Motorola BC796D - Manual (Page 68)

• Enter or modify the Trunking ID. ( this can be modified
through the menu screen.)
FIPS Codes - For the purpose of broadcasting weather information, the NWS (National
Weather Service) has divided the United States into regions by state and county (or
parish, where applicable) then assigned a 6 digit FIPS code to identify each county or
parish. The first digit represents the county subdivision, the next two represents the state,
and the last three digits represent the county or parish. Your scanner can receive all
SAME alert signals broadcasted within about a 50-mile radius of where you install it. So if
you only want to hear the counties that are nearest to your area, you can choose
specifically the FIPS code of areas that you want. This lets you avoid hearing warnings
that apply to an area within a 50-mile radius but not necessarily in your county or parish.
I-Call - Most communications within a trunked system are group calls where one unit (such
as a dispatcher) communicates with all the units within her group (all the patrol vehicles on
the east side of town, for example).
The units within this group comprise what is typically known as a talkgroup. There are
some communications which are direct unit-to-unit conversations where one individual
converses with another individual. The call is initiated by a radio and is directed to another
single radio. Within the system, no one outside of these two users hears the conversation.
This call is referred to as I-Call.
Key Beep - This is another term for the tone you hear as a keypad acknowledgement beep.
The default setting is on.
If you have turned the Key Beep off, you now have a silent keypad. You will not hear a
tone each time you press a key.
NWR S.A.M.E. Weather Alert - In 1994, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA) began broadcasting coded signals called FIPS (Federal
Information Processing System) codes along with the standard weather broadcasts for
stations in your area. These codes identify an emergency and the specific geographic
area (such as your county) affected by the emergency. The scanner was developed with
SAME (Specific Area Messaging Encoding) technology.
This allows you scanner to receive, interpret, and display the information about the codes
so you can determine if the emergency might affect you area.Each FIPS code identifies a
specific geographic area (defined by the National Weather Service) so your scanner
sounds an alert only when a weather emergency is declared in those locations.
This helps you more efficiently track the weather conditions in and around your area.
PC Control - This term is associated with the ability to program frequencies and other
useful information via a computer by means of third party software. You can change the
transfer speed on the scanner needed to be compatible with your PC. (See page 55)
Scan List - When you designate a bank to be a trunking bank, your scanner sets up 10
Scan Lists, which are simply list of your favorite IDs. Each list can contain up to 10 IDs, so
you can store a total of 100 IDs for each trunk bank. These lists are designed to help you
organize the trunking system users into categories.
Screen Mask - Screen Mask reduces the amount of information that appears on the
display. Alpha tags that you have set for a channel along with a few function icons will
appear only on the display. This mode is particularly useful in public safety vehicles where
that are already overloaded with information. Screen Mask does not work in Search mode.
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