InterceptRadio.com Forums

I'm setting up a new PC to do audio logging of analog conventional freqs. This has turned out to be a major PITA.

Setup:
Some flavor of a Dell Optiplex with a bona fide serial port, confirmed to be COM1.
BCD396XT

Attempt 1:
bcTool. Works great, logs all the hits, but no audio recording.

Attempt 2:
IDTrackerIII. Won't connect to the scanner and won't tell me why it can't connect.

Attempt 3:
FreeSCAN. Tried to test the connection and "FreeSCAN could not communicate with the scanner, or the scanner is not recognized as being compatible. Response received: -1"

Attempt 4:
Advanced Virtual Control. Nice UI, but again won't connect to the scanner.

I made sure to close down each program so they weren't fighting over the serial port.

IDTracker 3 can be a little persnickety to set up, but works awesome once you have it going.

_________________
President-in-Exile, Seattle Area Radio Communications And Scanner Traffic Intercept Crew (SARCASTIC)
Don't feel bad if you can't use your STD100/200; there are still people using Digital Frequency Search!
Bunnery definition for the under-fives

Did you make sure the 396XT with FreeScan has the OFF setting of C-CH Output? If it's ON or EXTENDED it won't be detected by FreeScan.

Like you said, in the BIOS, make sure it's set to COM1 -- not AUTO.

Are you connecting with the serial cable only -- not USB?

What are those steps to set up?Yes, turned it off. Funny that bcTool works with it on.Password protected BIOS :(Yes, straight serial.

Hmm my guess is that the COM port is set to AUTO in the BIOS. That can a lot of issues in Windows...

Hell if I know. I haven't had any issues with it on the new computer, but I don't use Uniden radios either.

_________________
President-in-Exile, Seattle Area Radio Communications And Scanner Traffic Intercept Crew (SARCASTIC)
Don't feel bad if you can't use your STD100/200; there are still people using Digital Frequency Search!
Bunnery definition for the under-fives

DeviceMangler will at least tell you the COM port number, even if it keeps changing in Auto.

I use Butel s/w, seems to work fine. My biggest hassle is that the Unidens don't put everything out on the serial port, and they often get a little behind: the logged freq/tone don't always match what was recorded (leading the software to incorrectly label the file).

When you start the program, does it auto connect to the scanner? Or do you need to click something? I assume the "connect" functionality is the menu item where Stop is shown in this screenshot:




Yeah, that's where I got the COM port number.

You may need to re-create the image file from the scanner to the program. It should do it automatically (mine does) when you click "track".

_________________
President-in-Exile, Seattle Area Radio Communications And Scanner Traffic Intercept Crew (SARCASTIC)
Don't feel bad if you can't use your STD100/200; there are still people using Digital Frequency Search!
Bunnery definition for the under-fives

And how do you create the image file? Might be a moot point since the log is filled with this:


I wish there was something like this for serial ports.

_________________
President-in-Exile, Seattle Area Radio Communications And Scanner Traffic Intercept Crew (SARCASTIC)
Don't feel bad if you can't use your STD100/200; there are still people using Digital Frequency Search!
Bunnery definition for the under-fives

BIOS shows the serial port as COM1, not Auto.

Good.

You can always try a USB to serial converter. It might work better.

BTW, on a similar note, I had an issue with mine acting up for a while. I discovered it was the end connector that Uniden uses. I bought my 2nd 396xt used and the previous owner gave me the true USB cable. The end connector just wore out after so many connects/disconnects.

Silly question but what version of Windows are you using? If it's Win7 or Win8 do you have admin privileges?

7 x64 and I do have admin rights. I have a Prolific USB to serial adapter and hopefully I'll be able to do the F8 method to bypass the unsigned drivers.

You shouldn't need to bypass anything. The drivers are on Windows Update. It should install them upon first plug in.