Programming with FreeSCAN

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toastycookies

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This is my first Uniden raido so I am not familiar at all with the menu system or programming. An included manual would have been nice...
Was advised FreeSCAN is the best way to program this radio so this is the only software I have used on it.
Wondering if I am doing this right. (I only have non-trunking conventional frequencies I plan to program in)

MgIzN7p.png


Seems to be working I think?

If I do not assign a "quick key" to a group will it scan anyways by default? Having only 10 quick keys I imagine I will eventually run out of them as I continue to add frequencies.

Is there a way to turn a group on/off besides the "Locked out" check box in FreeSCAN?

What is the easiest way to setup close call to run and log all active frequencies it finds?
Say I want to leave it running all day while I am working and be able to check a log of all the active frequencies it has found for the whole day.
I do have an extra computer I am planning on dedicating to the scanner, so I will be leaving it connected to it 24/7.


Thanks to all in advance.
 

ka3jjz

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As for learning about all the little nuances of DMA programming we have an article with just about every link you will need, including the links to the Easier to Read manual right here...

Program your DMA Scanner - The RadioReference Wiki

You're on the right track - be sure to assign a quick key for each group, and you will be good to go

There is a pretty complete user guide on freescan in our wiki - simply hit Help / Online Help from within FS, and you'll be taken there

You can lock out a particular group by hitting that number while you're in the desired system, but beware - locking out all groups can cause the dreaded 'NOTHING TO SCAN' message.

You wouldn't use Close Call for finding new freqs while sitting in your home - it's meant as a near field detector (in other words, signals that are pretty close to you), rather than a scanner. As an example, you could use Close Call if you were near a shopping mall and wanted to find the security frequency.

Mike
 

toastycookies

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I did glance over that wiki to help me figure out how the whole DMA hierarchy works.

I do get the NOTHING TO SCAN message EVERY time i upload to the scanner now that i have assigned each group a quick key. I have to manually press each key to start scanning that group.

When i did not have quick keys assigned I think it automatically just started scanning everything?

I guess Close Call will not do anything for me then as I live in the middle of the woods, closest neighbor is 1/2 mile away....

I realize there are present bands already setup to "search" or what not. Is there a way to scan through all of those and record findings in a log?
 

Voyager

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Not assigning a Quick Key will not prevent scanning.

Assigning one and not enabling it WILL disable the scanning. I would remove it until such time as you get everything organized, but you have 100 System Quick Keys, not 10.
 

Blackink

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I do get the NOTHING TO SCAN message EVERY time i upload to the scanner now that i have assigned each group a quick key. I have to manually press each key to start scanning that group.

When i did not have quick keys assigned I think it automatically just started scanning everything?

If you take a look at the FreeSCAN window, along the top toolbar, you'll see Tools.

Clink once on that and you will see System Quick Key Manager..... Ctrl+K.

When you click on that, you'll see a window labeled System Quick Key Editor.

Just make sure the Systems you want to have scanned are selected. By clicking on the box, that corresponds to the System(s) you want to listen to after you've uploaded the info into your scanner, you'll see a check mark in the box.
No check mark in the box for the System you want scanned and it won't scan after you've uploaded frequencies into your scanner.

That's why when you didn't have any Quick Keys assigned to your Systems after you uploaded info into your scanner, it would start scanning.

Once you assigned Quick Keys to your Systems, you needed to tell FreeSCAN which of those Systems you want to start scanning as soon as the upload is done.

Enjoy the new scanner.
 

toastycookies

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Alrighty that makes a little more sense now and I have enabled them in the Quick Key Manager.

How does the S0: 1234567890 at the bottom of the unit's screen relate to the quick keys?

Does it go from S0 to S9 to achieve the 100 quick keys? and how would I enable ones that are not on the bottom or S0?
from the unit that is, not through freescan.
 

ka3jjz

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The 'S0' displays are for your systems, This display doesn't relate to your quick keys

Back to basics for a moment - there are many different types of quick keys, and it's important to understand the differences between them, and how they work.

We have an article, once again in the user guide, that goes through most of the important ones -

Freescan and Quick Key Processing - The RadioReference Wiki

This also describes the SQK Manager, and most importantly, how to use it to show which sites and systems are tied to which SQK. Read this carefully

Mike
 

toastycookies

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This is one area I am having a hard time at grasping.
It says in the wiki that "The group level is the lowest level in the DMA structure."
However, I see no way to make a group without a "System"

The wiki goes on to say that "The system is the highest logical level in the DMA structure."

This is very confusing for me.

When I think of low level code I think of ASM / assembly code.
When I think of high level code I think of visual basic or java.

It seems like the wiki has them reversed maybe?

Basically all I want to know how to do it create "banks" of frequencies.
All conventional analog frequencies with no trunking.

