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.

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.

wrote in message
oups.com...
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

You can't expect the people at a big box electronics store to be
knowledgeable about scanners. These are not like computers. They're a
tiny part of the market. You aren't likely to find a
knowledgeable geek at the store or living a few houses down the
street.

The Radio Shack and Bearcat scanner manuals I've seen are dreadful.
They're fairly complete, but the information is badly organized. It's
fortunate that I have a background in electronics. I feel sorry for
newbies who don't have that advantage.

It just happens that I have the BCD396T manual on my computer, since
I've been thinking about buying one. Reading that manual is no walk in
the park, even for somebody with experience in the hobby. The 396 is a
marvelously advanced scanner, but when you combine its sophistication,
and the poor manual, and a scanning novice, the result will probably
be trouble. With a good deal of determination, I believe you could
eventually learn it, though.

The web is a good resource, but take the info with a grain of salt.
For example, I just went to the radioreference.com site and looked up
my county. Maybe a third of the listed freqs are any good at all where
I live.
Some of the info is outdated, but much of it's probably correct. Just
because a freq is used *somewhere* in the county, doesn't mean it's
audible *everywhere* in
county.

When your search did pick some traffic, did you stop,
monitor that frequency for awhile, and (if it was interesting) put
that frequency in a channel? Once you have some channels loaded,
switch from search mode to scan mode. Now the scanner checks only
those channels. You get a lot more action because the scanner isn't
wasting time checking all possible frequencies.

What part of the frequency spectrum did you search? If you simply
search the full range of the scanner, it'll spend a lot of time
tediously plowing through freqs where there's little to be found. Most
of the good stuff is in the 148-174 and 450-512 MHz bands (or maybe
450-470, since I think 470-512 has TV in some areas).

--
Paul Hirose
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