Instruction/ maintenance manual of the product BCT8 Uniden
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Precautions Before you use this scanner, please observe the following: WARNING! Uniden America Corporation does not represent this unit to be waterproof. To reduce the risk of fire, electrical shock, or damage to the unit, do not expose this unit to rain or moisture.
Contents Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Front and Rear Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Trunk Tracking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29 Setting the Squelch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1 Introduction The BCT8 is a state-of-the-art Trunk Tracking Scanner with BearTracker technology which will alert you when the highway patrol is within approximately a 3 mile radius.
Front and Rear V iews 1. Squelch Control / Flash Brightness Selector ( SQL , FLASH ) 2. Alerting Light ( ALERT ) 3. Volume Control / Alert Tone Selector ( VOL ) 4. Mute Key ( MUTE ) 5. Display 6. Lockout Key ( L/O ) 7. Delay Key ( DELAY ) 8. Service Key ( SVC ) 9.
Icon Display Uniden ® , BearTracker ® and Bearcat ® are registered trademarks of Uniden America Corporation. TrunkTracker is a proprietary trademark of Uniden America Corporation. 3 1 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 1718 19 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 20 28 21 22 21 23 24 25 26 27 1.
4 T erminology What are Highway Patrol Alerts? Most highway patrol vehicles on the road today are equipped with a secondary radio system known as a “mobile extender” or “vehicular repeater.” Whenever the dispatcher transmits to any vehicle in the district, “mobile extender” in every car within the district is activated.
5 In a trunked radio system the frequencies are shared among the police and fire departments and a computer systematically assigns available frequencies when they are needed for communications.
6 Feature Highlights • Pre-programmed frequencies specific to each state (except Hawaii). • Pre-programmed Trunked and conventional Highway Patrol frequencies • Highway Patrol Priority Alert -Re.
7 Where to Obtain More Information Before you can scan the PRIVATE bank, you must program frequencies into the scanner’s channels. The Frequency Guide lists typical frequencies used around the U.S.A. and Canada that you may program into your new scanner.
8 Included with Y our Scanner Package • BCT8 Scanner • AC Adapter (AD 140U) • DC Power Cord • Cigarette Lighter Adapter Plug (Model CD007) • Telescopic Antenna (Model AT129) • Window Mount.
9 Installing the BCT8 For Home Use (Desktop Installation) 1. Insert the DC plug end of the AC Adapter into the DC 12V jack on the rear panel. 2. Plug the AC Adapter into a standard 120V AC wall outlet. 3. Plug the Telescoping Antenna into the ANT connector.
10 3. Drill the necessary holes and secure the mounting bracket in place using the screws provided. 4. Mount the radio to the bracket only after the wiring has been connected to the rear panel.
11 T ypical Mounting Methods The BCT8 can be conveniently mounted on a table, bulkhead, overhead, or any other desired location with the optional mounting Bracket (MB007) (refer to figure below for typical mounting methods). Caution : Make sure there are no hidden electrical wires or other items behind the desired location before proceeding.
Applying Power for V ehicle Installation You can power your scanner using the supplied DC cigarette lighter power cord or an DC power cord. DC power Installation To power the scanner from a vehicle’s 12V power source (such as a cigarette-lighter socket), you need a cigarette-lighter adapter.
13 Applying Power Using Standard AC Power To power the scanner from an AC outlet, use the provided AC adapter with a 5.5 mm outer diameter/2.1mm inner diameter tip. Caution : You must use a Class 2 power source that supplies 12V DC and delivers at least 500 mA.
Scanning Overview You can scan in one of three ways: 1. Highway Patrol Scanning After selecting a state to scan, press PVT/HWY to activate Highway Patrol Scanning. You can scan pre-programmed Highway Patrol frequencies. 2. Service Scanning Press SVC to select one of the nine services to find an active frequency.
15 How Squelch Works Think of “SQUELCH” as a gate. If the gate is too low (squelch too low), everything (all noise as well as signals) gets through. If the gate is set too high (squelch too high), nothing gets through. If the gate is set just right (squelch set properly), just the desired signals get through.
Highway Patrol Scanning Highway Patrol frequencies are pre-programmed on a U.S. state-by-state. While Highway Patrol scanning, Highway Warning Alert will be activated. Selecting the State 1. Press STATE to select the state you are operating in. Press and hold STATE to scroll rapidly.
17 Highway Patrol Scan Hold 1. When scanning stops on a desired frequency, press HOLD/RESUME to hold on that frequency as long as you like. When in the HOLD mode, press the ▲ or ▼ key to step up or down the frequency. To step up or down rapidly, press and hold the ▲ or ▼ key.
• Press MUTE to cancel One Moment Mute. • Press and hold MUTE for two seconds to cancel Continuous Mute. You hear two beeps and the MUTE LED goes out. • Change states. The MUTE LED goes out after scanning starts. • Turn the scanner off and on.
19 You will experience a slight in the conversations you hear as the scanner checks the Priority channels. You can cancel the priority check and the interruptions in the conversations by pressing HOLD/RESUME to hold on the frequency. Note : The Highway Warning Alert is inoperative while the scanner is on Hold.
