BCT-15X CTCSS/DCS detect speed

[LIScanner101]

I currently have a Radio Shack PRO-163 but I'm looking at the much more feature-rich Uniden BCT-15X. However, my old BCT780XLT took FOREVER to detect a CTCSS or DCS tone. My PRO-163 finds them instantly.

Are all Uniden scanners - new and old, even the BCT-15X - slow on tone detection, or has Uniden fixed this? I would imagine they've come a long way since the BCT780LXT...

 

[RonnieUSA]

I currently have a Radio Shack PRO-163 but I'm looking at the much more feature-rich Uniden BCT-15X. However, my old BCT780XLT took FOREVER to detect a CTCSS or DCS tone. My PRO-163 finds them instantly.

Are all Uniden scanners - new and old, even the BCT-15X - slow on tone detection, or has Uniden fixed this? I would imagine they've come a long way since the BCT780LXT...

I have the 15X, and it has No problems finding the tone codes.
It has a better receive on VHF than my 197, but it seem to lack the receive for UHF & 800 MHZ that my 197 has.
Don't get me wrong it sill gets them, but not as strong, and clear as the 197, but the VHF makes up for that.

 

[gtaman]

I currently have a Radio Shack PRO-163 but I'm looking at the much more feature-rich Uniden BCT-15X. However, my old BCT780XLT took FOREVER to detect a CTCSS or DCS tone. My PRO-163 finds them instantly.

Are all Uniden scanners - new and old, even the BCT-15X - slow on tone detection, or has Uniden fixed this? I would imagine they've come a long way since the BCT780LXT...

Mine takes about 2 seconds. It's just about as fast as my pro 164. But my 164 finds one that's incorrect then fixes it and I don't know why. But sometimes the BCT 15 can be sluggish. Check your squelch it may help.

 

[LIScanner101]

Mine takes about 2 seconds. It's just about as fast as my pro 164. But my 164 finds one that's incorrect then fixes it and I don't know why. But sometimes the BCT 15 can be sluggish. Check your squelch it may help.

Thanks. I don't own the 780 anymore but I also had (at the same time) the PRO-2067 and in a side-by-side with the 780 the RS captured tones almost instantly while it would take a few seconds for the Uniden. When you're "hunting" for new frequencies sonetimes you don't get more than a second or two.

PS - squelch adjustments had no effect on the results of the above comparison experiment.

So far what I gather here is that the Unidens are still slower at tone detection.

 

[w2lie]

Slower, but not like you remember them. Remember how the 780 would 'step' through the tones until it found a match? Sometimes you would have to wait for the transmission to come over 2 or 3 times just to get that valid hit? That no longer happens with the "XT" series scanners. It only takes about a second or two, and you'll get a PL/DPL hit.

 

[LIScanner101]

Slower, but not like you remember them. Remember how the 780 would 'step' through the tones until it found a match? Sometimes you would have to wait for the transmission to come over 2 or 3 times just to get that valid hit? That no longer happens with the "XT" series scanners. It only takes about a second or two, and you'll get a PL/DPL hit.

Wow, you just described EXACTLY how my 780 used to drive me bonkers in that regard. Other than that it was decent. But good to know that the new Unidens are better. I'm going to pick one up !

 

[KE4RWS]

Slow tone search feature

Slower, but not like you remember them. Remember how the 780 would 'step' through the tones until it found a match? Sometimes you would have to wait for the transmission to come over 2 or 3 times just to get that valid hit? That no longer happens with the "XT" series scanners. It only takes about a second or two, and you'll get a PL/DPL hit.

OH MY GOD . . . I remember my 780xlt doing the CTCSS "step" thing and it drove me crazy to see it going so slowly and having to wait for what seemed an eternity for it to find a PL tone. Thank God technology has greatly improved with this feature.

My 996XT finds PL/DPL tones fairly quickly but it seems my PSR-600 displays them almost instantly. However, the 996XT tone search has vastly improved from older models.

