The condition you are describing is related to the "system hold time" The lower the setting the more it blinks. If you set the hold time for example to 5 sec's you will notice the blink every 5 sec's . As far as I can tell it does not effect the normal scanning of the receiver.
Official BCD996T Post Release Thread
- Thread starter scannerfreak
- Start date
- Status
Opinion Requested
Your opinion please:
Minus the GPS feature and the mobile vs. handheld, radio to radio how much better is the 996 than the 396? Why?
Your opinion please:
Minus the GPS feature and the mobile vs. handheld, radio to radio how much better is the 996 than the 396? Why?
safetyobc
Member
hotdjdave said:
I love my BCD396T and wouldn't trade it straight up for a 996. Why? Portability! I take my 396 everywhere I go! That is the main reason I think it is better. However, it is missing one feature the 996 does have. Multi Site Trunking. MAN OH MAN if the 396 had that one feature, it would be perfect!
This is just my opinion. Some people would rather have a desktop or mobile scanner of the handheld. My personal preference is the handheld between these two models.
matt
jafo69
Member
hi, recently bought a bearcat996t, i had a bc100xlt. sometimes it feels like i over bought, this thing is pretty complicated, but i bought to last me many years. any help/downloads for the braintree massachusetts norfolk county area would be appreciated. thanks.
jafo69 said:
Wow! That is a big jump in technology, but if you can work a computer or program a VCR/CDR recorder, then you can work the 996, it just takes getting beyond banks and channels and understanding systems/groups/channels.
Take a look at this: http://www.grove-ent.com/SCANNERPROGRAMMING.htm
Did you try any of the preprogrammed systems in the radio on page 147 of the owners manual? Also try posting in the State forums you want information for. Someone may have the system files you need.
jafo69 said:
I highly recommend you purchase Butel ARC 996 programming software for the scanner. It's worth every penny. Once you do that you have more choices available to help with programming. If you are a contributing member of this site you can import frequencies from the database into the software and load them into the scanner.
Another option is to purchase the programming software, then check out www.scancapecod.us. You will see a forum for software files. We have PLENTY of files ready there for you as well. Software can be purchased at www.butel.nl or www.scannermaster.com. Enjoy!
This link will bring you to the messageboard page. Scroll down to software files.
http://www.scancapecod.us/messageboard/
http://www.scancapecod.us/messageboard/
Before you purchase the Arc996 program, you could try downloading the free Uniden 996 UASD program: http://www.uniden.com/index/downloads.cfm?product=BCD996T to get you going.
- Joined
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Systems I cannot program into my BC996T
Can someone please help with this ?
The following systems will not track in my scanner.
I may not be setting them up right.
I have not been able to decode a digital signal yet with this scanner.
System one is US Millitary Academy
http://www.radioreference.com/modules.php?name=RR&sid=4496
Please see this thread
http://www.radioreference.com/forums/showthread.php?t=58816
System two is
Federal Correctional Institution Otisville System
US > New York > Orange County System Information Last Updated on 07-15-2004 23:38
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
System Name: Federal Correctional Institution Otisville
Location: Otisville, NY
County: Orange
System Type: Motorola Type II SmartZone
System Voice: Analog and APCO-25 Common Air Interface
Sysid: A826
CT: 105.88
Last Updated: Updated General System Info
Hits: 847
Custom Frequency Table
1
Base: 407.0125
Spacing: 12.5
Offset: 380
System Frequencies
Red* are Primary Control Channels, Blue* are alternate control channels
Site Description Freqs
001 Primary 407.01250 408.01250* 408.81250* 409.41250* 410.01250
System Talkgroups
No talkgroups available for this system. Please help by submitting info here
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I am using the Butel software.
I have download both systems thru the RR data base.
Neither system will track with the BC996t.
Both systems work fine with the Radio Shack Pro 2096.
Any Ideas ? Is anyone able to track either of these systems with a 996t or 396t scanner.
Can someone email a correct file if you have it.
Could it be the radio ? Radio is a week old.
Thank You for any and all replies.
Can someone please help with this ?
The following systems will not track in my scanner.
I may not be setting them up right.
I have not been able to decode a digital signal yet with this scanner.
