Uniden Bc250d Widenband Scanner Owners Manual

							Digital and Trunked
Systems
Your BC250D is designed to monitor APCO Project 25 digital
communication systems (using optional BCi25D) and tracks
three major types of trunked radio systems. These systems
are described here.
❖APCO Project 25 Systems - Digital systems which support
the APCO  Project 25 protocol developed by the
Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) and
Electronic Industries Alliance (EIA). Systems can
operate in conventional, trunked (3600) and mixed-
modes (analog and digital) in any frequency band
including UHF, VHF and 800 MHz.
❖MOTOROLA - Including Type I, Type II, Hybrid,
SMARTNET, and Privacy Plus.
Motorola systems are widely used by public safety and
business users. Most are on the 800 MHz band, and
recent systems are appearing on other bands. (See
page 69).
❖EDACS - Including Wideband 9600 baud, and
Narrowband 4800 baud systems.
Wideband systems are mostly on the 800 MHz band,
and are used by public safety, utilities, and business
users. Some systems are used on the VHF and UHF
bands.
Narrowband systems are used in the 935-940 MHz
band, many by utilities.(See page 64).
❖EDACS SCAT - These systems are mainly used in the
Midwestern United States and are one-channel
trunking sites using the EDACS format.
❖LTR - These systems are mostly for business users, and
found on the UHF, 800 and 900 MHz bands. (See
page 68).
For details on the operation and programming for all of these
systems, see pages 49-79.
When tracking these types of systems, remember these
important points:
•Your scanner defaults to monitor Motorola Type II systems;
however, you can change this if the system in your area is
different. (The types of systems are discussed below.)
•The frequencies for many of the trunked public safety
systems are listed in the TrunkTracker National Public
47
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							Safety Trunked System Frequency Guide included with your
BC250D scanner. Frequencies sometimes change, check
with www.bearcat1.com/free.htm.
•If you have internet access, you can visit
scanner.uniden.comor www.bearcat1.com/free.htmfor
additional information, for current news and frequency
information, about Trunk Tracking Scanning.
* Motorola, SMARTNET, and PRIVACY PLUS are
trademarks of Motorola Inc. EDACS is a registered
trademark of the M/A - COM Inc. LTR is a registered
trademark of E.F. Johnson Company.
48
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							Programming and
Receiving
Digital and Trunked
Systems
There are three steps for programming a trunked sytem:
1. Program the Trunk Type – What type of system will the
scanner be tracking, Motorola Type II, Type I, EDACS,
LTR, etc.
2. Program the Trunked Frequencies – Within a trunked
system, the frequencies are shared among all the users,
called “Talk Groups”.
•Within the bank you decide which channels to program
the trunked frequencies.
3. Program the Talk Groups – Within the trunked system,
each agency or department is assigned a Talk Group ID.
This ID must be programmed into the scanner in order to
monitor that specific agency or department.
•When programming you decide which “Location” to
program the “Talk Groups”. This is similar to how you
program frequencies into channels. Here you need to
program Talk Group ID’s into Locations.
STEP 1:
Selecting or Changing Trunking System Type
Before using the Trunk Tracking system, you must select the
bank and trunk type. You can only track one trunked system
per bank, total of 10 trunked systems.
1 Press MENU/BACK.
Remember! You can also enter the
Trunk Tracking Programming mode by
pressing TRUNK.
2. Select 2:SCAN  OPTION/
2:TRUNKby rotating the VFOand
pressing E.
3 Select the bank number using the 
keypad or the VFOand pressing E.
4. Select 1:TRUNK  TYPE/ 1:ON- and the system type
you want to track by rotating the VFOand pressing E.
For Type 1 System, you must enter the block and fleet
numbers. Please refer to “Programming a Fleet Map” on page
49
         C 001
 OOOO.0000
1:TRUNK TYPE
2:TRUNK CHANNEL
         C 001
 OOOO.0000
1:TYPE2 800
2:TYPE1
BC250D  11/6/2 11:37 AM  Page 49 
						

