Uniden BCT8 cant get trunking to work

[skatcb]

I have an BCT8 scanner and cant get trunking to work. I am trying to get the Fairfax County Police and Fire, but when I follow the instructions in the book it wont pick anything up even when I know they are talking.. HELP! can someone explain in layman terms how to program the correct ID's or frequency..

 

[Bullmax]

Read here Programming the BCT-8 - The RadioReference Wiki

 

[BeerNutz]

Programming the BCT-8

Trunking Programming
Program the Control and Voice Frequencies
1.Press and hold TRUNK for a couple of seconds to enter Trunk Programming mode.
2.Use the number pad to choose a bank number (1, 2, 3, 4, or 5) where you want to store this trunk. If you haven't done any trunk programming before, use bank 1 (press the 1 key). If you already have something programmed into your other banks, choose a new bank number. Remember you can only store one trunk per bank.
3.Press the up arrow until you find what system type you want. See the chart below. Then press the E button.
4.Prog F will appear on the scanner display. Press the E button again. The display will show 1 000.0000.
5.Using the keypad, type in the first frequency, then press E.
6.Press the up-arrow button. The display will show 2 000.0000.
7.Using the keypad, type in the next frequency, then press E.
8.Continue until all are entered. You must enter ALL the frequencies for a given system Press SRCH to begin searching the bank you've programmed.
9.This scanner is compatible with the following Trunking System Types and System Voices used in the RadioReference Database, of course you must verify that the scanner will cover the appropriate frequency range:



System Type Screen Display
Motorola Type I1 E1
Motorola Type I Rebanded 4 E1-Cus
Motorola Type IIi Hybrid 1 E1
Motorola Type II E2-800
Motorola Type II Rebanded 4 E2-Cus
Motorola Type II Smartnet E2-800
Motorola Type II Smartzone E2-800
Motorola Type II Smartzone Omnilink E2-800
Motorola Type II VHF 2 E2-Hi
Motorola Type II UHF 3 E2-UHF
EDACS Standard (Wide) Ed
EDACS Standard Networked Ed
EDACS SCAT Ed SCt
LTR Standard Lt

 

[ka3jjz]

It's all described in the wiki article that was mentioned earlier - this question comes up so often that it warranted getting captured there (and it's good info to boot)

Anyway if you're talking about Fairfax County Virginia the BCT8 won't cut it - the old system only has 1 or 2 analog talkgroups, and the rest are digital; looks like the new one is all P25 digital. You will need a digital trunktracker for these systems - our wiki has a category devoted to this topic - just click on the model you wish to investigate...

Categoryigital Scanners - The RadioReference Wiki

You can find more help on this topic in our Virginia forum In fact it looks like there are a couple of Fairfax related threads there (don't just read the new stuff...)...best regards...Mike

 

[Yona]

BCT8 LTR Trunking ID Problems

I just acquired a BTC8 and my primary purpose for getting it is to monitor our LTR system. So far I have programmed in all the Freq, but I am having problems with getting it to track any specific ID. I am not sure about some things.
I do not know if when the manual referrers to (H) home channel (01 through 20) it means that I can only have 20 channels and if I will have to program the channels in the same order jumping over unused channels in the line up.

So far I can scan all the channels in the Bank (PVT) and hear all the activities, but when I press the Trunk button I can not hear anything from the ID I have programmed in for a specific group; even when I key the radio on that channel group.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.