T runked Highway Frequency Trunked Highway frequencies are pre-programmed on a U.S. state-by-state. When the scanner finds the control channel data, the scanner begins to find any active IDs. If the scanner finds any ID, the active ID appears on the display and you will hear it.
21 Private Bank Scanning Programming Frequencies into Channels Before the scanner begins Private Bank scanning, you must program a frequency into at least one channel. Program frequencies you purchased from your dealer, from various free and FCC-based sources on the internet, or from the Frequency guide included in BCT8 package.
22 Duplicate Frequency Alert If you enter a frequency which has been stored in another channel, you will hear an error tone and the other channel displays. Press (decimal key) to clear and start again. ––– OR ––– Press E again to store the frequency in both channels.
23 Hold/Resume If you want to stop on a channel during scanning, press HOLD/RESUME . If you want to resume scanning, press HOLD/RESUME . Direct channel access: There are several ways to access a specific channel quickly. 1. Press HOLD/RESUME . 2. Using the keypad, enter the channel number.
Restoring All Locked-out Channels You can restore all locked-out channels in a bank only when a bank is selected for scan. If you have deselected a bank and you want to restore all of its locked-out channels using the steps below, you must press PVT/HWY until “ PVT ” appears and then enter the number of the bank on your keypad.
25 Service Scanning The service scan feature allows you to rotate through the following nine service banks. q Local Police and County Sheriffs *1 w Fire and Emergency Medical Service e News Media r We.
26 Band Search Setting a Search Band The BCT8 can search up to 13 separate frequency ranges to help you discover new stations in your area. To set a Search Bands, enter into the Band Search mode. 1. Press SRCH . The upper and lower limits of the Bands currently selected are on the display.
27 • While Private Scanning in the trunking banks, press SRCH , then it will move to ID Search mode. Search Hold Feature 1. Press HOLD/RESUME at anytime to stop the search. To move up or down 1 frequency step, use the ▲ or ▼ key. 2. Press HOLD/RESUME to resume searching.
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 .
29 T runk T racking 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.
30 Programming T runking 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.
31 Lt (LTR) * Requires programming of a Base and Spacing frequency Offset channel (See page 45). ** Requires programming of a Fleet map (See page 44). *** Requires programming of frequencies in exact order and location. STEP 2: Programming T runking Frequencies 1.
32 that you can program into your Scan Lists. 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/RESUME to return to the main screen of system type selected and select .
33 For a LTR ID, the Area Code, Home Repeater number and ID make up the Talk Group ID. 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 0 and E successively, and start over.
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 TRUNK in the Trunking mode, you can be out of the Trunking mode and enter into Private Scan Hold mode.
35 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 SRCH for 2 seconds until you hear two beeps. Then begins flashing and all active talk group IDs appear on the display every 0.
36 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.
37 Setting the Delay Mode for T runking Mode A default delay of 2 seconds is automatically set for each talkgroup for ID Scan mode and ID Search mode. To set the delay feature on or off, press DELAY while trunking, “ DLY ” will appear or disappear depending on your setting.
38 Multi-T rack The BCT8 allows you to track more than one system at a time. Here are some highlights of this feature: ❖ You can actually track up to 5 trunking systems at one time. ❖ You can trunk scan, or search and scan conventional frequencies at the same time.
39 EDACS ® Reception EDACS ® T racking TrunkTracker III now allows tracking of EDACS ® trunked systems. Until now these widely used systems have been almost impossible to monitor with a conventional scanner. With your TrunkTracker III listening to EDACS(s) is remarkably easy, and perhaps even easier than conventional scanning.
40 An EDACS ® T runked system This chart shows how talkgroups are organized within an EDACS system at the Agency level. The individual talkgroups cannot be shown at this scale because there are over 2000. However the chart can show the 16 Agencies in this example.
41 Special EDACS ® Features AFS Partial Entry Feature AFS is Uniden's method of encoding EDACS talkgroups. AFS stands for 'Agency-Fleet-Subfleet'.
42 LT R ® Reception LT R ® T racking LTR ® (Logic Trunked Radio) systems are trunking systems used primarily by business or private communications service providers, such as taxicabs, delivery trucks, and repair services. These systems encode all trunking information as digital subaudible data that accompanies each transmission.
43 Motorola Reception Motorola T racking There are really two types of Motorola trunking systems. These are usually referred to as Type I and Type II systems.
Fleet Map Programming If you have programmed a trunk tracking bank for Motorola, press TRUNK to start Multi- Track, and you will see user IDs on the display. Since the BCT8 defaults to Type II systems, all the IDs will appear as numbers. However, if you notice a mix of odd and even user IDs, for example 6477, 2560, 6481, 6144, 1167, etc.
45 The next available block appears on the display. 6. Repeat step 5 until you have selected a size code for each block. For details about each size code, see "Fleet Map Size Codes" in the Appendix. Programming a Hybrid System A Hybrid system is simply a Type I system with some blocks designated as Type II blocks.
9. Use the keypad to enter a new Offset Channel, then press E . Notes: • You can only input within a range of 380-759. • If the system is not tracking properly, you may need to try a new Base Frequency or Offset Channel, or you may be missing frequencies from the system.
