Batboard

Hello and Thanks for reading. Presently, we have a Quantar UHF Repeater that is connected (hardwired) to a Lowband Maxtrac used in a "crossband" feature. Probably a pretty common setup, but in case not, the Quantar is on UHF band. The Maxtrac is on Lowband. ANY and ALL traffic received on the Lowband is fed through into the Quantar and retransmitted to field units on UHF. Then, any unit on UHF in the field that transmits on the Quantar RX freq and PL, keys the Lowband and can communicate back over Lowband. This is for our MAIN Fire Dispatch Freq (on Lowband) and their are hundreds of pagers out there too that are on this UHF freq as well. (WE actually have another different type repeater GR1225 that is being used in the same method, but on a different frequency....both UHF and Lowband.....that monitors our Fire Ground alternate channel. With these hundreds of pagers out there.... they have both the Main Dispatch and Fireground UHF freqs in their 2-channel pagers.
I'm sure this is pretty "common" method; HOWEVER, I am attempting a new endeavor. We no longer need either repeater (in theroy) because of the County switching to UHF P25 now. They (the county) is simulcasting the Main Fire Dispatch on a UHF freq in Analog mode for people with pagers; however, no FireGround Channels will be Analog (and will all be in T-Band as well).
What I am looking to do (and hoping for some help here) is this..... Remove the Lowband Maxtrac (not going to be needed any longer of course)...... and in its place, install a Uniden BCD996XT Scanner that is P25 capable. All I want to do is have any and all messages that the scanner receives (being our "Ops/FireGround" channels, etc in a scan mode)..... key the Quantar and rebroadcast out for people to receive on their pagers on this other UHF freq that we are presently using for our UHF fireground channel (our own licensed issued freq) in Analog.

In short..... just remove the Maxtrac Lowband and replace it with this P25 BCD996XT scanner and do the same function (just obviously not the re-transmit back out)..... "just a one-way broadcast". What I'm looking for is how to connect the scanner..... I know it has a "Record" function out with audio.... just not sure how to go about it if anyone could offer some input. THANKS

I would *NOT* use a scanner for this, simply because they have zero front end protection, the audio is generally atrocious and it's just plain hokey.

Get yourself an additional radio on the P25 system and connect that to the UHF Quantar. If both radios are UHF, you may need some filtering between the UHF RX and the UHF TX.

You might also try discussing your concerns with the County. Perhaps your existing UHF Quantar can be interfaced into the County system and patched at the console level to do exactly what you want without all the mess.

Depending on the system setup, the talkgroup you want to monitor may not be hot all the time on the site you program into the scanner.

Either talk to the county and do something at the console level, or get an XTL1500 on the system and do it that way.