Official BCD996T Post Release Thread

[UPMan]

It might slightly improve the scanning speed if you group conventional channels by band (less time required if the scanner doesn't have to switch between UHF, VHF, 800, VHF, 800 UHF and is instead VHF, VHF, UHF, 800, 800). However, I'd be quite surprised if you could actually detect a difference w/o using test equipment and millisecond-resolution timers.

 

[pointy]

Australian question for UPMan regarding Multi Site Trunking

Hello group, I have just received my UBC996T this week in Australia. I am somewhat confused about the Multi Site Trunking feature.

Now as I understand it....on the 396 if I had all control channels for a system in one bank, the scanner would stop on the first available CC that is comes across and stays on it regardless of signal strength, to stop this happening I would have to have each CC in its own bank of one CC...........is this correct?

Now, with the new 996 I presume I set up a system, say quick key 1, set up all the parametres for base/offset, then add new sites containing only 1 CC per site and the base/offsets........then keep adding additional sites as described until I have the entire system sites in quick key 1......................still with me???......Good.

OK.....I now push SCAN and the 996 checks EVERY CC in that system as programmed or does it do what it does with the 396?

OR do I have to set up SQK 2 with another site with a CC, SQK 3 with another site with a CC.......and on and on................

Sorry if I am a bit confused but I would really love the radio to check each CC from each site in 1 system. Thank You.
Greg.

 

[Schnoor1648]

Wow, the Australian UBC996 is out already? UPMan, will the trunking features of the UBC996 work in the US and/or will the BC996 work in Europe and Australia or is the trunking protocol different?

 

[Jay911]

Pointy, your description of the 396's behavior is spot-on.

I use UASD for programming my 996; if you do, too, you'll see that if you get into a trunk system, you will have, rather than an option for entering system frequencies, an option for entering sites. Within that, you get a spreadsheet-like array where you can enter multiple sites' frequencies. Each site can be considered like a separate system in the 396 way of doing things (or, as you put it, its own bank). The system will scan every unlocked site (which can be locked/unlocked separately, or by GPS automatically) when you press Scan. The 996 will check each CC from each site in 1 system, and works quite well where I am (where I have a six-site Smartzone system in use).

 

[tede911]

Q: Split one GPS device to TWO gps-capable scanners?

I hadn't even considered utilizing the GPS features of the 996/15s until I saw the price on the previously mentioned Garmin unit. I am going to install two BCT15s in my truck and I'm wondering if it is technologically possible to connect one such GPS device to both radios at the same time (ie; via a Y-type splitter). Is such a splitter made and are there communications issues (between the GPS device and the scanners) that would prevent such a paired connection? Anyone?

I Just added the Garmin GPS18 PC OEM, $83 bucks at Amazon.com, and is PLUG-AND-PLAY with the Uniden 996T. Works great at turning my systems on and off as I drive from one valley to another here in So Cal.
I used my Garmin Mapsource route tool to figure out the center points of my radius. I got a little confused at the GPS formats at first as I was entering my POI's in DEG format, so I did the same format in my systems. Then I found that Systems MUST use DMS format. (in the Locations programmer you have a choice of 3 formats, however in the SYSTEMS programmer you do not)
I agree with the earlier posts, It would be nice to have 1 mile incriments for the radius.

Thanks UNIDEN and Paul! I love this scanner!

 

[STiMULi]

I hadn't even considered utilizing the GPS features of the 996/15s until I saw the price on the previously mentioned Garmin unit. I am going to install two BCT15s in my truck and I'm wondering if it is technologically possible to connect one such GPS device to both radios at the same time (ie; via a Y-type splitter). Is such a splitter made and are there communications issues (between the GPS device and the scanners) that would prevent such a paired connection? Anyone?

Check this thread out...

http://www.radioreference.com/forums/showthread.php?t=44086

It works!

 

[SCPD]

Has anyone considered actually building a GPS receiver into the 996 itself? I cannot see why it can't be done. I am no electronics wizz mind you, but I know you can get a GPS receiver the size of a coat button. Wire this into the unit, attached the data out to the rear serial socket, and add your own GPS antenna socket. I believe it could easily be done. I am just wondering who is going ot be the first to do it?

 

[UPMan]

Pointy:

I'm assuming the AUS version operates like the USA version (I don't have any direct involvement with development of scanners for markets other than US/Canada, so they could do some things differently that I would not be aware of).

The "Sites" in the scanner act like independant systems as far as going to the next control channel is concerned. Each site can have the same SQK or you can use different SQK's for different sites. The scanner will "dwell" on one site the amount of time you have set with the Site Hold parameter (but at least about 1.5 seconds), then move on to the next unlocked/enabled site and check its control channel.

