Uniden BCT15X help!

[sokejt]

Okay...got a new Uniden BCT15X
I have spent 2 days, watched tons of vids...and still can not get it working. Is it just an expensive paper weight or what? Help

 

[ka3jjz]

All right, first questions - where are you (county/state is fine) and what are you trying to hear? Note that the 15 series is an analog trunking only scanner and will not receive any digital formats.

When we know this, then we can help....Mike

 

[sokejt]

All right, first questions - where are you (county/state is fine) and what are you trying to hear? Note that the 15 series is an analog trunking only scanner and will not receive any digital formats.

When we know this, then we can help....Mike

Live in Ross County, Ohio.
Trying Ross Sheriff, Chillicothe police, and local township fire ems

 

[buddrousa]

What all new people to the hobby need to learn and answer these questions.
1. What is it you want to hear? (Police, Fire, EMS, what is the range you expect (how far do you want to hear)?
2. Where are you located?
3. What is your budget?
4. Do your homework What Type Systems are in use in your area. (P25, DMR, NXDN, SIMULCAST, TRUNKING)?
5. How technological savvy are you?
6. Do you want a Base Mobile or Handheld?
7. Do you understand BASIC COMPUTER COMMANDS (DOS COMMANDS)?
8. If needed can you put up your own outside antenna?
9. If you require assistance PLEASE LIST
A. Where you are.
B. What type Scanner you have.
C. How you are trying to program it (by hand or Software and IF BY SOFTWARE WHAT BRAND AND VERSION.
D. What problem you are having.
Answering all the above questions will give you the best option to buy the scanner that best works in your requirements and get you the best assistance from the members here.
There is not 1 member here that can answer a question posted this way. MY SCANNER DOES NOT RECEIVE.

 

[kruser]

Live in Ross County, Ohio.
Trying Ross Sheriff, Chillicothe police, and local township fire ems

Pretty much everything you would like to monitor is on the Ohio MARCS-IP P25 digital system.
The 15X will not receive digital systems so I guess you could consider it an expensive paper weight unless you like monitoring other services like aircraft, railroad etc.. Those are analog which the 15X will receive.

If you bought it new, I'd try and return it and save up for a digital capable model which will cost even more.

 

[W8RMH]

Prior to purchasing a scanner research what systems are in use before making a purchase. Hopefully you can return it or exchange it for one of the scanners below.

You will need a P25 digital scanner like the BCD996XT or BCD996P2, digital versions of the BCT15X.

I listen to Ross County in Columbus on my Unication G4 pager.

 

[Nasby]

There's a guy selling a PRO-106 in the Classifieds for $110.00.

Pretty good deal and the scanner would work well for what you want to hear in Ross County.

 

[greggk]

[QUOTEI "sokejt, post: 3264611, member: 1359044"]
Okay...got a new Uniden BCT15X
I have spent 2 days, watched tons of vids...and still can not get it working. Is it just an expensive paper weight or what? Help
[/QUOTE]
1.Can you tell us who you bought this from? I ask for a very good reason.
2. Look for the scanner in a search at you tube. Many, many videos. In fact, you could spend some time reading and watching videos there. You said you watched many videos, so perhaps this does not apply.
3. Have you looked into the manual? It will not tell you everything, but basic knowledge should be there.
4. Look into any scanning clubs that might be where you live who will be glad to help a newbie.

As mentioned above, the Pro 106 is a fine scanner. I have one and wish I had more. One caveat to that: it can be daunting to manually program that scanner. It would be best to use with Butel Software and a RR subscription. FWIW.

 

[buddrousa]

There's a guy selling a PRO-106 in the Classifieds for $110.00.

Pretty good deal and the scanner would work well for what you want to hear in Ross County.

He is a real nice man also.

 

[tvengr]

There's a guy selling a PRO-106 in the Classifieds for $110.00.
Pretty good deal and the scanner would work well for what you want to hear in Ross County.

Check if the programming cable is included with the Pro-106. You will need that. You will also need programming software. For that scanner, you can use ARC500, WIN500, or PSREdit500. Each offers a free trial period. I prefer Butel ARC500.

 

[greggk]

Buddrousa..I should have asked myself those questions before I bought my SDS100. lol. Good checklist tho. This would behoove anyone to read before buying, especially a newbie. Would be great to get posted as a sticky. Greg

Should have asked before my micro card components went shooting across the room. Damn things !

 

[buddrousa]

Sorry to hear Greg I remember software from the past that would recover a formatted drive. I hope you had things backed up.

 

[greggk]

All is backed up. I cannot explain why sentinel defaulted to my "D" drive rather than the SDS100? I realize I mistakenly did not point the software to that scanner, but it did not give me any "D"drive options either.

I realize this is user error. I should have stopped and thought from a cool head, but I was so "frazzled" over the SD card not locking in properly that I took things to fast.

Live and learn. User error. I know better. I've been running scanners since 1972, and my first computer was a Commodore 128, where I taught myself DOS commands. Greg.

 

[buddrousa]

My 1st PC was a Commodore Clone came with DOS 3.0 2 5.25 floppies no hard drive I added the hard drive a $250 10MB 5.25 hard drive.

 

[greggk]

My 1st PC was a Commodore Clone came with DOS 3.0 2 5.25 floppies no hard drive I added the hard drive a $250 10MB 5.25 hard drive.

My memory takes me back to what you said. The only way to start the Commodore was by inserting a 5 1/4 floppy. Those were good "computing" days.

 

[tvengr]

All is backed up. I cannot explain why sentinel defaulted to my "D" drive rather than the SDS100? I realize I mistakenly did not point the software to that scanner, but it did not give me any "D"drive options either.

With the SDS100 in USB Mass Storage, the scanner shows up as USB Drive D on my computer. That is normal.

 

[hiegtx]

With the SDS100 in USB Mass Storage, the scanner shows up as USB Drive D on my computer. That is normal.

However, if your pc has assigned drive D to a second hard drive, or to a DVD or CD drive, the scanner may show up as Drive E or another number.

 

[greggk]

With the SDS100 in USB Mass Storage, the scanner shows up as USB Drive D on my computer. That is normal.

Thanks Jim. Sentinel was pointing to Drive D/Scanner; However, and again my fault as I pushed the button, I have always had Drive C and Drive D. Drive D was a formatted drive to store my backups on. This is how the computer was when I bought it. TWO drives, C and D. The only reason I clicked D was because it said: Drive D /Scanner.

What It should have said was D / Hard drive. What I should have done was investigate further.

I did refresh and asked to show all drives. It showed, again, Drive D/ Scanner. That is as plain as I can put it.
Again, I was ultimately at fault cuz I knew what drive D really was. It was a smaller partition on my hard drive, along with the large partition...Drive C. Enough huh? I can't change it, I'm not happy about it, but thank God I didn't lose my entire hard drive.

One last thing: I have a DRIVE E as well, which is a removable external drive for backups. I do not recall it showing Drive E. I can assure you I would not, under any circumstance, play with Drive E. Greg

 

[Whiskey3JMC]

Oh the 15X is anything BUT an expensive paperweight. Though it may not work to receive everything the OP needs, It's still a fine analog-only receiver. Only reason I sold mine along with my 996XT was to fund a 536HP years ago

 

[greggk]

Concur. Its not expensive. However, the OP wants to hear Sheriff and Fire traffic. How much more money is that worth ? Greg