Trunking Scanners for Beginners Using FreeSCAN and the Uniden TrunkTracker: Amateur Radio for Beginners, #8

By Brian Schell

"I think we need a new crystal for this thing." --Scanner guy from the 70s

 

Scanners were a lot simpler in decades past, when everything was analog, had a fixed frequency, and was unencrypted.

 

Nowadays, we have those old analog stations as well as digital, trunking systems, protocols, sites, talk groups, and who-knows-what coming down the road for next year. There are a lot of frequencies, systems, groups, codes, and little nit-picky details that have to go into our radios before we can even pick up a single call.

 

On the other hand, radios continue to get more and more powerful, and unfortunately, more complicated to handle all the new options. This doesn't make programming them any easier. Fortunately, we have computers to handle all the programming stuff for us. Just hook the radio up to the computer, find your location on a website, transfer the frequency and channel data into the radio, and you're good to go. Sounds simple, doesn't it?

 

If you've tried to program a digital trunking system, you know how complicated these things can get, and just how unhelpful the manuals can be. Wouldn't it be nice to just have someone go through the process and just "get the damned thing working" without all the theory?

 

Fortunately, there are a combination of tools that you need to master to even begin. FreeSCAN is free software that works with a large number of common scanners and works for both analog and digital systems. FreeSCAN even has tools to import and set up all the frequencies automatically.  

 

If you're already comfortable programming digital trunked systems through the number pad, or have no trouble working with whatever software came with your radio, then maybe this book isn't for you. If you aren't good with computers, or you're having trouble with the basic process, don't know the difference between a talk group, site, and system, or are otherwise pulling your hair out trying to get your radio programmed, then this book is for you!

 

We'll walk through getting the software installed and set up, connecting your radio with an appropriate cable and communications port, reading data from the radio, downloading and fine-tuning new frequency data, setting quick keys and locking out extraneous frequencies, and writing that data back out to the radio. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brian Schell
• Release date: Dec 1, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386228264

Brian Schell

Brian Schell is a College English Instructor who has an extensive background in Buddhism and other world religions. After spending time in Japan, he returned to America where he created the immensely popular website, Daily Buddhism. For the next several years, Schell wrote extensively on applying Buddhism to real-world topics such as War, Drugs, Tattoos, Sex, Relationships, Pet Food and yes, even Horror Movies. Twitter: @BrianSchell Facebook: http://www.Facebook.com/Brian.Schell Web: http://BrianSchell.com

Book preview

Trunking Scanners for Beginners

Trunking Scanners for Beginners

Using FreeSCAN and the Uniden TrunkTracker

Brian Schell

BlueHouseBooks.com

Trunking Scanners for Beginners

Using FreeSCAN and the Uniden TrunkTracker

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Copyright 2017-2018 by Brian Schell. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or any portion of it in any form.

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Bearcat, Uniden, TrunkTracker, and Close Call are registered trademarks of Uniden America Corporation.

EDACS is a registered trademark of M/A-Com, Inc. Motorola is a registered trademark of Motorola, Inc. E.F. Johnson is a registered trademark of E.F. Johnson Company.

FreeSCAN is a product of Sixspot Software.

RadioReference.com is a product of RadioReference.com LLC

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Written and designed by: Brian Schell

[e-mail]

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Version Date: December 1, 2018.

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ISBN: 9781731490582

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Printed in the USA of America

Contents

Introduction

The Process

Installing FreeScan

Programming the Radio

Programming and Using Quick Keys

Extras

About the Author

Stay Up To Date!

Help Me!

Introduction

Back in the day, you could simply pop down to Radio Shack and buy a scanner with the the proper crystals installed, and you were good to go. My dad always had these growing up in the 70s. We often listened to the police dispatcher make a call and then we’d listen for the sirens a few minutes later. It was great. Once or twice we heard a fire call and got to the the location before the fire trucks did. That was amazing fun for seven year old me. As happens with life, I got away from listening to the police scanner for a few decades.

When I eventually developed a new interest in the topic, I learned that everything had changed. Crystals were no longer a thing; everything was now trunked. Some city services, like the buses and road crews, still used regular analog radio signals, but the police forces had nearly all gone to a trunking system. The police dispatcher was, of course, where the action was. I had to figure out this new thing called trunking and get a compatible radio that understood trunking systems. I had a good variety of decent amateur radio equipment, but none of that would work, as trunking systems are a whole different ball game.

I figured it out eventually, and got it all programmed and working-- everything was wonderful in scanner-land. I started