Nothing fancy, nothing special, just groups of frequencies for different areas and / or usages.
 

ka3jjz

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To quote a famous little green elf, 'you must unlearn what you have learned' - there are no banks. You create your own 'virtual' banks (systems) and everything underneath it. The system level is the highest level in the DMA structure...in order, from left to right

(conventional systems)
SYSTEMS ---> GROUPS

(trunked systems)
SYSTEM ---> SITES ---> GROUPS

Mike
 

ka3jjz

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Hmm...how did I miss that? Should have said they point to System QUICK KEYS...Quite right you are...Mike
 

ScannerFreaque

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the DMA structure is very powerful and one that I happen to really love. I like the way you can assign as few or as many systems as you want to a single QK. For example, you could theoretically program a dozen systems for, say, New York, then do the same for New Jersey, then Connecticut etc and assign each state to its own QK. OR, you could break down one state - like New York - by assigning a QK for each county in that state. You could drill down even farther by breaking it up even further into towns, cities etc. It's only limited to 100 QK's which is not impossible to fill up but it would take a lot of "drilling down" to fill that up.

Also - keep in mind that banks traditionally have a finite amount of channels, say 50 channels per bank. That could force you to only use a small amount of the available channels in each bank (if you wanted to keep different counties, towns, cities or departments in each bank). The beauty of the DMA architecture is that there is no waste - the maximum number of "things" you can assign a QK to is only as big as you want to make it (within reason of course - there IS a limit to how you can set things up but it's pretty huge).
 

toastycookies

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To quote a famous little green elf, 'you must unlearn what you have learned' - there are no banks. You create your own 'virtual' banks (systems) and everything underneath it. The system level is the highest level in the DMA structure...in order, from left to right

(conventional systems)
SYSTEMS ---> GROUPS

(trunked systems)
SYSTEM ---> SITES ---> GROUPS

Mike


Again, this is what is confusing me the most.

From what I can tell the "System" is the very lowest level of programming.

I cannot form a group without a system? or can i?

It seems like I need to form a "system" to form a group one step higher above it.

The "system" has no purpose to me except to let me form a group to populate with frequencies.

or at least that is how i understand it now.

basically i see the whole "system" as worthless and would like to form "groups" or as they used to call them "banks" without it.
 

toastycookies

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For an example say I want to program a "group" of GMRS frequencies.

I would need to create a "System" and than above it a "Group" and put in all the frequencies in the "Group" while the "System" does nothing except act as a place holder?

Am I understanding this correctly?
 

toastycookies

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I keep going back to the wiki to try to figure this all out and I have a feeling that the wiki is very, very wrong.

It makes no sense logistically and seems reversed.
 

ka3jjz

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For an example say I want to program a "group" of GMRS frequencies.

I would need to create a "System" and than above it a "Group" and put in all the frequencies in the "Group" while the "System" does nothing except act as a place holder?

Am I understanding this correctly?

Your'e almost there; the group is always underneath the system (in a conventional setup). The group is the lowest logical level in DMA. Of course, you would also need a System Quick Key for the system, and 1 Group Quick Key for the frequencies. The setup you have in the first message is correct, sans the missing Group Quick Keys.

It might be easier to think of it in those terms... the System describes the characteristics of the groups beneath it, in a conventional system. In a trunk, it holds the characterstics of the sites within it. Mike
 

marksmith

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I sense possibly someone coming from a scanlist environment. Your analysis of needing a system to build a group on is accurate for DMA. Your explanations are right on in terms of the placeholder terminology. You get used to doing it a little differently.

Its not a great deal different in the scanlist world. You still need a system or systems as the base of the process.

However, once those are there... you can create a scanlist (group) of things to scan without adding any new systems. You can pick from system talkgroups that already exist in other scanlists and build a list or group of stuff to scan without considering what system they are in.

There are pro's and con's to both methods. The scanlist environment is used on RS/GRE/Whistler radios. DMA for Uniden.

Mark
536HP/HP1e/HP2e/996P2/996XT
996T/396XT(2)/PSR800/PRO668
 

Blackink

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This is a bit of info from the Easier to Read manual, although what the others here have said is correct too.
I'm going to leave out any info on Trunked Systems because that is not relevant here.

You have to create systems first, then create the groups in the systems, create channels in the groups, then program the frequencies into the channels. Or, you can Quick store frequencies (this part is explained in other parts of the manual).

Conventional frequencies only go into conventional system groups.
You can store up to 500 systems, up to 20 groups per system, and up to 1000 frequencies per group. Total channels are limited to about 9,000. Also, remember that conventional frequencies are considered channels.

Note: Once a system has been created, the system type cannot be changed.

One suggestion; assign every (conventional) system/group (and search you want to include with scan) to a quick key. You can assign as many systems as you want to a quick key, and as many groups you want to a group quick key. That way you can just turn systems and groups on and off and not have to worry about locking them out. If you don't assign systems and groups to a quick key, you have to lock it out if you don't want to scan it.


Once you start to understand what you need to do, it'll then come quickly to you.
 

k9vet

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One clarification about Freescan, please! Re using the RED "erase all systems" box. To be precise, does this box choice DELETE everything from the scanner's internal memory? Why would you click on this during a DOWNLOAD operation? If you click on it before a download, what will happen? Will the scanner's memory contents be downloaded and THEN its memory deleted? Would it be correct to call this box: "Erase all systems in scanner's internal memory"?
Scott
k9vet@rcn.com
 
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