 

[DaveIN]

Has anyone considered actually building a GPS receiver into the 996 itself? I cannot see why it can't be done. I am no electronics wizz mind you, but I know you can get a GPS receiver the size of a coat button. Wire this into the unit, attached the data out to the rear serial socket, and add your own GPS antenna socket. I believe it could easily be done. I am just wondering who is going ot be the first to do it?

Sure have, but the Garmin GPS18 PC OEM, ($83 bucks at Amazon.com), is PLUG-AND-PLAY with the Uniden 996T. Why put extra hardware in the radio when you can use this? You would still need an external antenna.

 

[pointy]

Thanks for the replies re the 996 in Australia. It helped me understand the Multi Site Trunking feature completely. Better go make up some lists!
Pointy.

 

[drsouth]

Hey Paul, just wondering what you and your guys' thoughts where on the resolution of the GPS range settings? Can we hope for an update that will help this?

 

[drsouth]

Kinda sorta sounds like a fix ought to be considered by the Uniden folks. Until they do, I got a couple of real off-the-wall ideas.

First, set your site up as 20 mile radius, but also turn the attenuator on. I see where that knocks off 20db. I don't have a clue what that translates into mileage why, but what the heck - nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Second, you might try to do some fooling. Re-set the lat-long of the centerpoint so that it is 5 miles away on the opposite side of the transmitter site.

That idea came to me as I was loading points of interest. There were certain interstate exits to take, but the choices of how far ahead to alert were limited. I wanted a 5 minute heads up before a turn. So I just set the point of interest about 5 miles farther away. So instead of telling me I'm so close to an exit, its telling me I'm 5 miles away from the exit, which is what I wanted to know.

This might be trying to use a screwdriver as a chisel, but no matter how bad inflation gets, you can still use a dime for a screwdriver.

Thanks for the ideas ofd8001, but unfortunately attenuating the signal just isn't a good way for me to go. Out and about in the marshlands, it had a pretty good result... But as soon as I got within the range of towns and business areas, I found that I was without signal and "NFM" on the screen more than anything, so the ATT is out...

I tried changing the geo coordinates of the sites, let me say that at first this was even more of a headache, I found the 996 searching several sites it just couldn't "hear" and then, it hit me.

Your idea DOES have a very good "fix" to it, in that if you consider trial by error reading of signal strengths and plotting this out. (I don't recommend, can be very aggravating to do while driving) but, I created a mini system within a system.

In other words, one cell site system, repeated about 5 times in smaller radius can help this problem out. As a result, my 61 tower smartnet system now has approx 392 sites within the system.

It's pretty funny watching the 996 L/O the same site about 3 or 4 times on a stretch of road, but it definitely helped out with being 18 miles away from the tower, and having the scanner lock onto a scratchy weak signal, when you're only 7 miles away from another tower which is booming with clean clear audio.

Ideally, I wish and hope for the ability to set the radius more efficiently instead of adding 5 or 6 3mile overlapping duplicate sites for the same tower.

 

[CrewRest]

External Speaker and Internal Speaker In-Op

Has anyone else had this problem? Just today, the external speaker output and the internal speaker audio quit. The front headphones output works fine.

Any ideas before I send it back for service?

Doug Anderson
KG4QCR

Oh yeah, it's a mobile installation.

 

[BOBRR]

Multi-Site Trunking ?

Hello:

Making good progress, and want to say thanks again for all the help.
Really appreciate it.

Would like to ask a question regarding "Multi-Site Trunking," which I realize
I don't understand.
I'm going to use my age (in the 70's) as an excuse for sounding so dumb with this.
But, it's a great hobby for me now, and I do want to understand things.

I would like to use the System "MA SP Statewide" as an example
I believe that this is one of Uniden's pre-loaded Systems

It has 21 Sites, and 4 Groups with the Talk Group ID's in them

I have the same Quick Key number for all of the Sites.

I want to scan everything.

Questions:

a. In the System settings options where it has "ID SCAN/SEARCH", do I want to select and use "Scan" or "Search" ? Seems to have been supplied with SEARCH as the default.

I know this has been addressed before, but frankly this still confuses me; can I ask why Search rather than Scan ? What would happen if i used Scan here ?

When, or for what modes, would the other choice be normally selected ?

b. Here's my multi-site trunking question:

Am I correct that since each site has the same quick key number assigned, that when I press this quick key it will go thru all 21 sites, AND look at (and use) all the Talkgroups in all the 4 Groups ? Is this what is meant by multi-site trunking ?

c. I see that CC-Only mode came set to ON for all the 21 Sites.

