Service Types for favorites lists

[donc13]

Using either Butel or Sentinel, as I go over favorites, at times I get the option to edit the service types. That, in and of itself is just me needing to better learn and understand the software.

But it brought up a question, can each favorites list have its own list of service types to monitor AND if so, when I load (activate) 2 or more service types, does the SDS200 switch service types on and off as the radio switches between the current list and moves to the next?

 

[nessnet]

Service type selection is set in your profile - they are NOT a per favorite list setting. You can edit (change to another) service type in a favorite, but what controls which service type is on or off ((what the radio will actually monitor) is done in your profile. Think of them as 'global'....

 

[donc13]

Ouch! That limits the usefulness of favorites lists a lot! Almost the entire state of Colorado is on the state P25 system. I was hoping to have one favorite for law enforcement and one for fire and one for interops. The "systems" and departments for the lists would be almost identical, except for the service types. With service types being global, I have to turn service types off and on rather than Quick Key favorites off and on.

OH well.

 

[donc13]

Hummmm...

Just thought of a different way to do what I want without a lot of editing. Going back to my BCD396T setup... I created "systems" by talk groups. Several systems on it were pointed to the same tower (site) but different talk groups. By turning QK systems on and off, listened to police or fire or whatever by scanning 1 or more QK "systems"

Is it possible to (say) set service type to law enforcement only, and save the current Db as a favorite. Then set to fire only on service type and save that current Db as another favorite, and so on.

And then set the profile to all service types I am interested in as on. And use what favorite lists are turned on to activate police and/or fire via quick keys (and of course ID scan only)?

Anyone know for sure?

 

[hiegtx]

Once you create a Favorites list, either manually or by appending from the main database, you can edit the service types however you want. Sounds like you're thinking of one list, all tagged as Law Enforcement, another list, al set to fire, and so on. Is that correct?

You could then toggle the individual lists on or off via quick keys. There's no 'quick', 'down & dirty' way to toggle service type selections on the scanner. You'd have to dive into the menu system. But with quick keys, it's only a couple of keystrokes to do it.

Don't forget that in editing a Favorites list, you can flip a string of channels to a different service type at one time.

 

[donc13]

Yes, use favorites to turn XYZ police, XYZ fire, ABC sheriff's, etc.

 

[dave3825]

Service type selection is set in your profile - they are NOT a per favorite list setting.

They certainly can be set up per list if that's how one would like to set up their lists. I have a favorite list of all airband stuff and another fav list that's all railroad. They are always enabled. If I want air, without having to punch in quick keys, I just turn on aircraft.

 

[ofd8001]

It would be much, much easier to have all of the channels in one scan list. Then if you want to limit your scanning, use the menu, go to Select Service Types and turn off the undesired Service Types.

Yes it is a lot more key presses, but I think it would take some time to configure a Favorites List, then copying however many times based on the different Service Types. Then editing each of the Favorites Lists to eliminate the inapplicable Service Types.

There is also an added benefit to using just 1 FL. If you are monitoring two Favorites Lists, one for police another for fire (with EMS, Interop, etc., off) you are setting up an inefficient monitoring scenario. For example, the scanner will dwell on a tower for about 2 seconds listening for Police because it is the police FL. It ignores the fire stuff, even though they are talking up a storm. Then after listening to the control channel for that 2 seconds or so, it jumps off Police, then goes to Fire and listens some more. However, fire is done talking, but know the police is transmitting, but the scanner is only looking for fire while on that FL.

 

[Asuka2222]

While we are on the subject of Service Types, sorry to high jack.
Can you rename or add Custom Service type rather than Custom 1 etc
I can see there 2 Racing ones in the Custom Service types but can not work out how to edit or add a Service type.

Was looking at adding one for Construction.

Looked all over Sentinel and Proscan.

 

[Ubbe]

There is also an added benefit to using just 1 FL. If you are monitoring two Favorites Lists, one for police another for fire (with EMS, Interop, etc., off) you are setting up an inefficient monitoring scenario. For example, the scanner will dwell on a tower for about 2 seconds listening for Police because it is the police FL. It ignores the fire stuff, even though they are talking up a storm. Then after listening to the control channel for that 2 seconds or so, it jumps off Police, then goes to Fire and listens some more. However, fire is done talking, but know the police is transmitting, but the scanner is only looking for fire while on that FL.

It's probably best to have only one FL and not divide the same site over several FL's, as it will, as you mention, be inefficient. You also have to remember that Uniden uses a way to scan TG's that might be undesirable. Even if you have all service types and TG's enabled it will monitor and let you listen to one TG's conversation, but when that conversation ends the scanner will not stay on that site and let you listen to another active TG. It will ignore any other ongoing TG's conversation and even skip the rest of the sites and will go to the next system.

Perhaps @JoeBearcat can add to his list that I would like to see a user selection where the current System Hold time are named Pre-Hold and then an added timer, or the same timer with an added tick box, named Post-Hold that will add a Hold Time after the TG delay timer have run out. During that Post-Hold time it should begin to monitor all TG's again in the exact same way as if it just had landed on the site and performed System Hold Time.

/Ubbe

 

[phask]

While we are on the subject of Service Types, sorry to high jack.
Can you rename or add Custom Service type rather than Custom 1 etc
I can see there 2 Racing ones in the Custom Service types but can not work out how to edit or add a Service type.

Was looking at adding one for Construction.

Looked all over Sentinel and Proscan.

Short answer - No. You can't rename them.

 

[donc13]

All good thoughts and suggestions. Thank you all! I appreciate it.

 

[sfb88]

If you can identify what talkgroups are associated with which services, would another valid approach be to set up a favorites list with one system and divide the services at the department level? Create a Police department with all the police talkgroups, etc. Then use department quick keys to select what to scan.

 

[donc13]

If you can identify what talkgroups are associated with which services, would another valid approach be to set up a favorites list with one system and divide the services at the department level? Create a Police department with all the police talkgroups, etc. Then use department quick keys to select what to scan.

I have the talk groups, but many of them are out of the same "department" since city police and the county's 10 fire depts (and ambulances) are all dispatched out of the city emergency communications center. The Department shows "Grand Junction" same with the TAC channels for all those PD and fire depts. The talk groups for all of then show up as different "channels"

NOW, the surrounding counties and State Patrol show up as different departments.

I will live with it as-is, when at home to switch service types on and off if I wish. When on the road, I just set the service types and let the GPS do the rest.

Thanks for the suggestion!