C. Crane BC75XLT User Manual

BC75XLT Owner’s

Manual

PRECAUTIONS

Before you use this scanner, please read and observe the following.

IMPORTANT

This scanning radio has been manufactured so that it will not tune to the radio frequencies assigned by the FCC for cellular telephone usage. The Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986, as amended, makes it a federal crime to intentionally intercept cellular or cordless telephone transmissions or to market this radio when altered to receive them. The installation, possession, or use of this scanning radio in a motor vehicle may be prohibited, regulated, or require a permit in certain states, cities, and/or local jurisdictions. Your local law enforcement ocials should be able to provide you with information regarding the laws in your community.

Changes or modications to this product not expressly approved by Uniden, or operation of this product in any way other than as detailed by this Operating Guide, could void your authority to operate this product.

EARPHONE WARNING!

Be sure to use only a monaural earphone with this scanner. You can also use an optional stereo headset. Use of an incorrect earphone or mono headset might be potentially hazardous to your hearing. The output of the phone jack is monaural, but you will hear it in both headphones of a stereo headset.

Set the volume to a comfortable audio level coming from the speaker before plugging in the monaural earphone or headset. Otherwise, you might experience some discomfort or possible hearing damage if the volume suddenly becomes too loud because of the volume control or squelch control setting. This might be particularly true of the type of earphone that is placed in the ear canal.

CONTENTS

PRECAUTIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

THE FCC WANTS YOU TO KNOW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

SCANNING LEGALLY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10

BC75XLT FEATURE HIGHLIGHTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

FREQUENCY RANGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

USA BAND PLAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

CANADA BAND PLAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

SCANNING BASICS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17

WHAT IS SCANNING? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

WHAT IS SEARCHING? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Conventional Scanning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Simplex Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Repeater Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

WHAT ARE BANKS? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Channel Storage Banks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Service Search Bands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Custom Search Ranges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

WHERE TO LEARN MORE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

SETUP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21

WHAT’S IN THE BOX? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

SETTING UP THE SCANNER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Connect the Antenna . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Connect an Optional Earphone/Headphone . . . . . . . . 23

Connecting an Optional Extension Speaker . . . . . . . . . 23

Adjusting the Belt Clip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

POWERING THE SCANNER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Installing Non-Rechargeable Batteries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Installing Rechargeable Ni-MH Batteries . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Charging the Ni-MH Batteries through

USB Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Low Battery Alert . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

TURN ON THE SCANNER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Adjust Squelch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Adjusting for Interference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

BC75XLT CONTROLS AND DISPLAY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29

HARDWARE DESCRIPTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Keypad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Scroll Control Knob . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

LCD DISPLAY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

OPERATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35

SEARCHING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Quick Search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Custom Search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Service Search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

STORING FREQUENCIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Erasing a Stored Frequency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

SCANNING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Enabling/Disabling Channel Banks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Scan the Stored Channels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Manually Select a Channel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

SPECIAL FEATURES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42

CLOSE CALL® RF CAPTURE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Close Call Operation Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Using Close Call Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

LOCKING OUT CHANNELS AND FREQUENCIES . . . . . . . . 44

Temporary Lock Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Permanent Lock Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Unlock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

PRIORITY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

DELAY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

KEYLOCK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

BACKLIGHT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

PC PROGRAMMING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

TROUBLESHOOTING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .50

CARE AND MAINTENANCE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .53

RESETTING THE SCANNER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

GENERAL USE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

LOCATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

CLEANING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

REPAIRS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

BIRDIES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

SPECIFICATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .56

ONEYEAR LIMITED WARRANTY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .58

THE FCC WANTS YOU TO KNOW

WARNING! Uniden does not represent this unit to be

water proof. To reduce the risk of re or electrical shock, do not expose this unit to rain or moisture.

Uniden® and Close Call® are registered trademarks of Uniden America Corporation. Other trademarks used throughout this manual are the property of their respective holders.

This scanner has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a scanning receiver, pursuant to Part 15 of the FCC Rules. These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against harmful interference in a residential installation. This scanner generates, uses, and can radiate radio frequency energy and, if not installed and used in accordance with the instructions, may cause harmful interference to radio communications.

However, there is no guarantee that interference will not occur in a particular installation. If this scanner does cause harmful interference to radio or television reception, which can be determined by turning the scanner on and o, you are encouraged to try to correct the interference by one or more of the following methods:

• Reorient or relocate the receiving antenna

• Increase the separation between the scanner and the

receiver This device complies with Part 15 of the FCC Rules. Operation is subject to the following two conditions: 1) This device may not cause harmful interference, and 2) this device must

accept any interference received, including interference that may cause undesired operation.

