Scanner Tales: The BC780XLT

N9JIG

Sheriff
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Joined
Dec 14, 2001
Messages
5,757
Location
Far NW Valley
There were several revolutionary scanner introduced over the years, radios such as the PRO2004 from Radio Shack, the SDS100/200 from Uniden, the Tennelec MS-1 and of course the BC780XLT.

I have already written about the PRO2004, it had lots of memory, great frequency range and other features that made it outstanding for its time. I had a MS-1 (well actually the very similar MS-2 IIRC) but I sold it pretty quickly to buy other radios as it was way over my price budget at the time.

I am blessed these days to be a Uniden beta tester so had the SDS100 long before anyone else who wasn't one. Jonathan and I made a huge splash when the late-great Paul Opitz allowed us to introduce the SDS100 to the crowds at Dayton prior to its public availability a few years back. The videos we made are on YouTube and the excitement for that radio was second only to its performance. Later I got the SDS200, again long before anyone else. I had to remove it from my shack when I took photos as it had not been officially introduced so it could not be seen on my shack photos.

The BC780XLT (or as it is commonly known the “780”) however was even more revolutionary for its time. This gem of a radio holds a special place amongst scanner enthusiasts to this day almost a quarter century after it was introduced in 2000. It made a humongous splash in the scanner community and was the object of radio desire for many.

The 780 was like Apple products, it really didn’t do stuff that hadn’t already been done but it did it better and more elegantly while looking great doing it. It cost about $500 at the time, roughly $900 in today’s dollars, that meant that it was out of reach for many. Even at that price point they flew off the shelves as fast as Uniden could make them. We saw a similar thing with the SDS100 and SDS200 more recently, very expensive but very desirable.

The big deal with the 780 was not any really new capabilities but the whole package. Combine lots of memories (500 channels when 20 and 50 channel scanners were the norm), premium level trunking capabilities for the time (Moto, EDACS and LTR), a fantastic form factor, a serial port and more and one had the best scanner available, at probably the highest price. While it might seem archaic compared to what we have these days for the era it was top notch.

At the time I was very heavily involved with CARMA, then the largest scanner club in the USA. We had so many questions at our meetings, on our email list and BBS (remember those?) that we decided to have a special meeting to discuss just the BC780XLT on a Friday night. We had such an overwhelming response to our BC780XLT Workshop that we made “Friday Nighters” a staple of CARMA activities for 2 decades.

So what was it about the 780 that made it special? Well, there was a lot of things. Lets talk physical size first. It was pretty much the same width and depth as one of its predecessors, the wonderful BC760XLT, but about twice the height. The 760 was too small for comfortable use in a vehicle for many and the BC895 (and later the 898) were much too large. The 780 was just right, a great marriage of size, layout and display. It fit under the dash or between the seats. It was also right at home on the desk. We even had one in our 9-1-1 center.

So it was the right size, how did it work? Well, just great, thanks for asking! I found that it was by far the best radio I had ever used on AM Aircraft, both on the VHF Civil Air band and the UHF MilAir band. It was great on VHF and UHF conventional systems. But it was trunking that really made the 780 shine. At the time Motorola and GE were fighting tooth and nail for public safety, utility and business communications business and the 780 worked great on the Motorola Type I, II and Iii systems popular with business and public safety and equally as well on the GE EDACS systems that were used by public safety and utilities around the area. Let’s not forget the LTR stuff out there, it worked on these systems as well.

The 780 was the right radio, at the right time, with the right size and the right features. I scrimped and saved to get my first (of several) 780. I had bought my first house a few years before and we were doing a lot of remodeling so I was limited on funds (and wifely permission) so I saved my pennies and eventually was able to get one from a friend who knew a distributer and got them at a decent price. Eventually I was able to get a second and soon a third. I then convinced my boss to let me get one for our 9-1-1 center. This let Ted (my midnight dispatcher) happy as a clam and even the other non techy dispatchers grew to enjoy listening to the State Police, the Sheriff and neighboring agencies on it.

