Verified/Unverified frequencies

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polkaroo

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I'd like to propose a way to put unverified frequencies onto a county listing, and have it flagged as so so that a person who may have narrowed down a frequency to get some help from others.

Perhaps an entry could be like below, with a red background or moved to a specific "unverified" section or something? Once it has been verified by a member, then the red background can be taken off and moved into its proper category.
152.7875 131.8 ABC Construction

For those that try to discover new systems and frequencies, it might be nice to get some help, since anything is better than one person doing it on their spare time.

This is because the format now in the forums are ok, but they're all over the place and there's no standard syntax for posting such information.
 

NeFire242

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What if more than one person submits the same "unverified" or "UnID" TGID? This could begin to start causing confusion on the database, and more clutter. Plus it would be better to just keep it in the forums until it's verified this way you don't have to keep pushing updates through the DB until it's validated.
 

polkaroo

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Good point. All we need are people who've "discovered" new talkgroups... not realizing they're patched IDs. Hmmmm. Well, I've started a few "feeler" threads in Eastern Canada discussions to see how it pans out.
 

unitcharlie

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Personally, I have seen some good results come more quickly using my state's forum and private messages.... if nothing else start the thread with "New Freq in (area)?" and work it from there.... we still have some mystery freqs but have identified a bunch including a few Federal systems, etc!
 

jellotor

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Agreed...post it in the forums, let the community digest it and contribute and if the moderators want to sticky it, go nuts. Why create more work for the database admins? If it's in the forums it can essentially police itself.
 

polkaroo

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I think we have less active searchers and what I've done so far in the Eastern Canada forum is post a thread with the company name that I've narrowed stuff down to, either via listening to comms so that a third-party can verify my findings and make it official, OR listening in the area for similiar conversations and doing a search in our TAFL (Industry Canada licensed users) to match the company name to the frequency.
 

hotdjdave

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kb3hfp

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Slightly off-topic, but I think a feature like this could fix one of the major issues with scanner sites - it seems like most sites do one of the following:

(a) limit their content to only info verified by the webmaster or visitors
pros: visitors know all content is verified
cons: freq's that could be active don't get posted, nobody listens, so nobody can verify

or (b) mix verified content and freq's mined from the FCC database or other sources
pros: easy to find unverified freq's, especially for users who nobody's bothered to verify but could be active
cons: many freq's listed could be old or unused

If there was a button or some way for a user to verify a frequency as active, scanner sites could have the "best of both worlds", listing all possible freq's (great for newbies who don't know how to use the FCC DB), while letting experienced listeners know which freq's have been ID'ed as active.
 

unitcharlie

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Across the top of each County level page is a toolbar. The third button from the left is “FCC Licenses” which allows scannists to look at a variety of licenses both verified and unverified; fourth button from the left is “FCC Grants” which shows the most recent FCC licenses granted for that area.

I prefer verified freqs to unverified freqs because I make my living listening to active freqs. Unverified freqs cluttering up the database make it difficult to get to the active, working freqs. That said, one of my scanners is actively scanning unverified freqs in one band. Another is exclusively searching for new freqs and another is scanning the “money” freqs. There are freqs FCC database listed as active that haven’t been used in Kentucky for a decade or more yet they are have recent licenses; there are other freqs being changed to reflect newer technology and expanding radio systems. There are also numerous freqs listed as active and new that aren’t used yet nor may ever be used.

The seventh button from the left is very important: “Submit” that’s where verified info is submitted for inclusion in the database. I spent a little while yesterday morning adding new freqs, removing a couple that have been replaced and changing a couple that have new or expanded roles..... all of this based upon experienced scannists listening and submitting info they had verified.
 

kb3hfp

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The "FCC Grants" button is great when you're looking for any freq to verify, but if you're looking for freqs for a specific user, it can get tricky. For example, I was once looking for freqs for Pittsburgh's Convention Center. I found them (unverified) on a local scanner site. But if I'd used the FCC database, I would've found incomplete info, as some of them were registered to our local Port Authority.

EDIT: What I'm suggesting isn't just adding unverified freqs to the database, you'd need to have a way to quickly differentiate between verified and unverified (red highlighting maybe), and an option for Database users to not even see the unverified freqs if they don't want to.
 

K9GTJ

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hotdjdave said:
Now that you brought that up, I noticed that news and media are not one of the entities under convetional. Should or could this be added?

I would vote to add news media. (TV/Radio/Publications)
 

mikewazowski

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I would agree with news media as well. I've been able to listen to several noteworthy events by hearing the initial dispatch on a new media frequency.
 

hotdjdave

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Mike_Oxlong said:
I would agree with news media as well. I've been able to listen to several noteworthy events by hearing the initial dispatch on a new media frequency.
Not to mention that many cities have something like "Metro Traffic Control" coordinated by the media and using media frequencies. Metro Traffic Control monitors and reports traffic conditions, road hazards, traffic collisions, CalTrans (or whatever you state highway repair/transportations agency is called), weather, traffic cams, helicopter/airplane traffic reporting, etc.


Well lets get it going...who do we need to let know to make it happen? Lindsay, probably.
 
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unitcharlie

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Dave:
I have listed mdeia freqs when they are submitted.... I have used the "Business" category, do you think there should be a category on the County page? Oddly, the three TV stations in Lexington (KY) have gone to cell fones because the resident scannerheads in each newsroom would steal stories from the others two-way coms, or send the other stations on a wild goose chase looking for the ubiquitous "Big Story".
 

gmclam

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Media listings

I do not like the idea of listing media outlets under business. That should be for taxi cabs, construction limo drivers. Media conversations are often useful, especially if you can find a remote to studio link or something like that.

Thanks,
George
 
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