SCANNING LEGALLY

Your scanner covers frequencies used by many dierent groups, including police and re departments, ambulance services, government agencies, private companies, amateur radio services, military operations, pager services, and wireline (telephone and telegraph) service providers. It is legal to listen to almost every transmission your scanner can receive. However, there are some transmissions that you should never intentionally listen to. These include:

• Telephone conversations (cellular, cordless, or other private means of telephone signal transmission)

• Pager transmissions

• Any scrambled or encrypted transmissions

According to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), you are subject to nes and possible imprisonment for intentionally listening to, using, or divulging the contents of such a conversation unless you have the consent of a party to the conversation (unless such activity is otherwise illegal). This scanner has been designed to prevent the reception of cellular telephone transmissions and the decoding of scrambled transmissions. This is done to comply with the legal requirement that scanners be manufactured so they are not easy to modify to pick up these transmissions. Do not open your scanner’s case to make any modications that could allow it to pick up transmissions that are illegal to monitor. Modifying or tampering with your scanner’s internal

components or using it in a way other than as described in this manual could invalidate your warranty and void your FCC authorization to operate it.

In some areas, mobile use of this scanner is unlawful or requires a permit. Check the laws in your area. It is also illegal in many areas (and a bad idea everywhere) to interfere with the duties of public safety ocials by traveling to the scene of an incident without authorization.

INTRODUCTION

Thank you for purchasing a Uniden BC75XLT handheld scanner. The scanner is versatile, compact, and easy to use. In addition to its standard scanning features, your scanner also includes Close Call® RF capture technology designed to help you detect and identify strong local radio signals in your area.

You can program up to 300 frequencies into the scanner’s memory. The scanner lets you scan transmissions and is preprogrammed with service bands for your convenience. You can quickly search those frequencies most commonly used by police and other agencies without tedious and complicated programming. The scanner gives you direct access to over 32,000 exciting frequencies.

Use your scanner to monitor:

• Police and re departments (including rescue and paramedics)

• NOAA weather transmissions

• Business/Industrial radio

• Utilities

• Marine and amateur (ham radio) bands

• Aircraft band

BC75XLT FEATURE HIGHLIGHTS

Close Call® RF Capture Technology - you can set the

scanner so it detects and provides information about nearby radio transmissions. See page 42 for more information on the Close Call RF feature.

PC Programming - lets you program your scanner using your PC.

Custom Search - lets you program up to 10 custom search ranges and search any or all of those ranges.

Quick Search - allows you to enter a frequency and start searching up or down from that frequency.

Turbo Search - increases the search speed from 100 to 300 steps per second automatically for bands with 5 kHz steps.

Search Lockout - allows you to lock out up to 200 search frequencies (100 temporary and 100 permenant) in Custom, Service, Close Call, or Quick Search modes.

Lock-Out Function - lets you set your scanner to skip over specied channels or frequencies when scanning or searching. You must manually unlock these channels.

Temporary Lock-Out Function - lets you set your scanner to skip over specied channels or frequencies when scanning or searching. This temporary lock-out releases when you manually unlock the channels or frequencies or when you power down the scanner.

Priority Channels - You can program one channel in each bank (10 channels total) as a priority channel. The scanner checks that channel every 2 seconds while it scans the bank so you do not miss transmissions on those channels. (Default=Priority O )

Priority Scan - lets you set the Priority feature to check each channel every 2 seconds regardless of whether or not the scanner is receiving transmissions.

Priority Scan with Do Not Disturb - lets you set the Priority feature to check each channel every 2 seconds as long as the scanner is not receiving transmissions.

Duplicate Channel Alert - lets you know when you have entered a frequency that is already registered on another channel.

Channel Storage Banks - the scanner has 10 banks. You can store up to 30 frequencies into each bank (for a total of 300 frequencies), so you can more easily identify calls.

Two-Second Scan Delay - delays scanning for about 2 seconds before moving to another channel so you can hear more replies that are made on the same channel.

Do Not Disturb prevents the scanner from interrupting transmissions during receiving.

Ten Service Bands - frequencies are preset in separate Weather, Police, Fire/Emergency, Marine, Racing, Civil Air, HAM Radio, Railroad, CB Radio, and Other (Other = FRS/ GMRS/MURS) bands to make it easy to locate specic types of calls.

Key Lock - lets you lock the scanner’s keys to help prevent accidental changes to the scanner’s programming.

Direct Access - lets you directly access any channel.

Display Backlight - makes the scanner easy to read in low-

light situations.

Flexible Antenna with BNC Connector - provides adequate reception in strong signal areas and is designed to help prevent antenna breakage. You can also connect an external antenna for better reception.

Memory Backup - keeps the frequencies stored in memory for an extended time if the scanner loses power.

Three Power Options - Use the supplied USB cable to charge the BC75XLT through your computer or other USB charging port. You can also power the scanner using two AA rechargeable Ni-MH batteries (not included) or optional alkaline batteries.

