Official BCD996T Post Release Thread

[STiMULi]

Both my 785 and my 996 came with power connectors (the coaxial ones) with the center pin WAY too close to the end of the insulating barrel, instead of slightly recessed as they should be. I have now fried both my pigtail AND my cig lighter plug after the center circuit contacted the case near the back-panel receptacle as I fumbled around to plug it in. (The antenna was already plugged in and supplied the DC circuit to ground on the case needed to pop the fuse.) In fact, I'm sitting in the Radio Shack parking lot right now going in to get a box of fuses... Arg. A recessed center contact would have eliminated this problem.

Same here I have fried 2 fuses for the same reason and lucky for me in the middle of BF Colorado I found a Radio Shack

 

[WX5JCH]

Vista bad news

Well the 996 software will not work on the new Vista OS without moving a file called BORLNDMM.DLL to the /system32 folder by hand. Seems to work fine from there.

Jim

 

[kma371]

How do you change the CTCSS for a freq without software?

On the 996, I entered a freq that I knew had a PL, I just didn't know what it was at the time. WHen I found it out, I went to add it to the channel and there is no option for that. You could do it on the 396. ANy plans to change that?

EDIT: WELL I ANSWERED MY OWN QUESTION, DIDNT THINK TO LOOK IN THE MANUAL OF ALL PLACES

YOU HAVE TO MAKE SURE THE "AUDIO TYPE" IS "ANALOG ONLY" JUST IN CASE ANYONE ELSE RUNS INTO THE SAME PROBLEM

 

[wm8s]

Which brings up another odd choice (perhaps dictated by hardware??) by the firmware programmers: You cannot do CTCSS/DCS Search in "All" modulation, only "Analog". So if you don't know whether a channel is analog or digital, you have to either give up CTCSS/DCS searching (by setting modulation to "All") or give up digital decoding (by setting modulation to "Analog", thereby enabling CTCSS/DCS searching).

...R

 

[osiris]

just got my 996

Well I finally got the money together & ordered mine. I ordered it on Wednesday from USASCAN & had it Friday.(Just a side note-I found out when I orered it that the UPS p/up at USACAN is 7:00 A.M.) So if you order it at midday it actually doen't go out 'til the following day,just in case you're wondering.
Enough meandering. I have been playing with the radio for two days & am still finding things I like. I have a 246T, so I awas already familiar with Dynamic Memory. This takes it to the next level.
A few things I liked about the 246T I'm glad to see carried over & improved upon in the 996T.
1. Per channel tone search.My BC785D was either tone search or tone squelch,this a BIG improvement because you know the channel name & are only searching for the tone.(You just have to make sure the right agency is speaking.) With the 785 if you were in scan mode the radio might be on some other agency of the same freq -then you had to write down the tone & find the other channel.
2. Instant weather channel access (without going thru the menu).
3. Temporary L/out because I get interference in some areas, but not others. When you power up again the L/outs are unlocked.
4. Backlite color choices and levels of briteness.
5. Per channel analog or digital only mode.
There are more, which I will write down & comment on later.
To Paul and all at Uniden who had anything to do with this radio my hat is off to you--this is one awesome scanner. And as someone else said in this forum, this makes scanning fun again!!!!!
To the person asking about tone search on digital systems,I don't believe any digital systems use tones. They are by nature not in need of a tone.
Thanks agian Paul & Uniden.
Bob Findlay

 

[wm8s]

To the person asking about tone search on digital systems,I don't believe any digital systems use tones. They are by nature not in need of a tone.
Thanks agian Paul & Uniden.
Bob Findlay

I think you missed my point. If you don't know in advance whether a system is digital or analog (as in when you're programming an area you don't have solid info on), you can't have both digital demodulation and CTCSS/DCS search. If you select "All" or "Digital" (the only options that allow digital demodulation), then you can't have CTCSS/DCS search if the system turns out to be analog. If you select "Analog" (the only way to do CTCSS/DCS searching), then you can't demodulate the system if it turns out to be digital.

No big deal, esp. given the few digital systems around; I just use "Analog / Search" and play the odds. I was just wondering why the firmware was that way.

...R

 

[STiMULi]

I agree with you. This is a Catch 22. We have a series of conventional channels that use both Digital and Analog. The Analog side does in fact use PL tones.

For me it is not a problem (yet) because the the quality of the radio and the lack of interference.

It did bug me that I could not program both.

 

[UPMan]

If you don't mind using 2 channels, you can program both (one as analog only and one as digital).

 

[FlashP]

Mixed mode

Around here, many of the repeaters are set up as "mixed mode", where they will operate with both CTCSS and NAC. A channel on the users' radios can be programmed to receive digital-only, analog-only, or both. Sure seems like the scanner 'tone squelch' option should mirror the H/T programming, something like:

1 CTCSS
2 DCS
3 P25
4 OFF

where 3 can be selected in addition to (1 or 2), and the P25 selection brings up

1 ANY P25 (same as NAC=7fe)
2 NAC (specific user-selected NAC)
3 REJECT

Maybe as more agencies cut over, the usefulness of this will become more apparent.

Flash

 

[STiMULi]

If you don't mind using 2 channels, you can program both (one as analog only and one as digital).

You have a point there...