47 PL1 (plan 1) : This plan is the most common. Use Plan 1 if the last three digits of ALL the frequencies in use end in one of the following three digits: 125, 375, 625, or 875 (example: 856.1125, 860.7375, 859.6625, 855.8875). PL2 (plan 2) : If the last three digits of frequencies are less than 860.
Remote Interface You can communicate and program your BCT8 in numerous ways with peripheral devices using a Remote Interface Cable port. This radio offers the following modes: ❖ PC Control mode Program and control your scanner from a PC using Uniden’s BCT8 Scanner Software.
49 Start Remote Mode and Change Transfer Speed: 1. Press and hold RMT for 2 seconds to activate the Remote mode. 2. Select the transfer speed except for , then press E and the scanner will start Remote mode. A unique feature of the BCT8 is that all the front panel keys on the radio remain operational in Remote mode.
50 To connect the Scanner to Scanner: Plug the male end of the RS232C straight interface cable into the remote port on the rear of one of the two scanners.
51 5. The data transfer begins from the First Unit to the Clone Unit. During the data transfer, both scanners show the following displays. When the data transfer is complete, displays. If the data transfer is not successful, the following error message will appear.
Care and Maintenance General Use • Turn the scanner OFF before disconnecting the power. • Always write down the programmed frequencies in the event of memory loss. • If memory is lost, simply reprogram each channel. The display shows 000.0000 in all channels when there has been a memory loss.
53 T roubleshooting If your BCT8 is not performing properly, try the following steps. Problem Suggestion 1. Make sure y ou are scanning in Highwa y Mode. 2. Check antenna connections. 3. Conditions to activate the alarm are variable and depend upon the timing of the dispatcher transmissions and pro ximity of patrol car to your v ehicle.
If you experience difficulty while in TrunkTracker mode, try the following steps. If you still cannot get satisfactory results while using your scanner or if you want additional information, please call or write the Uniden Parts and Service Division. The address and phone number is listed in the warranty at the end of this manual.
55 Specifications Certified in accordance with FCC Rules and Regulations Part 15, Subpart C, as of date of manufacture. Channel: 250 Banks: 5 (50 channels each) Service Bands: 9 preprogrammed search bands (including the NOAA and Canada Weather Service band) Frequency Range: 25.
Appendix State Cord Order 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 AK AL AR AZ CA CO CT DC DE FL GA IA ID IL IN KS KY LA MA MD ME MI MN MO MS MT NC ND NE .
Preset Fleet Maps E1P1 Size Code SIZE CODE 11 SIZE CODE 11 SIZE CODE 11 SIZE CODE 11 SIZE CODE 11 SIZE CODE 11 SIZE CODE 11 SIZE CODE 11 Block 1 0 2 3 4 5 6 7 E1E2 Size Code SIZE CODE 4 SIZE CODE 4 SI.
58 E1P9 E1P11 E1P13 E1P15 E1P16 E1P14 E1P12 E1P10 Size Code SIZE CODE 4 SIZE CODE 4 SIZE CODE 0 SIZE CODE 0 SIZE CODE 0 SIZE CODE 0 SIZE CODE 0 SIZE CODE 0 Block 1 0 2 3 4 5 6 7 Size Code SIZE CODE 0 .
59 User Defined Fleet Maps Type I Programming Information When a Type I system is designed, the address information for all the IDs are divided into 8 equal sized blocks. When you program your scanner to track a Type I system, you must select a size code for each of these blocks.
Fleet Map Size Codes Size Code Restrictions If you select SIZE CODE 12, 13, or 14, there are some restrictions as to which blocks can be used for these codes. • SIZE CODE 12 can only be assigned to Blocks 0, 2, 4, or 6. • SIZE CODE 13 can only be assigned to Blocks 0 and 4.
63 One Y ear Limited W arranty Important : Evidence of original purchase is required for warranty service. WARRANTOR : UNIDEN AMERICA CORPORATION (Uniden) ELEMENTS OF WARRANTY : Uniden warrants, for o.
An important point after buying a device Uniden BCT8 (or even before the purchase) is to read its user manual. We should do this for several simple reasons:
If you have not bought Uniden BCT8 yet, this is a good time to familiarize yourself with the basic data on the product. First of all view first pages of the manual, you can find above. You should find there the most important technical data Uniden BCT8 - thus you can check whether the hardware meets your expectations. When delving into next pages of the user manual, Uniden BCT8 you will learn all the available features of the product, as well as information on its operation. The information that you get Uniden BCT8 will certainly help you make a decision on the purchase.
If you already are a holder of Uniden BCT8, but have not read the manual yet, you should do it for the reasons described above. You will learn then if you properly used the available features, and whether you have not made any mistakes, which can shorten the lifetime Uniden BCT8.
However, one of the most important roles played by the user manual is to help in solving problems with Uniden BCT8. Almost always you will find there Troubleshooting, which are the most frequently occurring failures and malfunctions of the device Uniden BCT8 along with tips on how to solve them. Even if you fail to solve the problem, the manual will show you a further procedure – contact to the customer service center or the nearest service center
