GFC Software
Frequently Asked Questions
MR-8100 Programmer (PSCAN)
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Question: I like the program and want to enable the
additional features and full functionality. How do I register?
Answer: We offer both online and "snail mail" ordering
options. To order online, just use the PayPal payment service
(see the banner below) and our online order form. To
order using "snail mail," just print out the offline
order form
and send it in with your payment. The order form may also be
found in the Help file that comes with PSCAN, but please note
that prices listed on that form may be out of date; the current
price listed online applies. Our address is: GFC Software, PO Box
2681, Rockford IL 61132-2681.
Question: I purchased a "pre-paid" registered version. How do
I complete the registration process?
Answer: Your pre-paid package should have included a registration card.
Fill out that card and mail it to the address shown. You will receive
your registration information by email (assuming you provided an email
address), and/or by "snail mail." Please be sure to print legibly and
make sure that you provide correct information. Note: If you
purchased a pre-paid registered version and it did not include
the registration card, contact the vendor from whom you purchased the
package. We are happy to work with our approved vendors to resolve
this issue.
Question: Can I still order online through CompuServe?
Answer: Unfortunately, no. CompuServe discontinued their SWREG
service as of 31 December 1998. We are pleased to be able to
offer online ordering using credit card or "electronic
check" payment via the PayPal service:
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Question: I'm in a real hurry. Is there any way I can get
my registration faster?
Answer: You can receive your registration information much
more quickly if you pay by credit card or "electronic
check" using the PayPal service (see banner above), or by
certified check or money order, and include your email address (printed
legibly!) on your registration form. If you follow this
procedure, we can email your registration information to you usually
the same day we receive your order! (Orders paid by personal
check may be delayed pending bank clearance.)
NOTE: Due to excessive fraudulent overseas orders, orders from countries other than the United States may be delayed pending verification of payment. We apologize for any inconvenience, but rampant internet fraud has forced us to adopt this policy.
Question: Where do I enter my registration information into
the program?
Answer: Click on the "Setup" button; you will be
presented with the Setup window. At the bottom of that window is
a button labeled "Click here to Register". Click on
that, then follow the instructions. Be sure to enter the registration
information exactly as shown on your registration notice.
Another Answer: If you received your registration information via
email, simply save the email message -- in TEXT-only form
-- as a file named REGISTER.TXT in the same directory in which
you installed PSCAN. The next time you start PSCAN, it will
automatically detect the registration information!
Question: I clicked on the "Setup" button, but no
"Click here to Register" button ever appears. Now
what?
Answer: This is a known problem with some installations of
Windows XP and Vista, and is caused by the fancier window frames,
titles, etc., used by XP and Vista. The easiest way to overcome this
is simply to use the "auto-registration" feature explained
above.
Another Answer: You can edit the PSCAN.INI file (in your Windows
directory), changing the "Height" setting (under "Form
Position Settings: MR-8100 Programmer"). Increase the value by
about 20 and re-save the file. This should overcome Windows XP's or
Vista's improper handling of the application window size. After
entering your registration ID, you can re-edit the file, restoring
the original value for the "Height" setting.
Question: I saved my registration email but it won't
auto-register. What's wrong?
Answer: The three most likely reasons are: (1) You did not save
it under the proper name, (2) you did not save it in the proper
location, (3) you did not save it in text-only form.
Verify that you saved it as REGISTER.TXT, in the same directory
in which you installed PSCAN, and that it contains NO special
formatting codes, etc. (To verify that it is in text-only format,
load it into the Windows Notepad program and look for any special
codes or characters.) After verifying these things, if it still
doesn't work, it is best to just enter the registration
information manually.
Question: I entered my registration name and number but
still can't access the enhanced features. What's wrong?
Answer: Does your name appear at the bottom of the main screen in
PSCAN? If not, then your registration information was not entered
correctly. First, note that the name is case-sensitive. That is,
"John Doe" is not the same as "JOHN
DOE" or "john doe". You must enter your name exactly
as shown on your registration notice. Also, do not include
any extra characters or punctuation. Double-check your entries
and if you are still having trouble, contact our Technical
Support department at [email protected].
