BCD325P2/BCD996P2: Uniden BCD996P2 Scanning

[Huntercw]

Hello guys, I'm recently getting into scanning trunked radio systems and have a question because perhaps I programmed my scanner inefficiently. Here in NC we use a statewide system called VIPER. I have read tons on the forums and have figured out how to use FreeSCAN and add systems, sites, and talkgroups. This will be a mobile unit and I travel across different counties pretty regularly. I decided to take the advise of one member and add all the counties that I will travel thru and name each system the name of the county, I then added all the sites in that county to the corressponding system. The RR import feature in FreeSCAN saved a lot of time. I assigned QKs for each system so that I can just leave the one county I happen to be in enabled and the rest turned off. For a simple test I added the NCSHP and DOT talkgroup for each system and assigned NCSHP talkgroup QK "1" and DOT "2" so I could listen to both or just one if I prefer. I also have it set to ID SCAN, I thought I did this correctly but when I uploaded it to the scanner I assumed it would just scan the talkgroups on each site but it wants the scan all the frequency's associated with each site and then the 2 talkgroups in every site so it takes a few seconds to go through all the frequency's which are irrelevant because the talkgroups are the only thing that has transmissions. Did I do something wrong? is it a setting in the scanner I need to change? I appreciate any input and hope to learn more about all of this!

 

[Randyk4661]

Hi, I'm in California so I don't know if I will be of much help.
VIPER is a Phase 1 P25 system and what I am seeing you have a Type II P25 system programmed. Close but not the same.
I don't use freescan so I'm not familiar with it. Someone else will chime in with better help for you but you can try changing the system type to something else for a phase 1 system.
"P25 standard" if there is a choice like that?
Good luck.

 

[richardbritt]

Hi, I am also dealing with NC VIPER on a bcd436hp. One thing I have learned so far (I have owned the scanner a little over a week) is that any favorite lists without a quick key are by default turned on and scanned when you turn on the scanner. Does Sentinel software work with your scanner? If so, you might be able to select "avoid" for VIPER towers not near you. Control A will select all the sites under your county name, click on avoid while they are all selected. Then clear the avoid for locations you travel to. It's faster than selecting them one at a time. If you can select set location for the favorite (right click on the favorite) it should only scan tower sites close to your location. It's that way on the bcd436hp at least. Hope this helps.

I haven't learned about quick keys yet.

Regards Richard

Northeastern NC

 

[JoeBearcat]

Hi, I'm in California so I don't know if I will be of much help.
VIPER is a Phase 1 P25 system and what I am seeing you have a Type II P25 system programmed. Close but not the same.
I don't use freescan so I'm not familiar with it. Someone else will chime in with better help for you but you can try changing the system type to something else for a phase 1 system.
"P25 standard" if there is a choice like that?
Good luck.

Deleted - getting too tired to read straight.

 

[ofd8001]

Let me see if I can help.

First, this model of scanner is not friendly to large statewide systems. The scanner has absolute memory limits which a statewide system may exceed.

That said, you may want to upload the whole system (all sites) and those groups of talkgroups you may be interested in. Once imported, you could delete all sites that will not be within your listening range. Give Quick Keys to those sites by region/area. I suggest leaving all talkgroups turned on.

When you see a scanner scanning frequencies, that means it is hunting for control channel data, checking all of the frequencies associated with a site. Once it finds control channel data it "locks in" on the frequency. If it doesn't lock in, that means you are out of range of the site and scanning the site is futile.

Trunked system scanning is different than conventional scanning. In conventional, the scanner "listens" to each frequency and if activity is found, it stays on the frequency.

With trunked systems, the scanner "listens" to the control channel datastream. (That's why you have to have that lock on a site). The scanner then monitors that datastream listening for channel grants. (That's where a talkgroup wants to initiate a conversation and a voice frequency is assigned and all the radios tuned to that talkgroup are directed to the assigned voice frequency.)

Talkgroups themselves are not scanned. Rather your scanner is listening to the channel grants and compares them to what is in your scan list. If there is a channel grant for a talkgroup in your scan list, the scanner goes to the assigned voice frequency and you hear the conversation.

So with that in mind, you should leave all talkgroups of interest turned on. Not every talkgroup will be permitted to use every site. So for example, if you are in Raleigh, you will not hear Fayetteville talkgroups on the Raleigh site, generally speaking. You will hear Fayetteville talkgroups only when you are in the Fayetteville area.

Because talkgroups are not "scanned", there is no adverse impact to scan speed by having numerous talkgroups turned on. Scan speed will be the same for 10 "available" talkgroups as 500 would be.

This is a down and dirty explanation. Statewide systems can be very complicated and have their own unique twists and turns with programming and usage.

 

[Huntercw]

Let me see if I can help.

First, this model of scanner is not friendly to large statewide systems. The scanner has absolute memory limits which a statewide system may exceed.