With 6000 channels why worry!?

One would cancel out the other and there would be no conflict except you would have the same freq programmed twice which is likely anyway.

Then that is what I will do!

 

[wm8s]

With 6000 channels why worry!?

I worry

I have programmed >10,000 channels in all my 200-odd systems (every radio system that I know of in all of WV [55 counties, plus statewide stuff], plus the statwide and counties that touch WV [another couple dozen in KY, OH, PA, MD, and VA], plus the regional and "national", i.e., non-localized, stuff like the National Interoperability channels, etc.). When I program my scanner, I have one configuration with all of the systems, and then I tick off systems I don't want at the moment until I get down to <6K channels, then I program.

Which brings up a limitation in UASD. I'd like to have several Configurations, differing only by their System sets (say, one for when I travel north and one for when I travel south). But there is no way to keep the other configuration-specific features (like search ranges and lockouts, broadcast screens, etc.) automatically synchronized. I will likely write myself some code to recreate my Configuration files by taking a "template" one with the non-system stuff and adding to it various system sets.

...R

 

[STiMULi]

I worry

I have programmed >10,000 channels in all my 200-odd systems (every radio system that I know of in all of WV [55 counties, plus statewide stuff], plus the statwide and counties that touch WV

I guess you need to buy more scanners then...

 

[wm8s]

I guess you need to buy more scanners then...

There's one in every crowd ;^) If I had another $600, I might take you up on that!

Now let's see... everyone has "interpreted" systems, lockouts, quickkeys, groupkeys, startup keys, all differently... how would we interpret multiple scanners? One channel for north, one for south? One for mobile, one for base? One for public safety, one for commercial? And will they network with each other? Say, when one scanner stops on a channel, the other one will skip that channel and move on? Time for the BCD996T-Ethernet edition.

...R

 

[ofd8001]

My suggestion is along your lines, as I have the same predicament. One configuration for home another for vacation. I created the first one, then saved it as "home". I then saved "home" as "vacation". After that, I went into vacation, and deleted systems I didn't want, and added those I did. All the other stuff is the same.

 

[ofd8001]

Programming only the control channel in a P25 system is a good thing. However I'm wondering if there is a downside to program all channels for a P25 system. That's as in it may take a little longer to scan one system before going to the next.

As to the "why?" question - I've been in the fire service for 32 years. I regularly see stuff go wrong, and things happen that people thought would never happen. With that in mind, I can see where a wrong channel is listed as a control channel, or something happens and the control channels were changed.

When on vacation, I don't want to have to do scanner re-programming if that happens. I'd just as soon do it when I have more time.

Thanks!

 

[WB6AJE]

I'm going to write software for the 996T (have already for the 796D), but, can you easily go to a channel with the 996 with a channel number?? (I just ordered the unit so I haven't experimented yet) With the 796, I know that a fire freq is on channel 100. so on the keypad I hit 100 then HOLD. On the 996T, how do I do that??

Thanks
John Bush
RemScan products

 

[epbernstein]

Weather Alerts

Is there a way to adjust the volume of, or even disable, the weather alert siren on the 996? It went off right next to me a few minutes ago and scared the bejeepers out of me. More importantly, it almost awakened the wife and kids.

The siren is great for waking someone up in the middle of the night, or when a person is in another room. In the same room, it's intolerable...

 

[wm8s]

I'm going to write software for the 996T (have already for the 796D), but, can you easily go to a channel with the 996 with a channel number?? (I just ordered the unit so I haven't experimented yet) With the 796, I know that a fire freq is on channel 100. so on the keypad I hit 100 then HOLD. On the 996T, how do I do that??

The 996 uses an entirely different memory management model than the 796 (and AFAIK every other scanner [except the 396]). Although systems and channels do have a numeric address of sorts (associated with the memory block that they are in), it is entirely unknown to the user (and also AFAIK impossible to retrieve other than with software). So no, there is no [HOLD] 100 [HOLD] with the 996. You have to scroll to the system (which is as close to a bank as the scanner has) by dialing through them all, and then scroll to the channel by dialing through them all.

Although I understand the flexibility of dynamic memory usage, it sure was nice to be able to jump right to a particular channel without having to dial through a million systems and channels. It certainly will encourage you to make lots of very small systems. If you haven't, read through the programming protocol for the 996; it's helpful.

...R

 

[WB6AJE]

'GoTo' Memory of 996T

Thx for the reply wm8s. I'm hoping the software allows a 'Goto' as the 796D did. My News dept clients like the idea of clicking on a button called 'CHP' and having the radio go to that channel. Are you familiar with the protocol on the 996T? I downloaded it, but need the radio to be sure as to what it does on some of these commands. The [index] commands are new to me, so I'm hoping to be able to get what I need out of the radio. If not, I'm stuck with the 796D until they are no longer available. FYI, Uniden couldn't answer my question on this topic.

73s
John B
Remscan Products

 

[UPMan]

You can get an example of the commands sent to/from the scanner during PC programming by adding "log=yes" to the [MISC] section of the BCD996T_UASD.ini file. This will create a log in the program's directory (Program Files, not My Documents) when you use the software. Be sure to remove that line when you don't need a log file. It can slow down transfer.

Uniden releases the protocol on an as-is, no support basis.