ARC330 for BR330T User Manual Version 0.90 2005 BuTel software The Netherlands – all rights reserved www.butelsoftware.
Contents: 1 Introduction and quick start reference 1.1 Software Installation 1.2 Enter registration information 1.3 Connecting the scanner to your PC 1.4 RS232 port setup 1.5 USB information 2 Using and understanding the ARC330 editor: 2.1 Reading data from the scanner 2.2 General hints and tips for using the editor 2.3 How to Build a new system 2.3.1 System parameters 2.3.2 Trunk System parameters 2.3.2.1 Motorola VHF/UHF info 2.3.3 Programming trunk frequencies 2.3.
1: INTRODUCTION: ARC330 is a Windows software package for easy programming and controlling the Uniden BR330T. System requirements: • Windows XP/Win2000 • minimum display resolution settings: VGA 800x600 • display must be set to SMALL Fonts • Free serial port com1-com16 or USB to serial converter ARC330 Quick Start Reference: - Install the software (1.1) Enter the registration information (1.2) Connect the scanner to the PC (1.
1.1 Software installation: The ARC330 is available as Internet download or on CD-ROM. You must be logged on as administrator to install and use ARC330. Internet download: The downloaded file contains all the necessary files for installation. Run the exe file and the installer will automatically start. CD ROM: Insert the CDROM; the CDROM has an auto start option that will automatically start the installation process. If the installation process does not start, simply run setup.
Enter registration: Start the software by selecting START _ PROGRAMS _ Butel _ ARC330 _ ARC330 for Uniden BR330T. After the start screen, select HELP _ REGISTER in the menu. Enter the name and key information: the name is case sensitive! No spaces are allowed. The key only contains numbers. The name may contain ‘0’ (=zero) or capital O. 1.3 Connect your scanner: The scanner must be connected to a free serial port. This is normally a 9-pin connector at the back of your PC.
1.4: Getting started: RS232 communication setup After installation of the software you must check and set the software settings for RS232 communication. Start the software and select: BR330T _ RS232 setup from the menu. The software has an auto detect option. If you know the settings for the serial communications port and baud-rate you can manually set them. Select OK and the software will store your settings. The software remembers these settings.
After setting up the serial communication you can check the connection. From the main menu select: BR330T _ Virtual Control. After a few seconds the Virtual control panel should show the contents of the scanner display.
1.5: USB information Uniden scanners use a standard RS232 port for computer programming and control. Uniden scanners do not have a USB port available. Therefore ARC330 is developed to support standard serial comports. For laptop PC's that do not have a serial port we advise to use a PCMCIA serial port extender card. Several manufacturers also sell serial<>USB converters. These converters create a virtual software RS232 port and can work very unreliably.
2: Using and understanding the memory channel editor: ARC330 includes the most versatile memory editor available on the market. Unlike other software packages you can use ARC330 without a scanner connected. The main editor screen layout is divided into two panes, the left pane is called the ‘system browser’, the right pane is called the ‘channel editor’. For your convenience Windows style toolbars and right mouse click menu’s are available.
The top section has a standard Windows MENU bar and a Toolbar. Most options found in the menu also have a ‘shortcut’ in the toolbar. If the mouse is moved over a toolbar button a help text is shown giving a brief description of that button. The editor bar changes as you move the mouse in the editor grid, if you click on a column the editor bar will show the right edit options. You can edit data both in the editor bar or directly in the editor grid.
You can read all systems or selected systems. Make your selection in the list box by clicking the selection boxes. For your convenience, Select All and Unselect All buttons are available. In this window you can also delete systems from your scanner. Add System’s option: when this box is checked, the ARC330 systembrowser will not be cleared and all systems you read from the scanner are added into the browser. If this box is not selected the systembrowser will be automatically cleared.
Although the editor can display ‘Empty’ channels, they are not sent to your scanner. 2.3 Build a new system: To build a new system select ‘FILE _ NEW’, this will add a new system to the systembrowser, or press the System button in the Add menu.
