Chicago Airports

[tdel1]

I'd like to program Midway and O'Hare frequencies into my scanner as favorites (sds100, only had it a few days).

I'm still learning how to operate the scanner, but based on what I've seen on the scanner and read on the forums, I think creating a favorite list is the best way to approach this, that way I can simply turn on the favorite list if/when I'm in the area.

Is it as basic as, go here Chicago Midway International Airport (MDW) (Cook County) Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference and grab the frequencies I want to add to the favorite and type in the frequency? Or is there more to it?

I just grabbed the first handful as an example.

128.20000
126.05000
353.87500
135.20000
269.12500
121.65000

It seems that proscan is the better app for programming favorites. I read one post where someone said they were using sentinel and wanted to grab specific frequencies from a list, but sentinel ignored the specifically clicked frequencies and added the entire list.

Thanks.

 

[drdispatch]

First of all, the best way to program these scanners is by using software. Sentinel, ProScan, it's a matter of personal preference. (Sentinel is free and comes with the scanner, ProScan has some nice features. Personally I use Sentinel.)

I read one post where someone said they were using sentinel and wanted to grab specific frequencies from a list, but sentinel ignored the specifically clicked frequencies and added the entire list.

They may have been trying to capture talkgroups in a trunked system, in which case Sentinel adds all of the sites in that system. At any rate, if you go to the Midway Airport system in Sentinel and highlight only the frequencies you want, then click "Append to Favorites List" you will get only the frequencies you highlighted. (As long as we are talking about *conventional* frequencies and not trunked systems.)

 

[tdel1]

First of all, the best way to program these scanners is by using software. Sentinel, ProScan, it's a matter of personal preference. (Sentinel is free and comes with the scanner, ProScan has some nice features. Personally I use Sentinel.)


They may have been trying to capture talkgroups in a trunked system, in which case Sentinel adds all of the sites in that system. At any rate, if you go to the Midway Airport system in Sentinel and highlight only the frequencies you want, then click "Append to Favorites List" you will get only the frequencies you highlighted. (As long as we are talking about *conventional* frequencies and not trunked systems.)

I'm still learning, there is a lot of information I'm trying to absorb. The frequencies listed on the page I linked, those don't seem to be trunked systems which sounds like I can pick and choose which frequencies I'd like to add vs a trunked system, Sentinel would give you all the frequencies in a trunked system, you can't pick and choose. I need to fire up Sentinel and test a few things, hopefully I'll have a chance to do that, tomorrow.

Thanks.

 

[hiegtx]

I'm still learning, there is a lot of information I'm trying to absorb. The frequencies listed on the page I linked, those don't seem to be trunked systems which sounds like I can pick and choose which frequencies I'd like to add vs a trunked system, Sentinel would give you all the frequencies in a trunked system, you can't pick and choose. I need to fire up Sentinel and test a few things, hopefully I'll have a chance to do that, tomorrow.

Thanks.

Since the aircraft frequencies, for O'Hare as well as Midway, are conventional, you can selectively import which ever ones you want, either a Department, or click on the Department to select individual frequencies.




However, as already noted above, when appending a trunked system it will append all of the sites listed for that system, regardless of whether you select one or more individual talkgroups.

For this system:

Chicago OEMC Public Safety - 800 MHz P25 Trunking System, Chicago, Illinois

Chicago OEMC Public Safety - 800 MHz P25 Trunking System Profile

www.radioreference.com

There are sets of talkgroups for each airport, as well as some other used in the city. There are also three sites: one for citywide users, as well as one for each of the airports. If so desired, you could append only the TGIDs for the airport of your choice, then delete (or set to AVoid) the sites for the other airport as well as the citywide site.

 

[drdispatch]

Also, any help you need with the SDS-100 &/or Sentinel, you can find it here:

Uniden Tech Discussion

For discussion of all technical aspects of current or future Uniden scanners. Discussion of Uniden supplied programming software such as Sentinel is also welcome here.

forums.radioreference.com

 

[tdel1]

Since the aircraft frequencies, for O'Hare as well as Midway, are conventional, you can selectively import which ever ones you want, either a Department, or click on the Department to select individual frequencies.
View attachment 125647

View attachment 125648

However, as already noted above, when appending a trunked system it will append all of the sites listed for that system, regardless of whether you select one or more individual talkgroups.

For this system:

Chicago OEMC Public Safety - 800 MHz P25 Trunking System, Chicago, Illinois

Chicago OEMC Public Safety - 800 MHz P25 Trunking System Profile

www.radioreference.com

There are sets of talkgroups for each airport, as well as some other used in the city. There are also three sites: one for citywide users, as well as one for each of the airports. If so desired, you could append only the TGIDs for the airport of your choice, then delete (or set to AVoid) the sites for the other airport as well as the citywide site.

I have the scanner hooked up to Sentinel and I made a few lists and saved to the scanner. That was fairly simple to do. I'm at the point where I see a trunked list and I don't want all of the frequencies as many of the locations are far from me. Is this the point where people switch to ProScan for programming? I realize Sentinel is still needed for firmware and db updates.

I'm reading some posts where people are saying that if the FL are too large and it takes more than 10-15 seconds to go through the list, there will be transmissions that are missed and I feel that I am already at that point with the STARCOM21 list. I'll hear the transmission from one convo and if I don't lock/hold then I never end up hearing any other transmissions because the scanner is scanning other frequencies. I'd like to pick and choose which STARCOM21 frequencies I want to listen to.

Thanks.

 

[hiegtx]

I have the scanner hooked up to Sentinel and I made a few lists and saved to the scanner. That was fairly simple to do. I'm at the point where I see a trunked list and I don't want all of the frequencies as many of the locations are far from me. Is this the point where people switch to ProScan for programming? I realize Sentinel is still needed for firmware and db updates.

