I bought the Uniden BCD996XT scanner and here is what I
know so far.

	I need it to work with a Linux computer so if you use
Windows and JAWS or Window-Eyes, your issues will be determined
by the scanner control program you use.

	I think this is going to be a classic example of how one
defines accessibility. This radio is not terribly accessible in
that it does not have any speech or CW output and it does have
tons of menus in which one is one fat finger or one missed count
away from really getting lost.

	What it does have, however, makes up for all that. It
has the ability to be computer-controlled via an RS-232 port.

	The control codes are turse and many of them use
comma-separated variable or CSV lists which can get rather long.
Sometimes, the scanner replies back to the computer with more
long CSV lists. With the exception of a few commands, most of
them aren't very user-friendly to manually enter, but they are
fairly easy to generate from a computer.

	I have had it for 4 days and do not yet have one channel
programmed in to it, but I should fix that in a few more days.

	This scanner has what Uniden calls "systems." They can
be APCO25 trunking or normal scanning which they call
"conventional."

	To stick a channel in to the scanner, you first create a
"system," then you create what they call a "group." It is kind
of similar to formatting a disk and then putting directories in
to the partition. The channels would be like files placed in the
folders.

	I have been writing a little program in C that presently
knows how to create a "conventional system" and next I will make
it create a group and then start adding channels.

	It has the potential of being highly accessible but I am
writing its control program now so the going is slow at first.

	There are lots of ways to make equipment accessible and
writing or maybe fighting this program is going to pay off
eventually.

	O yes, I can set it to single frequencies and listen to
them right now, but it will be exciting to place a bunch of
local channels in there and use it the way it was meant to operate.

	Patience is the watch word.

Martin McCormick WB5AGZ  Stillwater, OK 
Systems Engineer
OSU Information Technology Department Telecommunications Services Group