2.3.1 System Parameters Click the ‘New System’ line in the systembrowser to open the system parameter editor: First enter a unique name in the ‘System Name’ box. Select the System Type, depending on the systemtype, extra tabs are shown to setup trunk system parameters. Website: enter a website with information about this system. Pressing ‘Check Site’ will open the website. This website link is stored in your system file. System options: set the system options, refer to BR330T user manual for information.
For your convenience, the system browser shows unique icons per system type: In this screenshot a conventional, a Motorola, a Edacs and a LTR systems are loaded.
2.3.2 Trunk system Parameters For every trunk system, several parameters can be set: Refer to BR330T user manual for more information. General: Motorola VHF/UHF: you must program a base, offset and step frequency (see next page). Motorola Type 1: for a Motorola type 1 a fleetmap must be selected or a custom fleetmap must be build. For a TYPE 1 system it is very important that the trunk system is setup correctly before any trunk id’s are uploaded to your scanner.
2.3.2.1 Motorola VHF/UHF systems: Explanation of base/step/offset parameters: For a type 2 VHF or type 2 UHF you must program base/step/offset parameters. For properly tracking a type 2 VHF/UHF system, the scanner needs channel number information. The tracking process is controlled by sending channel numbers instead of frequencies.
2.3.3 Trunk frequencies Click the Trunk frequencies tab to enter or paste trunk frequencies: The Name column is NOT sent to the scanner, this information is only stored in system files. For Edacs and LT systems the LCN number must be entered. Motorola systems do not use LCN information. If you do not enter a LCN number, the software will automatically use the channel numbers as LCN. For LCN information consult the database at www.radioreference.
2.3.4 Pasting frequencies from a website: While setting up trunk systems, you have probably spend a lot of time typing over frequency lists. ARC330 has a new paste option that will do this for you. First locate a website with trunk frequency information, in the sample we use a trunk system website found at: http://www.radioreference.com/modules.php?name=TRSDB&sid=3352 We want to copy the frequencies from this website into ARC330.
The first step is to highlight the frequencies at this website by holding down the left mouse button, then select CTRL-C or Edit _ Copy in your browser.
Return to ARC330 and in the Trunk frequency editor click the right mouse button and select ‘paste frequencies’ and all frequencies are pasted in the grid: Duplicates are automatically removed. Paste Frequencies will also filter out ctcss subtones.
2.3.5 Setting Up groups in a system After a new system is created you can setup the groups that belong to that system. In the systembrowser select ‘Edit groups’ from the right mouse button menu: In this window you setup Groups: First select the groups that you want to add to the system. This is done by clicking the ‘active’ box. A system can store a maximum of 20 groups. Important: Only data of ‘active’ groups is stored in a systemfile. If you disable groups, the data from that group is lost.
2.3.6 Adding and Deleting groups from a system: Add a group to existing system: Once a system is created you can also add new groups using the system browsers right mouse button menu. ( Add Group). A system can only hold 20 groups. Systems can also be added in the Group Editor ( Setup _ Groups ), click the active option for groups you want to add to a system.
Delete a Group from a system: Open the Group Editor ( Setup _ Groups ) and uncheck the ‘active’ option for groups you want to remove from a system.
2.3.7 QuickSave: Systems are stored in separate files. To avoid that you need to manually save all systems, a QuickSave option was developed. A system file can have a different filename than the systemname! In the ‘system’ editor the actual filename and location is shown. When you select QuickSave the software first checks if a filename already exists in the software (shown in system editor screen). If there is no filename stored, the software uses the systemname as filename (only first 16 characters).
2.4 Default data: When you enter a frequency or ID and you press ENTER the other cells of that line are automatically programmed depending on your custom settings (default channel data). You can customize the default data: select SETUP _ SETUP DEFAULT DATA. A new window is shown: In this window you set the default data that is put in the grid when you press enter. All parameters that have the check box selected will be put in the grid.
