18
UNDERSTANDING
BANKS
Channel Storage Banks
To make it easier to identify and select
the channels you want to listen to,
channels are divided into 10 banks
(0–9) of 50 channels (00 to 49) each.
Use each channel-storage bank to
group frequencies, such as those
used by the police department, fire de-
partment, ambulance services, or air-
craft (see “Guide to the Action Bands”
on Page 45). For example, the police
department might use four frequen-
cies, one for each side of town. You
could program the police frequencies
starting with 000 (the 1st channel in
bank 0) and program the fire depart-
ment frequencies starting with 100
(the 1st channel in bank 1). The first
digit identifies the bank (0–9). The
second and third digits identify the
channel within the bank (00–49).
Search Banks
This scanner is able to search 10
search banks. You can also replace a
bank with one of the preprogrammed
service bands. (For the default setting,
see “Searching a Preprogrammed
Frequency Range” on Page 25).
UNDERSTANDING
CTCSS/DCS
Continuous Tone Coded Squelch Sys-
tem (CTCSS) and Digital Coded
Squelch (DCS) are two methods used
to prevent interference by other radio
communications. Your scanner can
receive transmissions that use these
codes.
When your scanner receives a CTC-
SS transmission,
PL
(private line) ap-
pears. When your scanner receives a
DCS transmission,
DPL
(digital private
line) and a 3-digit code appear.
PL Codes
PL codes are low-frequency audio
tones that are used to differentiate dif-
ferent users on the same channel. PL
codes appear according to the EIA
standard CTCSS tones, and range
from 67.0 Hz to 254.1 Hz. PL codes
are displayed directly as a frequency.
DPL Codes
DPL codes are similar to PL codes,
except they might be transmitted as
either tones or digital codes. Although
there are as many as 4096 DPL
codes, only about 100 are actually
used.
DPL codes appear in the format
Dxxx
, where
xxx
is an octal code.
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