Need help setting up my scanner.

Canadian GP

Canadian GP

Old as dirt!
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Apr 28, 2005
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Niagara Ontario Canada
I just bought a BC95XLT and have a few questions.

Do you tune in the drivers freq. to coresponding channel number? So channel 1 would have Truex's freq. programmed in.

Can I use the freq. chart on Jawski or am I better off buying the freq. guide at each track?

Does the guide you buy at the track also have MRN and the track officials freq. too?

TIA.
 
I don't match car number with channel number because I listen to so few. And that's one thing you want to consider --- limiting the number of drivers. You can get so many that you have no idea whose voice it is. I would suggest only 3, maybe 4.

I always buy a guide at the track. Some times teams will use a secondary channel, and if you don't have it, you're screwed.

The guide also has the radio, TV, and NASCAR officials channels. And, I would suggest you listen to race control --- David Hoots, the race director, is a "hoot", literally. :)
 
Not only is there a secondary channel but sometimes there's a 3rd channel. Pick your drivers you want to listen to and program all of their channels in. And yes program in the Nascar channels. Sometimes 5 or 6 depending on the size of the track but Control is a must. Then decide if you want more but like TRL said the more you have the more confusing it can get.
 
I always listen to MRN or Fox and put Jeff Gordon on priority so if he says anything it goes over to his channel.
 
I always program the cars to the number on my scanner unless I have a scanner that you can put a name to show on the screen. I also have my local teams as well (actually, those are the ones I have now since I don't go to very many Cup races). You can block any frequency you don't want to listen to, so it's nice to have them all and just pick and choose at the beginning of the race. If you are know how different people sound like when they are on the radio, you won't look to see who's talking, but unless you are sure, you will check just to make sure. If you don't have a good idea of what car is on what channel, then you have to have some sort of system. To me, it's much easier to program the cars to their number. In the case of the secondary frequency, if you have a 200 channel radio, then you can make the second frequency by just adding the 1 to the car number. If you have a radio that only has 100 channels, such as one of mine, then I put the secondary frequency close to the primary.

Now I've got to learn how to program my SC230. I can put the name of the driver on screen, but learning how to program this thing requires a Phd. Even doing it on the computer is a bit complicated. :(
 
buckaroo said:
Now I've got to learn how to program my SC230. I can put the name of the driver on screen, but learning how to program this thing requires a Phd. Even doing it on the computer is a bit complicated. :(
Click to expand...

I was going to buy the 230 too but it looked to complicated to me, hell even my BC95 is causing me trouble. :eek:

Thanks for the tips Buckaroo.
 
What ever you do, learn how to disable an channel and to enable a channel and then program all that you want. It's true that you don't want to listen to a large number of drivers at one time, but you don't want to only have those that you like programed in your scanner. There will be times when you want to listen to some poor smuck that is a back marker and has been involved in an incident that includes a favorite and you would like to hear what he says about it. But above all, enjoy the experience of listening to what you want at the track.
 
I just bought an SC230 myself and was completely overwhelmed when trying to program it. I my opinion the manual for the SC230 is very confusing. Anyway, I found a much better or more user friendly manual on the internet, however it seems that I don’t have enough posts on this site yet to post url links so, do a Google search for: Easier to Read SC230 /USC 230 manual. This manual is the one Uniden should have shipped with this scanner.
 
TRDnAZ said:
I just bought an SC230 myself and was completely overwhelmed when trying to program it. I my opinion the manual for the SC230 is very confusing. Anyway, I found a much better or more user friendly manual on the internet, however it seems that I don’t have enough posts on this site yet to post url links so, do a Google search for: Easier to Read SC230 /USC 230 manual. This manual is the one Uniden should have shipped with this scanner.
Click to expand...



Is this the link you are refering to?
http://myweb.cableone.net/marksscanners/230/230.html
 
TRD, thanks for the link...you too kelloggs. Still, it would be nice to be able to ask questions, or really instead, have a movie clip to help learn the thing. That page might be easier to read, but still, it's way overloaded. I bought this scanner so I could program it from the computer, but it doesn't look as though that is easy either. I've got two different programs for the scanner, and have yet to be able to get either one of them to work. :(
 
I D/L the free version and it only allows you to upload the first bank, you have to pay $15 to Uniden for the key to unlock the full version. If I had of know this when I bought my scanner I wouldn't have paid the extra $30 for the USB-1 cable.