2.6 EasyFill EasyFill is a simple but powerful option that lets you program data in a range of channels with only a few mouse clicks. Additionally you can use EasyFill for quickly program a range of frequencies in a memory bank so you can use a memory as a search bank. Select EasyFill from the Options menu or use the EasyFill toolbar button to display the EasyFill window: In the top frame the channel range is selected. DEFAULT will set the start and end channel of the selected bank.
Fill series: for the TAG option you can also set the fill series option. Fill series will search for a number in the tag and use that number to ‘calculate’ the tags in the selected channel range. Example: in the tag box the tag is set to ‘Police 1’. The channel range is set to 1-100. If fill series is selected, the software will automatically program ‘Police 1’ in channel 1, ‘Police 2’ in channel 2, ‘Police 3’ in channel 3 etc. See also section 2.9. The number of characters of the tag box is shown in blue.
2.7 Using the clipboard In the memory editor grid you can use the standard Windows clipboard options. In the toolbar shortcuts are available for cut, copy and paste options. You can also use the keyboard shortcuts CTRL C, CTRL X and CTRL V. Use these options to paste data from other applications like Excel. An additional clipboard option is available that will automatically select entire lines (Cut line, copy line and paste line).
2.8.1 Copy/Move/Swap Memory Channels: The ‘from’ and ‘to’ list boxes will automatically display the channel number, frequency and tag. Channels that are empty (no frequency programmed) are indicated as Empty. Current Bank: copy/move/swap channels in the active bank All Banks: copy/move/swap channels in all Banks 2.8.2 Copy/Move/Swap groups within a system: Use this window to copy/move/swap entire memory groups. The ‘Include Bank Tag’ options will also copy/move/swap the bankname.
2.8.3 Copy/paste groups between systems In the systembrowser you can copy/paste groups. Click on the group you want to copy and select the right mouse button. Select ‘Copy Group’ Next select the system where you want to paste the data, and select ‘Paste group’ in the right click menu. IMPORTANT: you can only copy/paste groups that are the same system type. So for example you can not copy a Motorola group into an Edacs system etc. 2.8.4 Copy/paste systems In the systembrowser you can copy/paste systems.
2.9 Fill Down / Fill Series The Fill down and fill series options are used to copy the same data into a range of channels.
The software will automatically fill the selected range, using the data at the top of the selected range. Fill Series: Fill series only works in the tag column. It will look for number information in the tag and auto increase the number in ascending channels.
2.10 Other Options: PL/DPL Column : You can directly enter a CTCSS or DCS tone. The software will auto correct your entry. Tones that are entered and have a decimal are considered CTCSS tones. Tones without a decimal are DCS tones. Tips: You can scroll the list with subtones by using the – and + keys. Shift _ spacebar will scroll down.
2.11 Understanding how data is stored in ARC330 In ARC330 data is stored in a system file or in a profile file. System File: Stores a single system with all related parameters: - system settings, including systemname, systemtype, QuickKey and website. group settings channel data (either frequencies or trunk id’s and related channel parameters) Profiles: A profile stores a list of system filenames.
2.11.1 Viewing a Profile / Profile Creator: The Profile Creator makes it easy to create a new profile, a profile is a collection of system files. A systemfile can be used in more than one system. Important: Since a profile only stores the location of a systemfile and NOT the actual data, be careful when you move mem files into different folders. Use the drive and folder navigation to locate system files (.mem) files. The lower part is the contents of the profile.
‘Import All’ will import all ARC330 mem files from the active folder (maximum is 200 files). You can also modify existing profiles, use the Open Existing PFL button to load existing profiles. Clean Up: if system files were moved to different folders you can use this button to clean up the profile. This option will check all files in the profile are still at their stored location. If they are moved, that system file is removed from the profile.
2.12 Organizing QuickKeys The BR330T uses QuickKeys to ‘combine’ systems so they can be scanned together. Also groups within a system can be assigned to a QuickKey. Group QuickKeys are numbers 1-9 and 0. System QuickKeys are number 0-99. In the systembrowser you will find the QuickKey Menu with powerful options to display, print and organize your QuickKeys.