Key Conrmation Tones - the scanner sounds a tone when you perform an operation correctly, and an error tone if you make an error.

Battery Low Alert - warns you when battery power gets low. The Battery Low icon ashes ( tone sounds every 15 seconds until the scanner is recharged, turned o, or drained completely.

Battery Save - works when there is no transmission for 1 minute in Scan Hold mode and in any Search Hold mode (does not work in Priority Scan and Close Call Scan modes). This feature turns o RF power for 1 second and turns it on in 300ms intervals to extend the battery live.

Scan/Search Delay/Resume - controls whether the scanner pauses at the end of the transmission to wait for a reply. You can set the Delay time for each Channel, Close Call Search, Custom Search, and Service Search mode.

) and a battery low

FREQUENCY RANGE

These tables list the frequency ranges, default frequency step, default mode (AM or NFM), and type of transmissions you can hear for each range for USA or Canadian bands.

Select the band plan (USA or Canada) when you turn on the scanner (default = USA). Press and hold the seconds to turn on the scanner while pressing and holding 1 for USA or 2 for Canada. The band plan will remain until you change it again.

key for 2-3

USA BAND PLAN

Frequency Range

(MHz)

25.00000-27.99500 5.0 AM Citizens Band/

28.00000-54.00000 5.0 NFM 10 Meter

108.00000-136.99166 8.33 AM Aircraft Band

137.00000-150.77000 5.0 NFM Military Band

Step

(kHz)

Mode Transmission

Business Band

Amateur Band

Frequency Range

(MHz)

150.77500-150.81250 7.5 NFM

150.81500-154.45250 7.5 NFM

154.45625-154.47875 7.5 NFM

154.48250-154.51250 7.5 NFM

154.51500-154.52500 5.0 NFM

154.52750-154.53500 7.5 NFM

154.54000-154.60750 7.5 NFM

154.61000-154.64750 7.5 NFM

154.65000-157.44750 7.5 NFM

157.45000-157.46500 5.0 NFM

157.47000-163.24500 7.5 NFM

163.25000-173.20000 12.5 NFM

173.20375-173.21000 6.25 NFM

173.21500-173.22000 5.0 NFM

173.22500-173.38750 12.5 NFM

173.39000-173.39625 6.25 NFM

173.40000-174.00000 5.0 NFM

406.00000-512.00000 6.25 NFM UHF

Step

(kHz)

Mode Transmission

VHF High Band

CANADA BAND PLAN

Frequency Range

(MHz)

25.00000-27.99500 5.0 AM Citizens Band/

28.00000-54.00000 5.0 NFM 10 Meter

108.00000-136.99166 8.33 AM Aircraft Band

137.00000-174.00000 5.0 NFM Military Band

406.00000-512.00000 6.25 NFM UHF

Step

Mode Transmission

(kHz)

Business Band

Amateur Band

SCANNING BASICS

This section provides a background on how scanning works. You don’t really need to know all of this to use your scanner, but some background knowledge will help you get the most from your BC75XLT.

WHAT IS SCANNING?

Unlike standard AM or FM radio stations, most two-way communications do not transmit continuously. Your BC75XLT scans programmed channels until it nds an active frequency, then stops on that frequency and remains on that channel as long as the transmission continues. When the transmission ends, the scanning cycle resumes until it receives another transmission on a programmed channel.

WHAT IS SEARCHING?

The BC75XLT searches for active frequencies. This is dierent from scanning because you are searching for frequencies that have not been programmed into the scanner. When you select frequency bands to search, the scanner searches for any active frequency within the lower and upper limits you specify for that band. When the scanner nds an active frequency, it stops on that frequency as long as the transmission lasts. If you think the frequency is interesting, you can program it into one of the bands. If not, you can continue to search.

Conventional Scanning

Conventional scanning is a relatively simple concept. Each group of users in a conventional system is assigned a single frequency (for simplex systems) or two frequencies (for repeater systems). Any time one of them transmits, their transmission always goes out on the same frequency. Up until the late 1980’s this was the primary way that radio systems operated.

Even today, there are many 2-way radio users who operate using a conventional system:

• Aircraft

• Amateur radio

• FRS/GMRS users

• Broadcast AM/FM/TV stations

• Many business radio users

When you want to store a conventional system, all you need to know are the frequencies they operate on. When you are scanning a conventional system, the scanner stops very briey on each channel to see if there is activity. If there isn’t, the scanner quickly moves to the next channel. If there is, then the scanner pauses on the transmission until it is over.

Simplex Operation

Simplex systems use a single frequency for both transmit and receive. Most radios using this type of operation are limited to line-of-sight operation. This type of radio is frequently used at construction job sites and with inexpensive consumer radios such as GMRS/FRS radios. The range is typically 1-8 miles, depending upon the terrain and many other factors.

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