone to a frequency, the squelch will only open when it receives a signal that matches BOTH the frequency and the tone. Programming a channel without the CTCSS/DCS tone means you hear EVERYTHING on that frequency. Adding CTCSS/DCS tones doesn't mean you hear more, in fact you sometimes hear less - and done right you'll hear less of what you don't want to hear.

Adding a known CTCSS/DCS is really helpful when (1) there are multiple users on the same frequency with different tones and you only want to hear ONE of them (ie you match the CTCSS/DCS tone to the ONE you want to hear and therefore exclude who you don't). The (2) scenario is when there is noise on the frequency and again you want to use the CTCSS/DCS tone to only hear a desired signal and not this noise.

The downside of adding a CTCSS/DCS tone is when you program in the wrong one, or when multiple legitimate CTCSS/DCS tones are in use. Some racing teams often use one CTCSS/DCS tone for the car channel and different tone for the pitcrew channel. If you only set one tone you only hear that bit, miss the rest.

Personally I will always program my scanners to be able search tones each time. Search will tell me the actual CTCSS/DCS tone or tones in use. If I need to set the specific CTCSS/DCS tone to exclude noise or unwanted signals at least I know what I'm excluding each time. When the Frequency/CTCSS/DCS tone combo is stable, I often add an entry 3 times: Freq+Tone1 for Car Channel, Freq+Tone2 for Pitcrew Channel, Freq+Tone Search for anything else.

 

[Typod]

Welcome to the forum. In simple terms, you likely wont need to worry about adding the CTCSS/DCS tones. If you don't know them, program your 125 to 'Search' for them.

The detail:
Adding CTCSS/DCS tones to a frequency makes the scanner more 'selective' in what it hears (not to be confused with improving the selectivity of a radio). So if you add a CTCSS/DCS tone to a frequency, the squelch will only open when it receives a signal that matches BOTH the frequency and the tone. Programming a channel without the CTCSS/DCS tone means you hear EVERYTHING on that frequency. Adding CTCSS/DCS tones doesn't mean you hear more, in fact you sometimes hear less - and done right you'll hear less of what you don't want to hear.

Adding a known CTCSS/DCS is really helpful when (1) there are multiple users on the same frequency with different tones and you only want to hear ONE of them (ie you match the CTCSS/DCS tone to the ONE you want to hear and therefore exclude who you don't). The (2) scenario is when there is noise on the frequency and again you want to use the CTCSS/DCS tone to only hear a desired signal and not this noise.

The downside of adding a CTCSS/DCS tone is when you program in the wrong one, or when multiple legitimate CTCSS/DCS tones are in use. Some racing teams often use one CTCSS/DCS tone for the car channel and different tone for the pitcrew channel. If you only set one tone you only hear that bit, miss the rest.

Personally I will always program my scanners to be able search tones each time. Search will tell me the actual CTCSS/DCS tone or tones in use. If I need to set the specific CTCSS/DCS tone to exclude noise or unwanted signals at least I know what I'm excluding each time. When the Frequency/CTCSS/DCS tone combo is stable, I often add an entry 3 times: Freq+Tone1 for Car Channel, Freq+Tone2 for Pitcrew Channel, Freq+Tone Search for anything else.

Extremely useful! Thank you very much for the detailed info, it helps tremendously! I think I'll set my channels to search for my first time out and see what they show, then dial it in like you suggest with the 2-3 channels per driver as needed. Definitely a learning curve, but this moves me up the line a few steps. Lol. Cheers!