System one is US Millitary Academy
http://www.radioreference.com/modules.php?name=RR&sid=4496
Please see this thread
http://www.radioreference.com/forums/showthread.php?t=58816
System two is
Federal Correctional Institution Otisville System
US > New York > Orange County System Information Last Updated on 07-15-2004 23:38
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
System Name: Federal Correctional Institution Otisville
Location: Otisville, NY
County: Orange
System Type: Motorola Type II SmartZone
System Voice: Analog and APCO-25 Common Air Interface
Sysid: A826
CT: 105.88
Last Updated: Updated General System Info
Hits: 847
Custom Frequency Table
1
Base: 407.0125
Spacing: 12.5
Offset: 380
System Frequencies
Red* are Primary Control Channels, Blue* are alternate control channels
Site Description Freqs
001 Primary 407.01250 408.01250* 408.81250* 409.41250* 410.01250
System Talkgroups
No talkgroups available for this system. Please help by submitting info here
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I am using the Butel software.
I have download both systems thru the RR data base.
Neither system will track with the BC996t.
Both systems work fine with the Radio Shack Pro 2096.
Any Ideas ? Is anyone able to track either of these systems with a 996t or 396t scanner.
Can someone email a correct file if you have it.
Could it be the radio ? Radio is a week old.
Thank You for any and all replies.
It looks like your post was answered. Uniden has yet to release a firmware to cover the problem you mentioned:
http://www.radioreference.com/forums/showpost.php?p=441052&postcount=5
http://www.radioreference.com/forums/showpost.php?p=441052&postcount=5
jafo69
Member
junior17172003 said:
thanks for the info!
Great! Did you send your updates to the database admin?
GPS And Conventional Systems
Hello Everyone!
Great thread. Getting long though! Took me 3 hours to read through this all.
My question....I'd like to program the various cities around me, and as I drive I would like the 996T to turn the cities public safety's off (when I'm out of that cities border), and likewise on when I'm in a particular city.
On my 246T, I have various cities - programmed as groups - and the groups programmed under a System.
Can I do the same thing with my 996T and assign a group (in this case a city) a GPS co-ordinate and a range of reception? What I have in mind is the following.....
System: Home Area
Group 1: City of Berkley (GPS LAT xxxx.xxxx/Lon xxxx.xxxxx; Range 2 mi)
PD - xxx.xxxx
FD - xxx.xxxx
Group 2: City of Royal Oak (GPS LAT xxxx.xxxx/Lon xxxx.xxxxx; Range 2 mi)
PD - xxx.xxxx
FD - xxx.xxxx
System: Work Area
Group 1: City of Troy (GPS LAT xxxx.xxxx/Lon xxxx.xxxxx; Range 4 mi)
PD - xxx.xxxx
FD - xxx.xxxx
Mall - xxx.xxxx
Group 2: Rochester Hills (GPS LAT xxxx.xxxx/Lon xxxx.xxxxx; Range 4 mi)
PD - xxx.xxxx
FD - xxx.xxxx
And from playing with ARC996T (My new 996T arrives this week), it seems that I need to modify the above so that a city itself must become a system in order to assign GPS coordinates and a range of reception.....is this right??? So now I must have.....
System 1: City of Royal Oak (GPS LAT xxxx.xxxx/Lon xxxx.xxxxx; Range 2 mi)
Group 1: Police Department
PD - CartoCar xxx.xxxx
PD - Dispatch xxx.xxxx
Group 2: Fire Department
FD - Dispatch xxx.xxxx
FD - Tac xxx.xxxx
Group 3: Beaumont Hospital
Sec1 - xxx.xxxxx
K9 unit - xxxx.xxxx
System 2: City of Troy (GPS LAT xxxx.xxxx/Lon xxxx.xxxxx; Range 4 mi)
Group 1: Police Department
PD - xxxx.xxxxx
Group 2: City Services
DPW - xxx.xxxxx
System 3: You get the idea.....
Do I have to change to the above inorder to turn cities on and off via GPS?
PS I think I'm guilty of something...when it comes to the memory allocation on my 246T!
Hello Everyone!
Great thread. Getting long though! Took me 3 hours to read through this all.
My question....I'd like to program the various cities around me, and as I drive I would like the 996T to turn the cities public safety's off (when I'm out of that cities border), and likewise on when I'm in a particular city.
On my 246T, I have various cities - programmed as groups - and the groups programmed under a System.
Can I do the same thing with my 996T and assign a group (in this case a city) a GPS co-ordinate and a range of reception? What I have in mind is the following.....
System: Home Area
Group 1: City of Berkley (GPS LAT xxxx.xxxx/Lon xxxx.xxxxx; Range 2 mi)
PD - xxx.xxxx
FD - xxx.xxxx
Group 2: City of Royal Oak (GPS LAT xxxx.xxxx/Lon xxxx.xxxxx; Range 2 mi)
PD - xxx.xxxx
FD - xxx.xxxx
System: Work Area
Group 1: City of Troy (GPS LAT xxxx.xxxx/Lon xxxx.xxxxx; Range 4 mi)
PD - xxx.xxxx
FD - xxx.xxxx
Mall - xxx.xxxx
Group 2: Rochester Hills (GPS LAT xxxx.xxxx/Lon xxxx.xxxxx; Range 4 mi)
PD - xxx.xxxx
FD - xxx.xxxx
And from playing with ARC996T (My new 996T arrives this week), it seems that I need to modify the above so that a city itself must become a system in order to assign GPS coordinates and a range of reception.....is this right??? So now I must have.....