That said, you may want to upload the whole system (all sites) and those groups of talkgroups you may be interested in. Once imported, you could delete all sites that will not be within your listening range. Give Quick Keys to those sites by region/area. I suggest leaving all talkgroups turned on.

When you see a scanner scanning frequencies, that means it is hunting for control channel data, checking all of the frequencies associated with a site. Once it finds control channel data it "locks in" on the frequency. If it doesn't lock in, that means you are out of range of the site and scanning the site is futile.

Trunked system scanning is different than conventional scanning. In conventional, the scanner "listens" to each frequency and if activity is found, it stays on the frequency.

With trunked systems, the scanner "listens" to the control channel datastream. (That's why you have to have that lock on a site). The scanner then monitors that datastream listening for channel grants. (That's where a talkgroup wants to initiate a conversation and a voice frequency is assigned and all the radios tuned to that talkgroup are directed to the assigned voice frequency.)

Talkgroups themselves are not scanned. Rather your scanner is listening to the channel grants and compares them to what is in your scan list. If there is a channel grant for a talkgroup in your scan list, the scanner goes to the assigned voice frequency and you hear the conversation.

So with that in mind, you should leave all talkgroups of interest turned on. Not every talkgroup will be permitted to use every site. So for example, if you are in Raleigh, you will not hear Fayetteville talkgroups on the Raleigh site, generally speaking. You will hear Fayetteville talkgroups only when you are in the Fayetteville area.

Because talkgroups are not "scanned", there is no adverse impact to scan speed by having numerous talkgroups turned on. Scan speed will be the same for 10 "available" talkgroups as 500 would be.

This is a down and dirty explanation. Statewide systems can be very complicated and have their own unique twists and turns with programming and usage.

Ah okay, I think I understand it a little better now! I was watching the scanner go through the multiple frequency's on each site one by one and then on to the next site and so on. Then it would show the name of the talkgroups and restart the process. I thought while it was showing the frequency's and something came over on a talkgroup I would miss it. Also, I have read from different people that the control channels are the only ones needed to be programmed. FreeSCAN using RR database automatically added all the frequency's. I heard it doesn't really hurt, I could see it slowing down scan speed. Would you advise to leave them all in or just the control?

 

[n1chu]

You could prove that out yourself by measuring the length of time it takes the scanner to finish with one pass of that agencie’s frequencies, first with just the control channels and then with all.

I update the full database from RR and pull that down into the programming software in its entirety. And then into the scanners memory, still in its entirety. At this point I’ve got the entire database residing in my scanner and available should I want to add anything to the scanner from the scanner’s keyboard on the scanner… without needing my laptop. (I’ve found it’s easier/quicker to do all my editing in the software and then push that to the scanner as my final programming as the scanner’s menu is quite extensive and I fat-finger a lot using the manual process.) either way I then build my Favorites Lists (FL’s), cherry picking the systems I want and either editing out or Avoiding the sites I can’t hear. If the scanner only chooses the CC’s instead of the entire frequency list for each site, so be it. I let the scanner determine if it’s going to scan just the CC’s or the entire frequency list for each site. (I believe the scanner only uses the CC’s, so I don't disagree with what’s been posted by others here.

 

[ofd8001]

With that model scanner, I suggest control channels only on a statewide system due to memory limits.

 

[tvengr]

VIPER is a Phase 1 P25 system and what I am seeing you have a Type II P25 system programmed. Close but not the same.
I don't use freescan so I'm not familiar with it. Someone else will chime in with better help for you but you can try changing the system type to something else for a phase 1 system.
"P25 standard" if there is a choice like that?

For some reason, that is the way it programs when downloading from the database. For a BCD996P2 when programming a P25 system using FreeSCAN, the System Type and Site Type should both be P25 Standard (Digital XT). I hear that it still will work when downloaded in spite of that.

Huntercw, please attach your actual FreeSCAN .996 programming file so that we can take a look at it. It's kind of difficult to check for programming errors using the screen shot. You will need to zip the file to be able to attach it. Click on Attach files and open the zipped file.

 

[Huntercw]

For some reason, that is the way it programs when downloading from the database. For a BCD996P2 when programming a P25 system using FreeSCAN, the System Type and Site Type should both be P25 Standard (Digital XT). I hear that it still will work when downloaded in spite of that.

Huntercw, please attach your actual FreeSCAN .996 programming file so that we can take a look at it. It's kind of difficult to check for programming errors using the screen shot. You will need to zip the file to be able to attach it. Click on Attach files and open the zipped file.

Here is the file, I wish there was a database where you could see which talkgroups utilize which sites, it is kind of a guess as to which sites they use, so I just add all the talkgroups to all the sites, but I'm told that doesn't affect scan speed.

 

[Huntercw]

Another question comes to mind and might help with how to program it most efficiently is how are the actual NCSHP radios working? Do they have a built in GPS that enables and disables sites automatically? Or do they just have it programmed to transmit and receive on all sites that they utilize, I didn't think it could transmit and receive more than one frequency at a time.