Only Receive one channel

[mdimauro16]

I recently purchased a Uniden BCD536HP. I followed the videos and loaded the frequencies for my town, only 4 of them into a favorites list from the channel list and uploaded it to the scanner. However, I only appear to be getting the fire department (not the police , DPW, etc). The town is Agawam Massachusetts (under Hampden County). What am I doing wrong?

 

[a417]

1st thing is to check your programming.

Do you have the frequencies you aren't getting set to Analog Only? The DB shows the others with a NAC (digital) and you may have inadvertently set the scanner to ignore them.

 

[mdimauro16]

Thank you for the reply. Where do you change the digital / Analog? I don't see that on the menu. I copied the frequencies from the list to my favorites, wouldn't it have chosen the correct type?

 

[a417]

I don't have a 536, but this is from the easier to read series of manual rewrites.

 

[teknishun]

The first thing I think of when I read this is whether your service types are enabled or disabled. That is done
in the 536HP Profile. It shows something like BCDx36HP in the upper left corner when you open Sentinel.


Go into Sentinel and edit your profile. Click on the Service Types tab. This determines what type of broadcasts you
can receive. For ease of operation I always ENABLE all the service types on the left side. Police Dispatch and Fire
Dispatch are not the same thing. If fire is enabled but police is not then you will only receive fire calls but no police.

I have been "burned" by this same issue myself so that is why always leave all service types set to enabled.

 

[mdimauro16]

Thanks for the help Teknishun - yes they were already enabled using the menu setting in the scanner itself. Got that help from Uniden earlier. Still no police traffic, the main reason I purchased this scanner.

I'm just not finding the reason that it's not working. May have to return it.

 

[twotoejoe]

Are you using the Sentinel software (or some other) or are you trying to manually program it. It's WAY easier to use the Sentinel software. It's a free download and makes it so much easier.

 

[divison200]

Police and emergency mgmt. are P-25nac, make sure you select P-25

An easier to program would be on sentinel,, go to full database
select Mass. Hampden County go to Agawam select the town and add to favorites list, that will load your town to your favorites list and then download this to the radio.

 

[Ubbe]

The RR database says: " County Police

Hampden County is within the Western Mass Law Enforcement Council intercity area. For a list of those frequencies, see the WMLEC page. "

So you probably have to append that state system as well.

/Ubbe

 

[mdimauro16]

division 200, thanks for the help. I did exactly what you instructed BEFORE I asked for help.

As far as the P25 - I can not find anywhere in the sentinel editor to change it. Can you tell me where to find it?

 

[sfb88]

Just for testing, would it be useful to enter your ZIP Code, turn on the full database and see what is heard?

 

[teknishun]

Thanks for the help Teknishun - yes they were already enabled using the menu setting in the scanner itself. Got that help from Uniden earlier. Still no police traffic, the main reason I purchased this scanner.

I'm just not finding the reason that it's not working. May have to return it.

I doubt it is a scanner problem since it does receive the fire. It is possible though that the data in Radio Reference might
have changed and was never updated. The PL tones or the NAC listed might be incorrect. You can try to program the
frequencies without using any tone at all. The scanner should then pass whatever traffic it hears, and possibly the correct
tone as well if it does not match what is in RR. Am I looking at the correct stuff?

 

[ofd8001]

First I'd confirm I entered my zip code correctly. An error here could throw the location off.

Second, I'd turn on the full database and scan it. If I got a lot more things, then I'd think perhaps I imported stuff incorrectly when I built the Favorites List.

 

[divison200]

If you downloaded from the sentinel then you are all set.

 

[a417]

If you downloaded from the sentinel then you are all set.

Yeah, I don't think he did that based on the FP.