STEP ONE- Please set your scanner to the proper mode. Hit "MANUAL" once and then hold "RMT" until the scanner beeps twice.
These areas are covered below.
Finding and Identifying frequencies
The four steps to searching the airwaves:
1. Set your Low and High
limits and Step Size for an initial search. You can enter
frequencies such as "154.5000" or "154.4" or just "154". When
AirSCAN asks for the step size, hitting return will set the
step size to the scanner's default for that band. If you want, you can
increase this step size, i.e. 100 Khz. A filter is used while scanning
for frequencies- every time a hit is found, the software quickly scans
up and down a few steps to find the strongest signal, and that's the frequency
that is remembered. The software is designed to run for a number of hours
to get an accurate count of active frequencies. Let it run for at least
an hour to view the "hit list" for your area in that range. Use a narrow
range, especially in crowded frequencies, so you don't run out of space
for hits. AirSCAN can display a maximum of 120 frequencies. Locked out
frequencies will disappear and allow more active frequencies to be added.
2. Let AirSCAN
run for as long as you want. Transmissions will pause for a few
seconds (the delay time can be changed) and then it moves on. If you wish
to listen in on the searches, hit "Space" to pause on a frequency and hit
"Space" again to move on.
Listen while you make your first pass or two and lockout any birdies or data frequencies by hitting "0". Below are frequencies found after about an hour or two in my area (a 154-157 Mhz search). The number in green is the number of hits encountered in that time frame. You can type in 1-7 while searching in this phase to label the type of transmission you are receiving, if "0" is hit in the delay while hearing the transmission, the frequency will vanish, be locked out, and not heard from again for that search. The GREEN numbers are the number of hits.
3. On the previous screen, hitting "C" will move
to a new screen that just scans the active frequencies found in step #2.
In this mode, AirSCAN will stop on any transmission
until you either label the transmission using keypad 1-7, lock out the
transmission using keypad 0, or hit space bar to continue scanning active
frequencies. ** You can also hit "+" and "-" from the keypad
to scroll up and down in the frequencies found list. This way, if you get
two or three hits from the same source, you can lock out those signals
that are not as strong by using the signal meter (near the bottom of the
screenshot in blue). This portion of AirSCAN gives you the time
to listen for clues to the transmissions origins, or to look up the frequency
in a guide such as the "Police Call" series. Everytime you label a frequency,
it will be skipped in this window. This allows you to eventually label
all the frequencies you have found in your search.
(Note the signal meter in the bottom/middle of the screen shot)
4. Hit "S" to save your searches. Searches are saved
in two formats. One is a *.DAT file for AirSCAN
to load in for later searches, the other is a text file, see below,
for easy importing into Microsoft Word, Excel, etc. Below is a screen shot
of a saved scan using Windows Notepad and an import in Microsoft Excel
(Shown with some formatting). You can reload and continue a search at anytime.
Using the "Extended Banks"
You already have Banks A-J on your scanner. Now AirSCAN adds extended
banks A-Z. As long as AirSCAN is running, you have 36 banks total. Each
of the extended banks can hold up to 80 channels each for a grand total
of 2380 channels! Now you have a place for all those crazy channels you
want to keep somewhere but can't afford the space. The software comes with
the extended banks preloaded with common frequencies, such as phones, railroads,
FRS radios, Medical, Fire, etc... these can easily be reprogrammed with
your own frequencies.
All the banks, or just certain banks you select, can be scanned at a time.
Using the Bank Manager
You can do just about anything with your scanner's banks of programmed
frequencies using the bank manager. Below is a screenshot showing the bank
manager's main menu.
Using the Bank Hit Monitor
With AirSCAN, you can select a
bank of channels on your scanner to scan for hits. The gray frequencies
are channels that have had no hits in the time that you have run the counter.
The bank scan pages look like this:
This shows my bank hit list after around 10 minutes of searching. This comes in handy when trying to figure out what channels to keep and which ones are not worth keeping.