When it is set to ON, is what happens that it uses the CC frequencies for each Site, and also the talkgroup ID Name text for the display, IF it finds a talkgroup listed in any of the 4 Groups ?

If there is no talkgroup listed in the Group tabulations, but one is being used at the particular time, what happens ? (does the multisite tracking feature, therefore, have any significance if CC-Only mode is On ?)

Any discourses on any of this would be most appreciated.

Thanks,
Bob

 

[clayman]

For those of you who have 2 GPS capable scanners in your vehicle, I picked up a Trimble Crosscheck GPS unit from a guy on Ebay that has 2 outputs and works great. It was cheaper than 2 Garmin 18's, and he had it all configured to work with the 996 & BCT15. It came with a mag mount ext antenna and power cable, etc. Just passing it along, no affiliation, just a happy camper.
Clayton

 

[Junior08]

Bob,

I would advise you simplify things for scanning the MSP system. If your in Boston your best bet would be zone 5. You can find the control channel, more than likely 860.9875 or 860.9625. Try to hold on one of these channels. If your hearing the buzzsaw like sound, you found the control channel. I would stay with this zone for now, and maybe lock out the other control channels for the other zones.

When you have done this just hit SCAN. Now, if you are in ID SEARCH it will stop on any talkgroup affiliated with zone 5. If you only want to monitor specific talkgroups you can lock them out as needed when they are active. ID SCAN will scan only the groups you have selected to monitor.

 

[UPMan]

Bob:

a. ID SCAN: the scanner only monitors TGID's you have programmed into channels in that system.
ID SEARCH: The scanner monitors any TGID that becomes active on the system that you have not locked out.

b. Assuming none of the sites are locked out, the scanner will scan the first site's frequencies until it detects a control channel. Then it will hold on the control channel for about 1 second and compare each TGID as it becomes active on the system to the channels you have stored (see (a) above for how it handles active channels). Then, it does the same for the next site, then the next, etc. If you are out of range for a site, then the scanner very quickly checks each freq and, since it won't rx a control channel for that site, it will immediately move on to the next site.

c. CC Only mode simply means that you do not have to program in any frequencies other than the Control Channel primary and alternates. When the scanner sees data on the control channel that tells it a TGID has become active, it uses information in the control channel data to calculate the frequency assigned to the TGID and goes to that frequency, even if you haven't programmed the frequency into the site. If you turn CC Only off, then the scanner checks to be sure that the calculated frequency matches a frequency you have stored for the site...if none of the frequencies match, then it assumes a data error and remains on the control channel.

 

[rbushman]

Hi, I am trying to setup a BCD996T to scan Martin County MOT Astro II trunked system. I found a radioreference site that lists control freq's and TGID's and entered these into the scanner. All I can hear is the buzzing on these freq's but no talk groups work. I think I am close but need help to make this work.. Thanks

 

[rbushman]

Martin County MOT ASTRO II system.

Oh by the way this is a 4 tower simulcast system. http://radioreference.com/modules.php?name=RR&sid=2322

Thanks again forany help...

 

[offsite]

New 996T Setup for RCS SanDiego / 001 South Zone

Picked up unit yesterday to monitor San Diego RCS APCO-25 system.

Gave up trying to set up unit manually about 12:30 am last night... no signals received.

Started fresh this morning and discovered the problem (thanks to ARC996 Pro prerelease).

Seems SYSTEM can be APCO-25, while SITE cannot be APCO-25... works when set to MII 800MHz Splinter !

Seems to be working ok now... but....

1. P25 adjust steps from Scott don't work with my unit... display not what expected. [EDIT: finally read whole thread... and this is addressed earlier... must set digital AGC to "ON" for this procedure] Here is the procedure:

http://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/AGC_Tweak_Procedure

2. Preloaded stuff took up so much room I couldn't upload a new system from ARC996
(out of frustration, finally dumped everything but 3 local systems... Site memory showed 100% before doing this, 2% after !!)

3. Digital channel sound is not particularly good... sort of like it is being carried on a laser beam gated by a high speed fan...
Is there some sort of fix for this issue (perhaps involving a combination of the AGC/P25 adjustments? [EDIT: just learned this is likely a signal strength issue... which I will address first before any more tweaking... ]

Thank you!

-offsite-

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Here's the RR spec for the area:

System Name: San Diego, County of (RCS - Public Safety)
Location: None, CA
County: 2 counties
System Type: Motorola Type II SmartZone
System Voice: Analog and APCO-25 Common Air Interface
Sysid: 470f
CT: 105.88
Uniden DSP: 0333 1985 3542
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PS: what is CT: and Uniden DSP?