Question: What do you do with the information I provide on
my order form? Is this information going to be sold to mailing
lists or telemarketers, or am I going to be bombarded by
"spam" email?
Answer: We will not sell the information to any outside
entity; nor will we use it internally for any marketing purposes.
The information you provide is maintained in our customer
records only. We will use your contact information only
to notify you in the unlikely event that any serious flaws are
found in our software which may cause operational problems, or to
notify you of the availability of upgrades to your purchased
software. If you wish additional details on our
privacy policy,
contact our Legal Department at [email protected].
Question: I've moved (married, changed email address, etc.).
How do I update your records?
Answer: Just send an email to
[email protected], providing both the old and the new information.
We'll update our records accordingly.
Question: How do I get on -- or off -- of your mailing
list?
Answer: As mentioned above, we use mailing lists only
for notifying you in the unlikely even that any serious flaws are
found in our software, or to notify you of the availability of
upgrades.
If you wish to be ADDED to our mailing list, just send an email
to [email protected] and ask
to be added to the list. You must send the email from the
address you wish to have added to our list. We will not
add other email addresses to our mailing list.
If you wish to be REMOVED from our mailing list, just send an
email to [email protected]
with the word "REMOVE" in the subject line. Again, you
must send the email from the address you wish to have
removed.
If you wish to UPDATE your email address in our mailing list,
just send an email to
[email protected] and provide your old email address.
You must send the email from the new email address.
Question: I run a business selling
MR-8100 radios. Can I register PSCAN under my company name and make
even more money selling copies to my customers using my
registration?
Answer: Nope. We license our software only to individuals.
Every user of our software is required to purchase their
own copy. Each registration entitles the registered individual
to use the software on one machine (at a time).
Think of it this way: Would you consider it right (legally and morally) to buy a single copy of a book and make photocopies for all your friends? How about a video or CD? How would you like it if we took your advertising or other materials and "whited out" your business name, replacing it with ours? Would you consider that fair? Of course not!
Our license agreement allows you to make as many unregistered, evaluation copies of our software as you want, and share those copies with others for evaluation purposes only. You must not share, sell, or in any other way divulge your registration name/number, etc. Doing so exposes you and your business to potential legal liability and penalties far exceeding the cost of properly registered copies of our software.
If you deal in very large volumes of these radios and wish to discuss special group licensing rates or reseller options, please contact us with the particulars to discuss these possibilities.
Question: Can I register the software under my business
name?
Answer: Nope. We license our software only to individuals.
This is primarily to prevent disreputable persons from licensing a single
copy under their business name and reselling that one copy multiple times
to their customers. This is illegal, and robs us of our legitimate income.
Ultimately, this "software piracy" results in higher costs, decreased
incentive to improve the product or create new products, and in many
cases reduced service to legitimate, paying customers.
Question: Can I register the software under my
nickname?
Answer: In general, we do not allow our products to be registered using
nicknames, unless the nickname is something very recognizable as
belonging to you. (For example, we have no objection to using "Bob Smith"
rather than "Robert Smith", but something like "stoner dude" would be
unacceptable.) We also will not register profanities, etc. We reserve
the right to deny any requested registration name.
Question: I received a copy of your software that says
"Registered To" and has somebody else's name (or a business name).
How come? And how do I get it to display my name?
Answer: Send an email to [email protected]
and let us know (1) the name displayed, and (2) where you got it. We'll
take it from there and help you get a properly registered version in
your own name.
Question: What are the hardware and software requirements
for using PSCAN?
Answer: Obviously, you will need a Uniden MR-8100 radio and an
appropriate interconnect cable. You will also need:
Question: Will PSCAN work on a Linux system?
Answer: Maybe. PSCAN requires IBM-compatible hardware running the Windows
operating system. If you run a "virtual machine" (VM) on your Linux system
which emulates the required hardware and software, it might work.
(We have received reports from users indicating success with such a system.)
NOTE: We do not support such a configuration,
however.
Question: Will PSCAN work on a Macintosh?
Answer: No. PSCAN requires IBM-compatible hardware which
emulators on Macintosh systems cannot provide. If there is enough
demand for it, we will consider creating a Mac version. If
you're interested, contact our Sales Department at [email protected].
