I would love to have one of the new p25 capable scanners, but the prices always kept me away. and another issue is I have no idea how to run or pgroam one or do much of anything with it, and everything here is on one big system called viper. so old scanners are useless junk except of listening to the local repeaters or aircraft, or maybe trains and the like , or marine channels.. I thought that the scanners were completely unusable until now. this gives me hope I might get a good scanner and be able to actually use it
On Apr 24, 2013, at 9:53 AM, "Martin G. McCormick" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 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.
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