BCD436HP/536HP Scanning: Quick Keys, Startup Keys, Scan Order & Priority

Summary: How the scanner decides what to scan and in what order, and how to use Quick Keys, Startup Keys and priority to control it.

Quick Key Concepts

You choose what to scan by assigning Quick Keys to Favorites Lists, systems, departments and sites. Enabling or disabling a quick key isn’t the same as avoiding something or turning a list’s Monitor setting on or off.

• Favorites List Quick Keys (FLQK) – 0-99, one per list. A list with none is always enabled. You can’t assign a quick key in one list to another list.
• System Quick Keys (SQK) – 0-99 for conventional and trunked systems.
• Department/Site Quick Keys – 0-99 for departments and sites within systems.
• Search Keys – keys 1, 2 and 3 can start a Custom Search, Tone-Out Search or Close Call Only search.
• Startup Keys – 0-9 for Favorites Lists (systems aren’t affected).
• Number Tags – 0-99 for lists and systems, 0-999 for channels.

It’s best to assign quick keys to everything.

The Scan Order

Scanning mixes FLQK and SQK order; the scanner does not scan all systems in one list and then move to the next.

1. For each list starting from 0, it scans each SQK 0 in FLQK order, then the next set of SQKs: FLQK 0/SQK 0; FLQK 1/SQK 0; … FLQK 99/SQK 99. Department and site quick keys are scanned with each system.
2. Systems with the same quick key are scanned in creation order.
3. The database is scanned next, in creation order.
4. Then systems with no quick key (including Quick Save systems), in creation order. Conventional channels and departments inside are scanned in creation order.
5. Trunked IDs aren’t really scanned: the scanner watches for any activity, showing all IDs when ID Search is on, or only programmed IDs when it’s off.
6. Then Custom Searches enabled for Search with Scan, in order (Close Call Hits last).
7. Then the Close Call Hits with Scan system, if not avoided and not empty.

The scanner stays in a system for the System Hold Time (for trunked systems, until the hold time, the current transmission and the channel delay have all finished; for conventional systems every unavoided channel is scanned at least once).

Scanning Checklist

1. Enable at least one Favorites List or the Full Database in Select Lists to Monitor.
2. Lists or systems with quick keys must be enabled by keypad or Manage Quick Key Status.
3. Service types used by channels must be on.

Lists, systems, departments and sites with no quick key, not avoided, and (for lists) set to On, are scanned.

Selecting Quick Keys From the Keypad

• Favorites List: the list’s number then E/yes (00, E/yes for list 0).
• System in the current list: ./no, the system’s two digits, E/yes (./no 03 E/yes).
• System in a different list: the list number, ./no, the two digits, E/yes (00 ./no 04 E/yes).
• Departments/sites in the current list: ./no, the system’s two digits, ./no, the department/site’s two digits, E/yes. Example: .02.04 toggles all departments and sites with quick key 4 in all systems with SQK 2.
• In a different list: the list number, ./no, system digits, ./no, department/site digits, E/yes. Example: 1.02.04.
• In the current system: ./no twice, the two digits, E/yes. Example: ..04.

Startup Keys

Assign a Startup Key (0-9) to each list. Then turn the scanner off, press and hold the matching number key while turning it on, and keep holding until the display shows the configuration number. Lists with a matching key are turned on; the others are turned off. If you press a key with no lists assigned you’ll start with everything off (Nothing to Scan).

Priority Scanning

• Priority Scan interrupts conventional scanning at the interval you set to check priority channels. The more priority channels, the longer the interruption. The list and system must be enabled and not avoided, or you’ll see Priority Scan No Channel.
• Priority DND only checks when the scanner isn’t receiving another conventional channel.
• Priority ID Scan is similar for trunked IDs but never interrupts a transmission: it checks between transmissions, on the control channel and during the channel delay, and only within the trunked system being scanned. Turn it on for each system. Priority is always on for a trunked system if enabled.
• Preemptive Priority ID Scanning – on Motorola systems that have channel priority active, if you flag a TGID as priority and the system also identifies it as priority, the scanner preempts the current transmission when it becomes active.

Highest priority goes to channels in system quick key 0; lowest to 99. Within a department, priority follows creation order.

Menu, Priority Scan: Set Priority (Off, Priority DND, Priority Scan – PRI shown reversed for DND), Set Interval (1-10 seconds) and MaxChannels/Pri-Scan (1-100; 100 priority channels with a maximum of 20 takes five intervals). Toggle modes with Func + ./no.