wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi,

Snip

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


Maybe you should have ASKED how to use it BEFORE
returning it ...... seems pointless to ask things now.

next time, try reading the manual ( completely), look up
frequency information ( on line or in books ), experiment
a little ( if you program something wrong, you didn't really
do any damage ), and then ASK questions BEFORE you
return it.

These new scanners are not plug and play, they are getting
quite sofisticated, and you actually have to learn about all
the new technology ( being used in the scanner and about
the systems they are trying to receive )

Maybe you should have ASKED how to use it BEFORE
returning it ...... seems pointless to ask things now.

As I mentioned, nobody knew anything about it at Fry's. I asked the
whole department, but nobody who knew anything. If I knew the unit was
good I would have put more time and effort in it. The manual doesn't
provide any basic setup steps. Goes rimmediately into describing the
systems: trunking, digital, etc... I did experiment for almost half a
day. No luck. I did read the manual from the beginning, but very
vague. No explanations except for the simple things like volume
control and how to charge it. All preprogrammed systems where pretty
much useless to my area..

next time, try reading the manual ( completely), look up
frequency information ( on line or in books ), experiment
a little ( if you program something wrong, you didn't really
do any damage ), and then ASK questions BEFORE you
return it.

These new scanners are not plug and play, they are getting
quite sofisticated, and you actually have to learn about all
the new technology ( being used in the scanner and about
the systems they are trying to receive )

I understand now. I'll give it another try.

Thanks.

wrote in news:1181578745.407049.267610
@x35g2000prf.googlegroups.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

Well duh for you.
You are supposed to figure out how to operate a high tech unit before taking
it back.
If you are the type that can't even program a VCR timer then yeah, I'd say
you made the right move.

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

On Jun 12, 1:51 pm, Jesse wrote:
wrote in news:1181578745.407049.267610
@x35g2000prf.googlegroups.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

Well duh for you.
You are supposed to figure out how to operate a high tech unit before taking
it back.
If you are the type that can't even program a VCR timer then yeah, I'd say
you made the right move.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

As a matter of fact, I do know how to program. I program in more than
10 languages, I speak 4 languages, I have AS, BS, MS degrees in
computer science and AI, and I don't consider myself a novice when it
comes to technology. In addition, I also program everything that comes
with a good manual. How would I know the unit I bought operates as it
should if the manual cannot describe a basic test to perform to see
the unit is working properly. I expected to hear some basic
frequencies when I did a search, but I could not hear anything. That's
my problem. The documentation assumes one knows all the tweaks of the
unit. I just didn't want to get in knee-deep before I know the basics
are working. I think I do understand the basics, but somehow cannot
make it work.

So here's what I did:
1) First I scanned the preprogrammed frequencies, but scanner didn't
stop at any frequency.
2) Then I played with the squelch (didn't know what it was for,
neither wasn't explained anywhere, neither wasn't pointed out what
level to sit it to), so I put is in the middle
3) then did scan again, didn't matter. No conversations anywhere.
4) Then I reset the scanner.
5) then I did a search for frequencies. Found 1 or 2 frequencys, one
was probably a PD, which only tracked a dispatch every few minutes, no
real conversations going on. The other one I found during a search was
a boater or so.
6) I live in the middle of the action, but wasn't able to find
anything
7) I drove around, tried close calls, etc...nothing ...
8) I did try the FM radio, that seemed to work
9) I assumed either the unit was not working properly or the whole
scanning thing must be really boring since I only here a dispatcher
once every 5 minutes talking for 2 seconds,
10) I also entered some of my area's frequencies found on
radioreference.com, but they were dead as well.

So, obviously I am missing something

Maybe the squelch wasn't set correctly. Still don't know what it does
exactly. I read most people set it to either 1 or 2. If there's 15
settings for it, why would most people set it to either 1 or 2?
shouldn't be somehwere average around 7, so one can go both ways?

Thanks

Quick suggestion ......

IF you go back and buy another one, get on Uniden's site
and download any firmware updates ( and the program to
update the scanner ) and also grab the FREE ( good price )
software they have for the radio, setup is pretty easy and straight
forward ..... as long as you have a TRUE serial port on your
computer, USB to serial convertors some (most) times DO NOT WORK
right.

