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BCD396T Piece of junk or am I missing something?
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. 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... |
#2
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BCD396T Piece of junk or am I missing 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. 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... Best thing I can tell you is to check the forum for California http://www.radioreference.com/forums...splay.php?f=37 and place a request for help. I'm positive you will find someone close to your area who would be willing to give you a hand.. Dave |
#3
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BCD396T Piece of junk or am I missing something?
On Jun 11, 6:29 pm, "Dave Ferguson" wrote:
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... Best thing I can tell you is to check the forum for Californiahttp://www.radioreference.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=37and place a request for help. I'm positive you will find someone close to your area who would be willing to give you a hand.. Dave thank you guys for all the info. I think the california forum will be usefull. I went back to Fry's tonight, and I also went to RadioShack. Nobody there was of any help and couldn't tell me anything I didn't know yet. What I would really like to know is: 1) What can one expect to find when one does an automatic search (How do I know the thing works) 2) How do you listen to a trunking channel (i.e., do you just program 1 frequency. I thought multiple sources share the same frequency) 3) How can you tell if a Police Department uses digital technology (is this mentioned on the frequencies website on radioreference.com) 4) How do I know my antenna is good enough. Is the stock antenna for the 396T good enough. I live in the hills, so I though I have best reception. It seems there's a tower almost in my backyard). 5) I read somewhere that you need a special antenna (800 Mz). Not sure what it is for. There's also 400Mhz antenna;s. Do they all fit? As you can see. I'm really a novice. I think I expect too much to be done for me. It's just I don't feel like spending the $600 for something I might not be able to use. Thanks, Michel |
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BCD396T Piece of junk or am I missing something?
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'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? 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 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. 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 will keep reading guides until I understand and then probably buy another scanner again and give it another try. Thanks so much for the advice and guidance. You've all been a really great help and encouraged me to go on solving this. Michel |
#6
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BCD396T Piece of junk or am I missing something?
On Jun 12, 8:51 am, wrote:
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'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? 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 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. Last night I was listening to a live scanner feed on the web from Sacramento,CAand I heard non-stop conversations going on. I know I was doing something wrong, just don't know what. I will keep reading guides until I understand and then probably buy another scanner again and give it another try. Thanks so much for the advice and guidance. You've all been a really great help and encouraged me to go on solving this. Michel I just was able to find out if my PD or FD uses conventional or not. It seems they use conventional. When I clicked on the license link that is shown in the frequency table it tells me what kind of system it is I believe. So, going back to the original question, why I couldn't hear anything still makes me wonder. I thought I had set the squelch somewhere in the middle, maybe around 4 or 6 or so. probably more on the lower end. I did an automatic search and throughout the whole scanning range it only stopped once or twice. Maybe the scanner was bad. |
#7
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BCD396T Piece of junk or am I missing something?
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#8
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BCD396T Piece of junk or am I missing something?
You paid $580.00 for a USED 396????
I am in the wrong business... Dan |
#9
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BCD396T Piece of junk or am I missing something?
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#10
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BCD396T Piece of junk or am I missing something?
wrote in message:
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 According to radioreference.com it looks like Contra Costa county sheriff (on VHF, not UHF) provides services to Baypoint and uses the East dispatch channel. Try 155.19 with PL of 136.5. 155.19000 155.64000 KMA371 MR 136.5 PL 3 East FM http://radioreference.com/modules.php?name=RR&aid=707 |
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