Update to tafl.mckie.ca (formerly neon.polkaroo.net/~darkwing)

[mikewazowski]

It's easier just to go to Spectrum Direct:

171.690000 171.6900006OTTAWA, ON - 2001 CARLING AVENUEStock Transportation Ltd.

 

[AMcKie]

The DO is both its own field and has referential meaning in the Frequency Record ID (for when the DO is not necessarily the correct region), but I don't think the downloadable text files include either value - they're in the online searchable version only.

Hmmm... I think you are on to something there. If you look at the details of this record:

http://tafl.mckie.ca/cgi-bin/tafldetail.cgi?db=45&id=46035498001

You will see that it was downloaded as part of district office 45's file (db=45) which is the Southwestern office (Kitchener), yet it clearly contains the DO field value of 46, which is the Northern office (Sault Ste. Marie). This is also mimicked in the first two characters of the ID in the URL above (id=46035498001).

Perhaps we should be using the DO field to organize the data, instead of the download file?

-A

 

[AMcKie]

Am I doing something wrong or...? Thanks in advance.

I don't think you're doing anything wrong, I think you're running into the same problem as the other recent commenter -- the records are being filed in strange places by IC. At least as far as the downloadable files are concerned (which should be opaque to you as a user of the site). See my post above this one - it looks like we should be able to fix the site so that it ignores which file IC used and keys on the correct district office. I was able to find the Stock Transport record for 171.690 MHz here:

http://tafl.mckie.ca/cgi-bin/tafldetail.cgi?db=46&id=49023337001

It was under the Northern region file, for reasons that escape me.

I'll work on making this smarter and post back when it's done.

-A

 

[Jay911]

Hmmm... I think you are on to something there. If you look at the details of this record:

TAFL Search Results:

You will see that it was downloaded as part of district office 45's file (db=45) which is the Southwestern office (Kitchener), yet it clearly contains the DO field value of 46, which is the Northern office (Sault Ste. Marie). This is also mimicked in the first two characters of the ID in the URL above (id=46035498001).

Perhaps we should be using the DO field to organize the data, instead of the download file?

DO doesn't necessarily pinpoint location either - note that a lot of cellular towers are on DO 7 (Headquarters) and almost all RAC (railway) licenses are on DO 53 (Montreal) for some reason.

Until recently I thought the FRID field always had the DO prepended to it, but I have seen situations where that's not true, mainly in regions where there's a lot of congestion. For example I've seen DO22 licenses with 16xxxxxxxxx FRIDs; and multiple DO23 licenses with 24xxxxxxxx FRIDs.

 

[AMcKie]

OK, good to know. Instead of FRID perhaps we should key off DO and know that sometimes (as was always the case) it just won't be foolproof.

-A

 

[AMcKie]

I had a closer look at the downloadable files on which the tafl.mckie.ca site is based and clearly some things have changed at Industry Canada's end:

- The file for the Ottawa district office (Eastern Ontario) has only 1 entry in it. All its records must have been moved to other files. No wonder no one can find anything with that region selected.
- The file for the Belleville region only has about 100 records in it. They must also have been moved elsewhere.
- The files for NWT, Hamilton Region and Southwestern Ontario have plenty of records, but very few of them are located in the correct file.

Did IC close some of these district offices, I wonder?

-A

 

[sudsyjkh]

This is very strange...Thanks to those who posted the freque I was looking for...I ended up also finding it within rr's info itself.
Hopefully between everyone posting on this thread we can figure things out and find a decent workable solution for the new site.

 

[AMcKie]

OK, so I've rejigged things a bit so that the District Office field is what dictates where you will find a particular frequency record. This *should* make it easier to find what you're looking for. But as always, check neighbouring regions.

Another observation: With this new alignment, some of the regions have almost nothing in them.

- Hamilton has only 85 records now.
- Southwestern Ontario has only 20 records.
- Belleville has only 10 records.

I wonder (again) if these district offices have actually been closed. Would anyone object to me rolling Hamilton and Southwestern into the 'Central and Western' results? Or rolling Belleville into the Eastern Ontario results?

-A

 

[sudsyjkh]

I'd say go ahead and do it. IMO

OK, so I've rejigged things a bit so that the District Office field is what dictates where you will find a particular frequency record. This *should* make it easier to find what you're looking for. But as always, check neighbouring regions.

Another observation: With this new alignment, some of the regions have almost nothing in them.

- Hamilton has only 85 records now.
- Southwestern Ontario has only 20 records.
- Belleville has only 10 records.

I wonder (again) if these district offices have actually been closed. Would anyone object to me rolling Hamilton and Southwestern into the 'Central and Western' results? Or rolling Belleville into the Eastern Ontario results?

-A

 

[IdleMonitor]

When I do a search for communities in my region of Eastern Ontario. They're not listed in Eastern Ontario. They're listed in the Northern Ontario section. Something is messed up.

OK, so I've rejigged things a bit so that the District Office field is what dictates where you will find a particular frequency record. This *should* make it easier to find what you're looking for. But as always, check neighbouring regions.

Another observation: With this new alignment, some of the regions have almost nothing in them.

- Hamilton has only 85 records now.
- Southwestern Ontario has only 20 records.
- Belleville has only 10 records.

I wonder (again) if these district offices have actually been closed. Would anyone object to me rolling Hamilton and Southwestern into the 'Central and Western' results? Or rolling Belleville into the Eastern Ontario results?

-A

 

[IdleMonitor]

Hi there: first of all thanks for keeping the site/info alive.
Secondly, much like the other posters, I'm having issues finding frequencies. I'm looking for stuff in the city of Ottawa...first I tried the Ontario eastern region, I figured that makes sence and that's where it was always listed on the previous site. A search for simply Ottawa literally brought up a handfull of results. Then I figured I would search for Stock Transportation, being as that was the origional thing I was looking for. I just used the keyword stock...and received no results.
I went thru every region in Ontario as well as the western Quebec and Montreal regions and found nothing in Ottawa for stock. I know they have active licenses here in the city. They were listed on the other site just a couple months ago. I also did searches for many other things that I know have active licenses in ottawa..like lafarge concrete [just using the word farge] etc. Nothing.
Am I doing something wrong or...?
Thanks in advance.

Check the Northern Ontario section.

 

[AMcKie]

Things are even worse than I thought.

Let's try unifying all the licence data for a given province, plus one for the northern territories, and see if that helps. I would have liked to maintain the granularity as I'm concerned we'll just get way too many hits for a given search this way, but it looks like the regional breakdowns within a given province are simply unreliable.

-A

 

[AMcKie]

April 2014 Update

Hi all,

The site now searches/displays one more decimal for frequencies, and I've added the ability to do Boolean AND searches.

http://tafl.mckie.ca

Let me know if you run into any issues.

-A

 

[axelp]

older tafl files?

Does anyone have old (preferably pre-2013) TAFL data files saved? Trying to get statistical information on frequency utilization.

 

[slicerwizard]

Not much here, only 9 GB going back to 2002...

 

[CanWoodsman]

is there anyway to get some freq for abbotsford b.c .

Choose Area - British Columbia
Search for - Abbotsford

List will appear with Abbotsford freqs.

 

[axelp]

Slicer: you've got privmsg

 

[mciupa]

Please visit new thread here:

http://forums.radioreference.com/mu...s/351519-search-canadas-tafl.html#post2748420