BCD436HP/BCD536HP: programming Ohio with ARC536PRO

[jammer28]

Where to begin??? Ok I just purchased the BCD536BP. Using the radio reference download to input freqs for Meigs couty EMS and Sheriff's Office only, I find that I am not getting all of the freq's I need. I have tried loading all of Meigs County and editing what I don't need but that hasn't worked either. I have a BCD 325P2 and I was able to load that one fine. As a result, I am trying to input the data manually from the following resources:

Meigs County, Ohio (OH) Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference

Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference for Meigs County, Ohio (OH)

www.radioreference.com

It seems there are two different systems in Meigs County, Meigs County Trunked and Government and Safety services. I have reviewed the Arc Manual till I am blue in the face and I can't figure out how to load these two systems in the 536 manually.

Any suggestions?

 

[nessnet]

Maybe try using Uniden's Sentinel to load what you need??

 

[W6KRU]

Yes, you are working on two systems, You probably only need one. The statewide MARCS system has TGs for sheriff and EMS and the conventional freqs. are probably not needed. You have six sites to choose from in your county and a few TGS to load. Sentinel will be much easier as @nessnet suggested. Figure out ARC later.

 

[tvengr]

You have six sites to choose from in your county

I only see five. Your best site will be Pomeroy.

3 (3)	054 (36)	McKenzie Ridge (Racine)	Meigs	769.35625	770.83125c	771.95625c	852.050	853.225	856.1875
3 (3)	055 (37)	Pomeroy	Meigs	772.50625	774.15625c	774.48125c	852.825	856.2375
3 (3)	056 (38)	Portland (Coolville)	Meigs	853.300	853.500	853.975	858.9875c	859.9875c
3 (3)	057 (39)	Shade (Albany)	Meigs	771.80625	772.08125c	772.68125c	852.750	853.3375	853.950
3 (3)	058 (3A)	Wilkesville	Meigs	769.95625	773.78125c	774.80625c

 

[n1chu]

The Butel ARC 536 PRO isn’t any more or less difficult to use than Sentinel or ProScan, at least as far as the automatic download is concerned. But you state you are trying to programming the scanner MANUALLY, using Butel ARC 536 PRO. It’s doable but it is not recommended, as the many settings needed for a trunked system cause us imperfect humans to “fat finger” an entry or two and foul up the process, resulting in failure. It’s tedious work susceptible of making mistakes. (Not to mention it would take you a month of Sundays to program a bunch of trunked systems!) So, if you want to use Butel ARC, get the RR premium membership.

However,

As suggested, using Sentinel is the way to go, you don’t need a RR subscription, but if you want to use Butel, and the auto download feature, you need a RR subscription.

(Its recommended to donate in the form of acquiring a RR premium membership as a way of supporting the database, which is free to all... it’s the auto download feature that costs. I donate in this manner and enjoy using Butel ARC and ProScan’s automatic downloads as I own both aftermarket programs… and support the database at the same time.)

The history behind these auto downloads is precisely related to what you are trying to accomplish when you manually program your scanner. It’s an almost impossible task when considering the many parameters a trunked system needs to see set correctly In your scanner. The scanner manufacturers knew this, the average consumer isn’t inclined to take on such a task, they were going to make mistakes, and sales would suffer. Enter Radio Reference. In conjunction with Uniden they took their free database and created the ability to let your computer/laptop do the heavy lifting when it comes to programming a scanner. And they did it by including within Sentinel (the Uniden software programming tool) the ability to do the auto downloads. You just choose what comms systems you want and download them into Sentinel, and then from Sentinel, download into the scanner. (Butel and ProScan added the auto download ability to their aftermarket software too, but at a cost.

 

[jammer28]

I only see five. Your best site will be Pomeroy.

3 (3)	054 (36)	McKenzie Ridge (Racine)	Meigs	769.35625	770.83125c	771.95625c	852.050	853.225	856.1875
3 (3)	055 (37)	Pomeroy	Meigs	772.50625	774.15625c	774.48125c	852.825	856.2375
3 (3)	056 (38)	Portland (Coolville)	Meigs	853.300	853.500	853.975	858.9875c	859.9875c
3 (3)	057 (39)	Shade (Albany)	Meigs	771.80625	772.08125c	772.68125c	852.750	853.3375	853.950
3 (3)	058 (3A)	Wilkesville	Meigs	769.95625	773.78125c	774.80625c

Why wouldn't I use all of them?