System 1: City of Royal Oak (GPS LAT xxxx.xxxx/Lon xxxx.xxxxx; Range 2 mi)
Group 1: Police Department
PD - CartoCar xxx.xxxx
PD - Dispatch xxx.xxxx
Group 2: Fire Department
FD - Dispatch xxx.xxxx
FD - Tac xxx.xxxx
Group 3: Beaumont Hospital
Sec1 - xxx.xxxxx
K9 unit - xxxx.xxxx
System 2: City of Troy (GPS LAT xxxx.xxxx/Lon xxxx.xxxxx; Range 4 mi)
Group 1: Police Department
PD - xxxx.xxxxx
Group 2: City Services
DPW - xxx.xxxxx
System 3: You get the idea.....
Do I have to change to the above inorder to turn cities on and off via GPS?
PS I think I'm guilty of something...when it comes to the memory allocation on my 246T!
If you are thinking of getting the 996 and live in an RF dense area (mainly VHF) then you may want to think twice.
I live a fairly small town and my radio is completly useless for Vhf monitoring. I don't even bother turning on the banks that contain Vhf freqs. It's an outstanding digital Uhf and 800 trunked receiver but Vhf is horrid. I like to monitor and search for Fed traffic in the Vhf 160-174 range. I was hoping to put the powerful search and digital features to use but I ended up resorting to the 2096 even though it doesn't have the propper 12.5 channel steps in that range.
A 158.100 Vhf pager tower just swamps the receiver. Even when the 158.100 frequency is silent the receiver is useless if two transmitters are going at once. Here's the details of the environment mine is operating in for comparison.
158.100 Vhf pager tower, unknown distance but very strong
155.055 transmitter at about 40 watts, 4 bay folded dipole, 75 feet
154.755 transmitter 3 miles away, 100 watts ~ 150 foot tower, approx.
155.835 transmitter 3 miles away on the same tower same power output
156.150 transmitter, 1 mile away, 25 watts, yagi pointing my direction feeding the input to 154.755.
When the 156.150 input transmitter link fires up causing the 154.755 repeater to go active at the same time 155.055 is going I get nothing but the current weather conditions in ear splitting distortion from a 162.425 transmitter that's over 30 + miles away.
The radio is connected to a radio shack discone at 30 feet and fed with Andrew 1/4 hardline.
I am very disappointed. I recently talked with someone that had almost the same exact issues I am having. He bought a PAR 158.100 Mhz filter for his and it still didn't aleviate the problems he was experiencing.
As for the BC780XLT and PRO-2096, they hum along just fine. The good old 780 seems to be the best for Vhf. It sucks at 800.
If it wasn't for 700 Mhz trunking I would have passed on the 996 had I known what I know now.
I live a fairly small town and my radio is completly useless for Vhf monitoring. I don't even bother turning on the banks that contain Vhf freqs. It's an outstanding digital Uhf and 800 trunked receiver but Vhf is horrid. I like to monitor and search for Fed traffic in the Vhf 160-174 range. I was hoping to put the powerful search and digital features to use but I ended up resorting to the 2096 even though it doesn't have the propper 12.5 channel steps in that range.
A 158.100 Vhf pager tower just swamps the receiver. Even when the 158.100 frequency is silent the receiver is useless if two transmitters are going at once. Here's the details of the environment mine is operating in for comparison.
158.100 Vhf pager tower, unknown distance but very strong
155.055 transmitter at about 40 watts, 4 bay folded dipole, 75 feet
154.755 transmitter 3 miles away, 100 watts ~ 150 foot tower, approx.
155.835 transmitter 3 miles away on the same tower same power output
156.150 transmitter, 1 mile away, 25 watts, yagi pointing my direction feeding the input to 154.755.
When the 156.150 input transmitter link fires up causing the 154.755 repeater to go active at the same time 155.055 is going I get nothing but the current weather conditions in ear splitting distortion from a 162.425 transmitter that's over 30 + miles away.
The radio is connected to a radio shack discone at 30 feet and fed with Andrew 1/4 hardline.
I am very disappointed. I recently talked with someone that had almost the same exact issues I am having. He bought a PAR 158.100 Mhz filter for his and it still didn't aleviate the problems he was experiencing.