NOTE: We are not aware of anyone
successfully using a VM setup on a Mac due to the Mac's lack of a
COM1 serial port.
Question: Will PSCAN allow me to program the radio for any
frequency, including "out-of-band" frequencies?
Answer: PSCAN will allow you to program the radio for any frequency
the radio is capable of receiving and designed to receive.
"Out-of-band" operation is not possible unless the radio
has been modified accordingly and a similarly-modified version of
Uniden's SCAN.EXE is available. PSCAN does not,
in itself, provide out-of-band operation.
NOTE: If you have a version of the MR-8100
radio hardware designed for use outside of the United
States (or on non-standard frequencies within the USA), and
have the appropriate regional version of Uniden's
SCAN.EXE software, you can disable
frequency range checking (click on "Setup", then remove the checkmark
from "Check frequency ranges") to use PSCAN for programming the radio
for these non-USA or non-standard frequencies.
Question: What COM port settings do I need to use?
Answer: You must use COM1. Other than that, you do not need to
worry about settings as they are handled automatically by the
software.
Question: I am attempting to use COM2 (or COM3 or COM4,
etc.) to transmit programming information to the radio, but it
doesn't work. What's wrong?
Answer: At present, PSCAN works only on COM1. This is a
limitation of that portion of Uniden's software that we use to
interface with the radio. We plan to eliminate this limitation in
version 1.0.
Question: Do I need to do anything on the radio to get it
to accept frequency data from the computer?
Answer: No. You do not need to press any
buttons or do anything special on the radio. Just turn on the
power and the radio is automatically ready to receive programming
from the computer via the interconnect cable.
Question: I am getting errors when trying to transmit data
to the radio. What's wrong?
Answer: There are several possible causes for transmission
problems. From most common to less common, they are:
Question: I have transmitted the programming data to the
radio, but now the radio won't scan; it seems to be "locked
up." Did I break my radio?
Answer: No, your radio isn't broken. After transmitting data to
the radio, you must reset the radio by turning the power off and
on again.
Question: Can I include spaces, punctuation, etc., in
the names of frequency files that I save?
Answer: No. Due to limitations in Uniden's software,
frequency files must be saved in a DOS-compatible "8.3"
filename convention. This means that the filename must be eight
or fewer alphanumeric characters and must not include any spaces,
punctuation, special symbols or characters, etc. Furthermore, the
extension (the ".3" part) must be ".FRQ" or
you may not be able to load the file properly.
Question: Does that mean I can't use punctuation, spaces,
etc., as data in frequency files that I save?
Answer: No, that's not what it means. You can
use punctuation, spaces, etc., in the bank and frequency name fields.
The most notable exception to this is that you cannot use commas, due
to the formatting of the frequency files. (This is a limitation of
Uniden's interface.) Nearly any other common punctuation is
acceptable.
Question: I didn't read the above item before saving
my file. I named it "My.first.frequency.file" and now I
can't reload it. When I try to load the file, that file is not
displayed! Did I lose all those hours of entering frequencies,
names, and so on?
Answer: Probably not. Most likely the file has been converted to
conform to the DOS-compatible "8.3" filename convention
and has been saved under the name "MY.FIR". To display
this file in the "Open" dialog window, select "All
Files" from the drop-down "File Types" list; you
should now see the file displayed. Select that file to open it.
We strongly suggest you save the file with the proper extension
(".FRQ"). Just enter a filename of up to eight
alphanumeric characters, with no spaces, punctuation or special
characters, and let PSCAN add the proper extension for you!
Question: Can you tell me what frequencies are used in
my area?
Answer: Unless you are in our area, no. (Sorry!) Check
in your area. Check the local Radio Shack store (they
might have a Betty Bearcat frequency directory). Check the local
library. Check with the services (police, fire, etc.) you wish to
monitor; they may be willing to give you the information! Ask
other scanner enthusiasts, amateur ("ham") radio
operators, etc. Check magazines related to scanning or ham radio.
