Uniden Bc785d Trunk Tracker Scanner Owners Manual

							Note:•You can also or when selecting a channel. Press and hold or for
1second to move up/down more quickly.
•To clear a mistake while entering the frequency, press  (decimal key) repeatedly
until the display is cleared.
•If you enter a channel or frequency which is out of the
scanner’s range, a beep will sound and ERROR
appears on the display.
•For each channel, you can also change the step size or
the mode. (See page 93).
Remember! You can also use or instead of rotating the
VFO.
Also instead of pressing E, you can press the VFOcontrol.
Deleting a Stored Frequency
To delete a stored frequency:
a. Select a channel.
b. Press 0.
c. Then press E.
Note: Channels with no frequencies are automatically 
locked out.
Editing a Stored Frequency
1. Press MENU.
2. Select 2:SCAN  OPTION/ 1:CONVENTIONALby rotating the VFOand pressing
E.
3. Select the channel number you want to edit by rotating the VFOand pressing E.
4. Select 1:FREQUENCYby rotating the VFOand pressing E.
5. Edit the frequency by using  (decimal key) and the keypad and pressing E.
Remember! You can also use or instead of rotating the VFO.
Also instead of pressing E, you can press the VFOcontrol.
Duplicate Frequency Alert
If you enter a frequency which has been stored in another channel, you will hear a beep and
the channel stored displays WARNING.
Press  (decimal key) to clear and start again.
––– OR –––
Press Eagain to store the frequency in both channels.
.
.
.
27
          C 010
 512.0000 NFM
ERROR
OUT OF CHANNEL 
          C 010
 512.0000 NFM
OUT OF BAND 
          C 010
 512.0000 NFM
WARNING
DUPLICATE 017 
          C1000
0000.0000
BC785D  11/8/2 1:01 PM  Page 27 
						

							28
Transfer Frequencies
You can transfer a frequency that has been stored in a channel to another channel.
1. Press /HOLD.
2. Press TRNFR, and the smallest empty channel number along with the frequency will
flash on the display. 
3. Press Eand the frequency can be stored in this channel.
4. If you want to enter it into another channel, select another channel by rotating the VFO
or using or and pressing E.
Note: When the frequency is transferred, channel data along with the frequency is also
transferred. For trunked frequency, data related to trunking, such as Trunk Type or
Fleet Map will not be transferred. You will need to input the data manually.
Storing Text Tags
You can customize your scanner by storing text tags for easy identification of banks, channel
transmissions, trunking talkgroup IDs, etc. The text tags can be set at the Menu mode.
(Refer to “Understanding the Menu System” on page 18.) For programming text tags for
trunked talk group ID’s, please refer to page 49.
Assigning a Bank Tag to a Bank
1. Press MENU.
2. Select 3:SYSTEM  OPTION/ 9:BANK  TAGby rotating the VFOor using or 
and pressing E.
3. Select the bank number by rotating the VFO or using or 
and pressing E.
4. The cursor appears on the display. Scroll the VFOto change
the letters, and then press or to move right or left. Both
capital and lower case letters are available, as well as
numbers and punctuation marks.
5. After entering the desired text, press E.
Assigning a Text Tag to a Channel
1. Press MENU.
2. Select 2:SCAN  OPTION/ 1:CONVENTIONALby rotating the VFO or using or
and pressing E.
3. Select the channel number by rotating the VFOand pressing E. You can also enter the
channel number by using the keypad and then press E.
4. Select 1:FREQUENCYand ALPHA  TAGby rotating the
VFOand pressing E.
Note: You can only assign a text tag to the channel where the
frequency is stored.
5. The cursor appears on the display. Rotate the VFOto change letters, and press or 
to move right or left. Both capital and lower case letters are available, as well as
         C 001
 855.0000 NFM
ALPHA TAG
¡
BANK TAG 1
BANK TAG 1
Uniden Group 
BC785D  11/8/2 1:01 PM  Page 28 
						