 

[jammer28]

The Butel ARC 536 PRO isn’t any more or less difficult to use than Sentinel or ProScan, at least as far as the automatic download is concerned. But you state you are trying to programming the scanner MANUALLY, using Butel ARC 536 PRO. It’s doable but it is not recommended, as the many settings needed for a trunked system cause us imperfect humans to “fat finger” an entry or two and foul up the process, resulting in failure. It’s tedious work susceptible of making mistakes. (Not to mention it would take you a month of Sundays to program a bunch of trunked systems!) So, if you want to use Butel ARC, get the RR premium membership.

However,

As suggested, using Sentinel is the way to go, you don’t need a RR subscription, but if you want to use Butel, and the auto download feature, you need a RR subscription.

(Its recommended to donate in the form of acquiring a RR premium membership as a way of supporting the database, which is free to all... it’s the auto download feature that costs. I donate in this manner and enjoy using Butel ARC and ProScan’s automatic downloads as I own both aftermarket programs… and support the database at the same time.)

The history behind these auto downloads is precisely related to what you are trying to accomplish when you manually program your scanner. It’s an almost impossible task when considering the many parameters a trunked system needs to see set correctly In your scanner. The scanner manufacturers knew this, the average consumer isn’t inclined to take on such a task, they were going to make mistakes, and sales would suffer. Enter Radio Reference. In conjunction with Uniden they took their free database and created the ability to let your computer/laptop do the heavy lifting when it comes to programming a scanner. And they did it by including within Sentinel (the Uniden software programming tool) the ability to do the auto downloads. You just choose what comms systems you want and download them into Sentinel, and then from Sentinel, download into the scanner. (Butel and ProScan added the auto download ability to their aftermarket software too, but at a cost.

Thank you!

 

[tvengr]

Why wouldn't I use all of them?

Depending on if you are using a rooftop antenna or not, some of the sites may be out of range. Sites are scanned one at a time. It takes time to scan each site. While scanning an out-of range-site, you may miss the beginning of a transmission on your local site. Generally, you will hear radio traffic only on the site where a unit affiliates. The Pomeroy site will carry your local radio traffic. You can listen to each site one at a time to determine which ones are within range and how much radio traffic is on each one. Using other sites within range will increase your coverage area. The downside is that the more sites you scan, the more you will increase clipping of the beginning of transmissions. Also, you may completely miss radio traffic in your local area if there is activity on other sites. If all of the sites carried the same radio traffic, the system would quickly run out of frequencies. The number of sites you use is your decision as to how much area you want to cover without sacrificing your own radio traffic. It is a compromise. The ideal solution would be having a separate scanner for each site.

 

[n1chu]

Why wouldn't I use all of them?

The “sites” are spread all over the area that needs coverage. If the trunked system is large, like the MARCS is, you don’t need all of the sites, you won’t hear them anyway, as they are too far away from you. And plugging in all the sites can get you in trouble too for another reason… simulcast. These sites are transmitting the same transmissions simultaneously. And it causes a problem because the sites are at different distances from you. And that means the transmissions from each site you are in range of reach your scanner slightly out of sync, time wise. It’s just micro seconds out of sync but the scanner doesn’t know how to handle it. The results are no signal heard or signals will drop out before the end of the transmission. A way around this is to use only one site. Try them all one at a time. Start with the closest and when you find one that works for you, that’s the one you should use. However, keep in mind if you change the location where you use the scanner you may loose reception. Uniden came out with the SDS100 and SDS200, which is supposed to combat simulcast and you may find that regardless of what you do with the BCD536HP, it just won’t get the job done and the SDS series will. I know this will cause questions, and since every trunked system that uses simulcast has its own quirks, I won’t elaborate… instead, yield to those who are familiar with the Ohio MARCS system. Hopefully you will get you 536 to work once programmed correctly and won’t have to be concerned with simulcast… there are a few tricks you can do but first, get it programmed correctly, you may not be bothered with the simulcast problem.

 

[jammer28]

Depending on if you are using a rooftop antenna or not, some of the sites may be out of range. Sites are scanned one at a time. It takes time to scan each site. While scanning an out-of range-site, you may miss the beginning of a transmission on your local site. Generally, you will hear radio traffic only on the site where a unit affiliates. The Pomeroy site will carry your local radio traffic. You can listen to each site one at a time to determine which ones are within range and how much radio traffic is on each one. Using other sites within range will increase your coverage area. The downside is that the more sites you scan, the more you will increase clipping of the beginning of transmissions. Also, you may completely miss radio traffic in your local area if there is activity on other sites. If all of the sites carried the same radio traffic, the system would quickly run out of frequencies. The number of sites you use is your decision as to how much area you want to cover without sacrificing your own radio traffic. It is a compromise. The ideal solution would be having a separate scanner for each site.

