Let's see if we can wade through this.
Thanks guy’s for all the good information.
I’m new to this and need more help.
Maybe some one can look over my work flow loading sites onto my Uniden BCD325p2 and tell me what I might be doing wrong. I have a feeling this could be my problem.
I’m using freescan with radio frequency.
I start freescan with a blank screen.
I go to file, import, over to radio reference Trunked and select.
Now I input my location. United States, NJ, Bergen.
Go over to available systems: in the drop down window I select Bergen County (APCO P25)
Under sites and groups I have 3 choices
North Simulcast.
South Simulcast.
Stage Hill.
I keep them all checked.
Next on the right side of this window I uncheck all 20 choices and re-check one (interboro Police) and select import.
In the nest window I have a folder on the upper left which says:
(MOT)Bergen County.
In the folder I have 4 items.
(GRP)Interboro Police.
(MP25)North Simulcast.
(MP25)South Simulcast.
(MP25)Stage Hill.
First, change the System type to P25 Standard (Digital XT).
The "Motorola Type II/P25" type was appropriate for the original 396T. For the 396XT, and now the 325P2, use the one I suggested.
Here’s where I get lost numbering.
(MOT)Bergen County. I do not number.
GRP)Interboro Police. I give it a quick key #1
The next 3 I’m not sure what to do being they have two choices. Quick key and startup key. So I just do nothing.
(MP25)North Simulcast.
(MP25)South Simulcast.
(MP25)Stage Hill.
The item Bergen County should not get a Quick Key. For the 325P2, and the other Uniden scanners capable of multi-site, you assign the quick keys at the site level, not system. The quick keys simply allow you to toggle the selected site on or off, in case yu only want to monitor only one site, or turn the system off completely if you are well out of range.
The Startup key os one where you can set one or more sites to specify whether they are enabled, or not,, when starting the scanner by pressing a number key. If you used
1 for a startup key, and then turned on the scanner while holding down the number 1 key, only systems with that startup key, and any others that had
no startup key would be scanned. Any system with a startup key other than one would not be monitored,
See this for more on quick keys:
wiki.radioreference.com
A discussion on startup keys can be read in this thread:
Hello, Have a SDS200. Have just started looking into the Startup Key operation(s). Question, please: Let's say I have a FL called Mass, and have Startup Key 1 assigned to it. And a FL called Conn, for which Startup Key 2 is assigned. Fine, no problems. Can turn either one on at startup by...
forums.radioreference.com
That is for a different model scanner, but the same basic startup key functions are the same in both models.
I now save my project.
I then go to up load my project to my scanner. A new window opens. I see my project Bergen County with a checked box. Over to the right there are 8 choices.
The last 5 are checking and I leave them checked. The first 3 top choices I choose erase all systems and settings.
.
You're talking about the normal upload choices that FreeSCAN shows:
You select the system to load on the left side, which in your case is Bergen County,
The "Erase all systems..." clears any older programming from the scanner, then loads only the system you have selected.
IF you already had the Bergen system loaded, but wanted to only replace that one, but not any other systems loaded in the scanner, you could use the "Replace any existing system with the same name, and add remaining", that would load Bergen, overwriting what was already there (if any previously loaded), then it would add any other systems that you also selected to load.
"Add only, do not overwrite" would add any system you selected to upload to what was already in the scanner.
I never use this, because if I was loading other systems, I might be duplicating what had been uploaded to the scanner previously, leaving you with duplicates. I always use the 'erase all systems' options, so that I don't accidentally add the same system more than once.
The item labeled as "Send custom radio settings" tells FreeSCAN to load the details you can specify on Set Scanner Options menu (select that from the drop-down Scanner menu on FreeSCAN's main screen).
Here, you can specify display options, weather SAME codes, and other items listed on the tabs of that page.
The "Don't send digital channels..." selection tells FreeSCAN not to send digital frequencies & trunked systems to a non-digital scanner. If, for example, you had a number of other systems programmed, and were using the same basic file on an analog scanner, like the BCT15X, FreeSCAN would not send any digital systems to that scanner, because it cannot monitor those.
The 'Send Global lockouts" and "Quick Key status" tells FreeSCAN to send anything you have labeled as locked out in the scanner settings (like the Broadcast screen", and also to activate any quick keys that you set as active in your file.
The last item, "resume scanning" tells the scanner to start back up scanning, without waiting for you to manually tell the scanner to resume.
Now in the upload window On freescan I see a problem with upload status.
On the left side I see:
Systems 1
Groups 3
Channels 21
That's just confirming what you loaded.
On the right side I see:
Mem full 0%
Errors 1
Skipped 0.
The Mem full 0% just gives you a rough idea of how full the memory is. Since the 325P2 has a capacity of up to 25,000 channels, you are loading well less than 1%, if the Bergen system, with one group, is all you are programming.
The "Errors 1" is usually colored as
red, and if you click on it, you can see what error it refers to. FreeSCAN, when a new file is being used, often gives you an error for "band plan missing" or "Weather not set". among others. These can simply be ignored. On a P25 system, such as Bergen, the scanner gets the band plan information it needs directly from the systems control channel.
Also ignore the weather warning.
Hopefully some one can see a problem in my workflow and get me on track. I have viewed dozens of YouTube videos but most were for conventional programming.
Thanks ahead of time for your help.
I then click start upload. After it uploads I see my scanning, scanning but receive nothing.
Are you seeing an error message "nothing to scan", or are you simply not hearing anything?
You might also attach your programming file to a post, so that someone can look at it & suggest what needs to be added or changed. To do that, save your file.
Using Windows Explorer, go to the folder where your file is located.
<right><click> on the file, and you'll get a pop-up menu with a number of choices.
Select the one labeled as "Send to"
Use the one labeled as "Compressed (zipped) folder.
If your original file was named as "Bergen.996" (the *.996 is what FreeSCAN uses, but it is not valid for attaching to a post), yu will now also have one labeled as
Bergen.zip. That file you can attach to a post.
