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Uniden BC246T · Volume 2

Uniden BC246T — Vol 2: Operations

Analog Motorola Type II + EDACS + LTR trunking

2.1 Operating modes

The 246T does two things: conventional scanning and analog trunking. Each is competent at its narrow scope.

Conventional FM/AM scan. Up to 2500 conventional channels across the supported bands. AM is supported on the aircraft band (108-137 MHz) and the CB band (26-28 MHz); everything else is narrow-FM or wide-FM. Conventional scan rate is in the 80-100 channels/second range — noticeably faster than the digital scanners because there’s no decoder math in the loop. CTCSS and DCS subaudible tone decode are supported per-channel for tone-coded squelch.

Trunking modes. Three families:

  • Motorola Type II (including Type II Smartzone, fleet/subfleet maps): 5/3.6 kbps control channel in the 800/900 MHz band, also in the 851-869 MHz Motorola “high-band” UHF allocation. The 246T tracks the control channel correctly, decodes the talkgroup-to-frequency mappings in real time, and switches to the voice channel as transmissions key up. Talkgroup IDs are presented in decimal (4-digit) by default; the older fleet/subfleet hexadecimal format is supported via a menu setting for the very oldest Type I/II hybrid systems.
  • Motorola Type IIi Hybrid — the transitional format that ran some agencies on both Type I and Type II talkgroup formats simultaneously. The 246T handles this; it’s a checkbox in the system setup.
  • EDACS Wide/Narrow — 9600 baud Ericsson control channel, used by the M/A-COM ProVoice and EDACS systems that were widespread in the 1990s-2000s for state-level public safety. EDACS Wide is the standard channel spacing; EDACS Narrow is the 12.5 kHz variant. EDACS ProVoice itself (the digital voice mode that ran on top of EDACS infrastructure) is not decoded — the 246T sees ProVoice channels as silent carriers. Most EDACS systems are gone by 2026, retired in the great public-safety P25 migration of the 2010s.
  • LTR (Logic Trunked Radio) — the older Standard LTR system used by small business and SMR trunked-radio operators. Decoded correctly. Increasingly rare in 2026.

What is not supported: P25 (any phase), DMR (any tier), NXDN, DStar, Tetra, Mototrbo (Capacity Plus / Connect Plus / Capacity Max), Phase II TDMA (the modern P25 split-slot architecture that most current public-safety systems run), OpenSky (M/A-COM’s TDMA digital that ran in NJ/PA/FL). Anything that requires more than analog FM voice on the audio path is outside this radio’s scope.

The trunking decoder is, however, very good at what it does. The 246T tracks Motorola Type II control channels reliably even at marginal signal-to-noise ratios where a newer scanner with a busier DSP front end will occasionally lose lock. The simpler signal-processing chain is an asset here.

2.2 Field use

Antenna pairing. The BNC jack is the 246T’s standout feature for field use — it accepts every aftermarket whip and mag-mount with a BNC connector, of which there are many. The stock telescoping whip is mediocre on every band; replace it.

  • Daily-use whip: Nagoya NA-771 dual-band (2m/70cm) on a BNC-to-SMA adapter. ~38 cm, ~$25, gives +6 dB on 2m and +3 dB on 70cm over the stock antenna. The right call for ham-band monitoring and most VHF/UHF public-safety listening.
  • Wider-coverage whip: Diamond RH77CA (similar form factor, also dual-band). Same approximate gain story as the NA-771.
  • NMO mag-mount: any quality dual-band NMO antenna on a magnetic base, BNC pigtail, run out to the roof of the vehicle. Adds 3-6 dB over a handheld whip and gets you above the body of the car.
  • Outdoor base setup: a discone (Diamond D-130J, Comet DS-150S) outdoors via 50 ft of RG-58 or LMR-240 to a BNC connector. Overkill for a handheld but works if the radio is desk-bound.

See Antennas Vol 9 (Portable & mobile monopoles) for the full handheld-whip menu and Antennas Vol 29 (Use-case Matrix) for the per-radio recommendation table — the entries for the legacy Uniden handhelds apply equally here.

Posture. The 246T is a bench-drawer radio. The use cases that pull it out:

  • Confirmed analog Motorola Type II systems still on the air in 2026. Some county sheriffs in rural areas remain on analog Type II because the modernization budget never landed. Check the current RadioReference listing for your county before assuming the system is dead.
  • Historical verification. “What does this old EDACS recording actually sound like in real time” — the 246T will tune the system if it still exists, and demodulate it the way it was meant to be demodulated in 2005.
  • NASCAR / race-day pit-row monitoring. Pit crews and spotters historically ran analog Motorola Type II business-band systems. Some of this has migrated to P25; some hasn’t. The 246T covers the un-migrated.
  • Demonstration / nostalgia. Showing somebody what a scanner from the late-2000s looked and sounded like.

The 246T does not earn the go-bag slot. The SDS100 ↗ covers everything the 246T does, plus all the modern digital modes, with better sensitivity. If only one handheld scanner can come with you, take the SDS100.