BCD396XT/BCD996XT: Slow Scanning

[rys092209]

I have a BCD996XT that I picked up only a day ago. I also have a Pro-95 that I have had for a long time. Since programming my 996XT with FreeSCAN, I have noticed that my Pro-95 runs circles around my 996XT as far as capturing EDACs transmissions from my city. I bought this scanner in order to upgrade (The other city about an hour away and the state patrol are now P25) and to replace my Pro-95 which is starting to have volume knob issues. Is there a way to speed up the scanning of the trunked frequencies? Or am I doing something wrong? I have included a screen capture of my FreeSCAN program which shows all of the systems and sites I have programmed onto my 996XT currently. I do not have CC or Pri turned on and I have adjusted delay times on the systems I want to linger on so that I can follow a conversation more easily. Any advice?

 

[Nasby]

I think the slow scanning is because you have a ton of systems programmed.

It takes time for the scanner to cycle through all of them.

Try scanning a group or system on your Uniden that is set up exactly like a system in your PRO-95 then compare the scan speed of the two scanners that way.

 

[LIScanner101]

Agreed. Scanning speed between two scanners cannot be compared unless they are scanning the same exact number of the same exact frequencies.

 

[rys092209]

I was starting to come to that conclusion as I watched my scanner. It keeps getting hung up on the CNV freqs. I'm wondering if it would help if I combine all my CNV systems into one system? or if I should just get rid of my CNV in order to speed up the fantastic trunking capabilities. What do you all think?

P.S. thanks for replying

 

[LIScanner101]

Are you really scanning 98 systems?

 

[krd400]

Did you know if you're monitoring the ORION or NSRS systems you would actually have a 15 sec. wait time on any voice hits? 5 sec. for P25, 5 sec. for LNK, and 5 sec. for DAT. Try 2 sec. for these systems and leave the 5 sec. for the rest and see how much that improves your scanning speed.

 

[rys092209]

LIScanner101, I am not really scanning 98 systems. I just have the trunked systems set up on 1-10 (or whatever) and the CNV set up on 99-80(or whatever). I only have as many systems as you see in the screen shot. Actually, I have fewer systems now since I got rid of a few that I could live without.

krd400, I have no idea what you mean. I am used to the Pro-95 type scanner and the equivalents up and down the handheld spectrum. I have never had a base station like the 996XT before and even though I have read the manual through and through, it is still sometimes hard to grasp terms that are not really defined. When I got my Pro-95, I at least could read the manual and program it without any issues, but I feel like the 996XT manual is a skeleton by comparison to the Pro-95 manual. Anyways,

Thanks for everyone's replies. They help.

 

[SpockVulcan]

In Freescan go to Tools > Automatic Scanner Optimizer. Try and at least have it auto-sort the systems, if not try and remove any duplicates

 

[Ronaldski]

Remove duplicates, sort each by frequency and or talkgroups. I normally set each system to Hold Time of zero. It will stay on the system as long as it has to based on how many frequencies or talkgroups it has.

Far as sorting look at http://forums.radioreference.com/un...380-15-996-speed-up-trick-myth-confirmed.html

 

[UPMan]

It looks like you have the scanner set to sit on that system for 5 seconds, even if there is no traffic of interest. This would cause it to appear to be scanning excruciatingly slowly (especially if you have all the systems set up this way).