							71 for instructions.
STEP 1 is complete.
Note:Information on APCO P-25 Systems are referred to in
“APCO Project 25 Reception” on page 76.
STEP 2:
Programming Trunking Frequencies
After you finish selecting the bank and trunk type you want to
track, store the frequencies in the channels for your selected
bank in your scanner. Remember that you can only store one
trunking system in each bank.
Important: If you are programming an EDACS or LTR
trunked system, you must enter the frequencies
in a specific order. Check the frequency guide
included with the scanner for the frequencies in
your area. For additional frequencies, check the
web sites listed on page 11.
1. Press MENU/BACK.
2. Select 2:SCAN  OPTION/
2:TRUNKby rotating the VFOand
pressing E.
3. Select the bank number by rotating the
VFOand pressing E.
4. Select 2:TRUNK  CHANNELand
enter the channel number by rotating the VFOand
pressing E.
5. Select 1:FREQUENCYand enter a frequency for the
trunked system using the keypad and pressing E.
6. Enter the alpha tag and press E. (See page 53).
7 You can also change the step size in this menu.(See page
103)
Note:•To clear a mistake while entering the frequency,
50
HOLD/
MAN
SCAN
CH/
FRQ
MENU/BACK
L/O
.SELECT REVERSETRUNK
RSM
E
SEARCH SERVICE
No. LCD display Icon TrunkingType Special requirements
1 Type 2 800 M Motorola Type 2 800 MHz
2 Type 1 M Motorola Type 1 a. Must program a fleet map.
3 Type 2 900 M Motorola Type 2 900 MHz
4 Type 2 UHF M Motorola Type 2 UHF b. Must program base, spacing,
5 Type 2 VHF M Motorola Type 2 VHF     frequency and offset channel.
6 EDCS WIDE E EDACS Wideband 9600 baud c. Must program frequencies
7 EDCS NARROW E EDACS Narrowband 4800 baud     in exact order and location.
8 EDCS SCT. E EDACS SCAT     
9 LT L LTR
BC250D  11/6/2 11:37 AM  Page 50 
						

							press  (decimal key) twice, and the display is
cleared.
•If you enter a frequency which is
out of the system’s trunking
range, a beep sounds and
ERRORappears on the display.
•If you enter a  frequency which has been stored in
another channel, you will hear a beep and the
channel stored displays WARNING(Refer to
“Duplicate Frequency Alert” on page 27).
STEP 2 is complete.
STEP 3:
Programming ID Scan Lists Manually
Scan Lists
Each bank of your BC250D can be a trunk tracking bank and
it can be a conventional scanning bank. When you designate
a bank as a trunking bank, your scanner sets up 10 Scan
Lists, which are simply lists used to store your favorite Talk
Group IDs. Each list can contain up to 10 IDs, so you can
store a total of 100 IDs for each trunk tracking bank. (1000 if
you use all the banks as trunking banks!)
Scan Lists help you organize the trunking system users into
categories. For example, you might use List#1 for police IDs,
List#2 for fire department IDs, List#3 for emergency medical
service IDs, etc. Once IDs are stored in lists, you can scan
them like you scan conventional frequencies and you can
lockout any one (up to 9) of the 10 scan lists by pressing the
corresponding numeric key. When an ID is active, the scan list
number will appear on the display. You can program your
Scan Lists either manually or during Trunking Search mode.
Check the web site www.bearcat1.com/free.htmfor a
complete list of talkgroups for your area that you can program
into your Scan Lists.
In order to program Talk Group ID’s, you must first complete
Step 1 – “Selecting or Changing Trunking System Type”,
page 49 and Step 2 – “Programming Trunked Frequencies”,
pages 50-51.
1. Press MENU/BACK.
2. Select 2:SCAN  OPTION/ 2:TRUNKby rotating the
VFOand pressing E.
3. Select the bank number by rotating the VFOand pressing
E.
.
51
          C 010
 0000.0000
ERROR
OUT OF BAND
BC250D  11/6/2 11:37 AM  Page 51 
						

