Uniden Bct 8 Radio Scanner Owners Manual

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•While Private Scanning  in the trunking banks, press SRCH, then it will move to ID
Search mode.
Search Hold Feature
1. Press HOLD/RESUMEat anytime to stop the search. To move up or down 1 frequency
step, use the 
or key.
2. Press 
HOLD/RESUME to resume searching.
Data Skip
A scanner will normally stop on any transmission it receives. This
means the BCT8 will occasionally stop on data signals and
unmodulated transmissions. You can automatically skip many of
these types of transmissions during search. 
1.  To activate the Data Skip feature, press 
DATAin Scan or Search mode. “”
appears on the display. 
2.  To deactivate the Data Skip feature, press 
DATAagain. “” disappears.
When Data Skip is active, your scanner may pause momentarily on an unwanted signal
but will resume searching in two or three seconds. The Data Skip feature is active as
well as Scan mode and Service Search mode. Data Skip does not function during
Service Scanning band (for AIR, CB, or Weather band), Priority Scan, and Trunking
mode.
Frequency Skip
If a particular frequency continues to interrupt search scanning, it is possible to set the
scanner to skip the frequency.
To skip over a frequency, press 
L/Owhen stopping on the frequency you want to skip or
when in Search Hold mode.
Note: You can program up to 100 skip frequencies. 
The 101st skip frequency entered causes the first skipped frequency to unlock.
To restore a Locked out/Skipped channel.
1. Select the desired frequency by using the 
or key in Search Hold mode.
2. Press 
L/O, and then press HOLD/RESUME.
To restore all skipped frequencies, press and hold 
L/Ofor 2 seconds in Search Hold mode. 
						

							Storing Search Frequencies
You can quickly store any frequency you find during Search.
1. During Search, press 
HOLD/RESUME. If you want to change
the frequency, use the 
or key to move up or down 1
frequency step. Then press 
E. Or when the scanner stops on
the frequency you want to store, press 
E.
2. Select a bank you want to store by using the keypad. The
smallest empty channel number and the frequency alternately
appear on the display. If necessary, you can also change the
channel by using the keypad, the 
or key. 
3. Press 
E.
Note:•If the frequency you want to store exists already in a bank, you will hear an error
tone and other channel appears on the display. (See “Duplicate Frequency Alert”
on page 22.)
•After storing the frequency, it moves to the Search Hold mode.
•If there is no free channel, the frequency you want to store will automatically be
stored in the first channel in the selected bank. 
4. Press 
SRCHto resume searching.
Delay 
To help prevent missing a reply on a specific channel or frequency, you can program a two-
second delay into any channel, frequency, service band or band search. When scan or
search stops on a channel or frequency, there is a two-second pause before the scanning
cycle resumes.
To activate the Delay feature (in either Scan mode or Search mode):
1.  For Highway Scan mode or Private Scan mode, when in Hold mode, select the desired
frequency or channel and then press 
DELAY. Or when the scanner stops on an active
frequency or channel, quickly press 
DELAYbefore it continues scanning again.
––– OR –––
1.  For Search mode, while searching press 
DELAY.
2. “
DLY” will appear on the display.
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Trunk Tracking
Your BCT8 is tracks three major types of trunked radio systems. These systems are
described here.
❖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 43).
❖EDACS - Including Wideband 9600 baud and SCAT. 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. (see page 39). SCAT systems are
single-channel EDACS systems, and are mainly used in the Midwestern United
States.
❖LTR - These systems are mostly for business users, and found on the UHF, 800 and 900
MHz bands. (See page 42).
For details on the operation and programming for all of these systems, see pages 29-47.
When tracking these types of systems, remember these important points:
•Your scanner defaults to monitor Motorola Type II 800; 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
Frequency Guide included with your BCT8 scanner. Frequencies sometimes change, check
with 
www.trunktracker.com.
•If you have internet access, you can visit 
scanner.uniden.comor www.trunktracker.com
for 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.
Setting the Squelch
For trunked reception, a good setting for the SQLcontrol is in the
center of the range with the color marker pointing up. See the
illustration.
If it is set too high, it could prevent your scanner from locking to the
Control Channel reliably. If it is set too low, it will slightly delay finding
the Control Channel. The best setting is the same as for conventional
reception, and is critical for monitoring trunked systems.
SQLpush
FLASH
MUTE
ALERT 
						

