In article .com,
says...
On Jun 11, 3:55 pm, "Dave Ferguson" wrote:
wrote in message

oups.com...





Hi,

Bought a bcd396t last weekend and was really excited about scanning.
Never owned one or new anything about it. I turned it on and cleared
all memory first, since my area didn't seem to be pre-programmed. I
live in Bay Point CA, 94565. Sat outside my house to see what was
going on on a Saturday night. I did an automatic search for police
activity and had one or two frequencies that gave me some messages
every once in a while. Was hard to understand too by the way

Is this all there is to it, or should it be more exciting? I expected
more action on a Saturday night, especially in my area, but all I got
was a message every once in a while. Or should I not use the automatic
search, because it doesn't work properly?

Is the automatic search able to find all different frequencies, like
trunking, conventional, etc...?

I guess I'm confused because it didn't give me the action I was hoping
for.

I returned the unit on sunday...very disappointed, but maybe someone
could tell me I'm wrong and I need to do certain things to get this
unit to work.

thanks

You had a very powerful scanner in your hands. I blame the person you
bought it from for not showing you how to use it or at least program local
agencies in it.

Scanning is a great hobby but it's not a turn it on and listen kind of
thing. You have to do some research of your area. A great place to start
iswww.radioreference.com . They have the most extensive database for
police/fire/rescue . I looked up Bay Point, CA and see it's in Contra Costa
County. Here's a listing for that county:http://www.radioreference.com/module...me=RR&ctid=189.

As you were scanning you were probably picking up bits and pieces of a
"trunked" system. You can listen to it but it's hard to follow if you don't
have your scanner set properly to listen to a trunked system. Here are
the basics of a "trunked" system.http://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/Trunking

Hope you reconsider.
Dave- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I bought it at Fry's, but nobody there who knew anything about it.
When bought it, I had already looked at the website you mentioned,
and entered the frequencies for police for my city. Every once in a
while I could here someone talking for 1 or two seconds, but it seems
that I should have heard much more than just a dispatcher going back
and force only a few times an hour. Also, I found only 2 channels when
I did the automatic search . I would expect to find much more. This
was around 11 PM. I would still expect airplaines, Fire department,
etc...I'm in the middle between two cities here(less than 2 miles), so
there should be lots of stuff going on.


If you did a search and only picked up a few random transmissions, there
was something wrong with the radio, or, you had the squelch turned up
way too high. I wouldn't be surprised if you would have opened it up, to
see the antenna lead wasn't soldered, or some other problem. Uniden's QC
is not the greatest, but seems to have improved lately. The 396 is a
very complex radio, and I personally like the Radio Shack Pro-96 better,
for it's audio quality alone. It's also simpler to use, and cheaper too.
It's supposed to be on closeout soon, to be replaced by a new model,
with more features. When it does close out, it should be 399.95 or less.


How would one be able to program a trunking system then if the search
is only for Convetional? also, I'm not sure if my PD uses digital or
not. Is the search able to auto-detect digital as well?

www.radioreference.com tells you everything you need to know about that.

The conventional trunked freqs can be listened to, but it's very
annoying to do so when there is heavy traffic. On digital stuff, all
you'll hear is a grinding noise, but you should hear something.


The user's manual that came with it is probably the worst manual I've
ever read. Only today I found out about squelch. The manual said to
set the squelch, but it didn't explain what squelch was and what to
set it to. So, I put it in the middle when I tried the scanner and
left it there.

You want it as low as possible, just so it doesn't open (You hear
something) when it's not supposed to. If you had it set way too high, it
would explain almost all your problems. I've never seen the 396 manual,
but I've never seen ANY scanner manual that doesn't explain how the
squelch works. On some radios, if the squelch is set "halfway" you won't
hear much, if anything. I've been using scanners for almost 40 years,
and still occasionally accidentally set the squelch up really high. I
still hear a lot, since I am right across the river from a local Police
transmitter, and it will make it through about any squelch setting.


I would love to give it another try, but I am very sceptical now
unless I can see somebody show it to me in my area...



From your location, you should be able to hear Martinez, Concord,
Antioch, Oakley, and more, without any problem. Since it's not all that
far away for you, go here, they can explain anything you need to know,
and sell you a radio too.

http://www.scannersunlimited.com/

And I would bet they either know about, or are members of a scanner
group for your area.


BDK