Within a system you can lockout groups, these groups will not be scanned even when the assigned Quickkey is selected. To indicate that groups have the lockout flag set a ‘L’ is displayed in the systembrowser: In this screenshot you can see that the ‘GMRS channels’ group has been assigned to QuickKey 2 but it has the Lockout parameter set so will not be scanned. The group ‘CB channels’ has not been assigned to a QuickKey but has the Lockout flag set. Group QuickKeys are set in the Group Editor.
2.12.1 QuickKey EasyPick To set a system Quickkey you can select the Quickkey number from the dropdown list. For you convenience ARC330 shows which System Qkeys are ‘free’ and displays an overview off all systems assigned to a key. Move your mouse over the ‘EasyPick Quickkey’ box and a popup window is shown.
2.12.2 QuickKey Overview: Click the ‘Overview’ button in the Quickkeys menu to show the Quickview Overview: This window will show per quickkey the systems or groups that are assigned to that quickkey: In the screenshot above you can see by Quickkey which systems are assigned to one of the quickkeys. The overview displays 10 Qkeys, there are a total of 100 System Qkeys. Use radiobuttons to change the view. You can simply use mouse drag and drop to move systems/groups into quickkeys.
You can also view the group quickkeys per system, in the ‘select’ dropdown list, select the system you want to see: You can simply use mouse drag and drop to move systems/groups into quickkeys.
2.12.3 View Groups per QuickKey This overview will show all groups that are assigned to a System Quickkey, you can drag and drop groups to different Quickkeys. Double click ‘Quickkeys’ in system browser for this overview. The select dropdown list will only show QuickKeys that are assigned to a Quickkey. You can drag and drop groups into group quickkeys. The overview also shows all the systems that are assigned to this System Quickkey.
2.13: Uploading data into the scanner: From the main menu select: BR330T _ Send Data Tip: you can also use the toolbar button or press F6. Empty channels are NOT sent to your BR330T. A new window is shown: You can upload ‘All Systems’ or ‘Selected’ systems. Make your selection in the system overview. Select All and Unselect All options are available. Upload options: ‘Clear All Systems first’ : this option will erase all systems that are stored in your BR330T.
2.14 Import/Export data and UASD files: ARC330 can import data from various sources: - import using the clipboard: you can easily copy/paste data from Excel or other database software that supports the clipboard import frequencies from text/html/csv files. Use the WebCatcher option to import from these files. CSV files: select FILE _ IMPORT _ CSV File. The csv file is opened in a grid. From the grid data can be copied/pasted into ARC330. Arc330 can read and import UASD files, see section 2.
2.15 Modify the software bandplan. The BR330T has a build in Automode bandplan, this means that when you enter a frequency, the scanner will select receive mode from a preset list (see page 10-11 of BR330T user manual). ARC330 also uses this bandplan, by default mode of new frequencies is set to Auto. You can change this behaviour. In the systembrowser click on a conventional group.
2.16 Instant Firmware Updates Notification ARC330 can automatically check for Firmware updates. To enable this option start ARC330 and click on a group in the systembrowser. In the menu select SETUP _ SOFTWARE OPTIONS and click the GENERAL TAB. Select the option’ Check for Firmware Update’ and now close and restart ARC330. If you run a firewall you must allow ARC330 to access the internet.
2.17 Opening/Importing UASD files ARC330 can open or import UASD files. For your convenience you can also import a batch of UASD files for easy conversion to ARC330 file format. Open a UASD file: In the system editor select FILE _ OPEN SYSTEM, change the ‘File Of Type’ to UASD: You can now browse for UASD files. Import a UASD file: Select FILE _ IMPORT _ UASD FILE and browse for the UASD file.
3.1 Using WebCatcher for importing frequencies from internet websites: ARC330 can very easily import frequencies from any website. • • • • • • • • Start the ARC330 software Open you internet browser and open a website displaying frequencies you want to import (example: http://www.trunktracker.
