Programming 490 conventional freqs. in a 396T

[CommRX]

Can someone please tell me if there is an easy way to get 490 conventional frequencies into a single system with just one group. I want to copy and paste my milair into the software. ARC will only let me put a maximum of 200 frequencies into a group, and with UASD, it seems as if the only way to add new channels is "click - edit", "click - new channel". Is the easiest way to do this is to repeat the above 489 more times? There has to be a way to copy / paste / import conventional channels in. I was trying out the ARC, but with a 200 channel per group limit, dynamic memory is no better than having a scanner with several 200 channel banks.
I keep a frequency database in Excel, and extracting exactly 200 frequencies after sorting columns is very difficult.

 

[Al42]

The 200 channels/group is a limit in the scanner, so even if you make a .usd file with 490 systems in one group, the upload will fail.

But why do you care whether they're in 1 group or many groups over many systems? You can still turn them all on and off with a single system quick key.

 

[MacombMonitor]

Weird! I thought that was one of the new features of the BCD396T...no groups (aka; banks?). So if it has a "group" limit, how does that differ from a "bank" limit? Or maybe a better way to pose the question, how do groups differ from banks?

Thanks!

 

[CommRX]

Nevermind

Sometime the best way to answer a question is to make a fool of yourself in front of others. I had my screen set to 800x600 so I could not see the "add channel button" on the far left. Every time I added a channel, the screen went to far right. When I changed the screen resolution to 1024x768, I could see the big picture.

I thought the 200 limit was for talkgroups, so this applies to channels also?

 

[CommRX]

Weird! I thought that was one of the new features of the BCD396T...no groups (aka; banks?). So if it has a "group" limit, how does that differ from a "bank" limit? Or maybe a better way to pose the question, how do groups differ from banks?

Thanks!

That was kind of my question also. So it appears it's a scanner with 200 channel memory banks (groups) ?

 

[pro92b]

The 200 channels/group is a limit of ARC396, not the radio. A group containing 490 channels should upload with UASD. Splitting the system into three groups of 200, 200, and 90 channels has no disadvantage that I am aware of. In any case it will take a while to scan all those channels.

 

[CommRX]

The 200 channels/group is a limit of ARC396, not the radio. A group containing 490 channels should upload with UASD. Splitting the system into three groups of 200, 200, and 90 channels has no disadvantage that I am aware of. In any case it will take a while to scan all those channels.

Thanks,
I guess ARC will be useless for my purposes then. I am up to 324 channels in UASD and everything is going fine now. My 396 hasn't arrived yet, so time will tell if all the channels upload.
Thanks to all who replied.

 

[loumaag]

Hmmm, I think that the limit is in the radio, and the software just follows this. As someone earlier asked, if you make two, three, four or more systems and assign them all to the same system quick key, it is invisable to you the listener if it looking at 490 frequencies in one system or more. As to what is the advantage over banks, if you only wanted 3 frequencies in a system just what are you going to do with the empty slots in a traditional bank/list setup?

 

[pro92b]

Hmmm, I think that the limit is in the radio, and the software just follows this. As someone earlier asked, if you make two, three, four or more systems and assign them all to the same system quick key, it is invisable to you the listener if it looking at 490 frequencies in one system or more. As to what is the advantage over banks, if you only wanted 3 frequencies in a system just what are you going to do with the empty slots in a traditional bank/list setup?

No, that's not correct. There are two limits in the radio. Channels (talkgroups) in a trunked system are limited to a maximum of 200. Channels (frequencies) in a group in a conventional system are limited only by how much memory is available in the radio.

If the original poster would attach his file here, I'd be interested in trying to load it to the radio.

 

[kikito]

Yep, I agree with Pro92b because I ran into this VERY early on when the BCD396T first came out. I could load more than 200 conventional frequencies in one system by hand or by UASD but ARC won't let you.

 

[pro92b]

I modified one of my system files and moved all the conventional channels into one group. The group has 270 channels and it loads to the radio without problems.

 

[kg4icg]

Question is why would you load up the all the vhf and uhf public safety frequencies into memory when all you have to do is adjust the custom search frequencies and unlock them to do what you want to waste memory on. I'm thinking that much frequencies and basically your punching in all the vhf and uhf frequencies in. The reason why i bought this up is because i have done the samething with my AR5000.


R Collins

 

[Butelsoftware]

In ARC396 you can program 200 freq's/groups so a single system can hold a total of 4000 frequencies.

Gommert
www.butelsoftware.com

 

[loumaag]

TO: pro92b & kikito
I stand corrected (not the first time ), and I guess I (like others) was working on the assumption that a group was a group just the implemention was different for convetional and trunking.

TO: kg4icg
Well, you don't have the same control over the searchs that you do over scanning groups; and they search ranges not discrete frequencies. What do you do about avoiding the public works in the middle of your public safety stuff? What about two different agencies using the same frequency but with differnt CTCSS tones? There are more, but those two should be enough. If searching bands were the way to go, all scanners would have been designed like the BC350A (which does exactly what you describe).

TO: Gommert
I think the orig. poster was point out just that fact, and considered it a limit to the software. I understand why you have it that way (see my comments above) but I guess the software does not follow the actual capabilities of the radio (although I could have sworn that is what the radio specs said.)