Terminology
What is Scanning?
Unlike standard AM or FM radio stations, most
Scanning stops on an active frequency and remains on that channel as long as the transmission continues. When the transmission ends, the scanning cycle resumes until another transmission is received.
What is Searching?
The UBCT8 can search each of its 12 bands to find active frequencies. This is different from scanning because you are searching for frequencies that have not been programmed into your Scanner’s channels. The scanner automatically chooses between two speeds while searching. During search mode the scanner will search 100 frequencies per second for band with 12.5 kHz steps and during Turbo SEARCH mode the scanner can achieve up to 300 frequencies per second for bands with 5 kHz steps.
What is Trunk Tracking?
Conventional scanning is a simple concept. You enter a radio frequency in your scanner’s memory which is used by someone you want to monitor. For example, the police in your area may broadcast on 467.850 MHz, the fire department on 161.250 MHz, etc.
So when your scanner stops on a frequency, you usually know who it is, and more importantly, you can stop on a channel and listen to an entire conversation.
As the demand for public communications has increased, many public radio users don't have enough frequencies to meet their needs, and this has created a serious problem. Trunking radio systems have been implemented to solve this problem.
In a trunked radio system the frequencies are shared among the police and fire departments and a computer systematically assigns available frequencies when they are needed for communications.