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Programming Trunking Frequencies
There are three steps for programming a trunked system:
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”.
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 for it to
monitor that specific agency or department.
Before you start programming your scanner to track a trunked system, consider the
following:
•You can only program one trunking system in each bank of your scanner.
•Trunked frequencies must be entered while in the Trunk Programming mode.
•If you’re in the Trunk Programming mode, you cannot select channels in other banks. 
For example, if you are programming Bank 4, you can only select channels 151-200 with
the 
or key.
•
IMPORTANT: If you are programming an EDACS ®trunked system, you must enter the
frequencies in a specific order. Check the frequency guide included with the radio and the
listed web sites for details.
STEP 1: Selecting Trunking System Type
The first step in a Trunk Tracking system is storing the frequencies in one of the five
available banks in your scanner.
1. Press 
TRUNKfor 1.5 seconds.
You will hear two beeps, and “
BANK” and “TRUNK” will begin to flash on the display.
2.  Select the bank you want to store the frequency by using the
keypad.
3.  Select the system you want to track by using the 
or key,
then press 
E.
List of trunking systems as follows:
E2-800 (Motorola Type II 800 MHz)
E2-Hi (Motorola Type II VHF 136-174 MHz) *
E2-UHF (Motorola Type II UHF 406-512 MHz) *
E1 (Motorola Type I and Hybrid) **
Ed (EDACS
®Wide Band: 9600 band)***
Ed SCt (EDACS Scat) 
Lt (LTR) 
* Requires programming of a Base and Spacing frequency Offset channel (See page 45).
** Requires programming of a Fleet map (See page 44). 
						

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*** Requires programming of frequencies in exact order and location.
STEP 2: Programming Trunking Frequencies
1. Select  and press E. Use the keypad and  (decimal key) to enter a frequency
for the trunked system.
For example, enter  .
Note:  To clear a mistake while entering a frequency, press 
(decimal key) twice, and start over.
2. Then press 
E. 
The “
E” (EDACS),  “M” (Motorola) or  “L” (LTR) appears depending on the trunked
system selected.
If the frequency is out of the range of the system chosen in this step, you will hear an
error tone, the channel number flashes and an error message appears on the display.
3. Use the 
or key to select the next channel in the bank and press E.
4.  Repeat steps 2 and 3 until all frequencies have been entered.
5. Press 
SRCHto begin searching the bank you‘ve
programmed.
Then select the programmed bank by using the keypad.
Remember!To lockout the keypad to prevent re-programming of talkgroups, you can
use Memory Lock (Refer to “Memory Lock” on page 22).
Hint: If you want to return to the previous menu screen, press HOLD/RESUMEin the
Trunk Programming mode.
Programming Talk Group ID/Scan Lists
Scan Lists
Each bank of your BCT8 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 5 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 50 IDs for each trunk tracking bank. (250 IDs 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 as you scan conventional
frequencies and you can lockout any one (up to 4) of the 5 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.trunktracker.comfor a complete list of talkgroups for your area
that you can program into your Scan Lists.
.
. 
						

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In order to program Talk Group ID’s, you must first complete Step1–“Selecting Trunking
System Type”, page 30 and Step 2 – “Programming Trunking Frequencies”, page 31.
1.  After programming a frequency, press 
HOLD/RESUMEto return to the main screen of
system type selected and select  . Then press 
E.
2.  Select the Scan List location by using the 
or key.
3.  Enter the Talk Group IDs for each trunk system as follows.
To enter a Type 2 Talk Group ID:
1. Enter the ID you want to store by using the keypad.
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. For detail please see page 59.
1. Enter the ID you want to store by using the keypad (ID = Block number + Fleet number +
(decimal key) + Subfleet number).
2. Press 
E.
To enter a Full EDACS ID®:
1.  Enter the Agency number.
2.  Press  (decimal key) for the “dash”.
3.  Enter the Fleet number and Subfleet number.
4. Press 
E.
To enter a Partial EDACS®ID:
1. Enter the Agency number you want to store.
Use the  (decimal key) for the dash.
2. Press 
E.
Or you can program all the Talk Group numbers within one fleet of an Agency.
1.  Enter the Agency number.
2.  Press  (decimal key) for the “dash”.
3.  Enter the Fleet number.
4. 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 39 to learn how this works.
Note: The BCT8 default to AFS talkgroup displays for EDACS®only.
To enter a LTR ID:
For a LTR ID, the Area Code, Home Repeater number and ID make up the Talk Group ID.
.
.
.
. 
						