							4. Select 3:TALK  GROUPby rotating the VFOand
pressing E.
5. Select the ID location by rotating the VFOor using the
keypad and then press E. You decide which location you
want to place the Talk Group ID. (The first number
represents the Scan List number and the second number
represents the Memory Location number.) (Direct entry
method example: enter 1-5 by
pressing 1, (decimal key), 5.)
6. Select 1:IDby rotating the VFO
and pressing E.
7. Enter the ID. 
Note: After you have programmed the ID in a selected
location, while still in the Menu mode, you can set your
Alpha Tag (see page 28), or turn ON the Beep Alert for
an individual talkgroup (see page
22).
To enter a Type 2 Talk Group ID:
1. Enter the ID you want to store.
2. Press E.
To enter a Type 1 ID:
For a Type I ID, the block number, Fleet
number and Subfleet number make up
the talk group ID number. Please see page 98.
1. Enter the ID you want to store. (ID= Block number + Fleet
number +  (decimal key) + Subfleet number)
2. Press E.
To enter an EDACS
®ID:
1. Enter the ID you want to store.
Use the  (decimal key) for the
dash.
2. Press E.
Hint: Remember that Unidens AFS format allows you to
enter full or partial EDACS IDs for powerful flexibility in
all modes. Be sure to read the section EDACS
Reception on page 64 to learn how this works.
Note: The BC250D default to AFS talkgroup displays for
EDACS
®only.
.
.
.
52
         M1-5
------
¡ENTER ID 
          M5-0
------
050-2
¡ENTER ID 
           E5-0
------
09-022
¡ 
ENTER ID
          M5-0
4128
1216
¡ENTER ID 
BC250D  11/6/2 11:37 AM  Page 52 
						

							To enter a LTR ID:
For a LTR ID, the Area Code, Home Repeat number and ID
make up the talk group ID. Please see page 68 for more
information.
1. Enter the Area Code and then press
(decimal key)
2. Enter the Home Repeater number and
then press  (decimal key).
3. Enter the ID you want to store.
4. Press E.
Note: To clear a stored ID while entering an ID, press 0and
Esuccessively, and start over.
Assigning a Text Tag to a Talk Group ID
1. Press MENU/BACK.
2. Select 2:SCAN  OPTION/
2:TRUNKby rotating the VFOand
pressing E.
3. Select the bank number by rotating the VFOand pressing
E. You can also enter the Bank number by using the
keypad bank.
4. Select 3:TALK  GROUPand ID location number by
rotating the VFOand pressing E.
5. Select 2:ALPHA  TAGby rotating the VFOand
pressing E.
6. The cursor appears on the display. Rotate the VFOto
change letters, and press HOLD/MANor RSMto move
right or left. Both capital and lower case letters are
available, as well as numbers and punctuation marks.
7. After entering the desired text, press E.
Remember! To clear a mistake while entering the letters,
press HOLD/MAN, RSMor  (decimal key) repeatedly
until the display is cleared.
.
.
.
53
           L5-0
------
0-02-120
¡ 
ENTER ID
           M5-0
1216
-------
ENTER ALPHA TAG
BC250D  11/6/2 11:37 AM  Page 53 
						

