ScannerCast alpha tags to block certain talkgroups?

[fredva]

I've been using Oddcast and just started trying ScannerCast. Since ScannerCast is set up to broadcast alpha tags, I was wondering: Could a future version include the ability to specify a list of talkgroups or frequencies that would be blocked from broadcast by the software? I'm thinking of a broadcaster with one scanner who wants to listen to all talkgroups for a police dept. but needs to conform with the Radio Reference terms of service by blocking certain talkgroups from broadcast. The software would be used to effectively "lock out" talkgroups instead of the scanner.

[PeterGV]

HI Mike,

Clever idea, thanks for the suggestion. It couldn't work perfectly, of course (the tags often precede or lag the actual audio slightly). But it certainly could work. Hmmmm... I'll add it to the To Do list as a possible feature.

Thanks again for the idea,

Peter
K1PGV

[fredva]

You're welcome! Thanks for considering it!

[PeterGV]

You're ticket #42 on the ScannerCast ToDo list.

This isn't as easy as it first sounds. ScannerCast can't stop sending data packets to RR while a suppressed talk group is active, so it would have to send a block of silence. The challenge, really, is how to dynamically generate that block of silence during ScannerCast startup so the block reflects the correct parameters for your feed (like the throughput rate).

I'm not saying I won't do it, or that it's too hard. I think it's a good idea, in fact, and would make a nice addition to the program. I'm just saying it's not a matter of "Hey... I think I'll go throw in the code for Mike's request this afternoon" :-)

Peter
K1PGV

[Skud]

The reason why I like this is I record the audio from my scanner here at home and stream it. I do not broadcast private channels to RR but would love to be able to still here them at home if needed and this would work perfectly.
I love the idea.

[PeterGV]

Thanks for the encouragement.

I totally "get" the point of this request... I have the same situation. There are a few channels that I would like to listen to, but that are banned from RR Feeds. I dropped them from my 24x7x365 scanner setup, but that sort of reduces the fun for me.

Being able to NOT forward those channels to RR would be a nice addition.

The problem is that it's not a quick "drop in" type thing that I can do. As explained above, sending a block of "silence" isn't the same as sending a block of zeros. Sigh...

Peter
K1PGV

[SHAKEY]

Have you thought about using the "Record out" jack on your scanner (if you have one) for the RR feed. then just enable the record on those TG but not on the ones that you listen to but can't send. Of course this all depends on your scanner. That is how I did it with my BC780.

[VFCC]

I was going to make the same suggestion about using the record out port on the scanner and just turn off "Record" on the prohibited talkgroups. One thing to keep in mind however is that while there is activity on the tactical talkgroups, the scanner will not be receiving the allowed talkgroups. That could make the feed sort of useless if there is a big operation going on that ties up the scanner on a tactical talkgroup.

[fredva]

My scanner does not have a record out jack, only an external speaker jack. VFCC is correct in that allowed channels would not be broadcast when there is traffic on the tactical talkgroups. How often that might be an issue may vary from locality to locality.