Check online for individuals or groups providing such
information, either free or for a fee. Check with the FCC, or one
of the agencies that offer FCC database listings (available
online or in magazines).
Question: All my frequency files have a goofy
character ( ~ ) in them. What gives?
Answer: That goofy character is called a tilde. When you run
PSCAN on a 32-bit Windows system (Windows 95 or higher) and you
give a file a name longer than 8 characters (before the period),
some Windows software will not recognize the long filename and
will shorten the filename to 8 characters -- the first 6
non-blank characters in the long filename, a tilde, and a number.
If you don't want these "goofy" characters, keep your
filenames to 8 characters or less.
Question: PSCAN was having trouble finding SCAN.EXE. I used
"Fine-tune PSCAN settings" and the instructions in your
online Troubleshooting
Guide to try to correct the problem. I
entered the correct file location ("C:\Program
Files\PSCAN") in the "SCANloc" setting, but it
still doesn't work! What do I do now?
Answer: In order to maintain compatibility with older versions of
Windows, and because of limitations in Uniden's SCAN.EXE
software, PSCAN requires that you specify this pathname in
DOS-compatible, "8.3" notation. The correct pathname
for this setting would thus be "C:\PROGRA~1\PSCAN". If
you installed PSCAN in the default directory
("C:\MR8100"), should not have this problem. For more
information on file- and pathname conventions and limitations,
refer to your Windows documentation.
Question: Do you have a sample frequency file that I
can use for testing?
Answer: Yes. We have a
sample
frequency file that is used with our
Basic
Operation Guide. Be sure to save the file in text-only
format!
Question: Can you tell me what all those codes mean that
I hear on the radio?
Answer: We can provide you with certain more-or-less "standard" codes
(such as the APCO "ten-codes") used in our area. But be aware that there is no
"universal standard" used by all agencies. Even those that use the
common APCO codes often modify or extend the codes to better suit their
needs. You might try contacting the agency(-ies) in question and asking
them, or contact a local scanner enthusiast group or retail store
selling scanners.
Question: I'm just not having
any luck at all! I can't get PSCAN to transmit anything to the
radio. What are the steps I can use for troubleshooting? Should I
contact GFC Tech Support right away?
Answer: No. Believe it or not, you are in a much better
position to be able to diagnose and remedy the problem than we
are! We have prepared a separate Troubleshooting Guide to help you.
Basically, this guide is the steps we would go through if you
were to contact us, so you can save yourself a lot of time by
working through the steps in the guide. If, after going through
those steps, you are still having problems, then by all means
contact our Tech Support department.
Question: After reading all the above, I'm more confused
than ever. I don't even know where to start programming the
radio! Do you have any sort of beginner's tutorial?
Answer: Yes. Check out our
Basic
Operation Guide.
Question: I am getting an error message when trying to load
a frequency file that I recently saved. The message reads (for
example) "'154.43,8192' is not a valid integer value." (in this
example, 154.43 is the frequency I entered, but I did not enter
the 8192 part). What gives?
Answer: You probably entered a comma in the channel name field.
Due to limitations in Uniden's software, commas are not allowed
in bank or channel name fields. To correct the problem so that
you can load the frequency file, use an editor such as Notepad
to edit the frequency file, changing any commas in the channel
name fields to another character, such as a period. Be sure to
save the edited file in pure text mode and with the proper .FRQ
extension (rather than Notepad's default .TXT extension).
Question: I am getting an error code not listed in the
documentation. What does error code ____ mean?
Answer: Some additional error-handling has been added to the
software since the documentation was last updated. These new
error messages, and recommended steps to overcome the problem,
are contained in the
"Adjusting PSCAN's Settings" section in our Troubleshooting
Guide.
Question: Where can I get software upgrades and how much do
they cost?
Answer: Upgrades through version 1.0 are FREE to
registered users. Software upgrades are available for free
download from the Internet at http://www.gfcsoftware/software.php.
Upgrades on disk are available for a small fee. They may be
ordered online
or offline (by
"snail mail").
Question: Where can I get help installing or using PSCAN?
Answer: The best way to receive technical support is via email.
You can contact our Technical Support Department at [email protected].