There then grew a cottage industry of 780-specific accessories. Scanner Master sold many of these, including an internal battery pack (as the 780 had no portable version), a nylon shoulder bag (imagine carrying the 780 around like a purse!) and even a remote head conversion kit that cost more than the radio itself.

The 780 begat the BC785D. In the same sized case, the 785 added APCO-25 voice decoding, albeit with only 3600 baud trunking systems ("P16"). You had to buy the optional BCi-25D accessory card and install it in a slot on the back panel for it to decode digital, a bit clunky but it worked. If you didn't need digital you could save money by not getting the digital card, then add it later if needed. It retained the great AM aircraft sensitivity and doubled the channel capacity, now at an unbelievable 1000 channels. It also had a sister radio, the handheld BC250D. The 250D had the same features as the 785 in a handheld case, also needing the digital accessory card to decode digital.

The 785D and 250D were soon replaced with the similar BC796D and BC296D. The “96” in the model names indicated that they would work on the then-new 9600 baud P25 systems. In addition the 796/296 came standard with the digital card. In my area a local central dispatch system was the first to have this, before the 796 some of us used Motorola handhelds programmed by shady characters to listen in. The PRO96 and 2096 from Radio Shack were introduced around the same time but The Shack was still recovering from the PRO-92 debacle from a few years before and some of us just did not like the RS programming methods, the 780/785/796 seemed easier to deal with. While I had a PRO2096 and a PRO96 and liked them I still preferred the 796.

Eventually I had a fairly large stack of 780, 785 and 796’s as well as a 296D. Even after I moved on to newer radios I kept these around for the aviation performance as well as the local railroads. I later started to replace them with BCT15’s for the analog stuff and BCD996’s for the digital but did not sell my last 780 until I moved across the country and offloaded a boatload of radios. I know of several people still using the 780’s a couple decades later, they are still a great analog radio and can decode P25 conventional if needed, they held up well. While the trunking systems they worked with have for the most part upgraded to 700 MHz., Phase 2 or something else that renders them unusable on them I still kind of wish I still had a 780 to play with.
 

trentbob

W3BUX- Bucks County, PA
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Feb 22, 2007
Messages
6,008
There were several revolutionary scanner introduced over the years, radios such as the PRO2004 from Radio Shack, the SDS100/200 from Uniden, the Tennelec MS-1 and of course the BC780XLT.

I have already written about the PRO2004, it had lots of memory, great frequency range and other features that made it outstanding for its time. I had a MS-1 (well actually the very similar MS-2 IIRC) but I sold it pretty quickly to buy other radios as it was way over my price budget at the time.

I am blessed these days to be a Uniden beta tester so had the SDS100 long before anyone else who wasn't one. Jonathan and I made a huge splash when the late-great Paul Opitz allowed us to introduce the SDS100 to the crowds at Dayton prior to its public availability a few years back. The videos we made are on YouTube and the excitement for that radio was second only to its performance. Later I got the SDS200, again long before anyone else. I had to remove it from my shack when I took photos as it had not been officially introduced so it could not be seen on my shack photos.

The BC780XLT (or as it is commonly known the “780”) however was even more revolutionary for its time. This gem of a radio holds a special place amongst scanner enthusiasts to this day almost a quarter century after it was introduced in 2000. It made a humongous splash in the scanner community and was the object of radio desire for many.

The 780 was like Apple products, it really didn’t do stuff that hadn’t already been done but it did it better and more elegantly while looking great doing it. It cost about $500 at the time, roughly $900 in today’s dollars, that meant that it was out of reach for many. Even at that price point they flew off the shelves as fast as Uniden could make them. We saw a similar thing with the SDS100 and SDS200 more recently, very expensive but very desirable.