• ARC automatically removes duplicate frequencies: • For import into the memory table you must transfer the frequencies to the right list. Finally you select in what bank and at what channel you like to import the data.
• WebCatcher works with ANY website, the website shown above is only an example.
3.2 TrunkWebCatcher TrunkWebCatcher is a small but useful utility for importing trunk data from websites. You can import frequencies, trunk id’s and descriptions from websites in seconds! You can also modify data before you export or save. With ARC330 you can directly import trunk data from the new Radioreference Database. See section 8 in this manual! TrunkWebCatcher will convert selected text from a website (using the clipboard) into a grid.
TrunkWebCatcher can save data in the CSV format. CSV format files can be read by Excel. Please note that in the beta version the entire grid is saved, not the selected area. Columns setting: By default the software assumes the first part of the lines that are imported, are trunk id’s. If the data you copy has more columns, you can increase this setting so data is split into more columns. The space is used as separator. Just play with this setting to get the best result.
Filters: Because trunk id’s are normally just ‘numbers’, WebCatcher can not tell the difference between an id and other data. Therefore you must use filters. Experiment with these filters. As long as data is not copied back onto the clipboard, you can always go back to the original data by using the ‘Import from Clipboard’ option. Follow these 3 basic steps: 1: Import From Clipboard To Clipboard > 2: Filter data > 3: Copy Selection Once data is copied onto the clipboard, simply paste in ARC330.
+ Line must contain number of at least x digits: example when this is set to 3, a line containing 12-04-04 (could be a date) will be removed. Look at the website and increase this number if possible to get better results for Motorola systems. + Number must be dividable by 16: Most Motorola typ2 trunk id’s are dividable by 16. Check this option to improve results for mot 2 id’s. + Remove String: this option scans the whole grid and simply removes the string you enter.
Detailed Description and sample how to use the TrunkWebCatcher: Screen copy of a website showing trunk id’s / tags we want to import: (data source: Michigan State Police trunk system, at www.radiorefence.
Now in your web browser you select EDIT _ COPY or simple press CTRL C , this will copy the selected text to the clipboard.
Go to the TrunkWebCatcher and select ‘Import from Clipboard’ : The text that you just highlighted is copied into the grid. Since the data at the website was divided into several columns, increase the ‘Split in Columns’ option to 4.
You will now see that the software divided the selected text back into the original columns: In this particular case the website already has a column called ‘Display’ . Because your scanner can only show a limited number of characters for the tag, the data from this column can be used to import into ARC330. The grid also shows a ‘long’ description but scanners can not store that. You can save the file with the long description to csv format for later reference.
You can use filters to remove unwanted data, although the grid can be easily used to copy data into your scanner software.
Final step is to highlight area’s in the grid that we want pasted into other software, in this example we highlighted the column with trunk id’s and when you click ‘Copy Selection to Clipboard’ you can paste that into ARC330.
You can do the same for the display column: ARC330 Software User Manual 102- 61
Finally there may be websites that do not show descriptions that will fit your scanner, here is an example of using TrunkWebCatcher option to make shorter descriptions: In the Description column you see for example ‘Statewide District’ , you can replace this by ‘STW DIS’ or what you like: ARC330 Software User Manual 102- 62
And clicking Apply will give you: ARC330 Software User Manual 102- 63
4 Configuration parameters: From the main menu select ‘VIEW _ Configuration Editor’. If this option is not shown, click on a system in the system browser. You can edit BR330T configuration parameters like general settings, custom search ranges and SAME settings for WX alert. Use the Open and Save options to store configuration settings on disk. The System Qkey settings are not stored on a file.
5 Virtual Control BASIC version ARC330 includes a virtual control option. Virtual control shows real-time scanner display data and you can operate the scanner from your PC keyboard using smart shortcuts. You can also control the volume and squelch settings. Special funtions: Use right mouse click on F button to toggle the FUNCTION option on/off. MONI= Monitor, opens squelch (conventional mode only!) MUTE= mutes audio ATT= toggle attenuator on/off C-Call/CC-Only/CC-bands/Cust.Src/Serv.Src/Settings/T.