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Please see page 42 for more information.
1. Enter the Area Code.
2. Enter the Home Repeater number.
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.
Receiving Trunked Systems
When you have properly programmed all the frequencies for a trunked system, you can
monitor 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.
❖ID SEARCH lets you hear all system talkgroup activity. 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 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 mode by pressing
TRUNK. Pressing TRUNKin the Trunking mode will move to the Private Scan Hold
mode.
ID Scan Mode
1. When in the Trunking mode, press PVTto begin scanning the lists you have
programmed.
If you havent programmed any IDs, the scanner cannot stop
on an active conversation.
2. To remove a Scan List from active scanning, press the
number of the Scan List on your keypad.
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.
Remember! When you press TRUNKin the Trunking mode, you can be out of the
Trunking mode and enter into Private Scan Hold mode.
Note:•appears on the display during Trunk Scan instead of simply  .
ID Scan Hold Feature
If you want to stop on a ID during ID scanning, press
HOLD/RESUME.
To directly access a specific ID location:
There are several ways to access a specific ID quickly.
1. Press 
HOLD/RESUMEto enter into Hold mode.
2. Using the keypad, 
or key, enter the ID location number
(See page 31).
3. Press 
HOLD/RESUME.
If you want to resume scanning, press 
HOLD/RESUME.
ID Search Mode
Once you have programmed all the frequencies for a trunked system, Search will let you
immediately start hearing transmissions.
When in the Trunking mode, press 
SRCHand the scanner begins to find any active IDs.
When the scanner finds any ID, you will hear it.
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. While
monitoring on ID, press the 
key, and the scanner will check if any other IDs are active.
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.trunktracker.com. 
Of course, figuring out who each ID represents is half the fun of Trunk Tracking.
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.
34 
						

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ID Monitor Mode
By using ID Monitor mode, you can determine which talk groups are the most active without
hearing conversations.
1.  Press and hold 
SRCHfor 2 seconds until you hear two beeps. Then  begins
flashing and all active talk group IDs appear on the display every 0.5 seconds.
2.  To activate ID search mode, press 
SRCH
Note
:  Lockout ID also appears on the display.
ID Search Hold and Direct Entry ID in Hold Mode
Just like in Conventional Search, Hold lets you pause ID Search on an interesting
transmission without storing the talkgroup into memory.
If you hear an interesting ID during Search mode, 
and want to continue listening to it --
•Press 
HOLD/RESUMEto stop the search.
If you want to listen to a specific ID, while in Hold mode --
•Use the keypad to enter the ID you want and press 
the 
key.
If you want to resume searching --
•Press 
HOLD/RESUMEto return to Search mode.
Note: ID Hold feature is also applied to ID Scan mode.
Programming Scan Lists During Search
To select a Scan List location and store an ID during Search
mode, follow these steps:
1. When your scanner stops on an ID you want to store, press
HOLD/RESUME.
2. You can change the Scan List memory location by using the
or key. And then press E. 
3. Press 
SRCHto return to Trunk Tracking Search mode.
Deleting a Stored ID
To delete a stored ID:
1. Press 
HOLD/RESUME in the ID Scan mode.
2. Select the Scan List location you want to delete by using the 
or key.
3. Press 
0.
4. Then press 
E. 
						

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ID Lockout
Like conventional scanning, it’s possible to lockout unwanted traffic. This is particularly
important in trunked systems because in many areas, water meters, door alarms, traffic
signals, and other mechanical devices are assigned IDs just like other users. Also some
departments scramble or encrust their communications, and you may want to lock out these
unintelligible broadcasts.
To Lockout an ID, press 
L/Oon the ID you want to lockout.
The ID is locked out. You can Lockout up to 100 IDs. The 101st skip frequency entered
causes the first skipped freqnency to unlock.
Note: If you Lockout an ID in Search mode, it is also locked out in Scan List mode.
Conversely, if you Lockout an ID while in Scan List mode, it is locked out in Search
mode. For information about Scan Lists see page 31.
EDACS BLOCKOUTis a powerful form of ID Lockout that can be used only with AFS and
EDACS systems. This feature lets you lockout entire Agencies or Fleets, not just individual
talkgroups. Using EDACS Blockout you can, for example, prevent Search from stopping on
any of hundreds of talkgroups in the Utilities agency. You can do this with just a few key
presses. To use this mode just enter the Agency-part, or the Agency-Fleet part, of the
talkgroup code and press 
L/O. For example, to Blockout Agency 4 in Trunk Search, press
HOLD/RESUME, 0, 4,  (decimal key), and then L/O. For other ways to use partial AFS
entry, be sure to read the section EDACS Reception.
Review ID Lockout
You can check all IDs already locked out.
1. Press and hold 
TRUNKfor 1.5 seconds in the Trunking mode.
2. Select the bank you want to review by using the keypad, and then the trunked system
selected appears on the display. Then press 
E.
3. Select  by using the 
or key ,and then press E. 
4. You can see the locked out IDs by using the 
or key. 
Hint: Press and hold L/Ofor 2 seconds to check all locked out IDs when in the Trunking
mode.
Restoring Locked-out IDs
To restore a single ID, follow these steps:
•While in locked out review mode, select the locked out ID you want to restore and press
L/O.
The ID is restored and “
L/O” disappears. 
To restore all locked out IDs in a bank once:
•While in locked out review mode, press and hold L/Ofor 3 seconds. All locked out IDs in a
bank are restored.
.