							29
numbers and punctuation marks.
6. After entering the desired text, press E.
Remember! To clear a mistake while entering the letters, press  (decimal key)
repeatedly until the display is cleared.
Beep Alert
The scanner can alert you with three beeps at the beginning of a transmission on an
assigned frequency.
Assigning the Beep Alert to a Channel
This alert can be set ON/OFF for every channel in Conventional mode.
In conventional mode -
1. Press MENU.
2. Select 2:SCAN  OPTION/ 1:CONVENTIONALby rotating the VFOand pressing E.
3. Select the channel number by rotating the VFOand pressing E. (You can also enter the
channel number by using the keypad and then press E.)
4. Select 4:BEEP  ALERTby rotating the VFOand pressing E.
5. Select 1:ONor 2:OFFby rotating the VFOand pressing E.
Note: If NOT  REGISTEREDappears, make sure a frequency is stored in the channel.
Remember! You can also use or instead of rotating the VFO.
Also instead of pressing E, you can press the VFOcontrol.
Programming Tips
•Do not program a weather frequency into one of the channels, since weather channels
transmit continuously. Use the Weather Search feature to select the weather information band.
•Group similar services into a bank. For example, program police frequencies in channels 1
through 10 and fire/emergency into channels 51 through 60, and so on.
•Put the frequency that you listen to the most or the most important frequency into a
Priority channel.
•To quickly program a series of channels, start with the lowest number channel.
For example, when you are programming five new frequencies into channels 4 through
8, start with channel 4. After you finish programming a channel, rotate the VFOup or
press to go to the next higher channel.
•Write down your programmed channels and frequencies and put them in a convenient
place in case of accidental reprogramming.
•Frequencies are rounded off according to the step of each channel.
•When you are overwriting a tagged channel with a new frequency, the previous alpha tag
will be deleted. You must re-enter the alpha tag.
•When programming frequencies, a 2 second delay is set automatically but can be
changed in the menu mode.
.
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							30
Scanning
1. After programming frequencies, simply press SCANto begin
scanning. During scanning, when you rotate the VFO, you can
select the direction (↑or ↓) you want to scan.
2. The bank indicators selected for scanning appear on the
display, and the bank being currently monitored flashes. You
can deselect banks from active scanning by entering their number on your keypad. The
indicator for each deselected bank disappears, and the bank’s channels are not
scanned.
Note: One bank must always be active. You cannot deactivate all ten banks at the same
time. If you try to disappear all the banks, the first bank is automatically selected.
To restore a bank to active scanning, enter the bank’s number on your keypad.
The bank’s indicator will display again.
3. During normal scanning the scanner skips
unprogrammed or locked out channels.
4. When a transmission is received, the
scanner stops on that channel. When the
transmission ends, scanning resumes
automatically.
Scan Hold Feature
If you want to stop on a channel during
scanning, press /HOLD.
Note: When you press and hold SCANfor 2 seconds, the
scanner will move to the smallest empty channel.
If you want to resume scanning, press RSM.
To directly access a specific channel:
There are several ways to access a specific channel quickly.
1. Press /HOLD.
2. Using the keypad, enter the channel number.
3. Press /HOLDagain.
Another method is as follows:
1. Press /HOLD.
2. When the VFOsetting is in the channel mode, rotate the VFO
until the desired channel is displayed. The scanner will
automatically go to Hold mode.
13459   10267    8CHANNELS
Frequency 
not entered Frequency
Locked Out
(L/O)
SCAN
          C 001
SCAN
Bank  1234567890
          C 001
1300.0000 NFM
25cm Amateur 1
UNIDEN Group A 
          C1000
0000.0000
Bank 10
BC785D  11/8/2 1:01 PM  Page 30 
						

