Bearpaw

Glossary

Every radio and app term the guide uses, defined once.

Alpha tag

The text name saved for a channel, like "FIRE DISPATCH" or "NOAA WX1." It's what shows on the big display during a hit instead of a bare frequency.

Alpha tags come from the scanner's memory, so they're blank until the memory sync finishes. Before sync completes, hits show just the frequency.

Bank

A group of 50 channels. The BC125AT's 500 channels are divided into 10 banks of 50: channels 1 to 50 are Bank 1, 51 to 100 are Bank 2, and so on. You can turn whole banks on or off for scanning (on the Scan tab), and you view and edit one bank at a time (on the Channels tab).

Close Call

Uniden's feature for detecting a strong signal from a transmitter physically close to you and jumping to it automatically, even if that frequency isn't in your channels. Configured on the Device tab.

CTCSS / tone / DCS

Sub-audible codes sent along with a transmission so a receiver can be set to open only for its own group and ignore everyone else sharing the frequency.

Bearpaw shows whichever a live signal is carrying, on the display, for as long as the signal is open.

Delay

How long the scanner waits on a channel after a transmission ends before it resumes scanning, so you have time to hear the reply. Set per channel, in seconds. Bearpaw also supports negative delays (pre-delays), where the scanner holds before the next transmission.

Draft

An edit you've made on the Channels tab that is held in the app and not yet written to the scanner. You make as many drafts as you want, then push them all to the radio at once with Upload Changes. (See Drafts and uploading.)

Hit

When the scanner stops on a frequency because a signal is present. The display switches from "Scanning…" to the live frequency and details, and if the transmission lasts long enough, it's recorded in your activity log. (See the hit workflow.)

Hold

A mode where the scanner stays parked on the current channel instead of cycling through them. You turn Hold on (with the HOLD button or Ctrl/⌘ + H). During an ordinary hit the scanner is paused but not in Hold. It's still scanning, just waiting out the transmission.

Lockout

Telling the scanner to skip a frequency or channel so it stops stopping on it.

Both are toggles; apply again to remove. On the Scan tab, the L/O button opens a menu with Temporary and Permanent choices. You can review and clear permanent lockouts under Locked Channels.

Memory sync

Reading all 500 channels out of the scanner into the app. Because the scanner hands them over one at a time, it takes about 30 to 45 seconds. It runs automatically when the app connects, and you can re-run it from Scanner → Sync Memory. Bearpaw doesn't store your channels between sessions; it re-reads them from the radio each time.

Modulation

How a signal carries its audio. The BC125AT handles AM, FM, and NFM (narrow FM). When editing a channel you can also choose AUTO, which lets the scanner pick based on the frequency.

Priority

A channel the scanner checks periodically even while it's scanning or holding somewhere else, so you don't miss activity on a channel that matters. Each bank can have only one priority channel. In Bearpaw, the Priority switch applies to the scanner immediately, not as a draft. Priority mode (off/on/plus) is set separately on the Device tab.

RSSI

Received Signal Strength Indicator: how strong the received signal is. Bearpaw shows it as a five-bar meter next to the frequency during a hit.

Squelch

The circuit that mutes the receiver until a signal is strong enough to be worth hearing. Raising squelch means only stronger signals get through; lowering it lets weaker ones (and more noise) in.

In the app's data, "squelch open" means a signal is present (the scanner has un-muted), which is the opposite of how "open" might sound at first.

Sync

See memory sync.

Upload (Upload Changes)

The action that writes your pending channel drafts to the scanner. Until you press Upload Changes on the Channels tab, your edits stay in the app and the radio is untouched.