Thanks for the reply. I'm learning more about this Uniden since I began worming my way through trial and error and throwing the manual to the floor. The online manual is frustrating. My Uniden is pretty much programmed now but I still have some things to learn. My question now is on the ARC XT pro software I'm unable to loacate info on the 'HOLD and DELAY times. I have the idea that the term delay refers to the time the radio locks onto the frequency after the transmission has finished. Not sure of the term 'Hold'. The delay time oddly has plus and minus numbers to choose from. 'Hold Time' is an empty field where I type in a number. Please can you explain these two fields.
Hold time is the time the scanner spends searching a specific system. Normally, the scanner will scan the system, whether conventional, or a trunked system, one time.
It will check for activity on any of the frequencies you have programmed (once) on a Conventional system. It checks for activity on each of the programmed frequencies hat are not locked out, and are not in a Group which has been locked out. When it finds an active channel (that's not locked out), you'll hear the transmission. Depending on your delay setting, the scanner will wait for however long you specified as a delay, then continue on down the list of frequencies you have programmed in that system. When it gets to the end of the frequencies in the system, it will move on to the next system programmed.
On a Trunked system, once it finds and decodes the active control channel (assuming you're in range, of course) the scanner will check to see if any of the talkgroups you have entered, that are not locked out, and are not in a Group that has been locked out, are being used. If so, you'll hear them. Once that transmission ends, plus whatever delay you have entered, it will resume checking for active talkgroups in the ones you have entered (that are not locked out & are not in a locked out Group). Once it's made a pass through the system, it will move on to the next system you have programmed.
Adding a
Hold to either a Conventional or Trunked system causes the scanner to stay on that system longer, looking for activity. On a Conventional system, especially one without a huge number of channels entered, a Hold setting of one or two seconds might result in the scanner going back through the system several times, increasing your chance of hearing activity. Similarly, a Hold setting on a trunked system makes the scanner wait a bit longer before moving to the next system, again increasing your your chance of catching activity. The downside, of course, is that by having the scanner, in effect, pause on each system slows down the overall scan process, so it takes longer for the unit to make it through
all of the systems you have programmed.
With only a couple of exceptions, I don't use a hold on the systems I monitor. For
Texas DPS, the state troopers in my state, I use a one second delay, but a two second Hold time. The reason is that the larger base stations operate in a duplex mode- the base transmits on one frequency, but the mobile units answer on a different one. If I had a longer delay, the scanner would be sitting on one entry, while the reply was made on a totally different channel. By using a Hold time, the scanner will resume scanning the list and may pick up that other transmission, on the alternate frequency. I've also used Hold in the past to have the scanner sit on a new trunked system for an extra second or two, in order to identify any new talkgroups that are not in the database.
For
Delay, I use two seconds on most of my systems. That seems to be a good compromise figure that catches most replies, but does not unduly slow down the scanner's progress. The
Negative Delay option you're seeing is there to allow a means to force the scanner to resume, instead of staying on one channel. This can be useful where the conventional frequency is, say, a 'talk' channel, where two or more officers chat rather than on the main dispatch channel. While that can get interesting, if they are discussing an upcoming response, it can get boring if it's just idle chit-chat, like 'where do you want to meet for lunch?' I use
Negative Delay on Dallas Fire Rescue's automated station Dispatch frequency. "Dispatch Debbie" has the tendency to get stuck, repeating the same incident & units assigned over & over & over. So, with a negative delay, I get the first round, but skip the summer re-runs.