The big deal with the 780 was not any really new capabilities but the whole package. Combine lots of memories (500 channels when 20 and 50 channel scanners were the norm), premium level trunking capabilities for the time (Moto, EDACS and LTR), a fantastic form factor, a serial port and more and one had the best scanner available, at probably the highest price. While it might seem archaic compared to what we have these days for the era it was top notch.

At the time I was very heavily involved with CARMA, then the largest scanner club in the USA. We had so many questions at our meetings, on our email list and BBS (remember those?) that we decided to have a special meeting to discuss just the BC780XLT on a Friday night. We had such an overwhelming response to our BC780XLT Workshop that we made “Friday Nighters” a staple of CARMA activities for 2 decades.

So what was it about the 780 that made it special? Well, there was a lot of things. Lets talk physical size first. It was pretty much the same width and depth as one of its predecessors, the wonderful BC760XLT, but about twice the height. The 760 was too small for comfortable use in a vehicle for many and the BC895 (and later the 898) were much too large. The 780 was just right, a great marriage of size, layout and display. It fit under the dash or between the seats. It was also right at home on the desk. We even had one in our 9-1-1 center.

So it was the right size, how did it work? Well, just great, thanks for asking! I found that it was by far the best radio I had ever used on AM Aircraft, both on the VHF Civil Air band and the UHF MilAir band. It was great on VHF and UHF conventional systems. But it was trunking that really made the 780 shine. At the time Motorola and GE were fighting tooth and nail for public safety, utility and business communications business and the 780 worked great on the Motorola Type I, II and Iii systems popular with business and public safety and equally as well on the GE EDACS systems that were used by public safety and utilities around the area. Let’s not forget the LTR stuff out there, it worked on these systems as well.

The 780 was the right radio, at the right time, with the right size and the right features. I scrimped and saved to get my first (of several) 780. I had bought my first house a few years before and we were doing a lot of remodeling so I was limited on funds (and wifely permission) so I saved my pennies and eventually was able to get one from a friend who knew a distributer and got them at a decent price. Eventually I was able to get a second and soon a third. I then convinced my boss to let me get one for our 9-1-1 center. This let Ted (my midnight dispatcher) happy as a clam and even the other non techy dispatchers grew to enjoy listening to the State Police, the Sheriff and neighboring agencies on it.

There then grew a cottage industry of 780-specific accessories. Scanner Master sold many of these, including an internal battery pack (as the 780 had no portable version), a nylon shoulder bag (imagine carrying the 780 around like a purse!) and even a remote head conversion kit that cost more than the radio itself.

The 780 begat the BC785D. In the same sized case, the 785 added APCO-25 voice decoding, albeit with only 3600 baud trunking systems ("P16"). You had to buy the optional BCi-25D accessory card and install it in a slot on the back panel for it to decode digital, a bit clunky but it worked. If you didn't need digital you could save money by not getting the digital card, then add it later if needed. It retained the great AM aircraft sensitivity and doubled the channel capacity, now at an unbelievable 1000 channels. It also had a sister radio, the handheld BC250D. The 250D had the same features as the 785 in a handheld case, also needing the digital accessory card to decode digital.

The 785D and 250D were soon replaced with the similar BC796D and BC296D. The “96” in the model names indicated that they would work on the then-new 9600 baud P25 systems. In addition the 796/296 came standard with the digital card. In my area a local central dispatch system was the first to have this, before the 796 some of us used Motorola handhelds programmed by shady characters to listen in. The PRO96 and 2096 from Radio Shack were introduced around the same time but The Shack was still recovering from the PRO-92 debacle from a few years before and some of us just did not like the RS programming methods, the 780/785/796 seemed easier to deal with. While I had a PRO2096 and a PRO96 and liked them I still preferred the 796.

