What will a BCT15 scan on the Front Range?

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Moosemedic

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I recently purchased a BCT15 (not a "T" or "XT") on ebay.
It was a great price and now I know why.
I seems that it's not accepting most of the Front Range Systems.
I've programmed it for Ft. Collins to Pueblo. It wouldn't take the newer MARC for Jefferson County. And although it allowed Denver to be programmed, I'm not getting any traffic.

It's working just fine for Aurora, both Fire and Police. Why is that?

Obviously conventional VHF systems are working without difficulty, squelch and range not withstanding.

So, question to the group;
What CAN I monitor with this in the Denver Region?:confused:
 

GrayJeep

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I googled the manual online and -

Boulder city and county are still VHF FM. You can hear that.
Looks like that will do EDACs so Aurora will work.

What it won't do is P25 - which is the Colorado Digital Trunked Radio System and is where most agencies and jurisdictions are.

Oh you can also do standard VHF air band (DIA, Unicom, Guard, etc)
 

Moosemedic

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Ah HA... Thanks .... P25... that's the part I missed.
Well, it'll be good for something.. just not what as much as I'd hoped
It was just at a good price, so I guess I'll find some use for it.
Still bidding on a 996XT ....
 

joeuser

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Ah HA... Thanks .... P25... that's the part I missed.
Well, it'll be good for something.. just not what as much as I'd hoped
It was just at a good price, so I guess I'll find some use for it.
Still bidding on a 996XT ....
996/396XT's are great radios, only downside no P25p2 support but the P25p1 works great. Just as good as the x36HP's IMHO
 

Moosemedic

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I googled the manual online and -

Boulder city and county are still VHF FM. You can hear that.
Looks like that will do EDACs so Aurora will work.

What it won't do is P25 - which is the Colorado Digital Trunked Radio System and is where most agencies and jurisdictions are.

Oh you can also do standard VHF air band (DIA, Unicom, Guard, etc)


Denver is EDACS-Wide as well, but nothing. Is that because they're all Digital and Aurora is using Analog on their EDACS?

I've got my BCD396XT sitting here and it's picking up Denver and Aurora just fine....
 

Spitfire8520

I might be completely clueless! =)
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Denver is using EDACS ESK which provides enhanced system security, but also causes issues with older EDACS scanners. The RadioReference Wiki seems to give an indication that Firmware Update 1.06.00 might give you ability to follow ESK, but a search on the forums doesn't seem to support this statement. You can apparently check the firmware by going to Menu -> Settings -> See Scanner Info -> Firmware Version. I do not own a BCT15, so I do not know if the firmware update will actually allow you to follow Denver or not.
 

Moosemedic

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Firmware went about as well as iOS 8.x

Well...
I followed the link, and applied the firmware update 1.06.

Now I don't hear Aurora in addition to not hearing Denver. Not quite the "upgrade" I was looking for.

I don't think it changed anything in the configuration of the systems to cause this, but I'll have to look. As for EDACS ESK, I'll have to look in to that as well

Incidentally, upgrading to 2.0 or newer was a "major version upgrade" which was requiring $29.99 for a Registration Code.

Thank you to everyone for the replies
 
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