							31 Note: When in Hold mode, you can use the VFOto step up or down through the channels.
You can also switch from stepping up/down through channels to stepping up/down
through frequencies by pressing the VFO.
Storing Frequencies During Scanning
During Scanning
1. Press /HOLD.
2. Press TRNFR, and the empty channel number appears on the display.
3. Press E.
Note:•If you want to change the channel, rotate the VFO.
•If the frequency you want to store exists already, and WARNINGappears on the
display and you will hear a beep. (See “Duplicate Frequency Alert” on page 27).
RF Attenuation Feature
The BC785D comes with an RF Attenuation feature. If youre near an unusually strong
signal source, the signal may overload the scanner. The scanner may stop repeatedly on
that signal and miss other transmissions.
The RF Attenuation feature works in all modes and attenuates (reduces) the incoming signal
strength to prevent stronger signals from overloading the scanner.
The RF attenuation is set at the Menu mode.
1. Press MENU.
2. For Search mode, select 1:SERVICE  OPTION/ :CHAIN  SEARCH/ 1:CHAIN
SEARCH/ 1:ON/ 4:ATTENUATOR/ 1:ONby rotating  the VFOand pressing E.
OR
For Scan mode, select 2:SCAN  OPTION/ 1:CONVENTIONALby rotating the
VFOand pressing E. Then select the channel number by rotating the VFOand pressing
E. Select 4:ATTENUATOR(Search mode) or 5:ATTENUATOR(Scan mode) by
rotating the VFOand pressing E.
3. Select 1:ONby rotating the VFOand pressing E.
Note: Attenuation will only be active for the specified channel. In Search mode, it is applied
to the Search ranges in all banks.
Remember! You can also use or instead of rotating the VFO.
Also instead of pressing E, you can press the VFOcontrol.
Setting the Delay Mode for Frequency
A default delay of 2 seconds is automatically set for each frequency or talkgroup. A different
delay can be set for each programmed channel so that when scan or search stops on a
channel there is a brief pause before the scanning cycle resumes. To set the delay feature,
enter into the menu mode.
BC785D  11/8/2 1:01 PM  Page 31 
						

							32 1. Press MENU.
2. For Scan mode, select 2:SCAN  OPTION/ 1:CONVENTIONALby rotating the
VFOand pressing E.
3. Select the channel number of the stored frequency to be delayed by rotating the VFO
and pressing E.
4. Select 2:DELAYand press E.
5. Rotate the VFOto select one of the delay periods and press E. 
6. For Search mode, select 1:SERVICE  OPTION/ :CHAIN  SEARCH/ 3:DELAY
by rotating the VFOand pressing E, then set to a delay period the same way as the
Scan mode setting.
Note: The delay periods are as follows:
•  None: Delay feature off
•  1 sec.: Delays for 1 sec. before re-scanning
•  2 sec.: Delays for 2 sec. before re-scanning
•  4 sec.: Delays for 4 sec. before re-scanning
•  Infinite: Stays on until RSMis pressed
•  -2 sec.: Stays for 2 sec. only before re-scanning *
•  -5 sec.: Stays for 5 sec. only before re-scanning *
•  -10 sec.: Stays for 10 sec. only before re-scanning *
*  Setting negative delay periods are useful if you are only interested in small seg-
ments of conversations. For example: If you set a -5 second delay, you will only
hear 5 seconds of the conversation and then the scanner will resume scanning,
whether or not the conversation is finished.
Remember! You can also use or instead of rotating the VFO.
Also instead of pressing E, you can press the VFOcontrol.
Channel Lockout
You can lockout any channel so it is not checked during normal
scanning. You can restore the channel to scanning when you
wish.
Lockout in Hold Mode
1. Press /HOLD.
2. Select a channel.
a. Enter the channel number using the keypad.
b. Press /HOLDagain.
––– OR –––
Rotate the VFOup or down to change the channel.
3. Press L/Oto lockout the channel.
L/Oappears on the display.
         C 001
 141.5000 NFM
UNIDEN Group A
BC785D  11/8/2 1:01 PM  Page 32 
						

							33 Lockout in Scanning Mode
If the scanner keeps stopping on a particular channel due to noise or frequent transmissions,
you may want to keep that channel from scanning.
1. Wait until the scanner stops on the channel.
2. Then press L/O.
3. The scanner immediately resumes scanning because the locked out channel is no longer
in the scanning sequence.
Lockout Tips Write down your locked-out channels and put in a convenient place in
case you need to restore them.
Restoring a Locked-out Channel
1. Press /HOLD.
2. Select a locked out channel.
a. Enter the channel number using the keypad.
b. Then press /HOLDagain.
3. Press L/Oto unlock the channel. The L/Odisappears.
Restoring All Locked-out Channels
You can restore all locked-out channels in a bank only when a bank is selected for scan. If
you have deselected a bank and you want to restore all of its locked-out channels using the
steps below, you must press SCANand then enter the number of the bank on your keypad.
1. Press /HOLD.
Note: You must be in Hold mode before restoring all locked-out
channels.
2. Press and hold L/Ofor about 2 seconds.
You will hear two beeps when all the channels have been
restored.
BC785D  11/8/2 1:01 PM  Page 33 
						

