Setup of Bearcat BCT15 for Trunk System

[Guest itsinmyblood]

OK, I've been planning and pondering to set up a scanner for my car ever since I learned you can now get this "fire tone out" feature. I never have my pager with me when working and I miss calls that I could take on the way to and from work, when running errands, etc. The 60 second or so delay before the cell phone gets the alpha page is enough to miss the rig more often than not. I've never been one to listen to scanner traffic, but if I can have this thing on and running silently all the time until a call comes out, I'll definitely pick up calls on the way to and from work.

But I'm just so intimidated about this trunk thing. I used to be so on top of every piece of technology. But at a certain point in my life I decided to let some new gadget get by me without asking what it did or how it worked, and then the next one, etc., and now my 11 year old has things I can't figure out. Actually, I'm not that bad, I have been reading, but it does sound like programming a scanner to work with the new system is tricky. So I wondered if I could get some help.

I'm about to order a Bearcat BCT15, the non-digital trunking scanner with fire tone out. Primarily, I want it to scan the low band 60 control frequency for my FD's tones and my other department's tones on a VHF frequency, and to "come to life" and wake me up when it hears the tones going off, then I want to hear the scanner running. Otherwise, I also want the trunk system programmed into the scanner so I can listen to it when I want to, which is going to be like never. Essentially, I'm going to pay several hundred dollars to install a hard wired pager into my car that doesn't need batteries because I'm too lazy to be bothered with my pager all the time.

I am a really busy guy and would really appreciate it if there was anybody out there who feels that they are familiar with this piece of equipment and could program it for me and maybe show me how its done (or not). I would be willing to compensate you for your time if you wish, no problem. I'm just afraid I'm going to buy this thing and spend twenty hours wrestling with it trying to invent the wheel while there's somebody out there who's done it already and who could "clone" the device more or less, quickly. I would be eternally grateful. I've been a volunteer 20 years. Sorry for such a long post.

[jack10562 414]

There's a "simple" guide for programming your scanner to do exactly what you want it to do:

http://myweb.cableone.net/marksscanners/BCT15/bct15.html

Scroll down to "Tone Out For...menu"

All you'll need to do is find out the frequency(s) of the tone(s) your department uses.

You can do this.