RadioBanter - View Single Post - BCD396T Piece of junk or am I missing something?

BDK[_2_] · June 12th 07, 10:06 PM posted to rec.radio.scanner

In article .com,
says...
The radio I bought had been used. It was $580. I looked up the prices
on the links mentioned, what a difference. I thought it was nice to
buy it in the store so I could get some help, but that was a mistake.
It could be the radio wasn't working correctly, or my squelch was too
high. I had to look up this term, since it wasn't explained in the
manual. You can look i nthe online manual and see it wasn't explained.
Only mentioned to set the squelch, but nowhere it explains what it
was. I know now... thanks.

You are right! They really don't explain squelch at all. But then again,
since it's hardly a "beginner's" type radio, being probably the most
complex handheld ever made, they probably figured you knew all about
squelch. If you want to go with a digital capable scanner, I would
recommend the PRO-96 from RS when it goes on sale for the last time.
It's much easier to use than the 396T, and has better audio, IMO.

You're right, I should be able to hear Martinez, Concord, Antioch,
Oakley.... I'm wondering. Should I be able to hear a lot of
frequencies on the conventional system? And if squelch was too high, I
would have heard nothing?

Yeah, the airbands, Railroads, VHF low, VHF high, and UHF are nearly
almost always conventional, or analog trunked, and you should hear all
kinds of stuff. The air bands alone should be busy as hell with an
airport the size of the SF one.

Also, maybe the frequency I was listening to was trunked. How would I
know. I entered the following frequencies in my scanner but heard
nothing:
Frequency Input License Type Tone CH Description Mode
460.15000 465.15000 KLP745 BMRF 127.3 PL 1 Dispatch FM
460.25000 465.25000 KLP745 BMRF 127.3 PL 2 Secondary FM
460.55000 465.55000 WPKV955 BMRF 127.3 PL 3 Tactical FM
154.71000 155.67000 KMC308 F 123.0 PL CLERS Diablo FM

You just want the ones under "frequency" to start with, the others are
sometimes monitored, for various reasons, but the input side won't be
heard very far away.

How can I tell from this data if it is digital, trunked, or
conventional? I couldn't find a chart on radioreference that explains
these codes.

It's just plain old FM! The mode tells you what it is. You're making
this harder than it needs to be.

Last night I was listening to a live scanner feed on the web from
Sacramento, CA and I heard non-stop conversations going on. I know I
was doing something wrong, just don't know what.

I think the radio was a dud. That's probably why it was brought back.

You still might have had the squelch set way too high, sometimes it's
not a linear progression, like level 2 is twice times one and 3 is 3
times one, it might be 2 is 2 times one, and 3 is 2 times 2, so halfways
might make the radio nearly deaf.

I will keep reading guides until I understand and then probably buy
another scanner again and give it another try.

Really, it will make more sense to you if you have the radio in your
hands when you try to figure this stuff out.

Thanks so much for the advice and guidance. You've all been a really
great help and encouraged me to go on solving this.

Good luck, BDK

Michel