Eventually I had a fairly large stack of 780, 785 and 796’s as well as a 296D. Even after I moved on to newer radios I kept these around for the aviation performance as well as the local railroads. I later started to replace them with BCT15’s for the analog stuff and BCD996’s for the digital but did not sell my last 780 until I moved across the country and offloaded a boatload of radios. I know of several people still using the 780’s a couple decades later, they are still a great analog radio and can decode P25 conventional if needed, they held up well. While the trunking systems they worked with have for the most part upgraded to 700 MHz., Phase 2 or something else that renders them unusable on them I still kind of wish I still had a 780 to play with.
For fun, on a Saturday night, I started adding up the amount I paid for all of those radios. As you may know, I go back to the sixties, I bought everything that came out, why not, I had the money, and it was part of my job as a newspaper man LOL. I had the technological experience.

I had many or most of the radios you speak of and particularly liked the Uniden. bearcat 250d. But you're speaking of the first trunked scanners, then, scanners who had pl tones. Then scanners that were digital.
 

tvengr

Well Known Member
Joined
Feb 10, 2019
Messages
9,879
Location
Baltimore County, MD
I programmed a stack of BC780XLT's for our newsroom. They were our main scanners back in the days of conventional frequencies and 800 MHz Motorola Type II analog trunked systems. We also had a couple of BC800XLT's and a BC895XLT. The BC800XLT's had a problem with the fluorescent display dimming and becoming almost invisible. I had to replace capacitors in the voltage multiplier circuit numerous times to keep the displays functional. We later graduated to BC796D's and BCD996XT's. I wore out the scroll control on a BC296D selecting characters for alpha tags on the huge Baltimore County trunked system. I used to program everything manually until I discovered the blessing of software. I would make manual changes to one scanner and then clone it to all of the similar scanners.
 

rf_patriot200

Member
Joined
Feb 9, 2024
Messages
327
Location
Freeport, Illinois
There were several revolutionary scanner introduced over the years, radios such as the PRO2004 from Radio Shack, the SDS100/200 from Uniden, the Tennelec MS-1 and of course the BC780XLT.

I have already written about the PRO2004, it had lots of memory, great frequency range and other features that made it outstanding for its time. I had a MS-1 (well actually the very similar MS-2 IIRC) but I sold it pretty quickly to buy other radios as it was way over my price budget at the time.

I am blessed these days to be a Uniden beta tester so had the SDS100 long before anyone else who wasn't one. Jonathan and I made a huge splash when the late-great Paul Opitz allowed us to introduce the SDS100 to the crowds at Dayton prior to its public availability a few years back. The videos we made are on YouTube and the excitement for that radio was second only to its performance. Later I got the SDS200, again long before anyone else. I had to remove it from my shack when I took photos as it had not been officially introduced so it could not be seen on my shack photos.

The BC780XLT (or as it is commonly known the “780”) however was even more revolutionary for its time. This gem of a radio holds a special place amongst scanner enthusiasts to this day almost a quarter century after it was introduced in 2000. It made a humongous splash in the scanner community and was the object of radio desire for many.

The 780 was like Apple products, it really didn’t do stuff that hadn’t already been done but it did it better and more elegantly while looking great doing it. It cost about $500 at the time, roughly $900 in today’s dollars, that meant that it was out of reach for many. Even at that price point they flew off the shelves as fast as Uniden could make them. We saw a similar thing with the SDS100 and SDS200 more recently, very expensive but very desirable.

The big deal with the 780 was not any really new capabilities but the whole package. Combine lots of memories (500 channels when 20 and 50 channel scanners were the norm), premium level trunking capabilities for the time (Moto, EDACS and LTR), a fantastic form factor, a serial port and more and one had the best scanner available, at probably the highest price. While it might seem archaic compared to what we have these days for the era it was top notch.

At the time I was very heavily involved with CARMA, then the largest scanner club in the USA. We had so many questions at our meetings, on our email list and BBS (remember those?) that we decided to have a special meeting to discuss just the BC780XLT on a Friday night. We had such an overwhelming response to our BC780XLT Workshop that we made “Friday Nighters” a staple of CARMA activities for 2 decades.

