Interestingly enough, I have both a BC780 and BCD996.
The 780 is very easy, as you described, to program remotely. The
BCD996 still has basically the same
communications protocol, but the software is much different so
the commands are a lot more complex.

	There are a few turse commands that will reed back the
scanner's screen or set it to a single frequency, but most of
the BCD996 commands use CSV or Comma Separated Variable lists. I
would say that that scanner lives and breathes CSV.

	It is accessible if you are patient and don't mind
spending long Saturday or Sunday afternoons messing around in C
or C++.

	For example, I thought I had the DCS codes right until I
setup some channels on the BCD996 and wasn't hearing anything
from them. A number of radios map the DCS and CTCSS codes to
mostly arbitrary values in their operating systems so you need a
list of the tones and DCS codes which forms a map. The CTCSS
tone of 173.8 HZ, for example, maps to the number 28 on the
BC780XLT and 91 on the BCD996.

	The DCS or Digital Coded Squelch codes are all over the
map, depending on what radio you are talking about. In the
Wouxun KGUV3, all the DCS and CTCSS codes are two-byte pairs. In
the BCD996 and BC780XLT, all the tones and codes are numbers
that would fit in to one byte meaning they are between 1 and 255
or 1 and 0xFF. 0 means completely open or no tone.

	I finally got my problem solved, I think as there was a
bug in my program that just hadn't reared its ugly head until
now.

	It tells me that I need to write some more code to knock
off the rough edges.

	Anyway, that's the experience you will have when trying
to write your own control programs. You can certainly do it, but
impatience will do you in if you expect flawless operation right
now.

	I almost forgot. The Kenwood TM71A which is the
two-meter-only mobile-style rig also loves CSV strings which you
can feed right in to the serial port. I don't know all of them,
either so it looks like the Kenwood could be more accessible if
I had all the possible commands. I can read the VFO frequency
and read the settings on channels, but I have not figured out
how to set a channel except via the buttons on the mike or the
front pannel.

	Well, that's about all that I can contribute for now.

Martin WB5AGZ
Don Breda writes:
> Hi Martin.
> 
> I found your comments quite interesting and I  certainly agree with you
> where accessibility is concerned.
> 
> My question is regarding the uniden scanners.
> 
> I used to control my bearcat bc780xlt with the braille N speak and after
> that the original pacmate that had a serial port built in.
> 
> This worked pretty well.
> 
> I didn't think this was possible any longer with the newer uniden
> scanners such as the bc996 and bc396 t or xt series.
> 
> Am I correct?
> 
> I also don't believe its possible with the GRE scanners such as the
> psr600 or radioshack pro197 which is the same scanner.
> 
> Your thoughts appreciated.