Question: My disk and/or manual are
lost or damaged. Can I get a replacement?
Answer: Yes. Replacement disks and manuals are available for a
small material and handling fee. They may be ordered online or offline (by
"snail mail").
Question: I have lost my registration
codes. Can you send them to me again?
Answer: Usually, yes. We need to know the name, address, email
address, etc., under which you ordered and registered the
software. You can request this online or offline (by "snail mail"). We will email
the information to you, so be sure to provide your current email
address. There is a small fee for this service.
Question: Why do you charge for a lost registration?
I already paid for the software. Why do I have to pay again?
Answer: If I lose my car key, Ford Motor Company is not going to
send me a replacement for free. Now, yes, we realize that an email
is "free" whereas a physical car key sent through the mail is not.
But the time and effort expended by our staff in looking up lost
registration codes is not free. Also, you'd be surprised at
how many times we are asked to look up registration codes for people
who have never registered! There are apparently some people
who think they can get our software for free by claiming to
have paid and registered when in fact they have not. They hope we
will assume we have "lost" their registration information and
just issue new codes. So the time we spend looking up these non-existent
codes costs us, and we are forced to pass along these costs to
our paying customers. This isn't fair. Instead, we charge for looking
up registration codes. That helps weed out the scammers, and puts the
cost where it belongs. The bottom line is: It is
your responsibility to keep a record of your registration
number.
Question: I have been trying to contact GFC Software
via email, but am having trouble (e.g., my email is being
returned as "undeliverable" or is apparently being
ignored).
Answer: Please be assured that we are NOT ignoring you, and that
we ARE still in business! One possible reason for this is that we
receive so much spam that sometimes things "get lost"
in all the garbage [see the following question and our
spam policy].
In general, you should receive at least an acknowledgement of
an email within, at most, two business days (Monday
through Friday, 9 AM to 5 PM,
excluding holidays and extended holiday periods). If you do not
receive at least an acknowledgement within that time, please try
again from a different address.
If all else fails, you can contact us via "snail mail"
at GFC Software, PO Box 2681, Rockford IL 61132-2681.
Question: I sent an email to you, but it got returned
to me saying that you are "not accepting email" from
me. What's the deal???
Answer: Unfortunately, we receive literally hundreds of
"spam" emails every day, offering everything from
get-rich-quick schemes to XXX-rated stuff. (We're not interested
in any of those things, by the way.) In an effort to
reduce the amount of spam we get, we have locked out some of the worst offenders so
that we do not accept email from their domains (that is, the part
of the email address after the @ symbol).
We have tried to limit this to only the worst offenders, but
there is always the possibility that your email address is in one
of these domains. If this is the case, you can set up a temporary
email account on one of the many free email providers (such as Yahoo, Mail.com, Hotmail, etc.) to
contact us, or contact us via "snail mail" at GFC
Software, PO Box 2681, Rockford IL 61132-2681. If you are having
this sort of trouble, let us know your email address
(online
or via "snail mail")
and we can add that address as one from which
we will accept email, overriding the IP-based and/or
domain-based lockout.
We apologize for any inconvenience caused by this. Please do your
part to help eliminate "spam".
Question: I am receiving "spam" (UCE , or unsolicited
commercial email) from GFC Software. Take me off your @#$% list!!
Answer: We do not send out unsolicited commercial email
(commonly referred to as "spam"). We send out only
registration notices for new orders, responses to questions we
receive, and occasional (infrequent) notices of upgrades
available to registered users. We do not keep -- OR USE --
any mailing list other than described above for registered users or
those individuals who have asked to be informed of product updates,
availability, etc. [See our
spam policy and our
privacy policy.]
If you are receiving any other email which appears to be
coming from GFC Software, it could mean that someone has somehow
violated our system security and is using our email system for
spamming (which we will not allow!) or is faking
their email to appear to be coming from GFC Software when,
in fact, it is not.
If you are receiving such email, please forward the complete
email to us at [email protected].
We need the complete email, including all the
"headers" (which indicate the true source of the email
and its routing). We will take steps to track down the source,
close any security holes, and prevent recurrences.
And thank you for helping us fight spam!
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