So what was it about the 780 that made it special? Well, there was a lot of things. Lets talk physical size first. It was pretty much the same width and depth as one of its predecessors, the wonderful BC760XLT, but about twice the height. The 760 was too small for comfortable use in a vehicle for many and the BC895 (and later the 898) were much too large. The 780 was just right, a great marriage of size, layout and display. It fit under the dash or between the seats. It was also right at home on the desk. We even had one in our 9-1-1 center.

So it was the right size, how did it work? Well, just great, thanks for asking! I found that it was by far the best radio I had ever used on AM Aircraft, both on the VHF Civil Air band and the UHF MilAir band. It was great on VHF and UHF conventional systems. But it was trunking that really made the 780 shine. At the time Motorola and GE were fighting tooth and nail for public safety, utility and business communications business and the 780 worked great on the Motorola Type I, II and Iii systems popular with business and public safety and equally as well on the GE EDACS systems that were used by public safety and utilities around the area. Let’s not forget the LTR stuff out there, it worked on these systems as well.

The 780 was the right radio, at the right time, with the right size and the right features. I scrimped and saved to get my first (of several) 780. I had bought my first house a few years before and we were doing a lot of remodeling so I was limited on funds (and wifely permission) so I saved my pennies and eventually was able to get one from a friend who knew a distributer and got them at a decent price. Eventually I was able to get a second and soon a third. I then convinced my boss to let me get one for our 9-1-1 center. This let Ted (my midnight dispatcher) happy as a clam and even the other non techy dispatchers grew to enjoy listening to the State Police, the Sheriff and neighboring agencies on it.

There then grew a cottage industry of 780-specific accessories. Scanner Master sold many of these, including an internal battery pack (as the 780 had no portable version), a nylon shoulder bag (imagine carrying the 780 around like a purse!) and even a remote head conversion kit that cost more than the radio itself.

The 780 begat the BC785D. In the same sized case, the 785 added APCO-25 voice decoding, albeit with only 3600 baud trunking systems ("P16"). You had to buy the optional BCi-25D accessory card and install it in a slot on the back panel for it to decode digital, a bit clunky but it worked. If you didn't need digital you could save money by not getting the digital card, then add it later if needed. It retained the great AM aircraft sensitivity and doubled the channel capacity, now at an unbelievable 1000 channels. It also had a sister radio, the handheld BC250D. The 250D had the same features as the 785 in a handheld case, also needing the digital accessory card to decode digital.

The 785D and 250D were soon replaced with the similar BC796D and BC296D. The “96” in the model names indicated that they would work on the then-new 9600 baud P25 systems. In addition the 796/296 came standard with the digital card. In my area a local central dispatch system was the first to have this, before the 796 some of us used Motorola handhelds programmed by shady characters to listen in. The PRO96 and 2096 from Radio Shack were introduced around the same time but The Shack was still recovering from the PRO-92 debacle from a few years before and some of us just did not like the RS programming methods, the 780/785/796 seemed easier to deal with. While I had a PRO2096 and a PRO96 and liked them I still preferred the 796.

Eventually I had a fairly large stack of 780, 785 and 796’s as well as a 296D. Even after I moved on to newer radios I kept these around for the aviation performance as well as the local railroads. I later started to replace them with BCT15’s for the analog stuff and BCD996’s for the digital but did not sell my last 780 until I moved across the country and offloaded a boatload of radios. I know of several people still using the 780’s a couple decades later, they are still a great analog radio and can decode P25 conventional if needed, they held up well. While the trunking systems they worked with have for the most part upgraded to 700 MHz., Phase 2 or something else that renders them unusable on them I still kind of wish I still had a 780 to play with.
The 10 separate search limits and agile mode selection and great sensitivity and selectivity, as well as civilian And mil aircraft made this my GEM ! Still have mine after all these years, and I'll buy another if I find one.
 

