Freescan: System programming for 996T

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Alain

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Hello All!

As a 13 year member [and a very grateful one!] of this RR website, I haven't had a lot of reason to post. Simply because my old 895 XLT performed flawlessly up until recently. Purchased this gently used Uniden in July to replace it. A major learning curve ensued that has been very intimidating for me since!

I am using a Dell Inspirion 1720 laptop/Vista with the Freescan software as my platform. Here is what I want to accomplish...with your help.

Monitor one law enforcement and all fire agencies in San Diego County and SoCal. I'm as far as System/Sites/Groups...that's it. No frequencies input yet. Eventually, I will use the RR database to accomplish this, but I want to learn how these new scanners work and operate.

The attached "snip" will give you the idea of what I've done. With so little accomplished, I'm unsure if I've done that correctly.

Do I need to remove the "Sheriff" from the San Diego County "trunked system" and set it up as separate system? I ask because I see no provision for P-25 in the trunked "site type" menu for it.

Do each of the other "trunked" agencies require a "new site" in their programming?

If these questions are redundant, please forgive the repetition.

Many thanks for taking the time to respond!

Alain
 

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  • 996T SYSTEM.JPG
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marksmith

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If San Diego County system is Motorola trunked, as your setup seems to indicate, then you need to set up the frequencies that are associated with thst system/site, and that part looks good.

If the SD Sheriff is not part of the same system, and is on a separate p25 system, that needs to be removed and set up there. If it is part of the same system it would be ok, but it sounds like you are setting up a Motorola system and a p25 system.

They need to be set up as independent systems with their independent sites and frequencies.

Mark
WS1095/536/436/996P2/HP1e/HP2e/996XT/325P2/396XT/PRO668/PSR800/PRO652
 

ka3jjz

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To follow up with what Mark has mentioned, the system labeled 'SAN DIEGO COUNTY' needs a site entry with the frequencies. The 996T does all its trunking at the site, not system, level. In addition each CNV system will need its own set of frequencies

Freescan can download all of this for you, once you purchase a premium subscription (cheap). Alternately you could go to our California forum and ask for a .996 (the file extension FreeScan uses) file for your area that you can edit down to your preferences. Mike
 

ka3jjz

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This article from our wiki (links are always blue, by the way) should be a help to you. It has links to just about everything you need to know to get started. The Easier to Read manuals are linked at the bottom of this article- they are way better than the mess Uniden supplies.

Program your DMA Scanner - The RadioReference Wiki

I would suggest getting one system going at a time - learning step by step is the easiest way to avoid getting overwhelmed by the details all at once. There's a lot to ingest.

Mike
 

JoeyC

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Also, you can't have just ONE system for SD Sheriff, Northcomm and San Diego Fire. They are on 2 different systems.
 

Alain

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You guys have been most helpful; thank you.

I'm going to program the VHF/UHF frequencies first; it sounds the easiest way to go, for now. I believe it will help me in expanding my understanding of just how the 996T does what it does. Once I get to that point, I'll subscribe, leaving the tedious data entry to the RR website and my laptop(!)

I'm sure that I'll have more questions along the way.

Thank you all for being there!

Alain
 

Alain

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San Diego, California
FREESCAN: Programming Errors

Hello Everyone...again,

I started small, trying to upload just the San Diego County agencies. My first attempt to upload to the scanner told me that the scanner was "incompatible".

The second try said "timed out" where the "Click on "Start Upload" to upload" instruction is in the lower left hand corner. What's that mean?

The third problem stymies me. As you can see from the snip, the scanner is smiling, the green check mark is there, I got the go-ahead to upload, right?...BUT, when I tried to upload, I got the critical error...

Any help would be most gratefully received!

Alain
 

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  • FREESCAN SNIP.JPG
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Alain

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SUCCESS!

"What changed?" you may well ask. As this was a previously owned 996T, I decided to reset the scanner, That did the trick...System1 is now in full ops. My next upload will be the P-25 system.

Alain
 

Alain

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Location
San Diego, California
"nothing to scan"

This is what my 996T scanner displays AFTER I've just uploaded the next system. I can see the groups loading. I can see the "channels" being loaded. Yet, at the end there is nothing to scan.


Here's the snip:

Any ideas?

Many thanks!
 

