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

In article .com,
says...
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)

You should hear a lot of traffic. Some freqs should be very busy, like
local police, and the airband 118-138mhz AM mode should have a lot of
San Francisco traffic on it. You won't, or probably won't hear the
towers very well, if at all, but the planes can be heard from a long
ways away, because of the height they are at.

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)

You have to put the radio into trunking mode to do it right, but you can
listen to a NON digital one just by putting the freqs in and scanning
them. When it gets busy, it's annoying to listen to that way, and
following a conversation, or chase (like I did last night) is nearly
impossible.

3) How can you tell if a Police Department uses digital technology (is
this mentioned on the frequencies website on radioreference.com)

Yes, it is on radioreference.

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).

You should be ok with the stock one. Too much antenna on a handheld is
sometimes a problem (It overloads the radio). You can always get one
later on.

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?

You probably don't need it, and don't worry about it for now.


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.

$600 is too much. About $520 is the going price:

http://www.scannerworld.com/

http://www.usascan.com/files/bcd396T.cfm

I would make the drive to scanners unlimited, in San Carlos, and get
info and a radio from them. They can probably program it for you, or
tell you who to talk to in your area to get the right freqs. The local
scanner group (There has to be one) members will know about everything
there is to know about your local area.

I'm a customer, not connected in any way:

http://www.scannersunlimited.com/


BDK


Thanks,


Michel

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

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.

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

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

I am in the wrong business...

Dan

In article ,
says...
You paid $580.00 for a USED 396????

I am in the wrong business...

Dan


You got that right.

People buy **** all the time for insane prices. I've had friends buy
Icom, Kenwood, and Yaesu, etc "OEM" batteries for 2 or 4 times what a
replacement should and does cost without the name on it. Where I work
they bought telephone headsets for twice what I found them for online.

Even now, they still buy stuff for insane prices without checking first.
I told the big boss I could save a ton of money if he made me the online
buying agent. I would make the actual purchases, and would get a salary,
or a base plus 10% of what I saved off the prices from the place they
buy everything now. If I had that base plus 10%, I would have made 100
grand last year, easy.

I don't know why they never took me up on it!

They still buy almost everything from some really high priced place
online, or a local place that's just as bad, if they need it right away.
Yet they cry about the electric bills no end. I really don't get it.

BDK

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