ratboy

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Nov 3, 2004
Messages
1,001
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Toledo,Ohio
I fixed a 780XLT once that a friend had had modded for cell from a local CB shop. It never worked correctly from that day on. It did some really oddball things and would beep once in a while, so he asked me to look at it. I wish I had taken pics of it! First thing I noticed when I took off the cover was a huge, like 12 gauge wire jumper on the PC board, and then there was a quarter sized solder blob on top of the CPU. The "tech" who had done that fine work had burned several traces off the PC board too. Once I stopped laughing, I removed the giant jumper. and took my solder sucker and removed the giant blob of solder off the CPU. I fixed the traces and was totally floored when it worked perfectly! It worked fine for many years with the glued down traces!
 

rf_patriot200

Member
Joined
Feb 9, 2024
Messages
327
Location
Freeport, Illinois
I fixed a 780XLT once that a friend had had modded for cell from a local CB shop. It never worked correctly from that day on. It did some really oddball things and would beep once in a while, so he asked me to look at it. I wish I had taken pics of it! First thing I noticed when I took off the cover was a huge, like 12 gauge wire jumper on the PC board, and then there was a quarter sized solder blob on top of the CPU. The "tech" who had done that fine work had burned several traces off the PC board too. Once I stopped laughing, I removed the giant jumper. and took my solder sucker and removed the giant blob of solder off the CPU. I fixed the traces and was totally floored when it worked perfectly! It worked fine for many years with the glued down traces!
SO Sad that it was molested like that, since it's Not a model that is a candidate for unlocked cellular coverage to begin with.
 

N9JIG

Sheriff
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Joined
Dec 14, 2001
Messages
5,757
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Far NW Valley
I programmed a stack of BC780XLT's for our newsroom. They were our main scanners back in the days of conventional frequencies and 800 MHz Motorola Type II analog trunked systems. We also had a couple of BC800XLT's and a BC895XLT. The BC800XLT's had a problem with the fluorescent display dimming and becoming almost invisible. I had to replace capacitors in the voltage multiplier circuit numerous times to keep the displays functional. We later graduated to BC796D's and BCD996XT's. I wore out the scroll control on a BC296D selecting characters for alpha tags on the huge Baltimore County trunked system. I used to program everything manually until I discovered the blessing of software. I would make manual changes to one scanner and then clone it to all of the similar scanners.
I was never a big fan of those fluorescent displays on scanners, the LCD seemed to be a more reliable replacement for the LED displays of earlier units. The fluorescent seemed to be much more problematic.
 

N9JCQ

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Joined
Aug 30, 2005
Messages
876
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Lake Barrington, IL
I have had a 780 since back in the old CARMA days, in part because of all the excitement that you Ted, etc had for that radio. I had to trade a Kenwood 2 meter mobile for my first 780. It's still my main aircraft scanner and I use it often. I also have one in a box somewhere in a closet that I may have to dig out and use it too.
 

Trucker700

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Joined
Jun 24, 2017
Messages
286
A couple of years ago I picked up a very nice 780XLT with manual and wall wart for $25 at a hamfest. It looked almost new. The seller said that it wasn't good for digital reception. I told him was mostly interested in using it for Airband. He said it would be good for that. He wasn't kidding. It has exceeded my expectations by a wide margin.
James
 

ratboy

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Messages
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Toledo,Ohio
SO Sad that it was molested like that, since it's Not a model that is a candidate for unlocked cellular coverage to begin with.
Just one of many many hack jobs that I've seen over the years. It worked OK for cell, but it was no Pro 2004/5/6 or 34/37/43. The amount of messed up PC boards and plastic cases I've seen melted over the years is mind boggling. I saw a lot of Pro-43s that had the top part of the case all messed up from unsoldering the antenna and touching the back of the iron to the top of the case and then the case back couldn't be put back on. A hairdryer was usually enough to get it back together. I remember one that had to have the case top clipped with a pair of wire cutters to get the back on it. If I remember right, RS didn't have many case parts available for the 43, other than the knobs and rubber keypad. I still have a bunch of dead scanners in a drawer. Why? I don't know. I should Ebay them out of here.
 