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  • SCANNER SNIP.JPG
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captclint

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Nothing to scan means you have somehow locked out or disabled all systems. Check this system page to see if the Locked out is checked.
 

Alain

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Mike and Clint,

Thank you both for taking the time to respond! Regrettably, after doing all that you've suggested [reading the instructions on "NOTHING TO SCAN"] the scanner display still says "nothing to scan".

I have checked my "locked" settings on the page, I have reset the scanner [2+9+HOLD] then uploaded my "new" data, I have check marked the box, "replace any existing system..."

Nothing has worked.

It may have something to do with the "quick key" settings. I did monkey around with them earlier on while setting up the data. I thought that If I uploaded the data WITHOUT ANY quick keys to any system or site, the "new" upload would work, but no joy. Something seems to be locked somewhere, since a new upload has no effect at all.

Shouldn't a "new" upload [w/o quick keys] overwrite anything in the scanner? I'm going to think on this a bit. If anyone else can come up with something that I'm/we're overlooking, please let me know, please!

Otherwise over the weekend, I'll delete ALL OF MY DATA and start with a new system and new sites....but there isn't any guarantee that this could be the problem, but I'm fresh out of ideas.

Many thanks!
 

ka3jjz

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If you have no quick keys assigned, then the solution is quite easy; all you need to do is to assign a SQK for the site you wish to use, and a GQK for each group. While FreeScan defaults to having all the GQKs enabled, you must assign which one(s) you want to use. And you must assign a SQK for the site as well. FreeScan even has a tool called the System Quick Key Manager to help you find out which SQKs are assigned to what. This is all explained here;

Freescan and Quick Key Processing - The RadioReference Wiki

And when you do this and are ready to upload, use REPLACE not ADD ...Mike
 

ka3jjz

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A little more here - assuming you have a single site system you are trying to program first (recommended; get one system going at a time first), you would set the System Quick Key pulldown on the System form to say 'By Site' (since that's how a 996 series scanner works). Then allocate a Site, and assign that a Quick Key using the pulldown. And for each of the groups, use the pulldown to select their Group Quick Key (GQK)

Mike
 

Alain

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Location
San Diego, California
Mike,

You and others have been a tremendous help and most patient and I am grateful. I found one previous post that was very helpful to me, regarding the "...I didn't do anything but my scanner displays "NOTHING TO SCAN".

http://forums.radioreference.com/uniden-thread-archives/191854-996xt-freescan-nothing-scan.html

Glad to report that I am back to where I was on November 2nd...but questions have arisen.

My System 1 [see attached], has three agencies which use the same set of 19 frequencies. As a beginner, it was "logical" to me to place all three agencies in the same system. However, "What if..., [I asked myself] there is something going on in FIRE that I want to listen to that group exclusively. How would I temporarily disable the other 2 agencies from interfering?"

Is it best [logical?] to set up each agency as its own separate system, regardless of whether they use the same [or different] frequencies; that way, when an interesting call is monitored, the remainder of the agencies could be locked out.

If that's not the ideal way, what IS the best effective way to set up the scanner for a highway patrol, a city fire department, a city police department, a county fire department? Would you be willing to share how you set up your scanner for different agencies?

Any "cardinal rules" to follow?

Again, as always, many thanks for taking the time to respond!

Alain
 

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  • San Diego County.JPG
    San Diego County.JPG
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ka3jjz

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There really are no 'cardinal' rules for setting up groups (apart, of course, from assigning GQKs). This is part of the power of DMA programming. You may have downloaded the groups for San Diego County, but that in no way means that you are locked into scanning that way. You can mix and match as much, or as little, as you wish

To use an example, if I had 3 groups set up, one for Fire, one for sheriff, one for highway patrol, I could have 3 GQKs set up - one for each group. So let's say something is happening on the Fire group and I don't want to hear the sheriff or highway patrol right now, the answer is simple - while in that system, press the number of the GQK you want to lock out (at least that's how I did it with my 396T). If memory serves, the display will then show an '*' (asterisk) in that position. Restoring it back is exactly the same way. It sounds harder to do then the description suggests - it's really quite simple if you think about it a bit.

How you arrange your groups is totally up to you and your listening interests at the time. Remember to back up your working version before fooling around - that way, if you really hose something up - we've all done it - you can easily restore it

Mike
 
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