5.
5.2 Resize Display: Double click in the VC main window to toggle between 2 (BASIC) or 3 (PRO) different screen sizes. 5.3.1 VC minimized: If you minimize virtual control, your windows toolbar will display the first 2 lines of the scanner display (depending on space available): Also 2 different ‘mini’ Windows are shown. Double click the mini window to toggle between them. Mini Window 1: Displays all display information. To control the scanner 3 buttons ( Hold / Resume Scan and Lockout) are available.
Mini window reposition: By holding down the right mouse button you can drag the window to any position. The mini windows have an autohide option. Use right mouse button menu to enabled autohide. Autohide will hide the mini windows when squelch is closed. 5.3.2 Virtual Control BackColor In VC click the right mouse button and a popup menu is shown. Select “Set Display Backcolor’ to change the color. 5.3.2 Virtual Control ‘on top’ In VC click the right mouse button and a popup menu is shown.
5.4 Extra Options in ARC330 PRO 5.4.1 History Logging: In ARC330 PRO a history logger will log all activity. This includes detected subtones and close call hits. Use ‘Save Log’ to save the history to disk. 5.4.2 Recording: If you connect the BR330T speaker output to the line input of your pc’s soundcard you can automatically record audio to disk in wav format (see section 8) The audio files are automatically saved in the ‘audio’ folder.
5.4.3 Log Settings: (PRO VERSION) Log Every Event: click this box to write a line in the history grid for every event. If box is unchecked the software will only increase the hitcounter and last event is moved to top of history list. Log To File: Writes the log in a csv compatible file. Press … button to set filename and path.
5.4.4 Emergency: (PRO VERSION) The emergency tab is used to enter important Trunk talkgroup id’s. When these id’s become active the software will automatically set the volume to the selected setting.
6 FCC lookup ARC330 has a build FCC frequency lookup utility. You can directly search the online FCC database, press F3 to open the search window. First select a State and then enter the frequency. You can also directly check frequency data from the grid: - click on the frequency you want to check, in this example 476.5375, the frequency is shown above the grid in the editor bar. Press F3, the FCC lookup window is shown and the frequency is copied to that window.
And here is the result of the FCC search: ARC330 Software User Manual 102- 73
7 RadioReference Database import With ARC330 you can import trunk system settings and talkgroup id’s directly from www.radioreference.com , Radioreference is the largest and most acurate scanner database in the world. For information about the database check out: http://www.radioreference.com/modules.php?name=RR IMPORTANT: To use the Radioreference import option you must sign up as a member and make a donation to Radioreference.com.
To import data, select at least one site and one group with talkgroup ID’s. Next press ‘Create System’ and a new system will be added to your systembrowser. Control Ch. Only: when you select this option, the software will only import control channel frequencies and the software will automatically enable the ‘Control Channel Only’ mode for the selected system (Motorola Type 2 systems only). If the radioreference.
8 General information and troubleshooting 8.1 Troubleshooting communication problems In case of communication problems you can use the information in this section to troubleshoot communication problems. 8.1.1 Set/Check scanner communication settings: Switch on your scanner, verify the scanner is enabled for RS232 serial communication: Press MENU , select ‘Xfer Information’ ‘PC Control’ and select 57800 and press E to store this setting. 8.1.2 Check your cable The BR330T comes with a special serial cable.
8.2 Revision history: ARC330 V0.
8.3 ARC330Pro connecting the scanner to your soundcard ARC330PRO has a built in digital audio recorder. To use this option you must connect the speaker/headphone output ( 1/8” mono connector ) to your soundcard line in (usually a light green connector). Also you must setup the recording volume in Windows: - start ARC330PRO and start the virtual control Click on the Recording tab and press the ‘Set Recording Volume’ button: In this window make sure that the Line-In is selected.
