BC895XLT

Radio Manager 2004 comments

User: mandlair Rating: 10 November 29, 2003
User's Average Rating: 10.0 # of Ratings: 1
EXCELLENT ID TRACKER,VIRTUAL CONTROL, AND SCANNER PROGRAMER,ALL IN ONE WORKS VERY WELL WITH BC250D

How to Change the Backlights

from BryL on the BC895XLT Yahoo group

Take 5 screws off the top scanner cover (2 on each side and 1 on the back) then lift up the cover from the back first and then detach it at the front. The speaker and wire will still be attached to the scanner so you will have to gently pull the speaker wire plug out of the circuit board and set top cover aside. (You could leave it plugged in but the cover may be in the way some) Then looking inside the scanner towards the display you will see 4 round white plastic pieces with a slot in them. These are the back of lamp sockets. Turn the slot in each one counterclockwise about 1/8 to 1/4 turn until it stops and get a small needlenose pliers and pull it straight out towards you. Some will come right out and some are a little stubborn and need to be wiggled out. I always replace all 4 while I have it apart. Put in the new ones turn 1/8 to 1/4 clockwise. Make sure the slots on all of them are horizontal. Don't forget to plug your speaker wire back in and then put the cover back on and you'll be back in business.

Greg Knox Discriminator Tap Procedure

I recently picked up a Uniden BC895XLT. This is a great TrunkTracker radio out of the box, but I wanted to add a discriminator output and use it's computer control. It took a while to find all the information, so I have created this document to put it all in one place. For the computer control cable I used a 9 pin RS-232 interface on one and for the other end I used the connector from a cable that is used to attach a CD ROM drive to a sound card. It is a flat 4 pin female connector. The BC895 has an interface with 5 pins, but since pins 1 - 5, and pins 2 - 4 are connected, only a 4 interface connector is needed. I don't know if Rat shack has this connector, but any kind of computer parts place should. The pin connections are detailed in the Strong Signals BC895 FAQ page.

The discriminator is easy to install since the radio has plenty of room inside the case. I mounted a mini plug connector inside and used the "Greg Knox" tap point. This seems to be a better place to tap the discriminator then other published places. I added a .1uf mono capacitor and a 1k resister in series between the tap point and the mini plug. It works great for me, I get a 99% decode rate in Trunker.

Good luck! Mike Curtis