rf_patriot200

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Joined
Feb 9, 2024
Messages
327
Location
Freeport, Illinois
Just one of many many hack jobs that I've seen over the years. It worked OK for cell, but it was no Pro 2004/5/6 or 34/37/43. The amount of messed up PC boards and plastic cases I've seen melted over the years is mind boggling. I saw a lot of Pro-43s that had the top part of the case all messed up from unsoldering the antenna and touching the back of the iron to the top of the case and then the case back couldn't be put back on. A hairdryer was usually enough to get it back together. I remember one that had to have the case top clipped with a pair of wire cutters to get the back on it. If I remember right, RS didn't have many case parts available for the 43, other than the knobs and rubber keypad. I still have a bunch of dead scanners in a drawer. Why? I don't know. I should Ebay them out of here.
Give a Chronic coffee drinker a soldering pencil,and that's the result !
 

BC_Scan

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Joined
Aug 26, 2006
Messages
707
Location
Vancouver BC
still have 3 in rotation with a UBC780 that came fro Australia , I was shocked that the guy wanted to part with for well below retail back 25 yrs ago
 

es93546

A Member Twice
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Aug 18, 2020
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1,131
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Right Side of CA on maps
The one thing this scanner does poorly is tone search. I like to know what repeater I'm listening to and the 780 is not going to give that to you.
I considered this radio to be a dog right after I started using it, which was supposed to be my main desktop scanner, replacing the PRO-2006, which did not have tone capability. I waited patiently for something better, which is the GRE-600 that now fills the role of main desktop scanner.

I have it hooked up and on a shelf now that Mammoth Mountain Ski Area went from a Type I trunked system to a P25 Phase II. So the 780 is now useless. It had been in storage for a long time anyway, until I loaned it out to someone for several months.
 

rf_patriot200

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Feb 9, 2024
Messages
327
Location
Freeport, Illinois
The one thing this scanner does poorly is tone search. I like to know what repeater I'm listening to and the 780 is not going to give that to you.
I considered this radio to be a dog right after I started using it, which was supposed to be my main desktop scanner, replacing the PRO-2006, which did not have tone capability. I waited patiently for something better, which is the GRE-600 that now fills the role of main desktop scanner.

I have it hooked up and on a shelf now that Mammoth Mountain Ski Area went from a Type I trunked system to a P25 Phase II. So the 780 is now useless. It had been in storage for a long time anyway, until I loaned it out to someone for several months.
Look at the Year it was manufactured ? You're being a tad bit harsh, considering tech was not where it is now. It Searches tones very well for the Era in which it was made. None of the other scanning radios of that period were any faster, if you checked.
 

es93546

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1,131
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Right Side of CA on maps
Look at the Year it was manufactured ? You're being a tad bit harsh, considering tech was not where it is now. It Searches tones very well for the Era in which it was made. None of the other scanning radios of that period were any faster, if you checked.

I had modified/converted a couple of BC-760's to tone detection/squelch at about the same time. They were mobile units and I soon brought one of them in the house to replace the 780. I bought a PRO-92 at about the same time as the 780. It scanned circles around the 780 as far as tones. I didn't buy the 780 when it first came out. Soon after I bought a PRO-2067, which was the base version of the PRO-92. The 780 did not occupy my base station rack for a year.

EDIT: the problem with the tone scan was it's slow speed. Nobody kept a repeater on long enough to have the 780 display the tone, with the exception of some 10-29 results, or about 5% of all the receptions.

EDIT: I had an aunt that wrote for the Freeport newspaper for years. I'm 73 so she was with the paper a long time ago.
 
Last edited:

N9JIG

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Far NW Valley
The BC780XLT PL Tone Search was just that, a search. It had to cycle thru all 38 (or was it 50?) CTCSS tones then, if it was DCS/DPL it would show right after it checked for PL's. Many times the transmission was over before the proper code was displayed. I don't recall if the 785 or 796 fixed this by having the instant PL/DPL detection we take for granted now.

