Hola, el pablo - the only trial and error that will be involved will be in how you wish to organize what you want to hear. It sounds like you're just getting started, so let's start from the beginning and work our way up. Before I begin, anything in blue or underlined is a link of one kind or another. We have an extensive wiki-based reference section, and this type of marking works there as well. Please bookmark these references - you will find that you will need to refer to them more than once, I'm sure.
a. As many hobbies are, we have a ton of terminology, some of it rather arcane to a newcomer. We have a start on a glossary of sorts - I don't believe any glossary is ever really complete, but it's a good start...
http://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/Category:RR_Glossary
b. Travis county is evidently a member of a large tri-county trunked system. In it's most basic terms, trunking is the ability of many users to share a selected set of frequencies at the same time. To get a basic understanding of the function, read the overview section of
http://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/Trunking
Travis County's data has been entered into our databases - and it can be viewed at this link
http://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?ctid=2749
c. If you are programming the 396 manually, this link does a much better job of explaining the various features than the Uniden manual, which has been pretty much panned by the scanning community
http://myweb.cableone.net/marksscanners/330/330test.html
d. If you are looking to program your 396 via PC, the first thing to consider is whether you need a USB cable or not. Newer PCs don't have serial ports; this is not a real burden, however, as Uniden sells their own USB-1 cable; in addition other distributors have had success with this as well. Others here can do a better job of recommending them, as I'm fortunate enough to have a PC with 2 serial ports
Now as to software - there are 2 freeware packages that are quite well-regarded - BCTool and FreeScan. The links are below;
http://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/BcTool
(at the bottom of this article are 2 links - the Yahoo group holds the most recent version of the program, while the website has the screen shots and so forth)
http://scannow.org/
If you have questions on either of these programs, please utilize the correct forum. BCtool has their Yahoo group, while the FreeScan site has it's own forums linked on that page. Both authors are quite responsive to questions, and if you happen into a bug or two...this will be the fastest way to get answers. FreeScan's author is here on RR (cpuerror) but it's faster on his own forum.
You may find that you would like to get data from the database and load it into the program you choose. To do that, you need a premium subscription
http://www.radioreference.com/apps/subscription/
e. As you are getting started, it may be easier to get a file from a Travis county scannist and modify it to fit your needs. We have a Texas forum, and there's where you should make that request. Both freeware programs can import UASD files as a data source; this is the Uniden Advanced System Director, and is pretty much the predecessor for all the software for the DMA radios (of which the 396 is one). Be sure to be specific about your request; tell folks you are looking for a UASD file for the 396 for Travis County.
That should be more than enough for now 73 Mike
