Uniden Scanners Systems, Sites and Groups

With respect to conventional frequencies, there are SYSTEMS which contain one or more GROUPS. A GROUP contains one or more channels. For each channel you enter the frequency, alpha tag, and various other parameters that relate to that channel. For Conventional Systems, the SQKs are set at the System level. There are no sites for conventional channels.

SYSTEM 1
..........GROUP 1
...............CHANNEL A
...............CHANNEL B
..........GROUP 2
...............CHANNEL C
...............CHANNEL D
SYSTEM 2
..........GROUP 1
...............CHANNEL E
...............CHANNEL F
SYSTEM 3
..........GROUP 1
...............CHANNEL G

With respect to trunked Systems, there are SYSTEMS which contain one or more SITES and one or more GROUPS. In each SITE, you enter the frequencies for that SITE. For each GROUP you enter one or more TALKGROUP IDs(TGID's). For each TGID you enter the frequency, alpha tag, and various other parameters that relate to that channel..

SYSTEM 4
SITE 1
.....FREQUENCY 1
.....FREQUENCY 2
.....FREQUENCY 3
SITE 2
.....FREQUENCY 4
.....FREQUENCY 5
.....FREQUENCY 6
..........GROUP 1
...............TALKGROUP ID 1
...............TALKGROUP ID 2
...............TALKGROUP ID 3
..........GROUP 2
...............TALKGROUP ID 4
...............TALKGROUP ID 5
SYSTEM 5, etc.

• System/Site Quick Keys (SQKs) allow you to activate/deactivate Systems or trunked Sites for scanning. For Trunked Systems, the SQKs are set at the Site level or vice versa. There can be more than one System or Site assigned to a SQK.

• The single digit SQKs are toggled between active and inactive by pressing the corresponding key on the keyboard. The two digit SQKs are toggled between active and inactive by pressing the ./NO key followed by the two digits on the keyboard.

• The display
  • S0:1234--7**0 indicates that SQKs 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, and 0 are active; SQKs 8 and 9 are inactive; and SQKs 5 and 6 are unassigned.
  • S1:12---678** indicates that SQKs 11, 12, 16, 17, and 18 are active; SQKs "*" 19 and 10 are inactive; and SQKs "-"13, 14, and 15 are unassigned.
  • Etc. to S9:12345678790

• Each system can have up to 10 Group Quick Keys (GQKs). The indicator for the GQKs is the line below the SQK line and works the same way except that it only has ten possible values and therefore is only single digits 0-9. There can also be more than one group assigned to a GQK. GQKs can be toggled active and inactive by pressing FUNC and the keyboard number while the scanner is scanning the particular system which contains the groups that you are controlling.

• Etc. to G0:12345678790

• If you use software to program your scanner, you can assign the SQKs and GQKs as you set up your programming and can also set the initial state of the SQKs and GQKs.

It should be noted that the concept of a "SITE" is relevant for the BCD996T, BCT15, BCDx96XT & P2, and BCDx36HP series of scanners. Any DMA scanner prior to these (i.e. the BCD396T, BC246T) had to program each "SITE" in a multi site trunked system as a new "SYSTEM". For newer scanners programming multi sites as multiple systems with the same TGID's will slow scan rate in half for 2 systems being scanned, 66% for 3 systems, 75% slower for 4 systems so an so forth..... For a brief discussion of programming a multi site system, please see the Uniden Multi-Site Trunking article.

Update to include
BCD436HP and BCD536HP
There is simply a file layer above Systems, called Favorites which allows you 100 Favorites. The Groups in this series is called Departments, there are 100, instead of the 10 referred to in early series. Sites now fall under the umbrella of Department.

FAVORITES 1
.....SYSTEM 6
..........DEPARTMENT 1
...............TALKGROUP ID 1
...............TALKGROUP ID 2
..........DEPARTMENT 2
...............TALKGROUP ID 3
...............TALKGROUP ID 4
..........SITE N 90
..........SITE E 92
..........SITE W 94
..........SITE S 96

.....SYSTEM 7
..........SITE 0
..........DEPARTMENT 1
...............TALKGROUP ID 1
...............TALKGROUP ID 2
.....SYSTEM 8
..........SITE 2
..........SITE 3
..........SITE 4
..........DEPARTMENT 1
...............TALKGROUP 1
..........DEPARTMENT 5
...............CHANNEL 1

• For single Site Systems programming them as DQK 0 is simplest example System 7.
  
• For multi Sites you can make all sites DQK 0 or use any other Department Quick Keys available, try not to make them the same as a regularly activated/inactivated DQK or Nothing to Scan error will show.
  
  • In the example above System 6 has 4 Sites Divided into North East West and South making it easy to break sites into 4 DQK's 90 92 94 96.
    
  • In the example above System 8 has 3 sites for a Digital Trunked Radio System with one Department and the Second Department is a Conventional Frequency/Channel

• To activate Favorites 1, press 1 or 01
  
• To activate System 6 with Favorites 1 already enable press .6 or .06 or 01.06 or 1.6 or 1.06 (without any other favorites enable or Monitored)
  
• To activate Department 1 with Favorite 1 and System 6 already enabled ..1 or 01.06.01 or .6.01
  
• To deactivate Site 2 in System 8 with only that Favorite list and System enabled ..2 or .08.02 or 01.08.02
  
• By pressing 0 before the single digit numbers, the scanners screen will show you which Favorite list, Systems or Sites and/or Departments are active/inactive or not are unassigned
  

• The more Favorites lists used, the longer the initial start-up and load time, most user will not fill up 1 entire Favorite list.

Thanks to rvictor for this explanation

Return to the Uniden DMA FAQ