I'm reading some posts where people are saying that if the FL are too large and it takes more than 10-15 seconds to go through the list, there will be transmissions that are missed and I feel that I am already at that point with the STARCOM21 list. I'll hear the transmission from one convo and if I don't lock/hold then I never end up hearing any other transmissions because the scanner is scanning other frequencies. I'd like to pick and choose which STARCOM21 frequencies I want to listen to.

Thanks.

For a large, statewide system, such as STARCOM21, or a large regional system used here in Texas (TxWARN P25), trying to append a system from the main database to a Favorites list results in you also getting every site in the system, even if you selected only specific Department.

If you have a Premium Subscription, then you can use software such as ProScan to import only the specific Departments of interest, and the selected sites for that area. You can also do this with ARC-536, but I prefer ProScan. Regardless of which of these two programs you use, you do need the Premium Subscription to make it work.

While it takes a little longer, you can do the append in Sentinel, then deal with the unneeded sites in Sentinel. If you read through past posts on this issue, you will see several trains of thought on what to do. Some people prefer to leave the extra sites, and then use Location Control on the list so that the out of range sites are ignored. But if you do this, then every system in that list must have location information. That's not a problem if you added all of them by appending from the main database. Appending from the database adds the selected system details, with location information when the system is added. But if you also have one or more systems, with sites & departments that you entered manually, such as a new system not yet in the database, then you must also enter locations and ranges. Otherwise, a 'no location' (blank details) is treated as zero degrees for both latitude & longitude, which is a spot in the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Africa, and well out of any range you would normally enter.

Other posts will suggest that you set the unwanted sites to Avoid status, so that the scanner will not utilize them. I prefer to simply delete the extras if I append a system instead of a web import via ProScan. Then, if I need those sites at a later date, say for a trip, I can always append the system to a new list, and get all the sites & departments there. Either of these two methods requires you to look at the listings of sites, and either Avoid, or delete them. But that's not as hard as it might seem.

Look at the database page for STARCOM21:

In the section listing the various sites & their frequencies, click on the County columns label.


That will sort the sites according to the name of the county where they are located.


Some of the sites' names will be recognizable as to their location. But others may be named for a local landmark or geographic location unfamiliar to you. By sorting them according to the name of the county, you can quickly see which ones are in your area of interest. You can then either delete the ones you don't need, or set them as Avoid. Note that for a string of sites, if you click on the first one, then hold down the <Shift> key and select the last one in that group, it will select all of the sites in that range. Then, you can <right><click> on the list of sites, and from the pop-up menu, select either to set them as Avoid, or 'Remove from Favorites list' (in other words, delete them).



The best way to handle this, at least for me, is to use ProScan & import only what I want. But you can still accomplish the same thing in Sentinel, with a few more steps.

 

[tdel1]

For a large, statewide system, such as STARCOM21, or a large regional system used here in Texas (TxWARN P25), trying to append a system from the main database to a Favorites list results in you also getting every site in the system, even if you selected only specific Department.

If you have a Premium Subscription, then you can use software such as ProScan to import only the specific Departments of interest, and the selected sites for that area. You can also do this with ARC-536, but I prefer ProScan. Regardless of which of these two programs you use, you do need the Premium Subscription to make it work.

While it takes a little longer, you can do the append in Sentinel, then deal with the unneeded sites in Sentinel. If you read through past posts on this issue, you will see several trains of thought on what to do. Some people prefer to leave the extra sites, and then use Location Control on the list so that the out of range sites are ignored. But if you do this, then every system in that list must have location information. That's not a problem if you added all of them by appending from the main database. Appending from the database adds the selected system details, with location information when the system is added. But if you also have one or more systems, with sites & departments that you entered manually, such as a new system not yet in the database, then you must also enter locations and ranges. Otherwise, a 'no location' (blank details) is treated as zero degrees for both latitude & longitude, which is a spot in the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Africa, and well out of any range you would normally enter.

Other posts will suggest that you set the unwanted sites to Avoid status, so that the scanner will not utilize them. I prefer to simply delete the extras if I append a system instead of a web import via ProScan. Then, if I need those sites at a later date, say for a trip, I can always append the system to a new list, and get all the sites & departments there. Either of these two methods requires you to look at the listings of sites, and either Avoid, or delete them. But that's not as hard as it might seem.

Look at the database page for STARCOM21:

In the section listing the various sites & their frequencies, click on the County columns label.
View attachment 125681

That will sort the sites according to the name of the county where they are located.
View attachment 125682

Some of the sites' names will be recognizable as to their location. But others may be named for a local landmark or geographic location unfamiliar to you. By sorting them according to the name of the county, you can quickly see which ones are in your area of interest. You can then either delete the ones you don't need, or set them as Avoid. Note that for a string of sites, if you click on the first one, then hold down the <Shift> key and select the last one in that group, it will select all of the sites in that range. Then, you can <right><click> on the list of sites, and from the pop-up menu, select either to set them as Avoid, or 'Remove from Favorites list' (in other words, delete them).

View attachment 125683

The best way to handle this, at least for me, is to use ProScan & import only what I want. But you can still accomplish the same thing in Sentinel, with a few more steps.

Thanks for this post, I'm going to become premium and attempt with ProScan.

I have what I hope is a minor issue, I posted about it in my other thread, it may be easier to read it there if you want to take a stab at helping me out.

sds100 questions

I have been reading threads and some of my questions have been answered, but I also want to make sure that I'm not overlooking something which would put me in a scenario where the scanner wouldn't work in the way that I'm expecting it to work. I'm mainly interested in the area from downtown...

forums.radioreference.com

Thanks.