Thanks to the help I received here I have my scanner figured out. Loaded all the drivers primary and secondary freq. along with MRN and the Nascar officials too. All will be locked out except for the few I want to listen too.

One week until Martinsville. :beerbang:
 
I've been working all day trying to figure out my SC230. I believe that I now understand it all, and I finally purchase the key to the software so I can upload everything, but first I have to get it all down on a worksheet so I can put in the numbers etc. and then upload.

I think that if they would just include a short explanation of what a system is and what it offers, I think it would shorten the understanding process a lot. In my case it goes something like this, and believe me, it took me all day just to figure this out, even with the "easier to read" manual.

There are two different types of systems you can scan. One is a conventional system and the other is a racing system. Okay, so far so good and as a racing fan, I thought, great, all I want is the racing systems. Turns out that you can only scan one racing system at a time, but you can scan all Conventional systems at once. For each system, there are groups and you can have 20 groups per system I think. See, I still don't have it all down pat, but ... :) For each group, you can have 200 frequencies, all with tags. The systems and groups all have quick keys that can toggle on and off with just a touch of the key pad. Okay, with me so far? If not, go back and re-read. :) In the groups, that's where you put the car # and frequency and of course, you can have as many frequencies for any number as you want, and you can key in both the car number and the name of the driver. Here's where it gets kinds of screwy, but yet I do understand. I am using the conventional systems as my race systems because it's easier to toggle them on and off and I might want to scan more than one system. Remember, only one race system can be scanned at a time, but you can still scan all the conventional systems that you want.

What I am going to do is to make several groups under a conventional system named for our local track with about four different drivers and their frequencies in each group. At our track, there are three different series that we watch and listen to so I have given the top series four groups, the next series three and the last series only two groups. Keep in mind that I can enter 200 different frequencies for each group, so with that particular system, I can have 1,900 scan points if I wanted. Then with another conventional system, I will have the track officials. Locking out a single channel/frequency is possible, but requires more than just a single key or two, but those quick keys to toggle on different system and different groups will take care of that.

I honestly don't understand why or the reason for them to make the racing systems different, though the setup is the same. You just can't scan more than one of them at a time. Even if you are going to all the different types of racing, it would be easier to just toggle a system off.

If I haven't confused you even more, I have succeeded in confusing myself more. :cool:
 
Buckaroo I think you have convinced me that I don't want a scanner like yours.
 
:cool: I really believe this one is a great scanner, it's just so complicated with everything. What they need to do is include a DVD to show how it can be done easily on the computer. But yes, I do think that had I known how complicated and complex it is, I might not have bought it, though the price of $175 is very good...for what it offers. :)
 
I have a couple of friends that have scanners that they take to the track and they hook them up and program them for them every race they go to. I think they have to pay a fee for this but I don't know how much. I still have my 50 channel bearcat that I started out with. Had it for about 15 years. Race scan headset has a short in volume button so I seem to be beating myself in the head till I get it going. I just won an new one just like it on e-bay last night so that will solve that problem.
 
buck, if you get that figured out, you're my nominee for "geek of the year."

I'll stick with my old Bearcat 230XLT --- it has a nice, uncomplicated instruction book. LOL
 
viola! I've got it! :beerbang: I'm using the Lite version of Butel's software and once I began to actually put some numbers in, everything began to fall into place. Well, it only took me a day and a half, but I'm well on my way to getting what I want into the scanner. Using the software makes it 100% easier because entering text on the scanner takes forever.

I ended up deleting almost everything that was on the scanner, but kept a few things so I could use them for reference. The one thing that I don't care about this scanner is that if you want to lock out a certain frequency, you can't just hit one key. You've got to open the menu, scroll to the system you want, then edit the groups, then lock out the frequency you want. All of this requires seven steps, one menu hit (side of scanner), three key hits and three scrolls by turning on of the knobs.

Overall, I like this scanner now that I know how to use it. If it weren't so cold, we'd have a chance to use it tonight, but when the sun goes down here, the temps plunge quickly and the wife just isn't comfortable when the temps go below 70. :rolleyes:
 
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