I am new to the scanner world and purchased the bcd436hp after seeing that I just need to put in my zip code and go. I live in starke county Indiana and am putting in Knox zip code (46534) but am not picking up anything in starke county at all. I am picking up all services in the surrounding counties so I don’t think it is a settings issue. Am I missing something or is this scanner not going to work for my area? As I said I am new to this so any help understanding or resolving would be greatly appreciated. I am only interested in emergency services at this time.
BCD436HP/BCD536HP: Not picking up my county
- Thread starter cwa1982
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I haven't messed with zip code much. Make sure you have the Service Types enabled. Go to Main Menu > Select Service Types > Select what you want on or off.
hightime
Member
Look up Starke Co. in the Indiana data base. Note the tag in the last vertical row. Fire Tac, Law tac, Other, etc. Then go into sentinel the pull up edit profile, go to service types and make sure those are checked. I would check them all and when I decided what I did not want to hear, uncheck them. Up load to the radio. If they are already checked then I don't know
tvengr
Well Known Member
In the Radio Reference database, it shows conventional frequencies for Starke Co, but the only law enforcement is the Mounted Sheriff's Posse and Knox PD. It also says that talkgroups have been assigned on the Indiana Project Hoosier SAFE-T statewide system. I am going to ask in the Indiana forum if Sheriff and Fire have migrated over to the statewide system. I will create a favorites list that you can import into Sentinel that will contain only Starke Co Fire, Sheriff, and Indiana State Police.
In addition to what the other replies have noted, if you are going to use your location, via zip code, and the main database to listen, you need to update the database for the scanner. When shipped, the database for the scanner, as well as for the Sentinel software when first installed, will likely be months, if not years, out of date. Install Sentinel. Update the database, then write that to the scanner. With an updated database, you'll be more likely to get correct channels when using zip code and range. For Service types, as shipped, the only public safety service types enabled will be for Dispatch: Law Dispatch, Fire Dispatch, EMS Dispatch, and Multi Dispatch. You should also enable the Tac & Talk service types for those categories; i.e. Law Talk, Law Tac, Fore Talk, Fire Tac, etc.
As you get more accustomed to the scanner, you'll find that an area specific Favorites list for your area, as tvengr indicated he would create, would be a better way to monitor transmisions in your area.
The database and firmware were updated after receiving the scanner. I have updated the scanner database the last couple of weeks through sentinel. I have not yet messed with making a favorites list but definitely sounds like it will be my next step. The service types are correct as surrounding counties are coming through. I am going to check starke specifically to make sure they did not get switched off some how.
tvengr
Well Known Member
I haven't heard anything from the Indiana forum yet. I have completed the favorites list file for Starke Co on the statewide system. Here are the instructions for importing it into Sentinel. Save the attached zipped file to your computer in the Documents folder and extract. Go to the File tab and click on Import from hpe file (Favorites List). Click on New Favorites List. Name the file Public Safety and click OK. Find and highlight the extracted file (Public Safety) in the File Explorer. Click Open. Click OK that the file has been imported. You should now see the favorites list in Sentinel. Go to the Edit tab and click on Edit Favorites List. Highlight Public Safety and click OK. The Starke Co IN system should be displayed. Click on the Options tab and set the FL Quick Key to 0. Go to the File tab and click Save. Go to the File tab and click Exit. That will complete adding the favorites list to Sentinel. Let me know when that is completed. Next, I will give you instructions on creating a profile to send it to your scanner.
tvengr
Well Known Member
Here are the instructions for creating a profile. Go to the File tab and click on New. Name the profile (You can use your name. If you program for others, you can create personal profiles for them). Click OK. Go to the Edit tab and click on Edit Profile. At the top of the screen, if Monitor Full Database or Monitor Search With Scan has a check mark, click on the box to remove the check mark. You should see your favorites list (Public Safety). Click on Public Safety to highlight it (It should be the only favorites list). Above the Favorites List Name heading, you will see Monitor On/Off and Download On/Off. For Monitor, click On. That will turn on both Monitor and Download. If you would see another favorites list, highlight it. For Download, click Off. That will turn off both Monitor and Download. Click on X (upper right corner) to close the profile editor. At top of screen, you will see (Profile Name) Updated. Go to the File tab and click on Save. That is a very basic setup. You can edit the profile later to do things like personalize the opening screen on the scanner. I also create a profile for updating the database so that nothing is changed in the scanner when you write to it. We will work on that later. Let me know when you have finished with the profile. After that, I will go over writing to the scanner. We will be able to see what is on the statewide system for Starke Co. Also, there are 3 departments in the file (Starke Co Fire, Starke Co PD, and Indiana State Police. They are all assigned quick keys so that you can turn each one on and off individually. Another lesson on that later. As set up, the Starke Co IN system has quick key 0. You can add another 99 systems to the Public Safety favorites list and control each one with quick keys. That's enough for now.
Make sure, when entering a zip code, that you do not get an extra character or space in that field. If you are doing a copy & paste from a list of zip codes, it's easy to inadvertently get an unnoticed space when pasting into the field in your profile.
You're better off using Google Maps to look up your lat/lon coordinates, and then entering the coordinates into Sentinel (you'll have to switch to decimal coordinate format). They are part of the URL once you scroll or zoom the map display.
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