The older BC760XLT has an optional PL Tone board you could install under the bail. This didn't have a search function but you could program a channel for PL. Early models only allowed you to select PL or no PL by turning on the PL option board by a switch under the bail so if you had any channels not using PL you had to listen without PL on any channels. One way to defeat this was to install a small PL encoder set to 67.0 Hz at the very lowest deviation the 760 would detect it at. Then if you wanted to listen to a CSQ channel you actually programmed it for 67.0 Hz PL. Channels with actual PL codes (other than 67.0) would then be programmed with them and all was right with the world again.

Later versions of the 760 would allow one to program channels without PL with the option board on so you would not have to add an extra board. I think that version was also when they switched it to a BNC connector for the antenna rather than the older Motorola one.

We had a club member who was really into PL's (He created a huge list of local area frequencies with PL's called the "PL List") and one of his tools was a 760 that he would program a freq in the radio with different PL's and scan it to figure out who was using what PL. In a year or so he had worn the keyboard out so that the numbers were unreadable but he had just about every PL code for the area figured out.
 

rf_patriot200

Member
Joined
Feb 9, 2024
Messages
327
Location
Freeport, Illinois
I had modified/converted a couple of BC-760's to tone detection/squelch at about the same time. They were mobile units and I soon brought one of them in the house to replace the 780. I bought a PRO-92 at about the same time as the 780. It scanned circles around the 780 as far as tones. I didn't buy the 780 when it first came out. Soon after I bought a PRO-2067, which was the base version of the PRO-92. The 780 did not occupy my base station rack for a year.

EDIT: the problem with the tone scan was it's slow speed. Nobody kept a repeater on long enough to have the 780 display the tone, with the exception of some 10-29 results, or about 5% of all the receptions.

EDIT: I had an aunt that wrote for the Freeport newspaper for years. I'm 73 so she was with the paper a long time ago.
It DID take some patience, and willing to watch, but I tagged MANY repeaters with their respective tones in memory, due to that feature being available in the 780. Sometimes, it took a day or two, but i could get them.
 

N9JIG

Sheriff
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Joined
Dec 14, 2001
Messages
5,757
Location
Far NW Valley
At the time the 780's Tone Search was a great feature but you are correct, it required patience.

Some of us bought external PL/DPL decoders, there were some commercially made frequency counter type units and then we discovered the Zetron Model 8. While this was built as a community repeater controller we found it was awesome at decoding PL and DPL codes and if you had a transceiver it could also generate them. I had 2, one for the car and another for the house.

Several years later Opto came out with much smaller decoders like the DC440. I had one but soon thereafter got a CSL CD-1. It had a much easier to read display. Eventually I had 4 or 5 of these CD-1's and still have at least one in the garage. Any of these decoders could be connected to the discriminator jack for instant display of a decoded PL. They were made pretty much redundant by the 996/396/15/346 Uniden scanners and the RS competitors when they started to have instant PL/DPL decode. I did keep a CD-1 connected to a scanner for a while to decode DTMF (TouchTone) off the air.
 

RichM

Member
Joined
Jul 22, 2004
Messages
81
Many years ago when my area switched to digital, I picked up a defective BC296D locally for a song - well under $100. The defect was that it would only run on batteries, it would overheat and stop receiving on AC. I never could figure out what was causing that but I still used it going through a small pile of batteries. I taught myself the ins and outs of APCO 25, learned how to use software for programming and saved a ton of money doing so. Once I overcame the very steep digital learning curve (compared to analog) and became proficient with it I pulled the trigger on a brand new Pro197 and never looked back.

Many years later I parted out the 296D selling the now very rare digital card on EBay for much more than I paid for the radio. I also sold the now impossible to find original serial programming cable to add to the profit margin. It turned out to be a good investment in more ways than one.

I must say that I‘ve always liked the Uniden architecture the best of all the scanner brands, they are logically designed and just make sense. I still have my old Bearcat 30 from the analog days and it still works like new.
 
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