It is sometimes hard to answer that question even if one
has a good idea of what is and is not accessible.

	I have still been working on a computer program written
in C to operate the BCD996XT scanner I mentioned having bought a
few weeks ago. So far, so good. It is definitely going to be
accessible but not without a lot of work.

	I don't mind doing that extra work because it is down
right fun in the true spirit of amateur radio and I have been
learning a lot. Of course it is nice when we unwrap a new radio
and it is usable right out of the box due to speech output or
some thing else that makes it easier for us to use, but the only
things that make me really mad are those all-to-common
electronic devices that would be useful for us if we could
control them, but there is no Plan B if you can't see the screen
or display.

	So far, I have been able to add some channels with their
PL tones to the scanner but there is a long way to go yet to
make the operation fun.

	Another thing I discovered is that there are two sets of
CTCSS and DCS charts. There is an older chart that seems to be
based on Motorola PL tones in which the tones are numbers from 1
to 38 or so. Those are all analog and are various frequencies
such as 67.1 HZ or 107.2 HZ. 107.2 HZ is what we use on one of
our local repeaters and it is tone number 14 in the list.

	Then there is a newer list that may also be based on
some standard. I don't know if it is Motorola or what, but it
has all those older tones plus a few more but they are all
numbered differently. The 67.0 HZ tone which is 1 on the old
list is 64 on the new list.

	I went to wikipedia and downloaded a list of the old
tones and then went to the documentation of the new scanner and
matched the frequencies against the new list and wrote a
conversion table which appears to work because I can feed in the
tone numbers from an older scanner and the new tones do work.

	It's been kind of one thing after another like that but
I haven't hit anything impossible yet.

	The DCS or digital squelch tones are also different. It
seems that one must add the magic number 89 to old DCS numbers
and you get new DCS numbers that work on the new radio.

	I have a feeling that setting up the trunking commands
will be another adventure.

	As I said, this is fun, but it has also been a
character-building experience.

73

colin McDonald writes:
> I agree.
> how does some minimum wage kid at radio shack know what is accessible and
> better for someone without sight?