BC95XLT Programmer

This is open source software for programming the channels of a Uniden BC95XLT handheld radio scanner.

Building the software

This software uses CMake to create a build system. Under Linux, to configure a build from the main directory:

cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -S . -B build

That will create a build subdirectory with all of the needed files in it. To then build we can use CMake again:

cmake --build build

The software will then be built and if all goes well, it will create an executable file named BC95XLT_prog in the build/src directory. You can also install the software if desired:

cmake --build build -t install

Using the software

The software is a very simple command line program. If you run it without command line arguments, it will describe its own usage:

Usage: BC95XLT_prog R|W serialport
Examples:
BC95XLT_prog R /dev/ttyUSB1 > channel.txt
BC95XLT_prog W /dev/ttyUSB1 < channel.txt

The serialport argument is as shown above, /dev/ttyUSB1 for Linux, or something like COM4 for Windows.

The R or W arguments are case sensitive and stand for Read and Write. In Read mode, it will read all 200 channels from the scanner and print them, with some addtional information to stdout. In the examples shown above we redirect this output to a file. The first few lines on my scanner look like this:

# model: MDL^BC95XLT
# version: VER^V1.02
1,453.8000,R,S,S
2,460.4125,R,S,S
3,162.5500,S,R,R

Any line with # in the first position is a comment and will be ignored when read, so the first two lines showing the model and version are solely for information and are not used by the program. Those first lines show exactly what was received by the software from the scanner. All of the other lines show the currently programmed information for each of the 200 channels. The format is:

channel_number,frequency,lockout,priority,delay

Note that spaces are not allowed. The data is a direct mapping to the data read/programmed by the RCM and PCM commands as shown below.

It's recommended to read all of the channels first, then modify the text file using a text editor, and then write it back using Write mode. Because lines beginning with # are comment lines, it can be handy to use that to document the channels like this:

# model: MDL^BC95XLT
# version: VER^V1.02
# County Sheriff dispatch
1,453.8000,R,S,S
# County Sheriff tactical
2,460.4125,R,S,S
# Weather
3,162.5500,S,R,R

To write the configuration into the scanner, simply use the W option as shown above. Note that for Read mode, all 200 channels will be read and in order, but in Write mode, only the channels listed in the file will be written and they may be in any order. If the same channel number appears multiple times, only the last one will have effect.

Serial protocol details

The protocol for the device is quite simple. It uses 9600-N-8-1 with no flow control and simple ASCII commands terminating each line with a CR (\r) character. Here is a list of the commands without argument:

cmd	response	description
PRG\r	PRG^OK\r	Program mode enter
EPG\r	EPG^OK\r	Exit program mode
MDL\r	MDL^BC95XLT\r	Get model name
VER\r	VER^V1.04\r	Get software version

There are also two commands with arguments which are RCM and PCM which are Read Channel Memory and Program channel Memory respectively.

RCM

Read Channel Memory takes a single argument which is a channel number.

delimiter	description	format	range
^C	channel number	xxx	1 to 200 inclusive

It returns the following parameters.

delimiter	description	format	range
^C	channel number	xxx	1 to 200 inclusive
^F	frequency in MHz	xxx.xxxx
^L	channel lockout	S	R
^P	priority	S	R
^D	delay	S	R

Example

RCM^C10^F122.7875^LR^PR^DS\r

This is channel 10, 122.7875 MHz, Lockout unlock, priority off, delay on.

PCM

Program Channel Memory takes the following arguments:

delimiter	description	format	range
^C	channel number	xxx	1 to 200 inclusive
^F	frequency in MHz	xxx.xxxx
^L	channel lockout	S	R
^P	priority	S	R
^D	delay	S	R

It returns one of the following responses:

response	meaning
PCM^OK\r	completed without error
PCM^ER\r	parameter error
PCM^NG\r	scanner is not in program mode

Example

RCM^C10^F122.7875^LR^PR^DS\r

This is channel 10, 122.7875 MHz, Lockout unlock, priority off, delay on.