As for the BC780XLT and PRO-2096, they hum along just fine. The good old 780 seems to be the best for Vhf. It sucks at 800.
If it wasn't for 700 Mhz trunking I would have passed on the 996 had I known what I know now.
mancow said:If you are thinking of getting the 996 and live in an RF dense area (mainly VHF) then you may want to think twice.
I live a fairly small town and my radio is completly useless for Vhf monitoring. I don't even bother turning on the banks that contain Vhf freqs. It's an outstanding digital Uhf and 800 trunked receiver but Vhf is horrid. I like to monitor and search for Fed traffic in the Vhf 160-174 range. I was hoping to put the powerful search and digital features to use but I ended up resorting to the 2096 even though it doesn't have the propper 12.5 channel steps in that range.
A 158.100 Vhf pager tower just swamps the receiver. Even when the 158.100 frequency is silent the receiver is useless if two transmitters are going at once. Here's the details of the environment mine is operating in for comparison.
158.100 Vhf pager tower, unknown distance but very strong
155.055 transmitter at about 40 watts, 4 bay folded dipole, 75 feet
154.755 transmitter 3 miles away, 100 watts ~ 150 foot tower, approx.
155.835 transmitter 3 miles away on the same tower same power output
156.150 transmitter, 1 mile away, 25 watts, yagi pointing my direction feeding the input to 154.755.
When the 156.150 input transmitter link fires up causing the 154.755 repeater to go active at the same time 155.055 is going I get nothing but the current weather conditions in ear splitting distortion from a 162.425 transmitter that's over 30 + miles away.
The radio is connected to a radio shack discone at 30 feet and fed with Andrew 1/4 hardline.
I am very disappointed. I recently talked with someone that had almost the same exact issues I am having. He bought a PAR 158.100 Mhz filter for his and it still didn't aleviate the problems he was experiencing.
As for the BC780XLT and PRO-2096, they hum along just fine. The good old 780 seems to be the best for Vhf. It sucks at 800.
If it wasn't for 700 Mhz trunking I would have passed on the 996 had I known what I know now.
Could it be the discone that is overloading the radio? What would happen if you switched to a single tri-band antenna? Maybe use an antenna selector between the discone, and an antenna that is tuned for 150 mhz, 450 mhz, and an 800 mhz.
Also what happens when you lockout these pager and weather frequencies?
Got a question on "sites"......
What is a "Site"?
For example, when I look up Detroit, MI., it is listed as a Simulcast with site #701 in RR; however, when I go further into the FCC License info, I find that site #701 is actually comprised of 6 physical Tower sites.
So when I go to program my 996, do I program the location of the Towers as individual sites....
System: Detroit
Site #1: Tower #1 (GPS Lat/Long)
Site #2: Tower #2 (GPS Lat/Long)
Site #3: Tower #3 (GPS Lat/Long)
Site #4: Tower #4 (GPS Lat/Long)
Site #5: Tower #5 (GPS Lat/Long)
Site #6: Tower #6 (GPS Lat/Long)
Talk Group: PD
Talk Group: FD
Talk Group: etc...
, or do I just program Detroit #701 as one site (the individual Tower's being transparent - acting as one)
System: Wayne County
Site #1: #701 Detroit (GPS Lat/Long - of the city's "center")
Site #2: #206 Northville (GPS Lat/Long - of the city's "center")
Talk Group #1: Detroit PD
Talk Group #2: Northville PD
Talk Group: Etc......
....confused.....
What is a "Site"?
For example, when I look up Detroit, MI., it is listed as a Simulcast with site #701 in RR; however, when I go further into the FCC License info, I find that site #701 is actually comprised of 6 physical Tower sites.
So when I go to program my 996, do I program the location of the Towers as individual sites....
System: Detroit
Site #1: Tower #1 (GPS Lat/Long)
Site #2: Tower #2 (GPS Lat/Long)
Site #3: Tower #3 (GPS Lat/Long)
Site #4: Tower #4 (GPS Lat/Long)
Site #5: Tower #5 (GPS Lat/Long)
Site #6: Tower #6 (GPS Lat/Long)
Talk Group: PD
Talk Group: FD
Talk Group: etc...
, or do I just program Detroit #701 as one site (the individual Tower's being transparent - acting as one)
System: Wayne County
Site #1: #701 Detroit (GPS Lat/Long - of the city's "center")
Site #2: #206 Northville (GPS Lat/Long - of the city's "center")
Talk Group #1: Detroit PD
Talk Group #2: Northville PD
Talk Group: Etc......
....confused.....
Last edited:
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