							Setting the Squelch
For trunked reception, a good setting for
the SQUELCHcontrol is in the center of the
range with the color marker pointing up. 
See the illustration.
If it is set too high (CCW) in some cases it could prevent your
scanner from locking to the Control Channel reliably. If it is set
too low (CW) it will slightly delay finding the Control Channel.
The best setting is the same as for conventional reception,
and is not critical.
Receiving Trunked Systems
When you have properly programmed all the frequencies for a
trunked system, you can receive the system in several
different ways. You will find that Search, Hold, Lockout, 
Scan and Delay are all similar to conventional scanning.
❖ID SCAN lets you receive those talkgroups that you
store in Scan Lists.
❖ID SCAN HOLD lets you selectively listen to a
talkgroup in your Scan Lists.
❖TRUNKED SEARCH lets you hear all system talkgroup
activity (unit-to-unit I-Calls may be received as well).
This is the best way to get started.
❖ID SEARCH HOLD works with Search mode to let you
quickly freeze reception on an interesting transmission.
Or you can manually specify a talkgroup with Direct
Entry in ID Hold.
❖ID LOCKOUT works with Search and Scan to exclude
talkgroups that you dont want to hear.
❖ID DELAY works with each talkgroup to be delayed for
2 seconds when the communication ends.
When receiving EDACS systems, remember that Unidens
AFS talkgroups give you powerful flexibility. In a few key
presses, you can specify a single talkgroup, a fleet, or an
entire agency in all the above modes. Read the section
EDACS Reception to understand how this works.
Hint: If the scanner is not in the Trunking mode, you can
enter the Trunk Programming mode by pressing
TRUNK. Pressing TRUNKin the Trunking mode will
move to the Scan Hold mode.
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							ID Scan Mode
1. Press SCANto begin scanning the
lists you have programmed.
If you havent programmed more than
2 IDs, ERRORappears on the display.
2. To remove a Scan List from active scanning, press the
number of the Scan List on your keypad.
Hint:Press and hold RSMfor 2 seconds, the scanner will
move to the next trunking bank.
The Scan List indicator turns Off, and the IDs in that list
are not scanned.
Note: One Scan List must always be active. If you try and
deactivate all the Scan Lists, Scan List 1 will
automatically be active.
3. To restore a Scan List to active scanning, press its
number again.
4. Press SEARCHto return to Trunk Tracking Search mode.
Remember! When you press and hold TRUNKfor 2
seconds, you can switch Trunk Tracking modes (Scan or
Search).
Note:•While ID scanning, to change all trunking banks to
the Service Search mode, press SERVICE.
•Selecting a Scan List is also possible in the Menu
mode. (LTR only)
•ID  SCANappears on the display during Trunk
Scan instead of simply SCAN.
55ID SCAN
 867.9875 NFM
List  1234567890
 
BC250D  11/6/2 11:37 AM  Page 55 
						

							ID Scan Hold Feature
If you want to stop on a ID during ID
scanning, press HOLD/MAN.
If you want to resume scanning, press
RSM.
To directly access a specific channel:
There are several ways to access a
specific ID quickly.
1. Press HOLD/MAN.
2. By using the keypad or rotating the
VFO, enter the ID location number
(See page 51).
3. Press HOLD/MANagain.
Trunked Search
Once you have programmed all the frequencies for a trunked
system, Search will let you immediately start hearing
transmissions. 
Press SCAN, and select the bank(s) you wish to receive, just
as you select banks in conventional scanning and ID
scanning.
Hint:Press and hold RSMfor 2 seconds, the scanner will
move to the next trunking bank.
Talkgroups display differently in Motorola, EDACS and LTR
systems. You should read the appropriate parts of this guide
to understand the formats.
The display indicates the bank and the type of trunked system
you are monitoring. You can change this to display a bank tag
by using the System Option menu.
Regardless of the system, you wont know exactly who you
are receiving until you listen for a while, or refer to frequency
guides or internet sites such as www.bearcat1.com. 
Of course, figuring out who each ID represents is half the fun
of TrunkTracking.
Later, when you learn more about a system, you will want to
store lists of talkgroups. Then you can scan specific agencies
and users, and use the many other features your radio
provides.
ID Monitor Mode
To enter Scan Hold mode for conventional system in the bank
56
  M1-1:4128
 867.8375 NFM
ID Tag
LIST Tag 
          C1000
0000.0000
Bank 10
HOLD/
MAN
SCAN
CH/
FRQ
MENU/BACK
L/O
.SELECT REVERSETRUNK
RSM
E
SEARCH SERVICE
BC250D  11/6/2 11:37 AM  Page 56