Ok makes sense

 

[jammer28]

The “sites” are spread all over the area that needs coverage. If the trunked system is large, like the MARCS is, you don’t need all of the sites, you won’t hear them anyway, as they are too far away from you. And plugging in all the sites can get you in trouble too for another reason… simulcast. These sites are transmitting the same transmissions simultaneously. And it causes a problem because the sites are at different distances from you. And that means the transmissions from each site you are in range of reach your scanner slightly out of sync, time wise. It’s just micro seconds out of sync but the scanner doesn’t know how to handle it. The results are no signal heard or signals will drop out before the end of the transmission. A way around this is to use only one site. Try them all one at a time. Start with the closest and when you find one that works for you, that’s the one you should use. However, keep in mind if you change the location where you use the scanner you may loose reception. Uniden came out with the SDS100 and SDS200, which is supposed to combat simulcast and you may find that regardless of what you do with the BCD536HP, it just won’t get the job done and the SDS series will. I know this will cause questions, and since every trunked system that uses simulcast has its own quirks, I won’t elaborate… instead, yield to those who are familiar with the Ohio MARCS system. Hopefully you will get you 536 to work once programmed correctly and won’t have to be concerned with simulcast… there are a few tricks you can do but first, get it programmed correctly, you may not be bothered with the simulcast problem.

Ok thank you for the detailed response... I am still learning, I come from the old crystal systems...lol

 

[Dewey]

Simulcast distortion has nothing to do with how many sites you have programmed in your scanner, it is only listening to one site at a time (those are system sites). Simulcast distortion is created when receiving the same transmission from other repeater sites in the same system out of sync.

 

[Nasby]

The “sites” are spread all over the area that needs coverage. If the trunked system is large, like the MARCS is, you don’t need all of the sites, you won’t hear them anyway, as they are too far away from you. And plugging in all the sites can get you in trouble too for another reason… simulcast. These sites are transmitting the same transmissions simultaneously. And it causes a problem because the sites are at different distances from you. And that means the transmissions from each site you are in range of reach your scanner slightly out of sync, time wise. It’s just micro seconds out of sync but the scanner doesn’t know how to handle it. The results are no signal heard or signals will drop out before the end of the transmission. A way around this is to use only one site. Try them all one at a time. Start with the closest and when you find one that works for you, that’s the one you should use. However, keep in mind if you change the location where you use the scanner you may loose reception. Uniden came out with the SDS100 and SDS200, which is supposed to combat simulcast and you may find that regardless of what you do with the BCD536HP, it just won’t get the job done and the SDS series will. I know this will cause questions, and since every trunked system that uses simulcast has its own quirks, I won’t elaborate… instead, yield to those who are familiar with the Ohio MARCS system. Hopefully you will get you 536 to work once programmed correctly and won’t have to be concerned with simulcast… there are a few tricks you can do but first, get it programmed correctly, you may not be bothered with the simulcast problem.

None of these sites are simulcast. They are all standalone. Hence, they DO NOT transmit at the same time causing simulcast distortion.

 

[phask]

The “sites” are spread all over the area that needs coverage. If the trunked system is large, like the MARCS is, you don’t need all of the sites, you won’t hear them anyway, as they are too far away from you. And plugging in all the sites can get you in trouble too for another reason… simulcast. These sites are transmitting the same transmissions simultaneously. And it causes a problem because the sites are at different distances from you. And that means the transmissions from each site you are in range of reach your scanner slightly out of sync, time wise. It’s just micro seconds out of sync but the scanner doesn’t know how to handle it. The results are no signal heard or signals will drop out before the end of the transmission. A way around this is to use only one site. Try them all one at a time. Start with the closest and when you find one that works for you, that’s the one you should use. However, keep in mind if you change the location where you use the scanner you may loose reception. Uniden came out with the SDS100 and SDS200, which is supposed to combat simulcast and you may find that regardless of what you do with the BCD536HP, it just won’t get the job done and the SDS series will. I know this will cause questions, and since every trunked system that uses simulcast has its own quirks, I won’t elaborate… instead, yield to those who are familiar with the Ohio MARCS system. Hopefully you will get you 536 to work once programmed correctly and won’t have to be concerned with simulcast… there are a few tricks you can do but first, get it programmed correctly, you may not be bothered with the simulcast problem.

No , just plain no. Those multiple sites are just sites to enable coverage. full stop. period. While MARCS does use simulcast, this county/are a is not simulcast.