How is your scanner organized?

[RFSnoop]

How are frequencies (Favorites Lists, Quick Keys...) organized on your scanner?

Any info about how you organize and access what you listen to would be helpful.

 

[MStep]

How are frequencies (Favorites Lists, Quick Keys...) organized on your scanner?

Any info about how you organize and access what you listen to would be helpful.

Wow--- that's a pretty tough question which would require something akin to a thesis to answer. So let me be very general. Everyone has their own methods and techniques, depending upon the complexity of the scanner. If you review some of the posts, a few folks have mentioned how they best employ favorite's lists and quick keys.

When I get a new scanner, I start out with some of the basics, like local police, fire and ems to get a feel for how the scanner operates. In my area, those are all conventional frequencies. I then tend to "build around" those basics with favorite lists which augment some of the basics (like handie-talkie frequencies, repeater input frequencies, etc).

After that, I start preparing favorites lists with trunked systems that also augment my original police, fire and ems channels. After a week or two, when I am comfortable with the operation of the unit, I may start adding more conventional and trunked systems with are within 5 or 10 miles of my primary area.

Finally, I go through the database to select some of the groups of conventional and trunked systems for favorites lists which may be more "exotic", just to add to the "flavor" of scanning.

You will find that in developing your radio's programming, that this is a very dynamic experience, and you will be always changing things around to try to make them more to your liking and easier to operate. The great thing about scanners nowadays is that there are programs available such as Sentinel and others which help you make changes in your scanners setup virtually effortless, once you master the operation of the program. Incidentally, Uniden allows you to download and use their Sentinel program without cost even before you buy your scanner--- that really gives you a good jump on understanding how to program your unit. Even third-party programs like ProScan give you a free 30 day fully-functional trial of their software, although you MUST start with Sentinel (or any program that is provided with your scanner) in order to understand the basics of making favorites lists, etc. I would not advise getting involved with third-party programs until you have mastered any programs that are supplied by your scanner's manufacturer, and you have used your scanner comfortably for a month or two. In other words, take things slowly and don't bite off more than you can chew.

I don't have a lot of quick keys assigned to systems--- I tend to use my 536 more for base use. Quick keys, while helpful, tend to be more useful in mobile environments when you want to change what you may be listening to very quickly and without talking your eyes off the road.

A lot, of course, is based up the complexity of your scanner. Something like a 436 or 536 requires a bit more thought than a fifty or hundred channel unit. And a lot also depends on the area you are primarily going to monitor. An RF-dense area like NYC is going to require more programming acumen than a relatively rural environment.

I'm sure that others will jump in here with suggestions, although as I mentioned, it would pay to look through some of the threads here and I have seen this discussed in much more detail than I am providing.

Best of luck with the scanner you choose.

 

[Voyager]

I've mentioned my general scheme before, but it is:

FLs are regional - usually consisting of about 9 counties. I currently have FLs covering 3 states. The first digit of the FL is the "super-region" - which is defined as a group of 9 FLs, and the second is map-based (get to that in a moment). I also have some FLs that are service-based, such as FLs 91-99 which are for Hospitals, Utilities, Schools, Services (ITINERANT, FM, MURS, CB, Air, RR, Ham, Marine, STORES, MALLS, ROAD CREWS, TOWING, NEWS, SECURITY, AIRSHOWS, Etc.)

So, yes, my channels are duplicated - I can access them by region or by service depending on what I want to monitor at the time. I can monitor all channels in an area, or all RR channels in many areas (basically all RR channels in range) to find new active channels.


The Systems in each FL are unique to each County, and have a map-based quick key (1=NW, 2=N, 3=NE, 4=W, 5=central, 6=E, 7=SW, 8=S, 9=SE, 0=regional). If an area has a trunked system and conventional channels, they are enabled/disabled with the same Quick Key.

I do have one county that is large enough to warrant a single FL, and in that case the 1-9 represents grids of that single county (NW, N, NE, W, central, E, SW, S, SE, regional).

My Departments (or Groups) are organized under each System as follows:

1 POLICE
2 FIRE
3 EMS
4 STATE
5 PW
6 HAZMAT
7 EMA
8 INTEROP
9 OTHER PS (SO / JAIL)
0 UNCONFIRMED PS
11 DEPARTMENT STORES
12 RESTERANTS
13 FAST FOOD
14 THEATERS
15 GROCERY STORES
16 MALL OPS
17 INDUSTRIAL
18 SECURITY
19 OTHER BIZ
10 UNCONFIRMED BIZ
21 MEDIA
22 AIR
23 RR
24 MARINE
25 TRANSPORTATION
26 ATTRACTIONS
27 COLLEGES
28 SCHOOLS
29 HOSPITALS
20 UNCONFIRMED SERVICES
31 UTILITIES - POWER
32 UTILITIES - GAS
33 UTILITIES - WATER
34 UTILITIES - CABLE
35 UTILITIES - TELEPHONE
36 FM
37 AM
38
39 HAM
30 UNCONFIRMED UTIL
41 FEDERAL
42 MILAIR
43 PARKS
44 VA
45 NATIONAL INTEROP
46 GMRS
47 FRS
48 MURS
49 CB
40 UNCONFIRMED FED

Quick Keys 51-99 are for Sites on Trunked Systems with smaller ones only using 91-99.

You may notice that like users are grouped together - 0-9 is PS, 10-19 is Business, 20-29 is Services, 30-39 is Utilities (with some others to fill the space), 40-49 is Federal with others to fill the space). Again, it's all about organization to help keep things easy to remember.

Obviously, some Departments are blank in many Systems, such as the CB list. I added it for completeness and expandability.