You'll spend a day or so just figuring out what to do within the software,
but it makes programming the radio MUCH easier, since you don't have
TONS of putton presses, and you can see what your doing in a "spread
sheet" type enviroment.

There are numerous sites that have frequency and trunking information,
( talk groups, Logical Channel Numbers, etc ) on them. The software
ALLOWS you to copy & paste from web pages, which makes it even easier.

Join Yahoo's "BCD396T" Group, and there is dozens of files in there, of
programmed systems you can download and use. ( If the system you WANT
is not there, down load a few anyway and load them in to see what the other
people have done ( give you an idea how to set up systems )

The BCD396T & BCD996T ( same radio different package - handheld/mobile)
are GREAT radios, I am always finding something new to do with mine, or
how to use a feature I didn't know what to do with the first time around.

Be patient, it does get frustrating because the radio does SO much its
overwhelming
at first. Litle by little however it all starts to make sense.

Guess that wasn't such a 'quick' suggestion )


wrote in message
oups.com...
Maybe you should have ASKED how to use it BEFORE
returning it ...... seems pointless to ask things now.

As I mentioned, nobody knew anything about it at Fry's. I asked the
whole department, but nobody who knew anything. If I knew the unit was
good I would have put more time and effort in it. The manual doesn't
provide any basic setup steps. Goes rimmediately into describing the
systems: trunking, digital, etc... I did experiment for almost half a
day. No luck. I did read the manual from the beginning, but very
vague. No explanations except for the simple things like volume
control and how to charge it. All preprogrammed systems where pretty
much useless to my area..

next time, try reading the manual ( completely), look up
frequency information ( on line or in books ), experiment
a little ( if you program something wrong, you didn't really
do any damage ), and then ASK questions BEFORE you
return it.

These new scanners are not plug and play, they are getting
quite sofisticated, and you actually have to learn about all
the new technology ( being used in the scanner and about
the systems they are trying to receive )

I understand now. I'll give it another try.

Thanks.

Spend the extra money and buy the BUTEL software for the 396.

You can then download systems directly from Radio Reference along with
conventional frequencies now as well, right into the 296. No fuss, no muss.

It's a breeze, and well worth the $$$...

Dan
On Jun 11, 3:55 pm, "Dave Ferguson" wrote:

wrote in message

groups.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.

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?

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.

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...

You paid $580.00 for a USED 396????

I am in the wrong business...

Dan

Maybe the squelch wasn't set correctly. Still don't know what it does
exactly. I read most people set it to either 1 or 2. If there's 15
settings for it, why would most people set it to either 1 or 2?
shouldn't be somehwere average around 7, so one can go both ways?

Thanks


I turn the squelch down on mine to where I hear static. Then turn it up
slightly where you don't hear the static. At this setting you should hear
any sounds above the static level. If you don't want to hear weak signals
from far away turn the squelch up more and you will only pick up the
stronger signals.

I have the Pro-96 handeld from Radio Shack and I am thoroughly happy with
it. The base station is the Pro-2096. If you get one of these I recommend
getting Don Starr's Win96 software to program these guys:
http://www.starrsoft.com/ . This, with a programming cable from RS helps
programming the radio a breeze.

You should start seeing the Pro-96 going on sale because there is an updated
radio coming out soon to replace it. I suspect that radios will be selling
for around $350-$400 to get rid of stock.

Dave

I did indeed look at the software beforehand and it looks nice. I just
wanted to make sure I could do some basics things, just to enjoy the
evening, without spending hours gettings the software connection to
work on the computer. I would definitely not get frustrated from being
too overwhelmed. I just got frustrated because the basic simple
thing didn't work.

And yes, I did pay $580 for a used one. I know now I got ripped off
big time! I didn't think the firmware would solve my problem. It
rarely ever does, normally only fixes some rarely used features or
improves a little here or there. But it would have been worth a try.

So, right now I'm thinking about getting a new one instead of used and
probably pay much less and maybe get a bundle with the software you
guys mentioned.

Thanks so much, I'm really hopefull this time.

Michel