							Priority Scan
When Priority Scan is turned ON, your scanner checks the priority channel in the banks you
selected every 2 seconds for activity. If a signal is present on the priority channel, your
scanner monitors the channel until the transmission ends, then resumes normal scanning.
You can designate one channel in each bank as a Priority Channel. By default, the first
channel in each bank is the Priority Channel, but you can change this.
To activate Priority Scan (in either the Hold or Scan Mode):
1. Press PRIto select PRIORITY  ON.
Note: If you have locked out the priority channel, ERROR
appears when you select Priority mode.
2. Press PRIto select PRIORITY  OFFto deactivate Priority
Scan.
Changing the Priority Channel
You cannot eliminate the Priority Channel, but you can change it to any one of the 100
available channels in each bank.
1. Press /HOLD.
2. Select a new Priority Channel:
a. Enter the channel number using the keypad.
b .Then press /HOLDagain.
3. Press and hold PRIfor 2 seconds to designate this channel
as your new Priority Channel.
Two beeps indicates that the Priority Channel has been
changed. The Picon appears on the display.
Note:•Priority in Trunking mode works just the same, except
you set them for talkgroup IDs instead of setting 
priorities for channels. The scanner only checks priority 
talkgroups between transmission, in 4 second intervals.
•Priority Scan is disabled while M, Eor L(Trunking type) icons are illuminated (a
beep will sound if you try to scan). To make it possible, turn OFF each function
then press PRIto select PRIORITY  ON.
34
       
PRIORITY ON
          C 010
1240.0000 NFM
ERROR
PRI CH LOCKOUT 
          C 001
 512.0000 NFM
UHF TV 1
UNIDEN Group A 
BC785D  11/8/2 1:01 PM  Page 34 
						

							35
Priority Channel Plus Scan
You can scan only the Priority Channels (except for the locked out channels) in the banks
you selected. To activate Priority Channel Plus 
(Only in Scan mode):
1. Press PRIto select PRIORITY  PLUS.
2. Press PRIto select PRIORITY  ONor PRIORITY  OFFon the display to deactivate
Priority Channel Plus Scan.
Note:Priority or Priority Plus Scan are disabled while Search mode is selected.
BC785D  11/8/2 1:01 PM  Page 35 
						

							Searching
Setting a Search Range
Note: First you must set the search ranges through the Menu screen prior to any searching.
The BC785D can search up to 10 separate frequency ranges to help you discover new
stations in your area.
To set a Search Range, enter into the Menu mode.
1. Press MENU.
2. Select 1:SERVICE  OPTION / :CHAIN  SEARCH / 2:SEARCH  RANGE by
rotating the VFOand pressing E.
3. Select a range number by rotating VFOand pressing E.
4. Select 1:RANGEby rotating the VFOand pressing E. 
Enter the lowest frequency using the keypad and then 
press E, then repeat the same for the highest frequency.
Then press SRCH.
––– OR –––
1. Press and hold SRCHfor 2 seconds.
2. Select - range number - 1:RANGEand program the lowest and highest frequencies by
the same way as step 3 and 4 above.
Remember! You can also use or instead of rotating the VFO.
Also instead of pressing E, you can press the VFOcontrol.
Note:•In the search hold mode, when you enter the lowest and highest frequencies as
above using the keypad and then press LIMIT/, you can also set a search range.
•The scanner can continuously search up to 10 ranges. (Chain Search)
•You can select or deselect the search range freely by pressing the corresponding
number with the keypad.
•The scanner automatically increases its search speed from 100 to 300 steps per
second for the bands having 5 kHz steps. (Turbo Search)
•After you have set the search range through the Menu the first time for a range,
you will be able to set new ranges for the same range by using the keypad and the
standard direct entry method.
•Searching feature is applied to Control Channel Only mode (see page 66). 
Caution:After you have entered the search range while still in the Menu mode, you can set
your alpha tag (see page 28), change the step size of the search, or change the
mode or change the trunk set. Once the lower and upper parameters of your
search are edited, the Menu screen backs up one level to allow you to modify the
step size, receive mode, and alpha tag. 
Select 2:STEPSfor your step size choices and then press Eor VFO. Select
36
SRCH   12.5k
1240.0000 NFM
Range 1234567890
BC785D  11/8/2 1:01 PM  Page 36