The number in front of the Department/Group tag is the Quick Key for reference. All my FLs, Systems, and Depts/Group use prepended Quick Key numbers. It helps remember what is what, and if I am using QK 44 and moving east, I know the next one to enable will be 45. If I were going south, the next one would have been 47. So, as long as you know the general direction you are going, remembering all those Quick Keys is trivial.

Obviously, this list is optimized for an x36 series scanner, but I do something similar with other scanners - both Uniden and GRE.

 

[MStep]

As you can see RFSnoop, Voyager is incredibly organized in the way that his scanner is programmed. I give him a lot of credit--- I would imagine that in the early stages he had to use a "cheat-sheet", although I would venture a guess that he can activate or deactivate any frequency or system now in a matter or seconds.

I used a few tricks in the programming of my 536--- although I do have some systems programmed with Quick Keys, I also use Number Tags to get to some of my conventional frequencies very quickly. In New York City, for example, we have police precincts which cover various areas of the city--- I can pull up a police precinct to monitor pretty quickly by punching up four or five keystrokes, all in about 5 seconds. A pretty good feat considering that precinct numbers range from 1 up to 123.

Since you mentioned Favorites Lists and Quick Keys in your original post RFSnoop, what scanner do you have or plan on getting ?

Notwithstanding some of the issues mentioned in other threads, I think the 436/536 are excellent scanners, but I must tell you that there is something of a learning curve involved with their use. With a little patience and persistence, things will fall into place for you and you'll develop your own style, shortcuts and tricks to get your scanner programmed just he way you want it.

 

[pingdew]

Voyager:

Within your systems, you say 0 = Regional. What do you mean by this? When you have zero selected it scans the entire region (all systems, NW, N, NE, etc. in that particular FL region) instead of just a particular sector within the that system?

 

[Voyager]

No - "Regional" means it covers the entire area that is covered under 1-9 (or more than one of those areas). Did I explain that well enough? I know it might not be clear.

 

[SCPD]

Each favorites list is a town,Toggle them on or off in favorites lists

1.Home.
2.Next town over
3.Next town over
etc.

 

[pingdew]

Voyager:

Yes. Clear. That is exactly what I was saying. I just didn't explain it correctly.
I've tried adopting your approach but a couple problems I've run into.

1) When I select something and try to Append to a Favorite List I've created WITHIN a System I can't figure out how to do it? It will only append to the Favorite List and create another System.

How do you get each System to become essentially a folder with mixed System Types?

 

[smithken]

This can depend on the scanner too, my 996T and 396XT are organized differently than my 536.

 

[Voyager]

1) When I select something and try to Append to a Favorite List I've created WITHIN a System I can't figure out how to do it? It will only append to the Favorite List and create another System.

How do you get each System to become essentially a folder with mixed System Types?

If it won't append directly, use copy-n-paste. It can be a PITA to copy trunked systems, as you have to copy the Sites, Departments, and Channels separately.

The larger issue might be that you don't want to create a SYSTEM with mixed system types, but you want to set the various types of Systems to enable/disable at the same time by assigning them the same System Quick Key number.

Here is an example: (note the prepended SQK numbers) - also I added the system types in [brackets], but that isn't part of my tag - I just added it here for reference.

01 BEAVER CO [conventional]
01 FELHC (Ohio Edison) [Motorola TRS] <-- this is (partially) in Beaver Co
02 BUTLER CO [conventional]
02 Slippery Rock University [LTR] <-- this is in Butler Co
04 WASHINGTON CO [conventional]
04 MEADOWS LTR [LTR] <-- this is in Washington Co
05 INDIANA CO [conventional]
06 CAMBRIA CO [conventional]
06 CA FCI LORETO [Motorola TRS] <-- this is in Cambria Co
07 GREENE CO [conventional]
08 FAYETTE CO [conventional]
08 FAYETTE TRS [Motorola TRS] <-- Haven't updated this one to P25 yet.
08 NEMACOLIN TRS [LTR] <-- this is in Fayette Co

BTW, if you look at a map of SW PA, you will see that Allegheny and Westmoreland counties are "missing" in this list. I have those counties in FLs of their own due to the number of users in them. Both are broken down by grids within the respective counties - Allegheny having 9 zones and Westmoreland having 5 zones (N, S, E, W, and Central).

 

[KB6KGX]

All of you have great setups because they work for you. Me, I haven&#8217;t had the time, yet, to really tweak it to the way I want it. But so far, I have it set up with 48 Favorite Lists, basically by &#8220;Service&#8221;. I&#8217;m in Los Angeles, so it&#8217;s like this (I won&#8217;t recreate the entire list here, but just a short example):

1. LAPD - Metro
2. LAPD - Valley
3. LAFD - Metro
4. LAFD - Valley
5. CHP (by patrol division area)
6. LA County FD - East County
7. LA County FD - West County
8. LA County FD - North County
9. LA County FD - South County

Anyway, that&#8217;s the basic idea. I also have &#8220;State&#8221; which is basically CDF (California Division of Forestry) and &#8220;Federal&#8221; where I have USFS (US Forest Service).

Separate FLs for EMS and individual cities such as Burbank, Santa Monica and Long Beach, etc.

I do have one FL that has the entire database for CHP, if I&#8217;m on the road on a long-distance road trip, where that&#8217;s all I care about, just to avoid having to deal with the FLs.

What I&#8217;d LIKE to do is to get the NUMBER TAGS set up as I&#8217;d like to be able to choose a specific channel directly. Would that be how I would do that? I just haven&#8217;t had the time to sit there and set that up.

 

[W6SAE]

(disregard)

 

[pinballwiz86]

It depends on the scanner. Digital scanner I assign quick keys to the different towers. On analog, I usually assign a bank to each county. On a different scanner I divide the frequencies up by type; police, fire, ham. etc.