You sure brought back some memories with that one! :wink:

 

[LIScanner101]

OH MY GOD . . . I remember my 780xlt doing the CTCSS "step" thing and it drove me crazy to see it going so slowly and having to wait for what seemed an eternity for it to find a PL tone. Thank God technology has greatly improved with this feature.

My 996XT finds PL/DPL tones fairly quickly but it seems my PSR-600 displays them almost instantly. However, the 996XT tone search has vastly improved from older models.

You sure brought back some memories with that one! :wink:

Well, it STILL sounds to me like the GRE scanners can find tones in a few milliseconds whereas the Unidens do it in about a second or two. I guess that's fast enough for me - a second or two is a huge improvement over 4-5.

 

[safetyobc]

I don't have the 15x anymore, but when I did, it was near instant on detecting the tone. My BCD996T is also near instant.

 

[volstatescanner]

My 15X seems to be very quick, I have not had any issues with it and the close call will lock up quickly as well.

 

[KE4RWS]

Slower, but not like you remember them. Remember how the 780 would 'step' through the tones until it found a match? Sometimes you would have to wait for the transmission to come over 2 or 3 times just to get that valid hit? That no longer happens with the "XT" series scanners. It only takes about a second or two, and you'll get a PL/DPL hit.

I had an amateur radio back in the early 1990's with the same CTCSS tone search feature and what made it so bad was not only did it slowly scan through each tone, it might never find the correct one because it would usually require multiple (longer) transmissions from stations to resolve the correct tone. However, it wouldn't resume the search from where it left off on the last go-round. It would always start over at 67 Hz and slowly scan upward and unless the target was using a lower tone it might *never* find the correct one before the conversation ended.

It worked okay for repeaters where they typically get held open for longer periods but for simplex transmissions it was worthless unless they were using something from about 67-102 Hz.

 

[LIScanner101]

I had an amateur radio back in the early 1990's with the same CTCSS tone search feature and what made it so bad was not only did it slowly scan through each tone, it might never find the correct one because it would usually require multiple (longer) transmissions from stations to resolve the correct tone. However, it wouldn't resume the search from where it left off on the last go-round. It would always start over at 67 Hz and slowly scan upward and unless the target was using a lower tone it might *never* find the correct one before the conversation ended.

It worked okay for repeaters where they typically get held open for longer periods but for simplex transmissions it was worthless unless they were using something from about 67-102 Hz.

I hear you!

In fact, I used to use my PRO-2067 SOLELY for CTCSS/DCS capture when "frequency hunting" and then plug the new freq & code into my 780XLT!!

 

[KE4RWS]

Slow tone acquisition of yesteryear!!

I hear you!

In fact, I used to use my PRO-2067 SOLELY for CTCSS/DCS capture when "frequency hunting" and then plug the new freq & code into my 780XLT!!

Just to remind myself how slow older Uniden scanners were I just got out my 780xlt I've had stored away to see how excruciatingly slow it is. I can't believe we ever considered this such a cool scanner but then again the 780 was a huge step forward in scanner technology back when it was released. I remember when I got my first 780 I was so excited to fire it up and get things going because it had so many features my prior older scanners never had.

Having an s-meter and tone decode was the coolest thing I'd ever seen in a scanner. Plus you could actually scan more than one trunking type at a time and even scan conventional AND trunked systems simultaneously which was a feature unheard of at the time! My prior scanner was a Uniden 895xlt and I believe that model only permitted you scan ONE (1) trunking system at a time. You had to choose which system it was going to be and you also couldn't scan a trunked system and conventional stuff simultaneously. It was either/or but not both, and certainly not ALL like you can with today's scanners!

The early days of trunked scanning was VERY different from today's scanner technology and people have NOOOO idea how limited first generation trunking scanners were back then :lol:
That's another reason it's so sad GRE is gone because they were so influential in the changes that took place over the years. Thanks to great companies like GRE and Uniden we can enjoy the wonderful scanners we have today