Uniden BC246T User Manual download pdf (Page 1)

70 MONITORING TIMES July 2005

IRST LOOK

CONSUMER RADIOS AND ELECTRONICS

ob Grove says it’s “the most advanced

scanner ever designed.” And when

you look at all the scanning capability

built into this small package, truer words have

never been spoken. The new Uniden BCD396T

handheld is truly a marvel of modern scanning

technology.

Released hot on the heels of the extremely

popular Uniden BC246T scanner, many of the

innovative features included in that scanner can

be found in this new release. Some of the features

have been expanded and updated, and new fea

tures have been added. You can read our complete

review on the BC246T in the December 2004 MT

First Look, pages 79-80, or on the

Monitoring

Times website at: http://www.monitoringtimes.

com/html/mtuniden246t.pdf.

❖ Case, Controls and the

Antenna

The BCD396T is a descendant of the popular

BC296T scanner. However, other than sharing

some of the same frequency coverage and the

same basic RF and trunk capability, there is very

little similarity between them.

The 396 case is much smaller than its 296

predecessor, measuring 2.40 (W) x 1.22 (D) x

5.35 (H) inches and weighing in at 9.6 ounces

with batteries, four ounces without.

There is a cobalt blue backlight system for

the 1-5/16 by 13/16-inch liquid crystal display.

There are four user selectable menu options

for display backlighting: backlight on for 10 or 30

seconds (push button selectable), squelch (back

light illuminates when the squelch opens and

stays on for five seconds), keypress (backlight

turns on when any key is pressed then stays on

for 10 seconds), and infinite (backlight turns on

when you press the multi-function power on/off

key, then stays on until you press it again). The

keyboard is also backlit using the same color and

control features that the LCD screen uses.

There is only one knob (scroll type) on

the top of the unit that controls a variety of the

scanner’s functions. Depending on which other

controls are depressed, the multi-function scroll

knob is used to set volume and squelch levels,

adjust menu settings, enter text, change channels

in the hold mode, resume scanning, and change

display screens.

There are two push buttons on the side of

the 396 that perform the same operations as the

buttons on the side of the 246 – function and menu

selections. These controls are the heart of the

scanner’s menu, display, and additional control

functions, in conjunction with keys on the front

of the scanner.

In a major departure from previous Uniden

scanners, the 396 uses a flexible antenna with an

SMA connector. They have included a BNC to

SMA adapter for additional antenna connection

options. Antenna jack impedance is 50 ohms.

❖ Checking under the hood

Looking inside the radio we found a world of

scanning capability. Here are some of the features

that BC246T owners will be familiar with.

• Close Call

RF capture technology can set the

scanner so it detects and provides information

about nearby radio transmissions. In a head

to head test we performed between the 246

and 396, the Close Call

function was much

improved in the 396 due to the increased sen-

sitivity ﬁgures that the 285/296/396 scanners

have over the 245/246 series of radios.

• Dynamically allocated channel memory was

ﬁrst introduced in the 246 (see our review

mentioned above for a detailed description of

how this works). This type of scanner memory

can be organized so that the scanner opera-

tion more closely matches how radio systems

actually work, making it easier to program and

use the scanner, and to determine how much

scanner memory is being used and how much

is left. The 246 has a total of 2,500 memory

locations used for frequencies, talkgroups, and

alpha tags. The 396 has a whopping 6,000

memory locations for programming for the

same uses mentioned above.

• Searches – There are over 160 preprogrammed

systems covering police, ﬁre, and ambulance

operations in the most populated counties in

the U.S., plus the most popular digital trunk

systems. The unit also has a custom search

feature that lets the user program any of 10

custom search ranges simultaneously.

• 100 Quick keys let the user quickly select

systems and groups by using the keypad.

This makes it easy to listen to or quickly lock

out those systems or groups to scan or not to

scan.

• 12 Service Searches – Frequency ranges are

programmed for searches of the following

radio services: public safety, news, amateur

radio, marine, railroad, civilian air, CB radio,

FRS/GMRS, racing, TV broadcast, FM broad-

cast, and special searches.

• Personal computer (PC) control allows the user

to transfer programming data to and from the

396 and a PC, or actually control the scanner’s

operation using a computer. Uniden will be

supplying 396 owners their free UASD PC

control and programming software on their

company website http://www.uniden.com.

• Cloning over-the-air and wired – User can

clone all data over-the-air (frequency is select-

able by the user) from a PC to one or more 396

scanners (a new feature from Uniden). Cloning

includes all programmed data, the contents

of the scanner’s memory, menu settings, and

other parameters. Cloning is also possible

from one 396 to another 396 using a serial

computer cable, null modem adapter, gender

changer (not included), and the computer

interface cable included with each unit.

• Like many of the recently released Uniden

scanner models, the 396 will perform a NOAA

weather band search, SAME weather alert,

and weather priority scan. There is also a very

fast CTCSS/DCS tone search capability. This

feature has been much improved over earlier

Uniden scanners that included this capabil-

ity.

There are a lot of other BC396T features that

BC246T users will recognize – far too many to

include in this review. You can get more informa

tion on these features by viewing a copy of the

owner’s manual on the Grove Enterprises website

at: http://www.grove-ent.com/bc396tman.

pdf.

❖ New Trunk Tracking

Capability

The BCD396T is a Trunk Tracker IV

model scanner. Like its 246 sibling, this lets

the user follow unencrypted conversations on

analog Motorola, Motorola mixed mode (3600

Uniden Raises the Bar Again – BCD396T

By Larry Van Horn, N5FPW

Assistant Editor Monitoring Times

4-3/4 Stars

1 2

Summary of Contents

Page 1 - IRST LOOK

70 MONITORING TIMES July 2005FIRST LOOK CONSUMER RADIOS AND ELECTRONICSBob Grove says it’s “the most advanced scanner ever designed.”

Page 2 - ❖ Overall Rating and Final

July 2005 MONITORING TIMES 71baud) systems, Motorola Astro 25 (APCO 25 9600 baud) systems, EDACS (wide and narrow), EDACS SCAT, a

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