Win500 import of city/town names

[rfrr2145]

Hi: Tried searching for this subject but didn't find anything. How do you include the names of town and cities when importing data from RR? I'm more familiar with ARC246, city/town names are automatically imported. Win500 gives you the option of adding a custom tag, but that could prove to be tedious for each town, I'd prefer to have it done automatically if possible.

Thanks

 

[DonS]

Hi: Tried searching for this subject but didn't find anything. How do you include the names of town and cities when importing data from RR? I'm more familiar with ARC246, city/town names are automatically imported. Win500 gives you the option of adding a custom tag, but that could prove to be tedious for each town, I'd prefer to have it done automatically if possible.

Can you give an example from the RR database? Conventional data or trunked?

For trunked data, the XML received by Win500 doesn't contain any "city" or "town" fields. There are "description" tags for the sites, and each "group" of talkgroups has a tag. Those aren't always used for city/town info, though.

For conventional data, the list of "agencies" is sometimes broken down by city/town. You have to import those one at a time (i.e. you can't bring in multiple agencies from a single county in one import operation), so I wouldn't think that it would be too tedious. Is this what you're referring to?

 

[loumaag]

Yes please.

And if you are talking about either TG's or Conventional channels and the "Alpha Tag" field does not contain an adequate description, please let us know.

 

[rfrr2145]

Hi, thanks for the replies. I was referring primarily to conventional channels. What I hope to achieve is to include a locality name along with the descriptive info from the RR database. For example, in Connecticut, New Haven county, I'd like the alpha tag to read "New Haven PD Main", instead of just "PD Main" or "West Haven Fire Dispatch" instead of just "Fire Dispatch".

After experimenting a bit more, I think the issue is determined by how the the data is entered into the RR database. I used ARC 246 in the past, with the last time about a year ago or so, and the name of the municipality was downloaded along with freq and other data. I just purchased a PSR-500 and am testing Win500, PSREDIT, ARC-500. None were able to include geographic name data during web imports. I'm wondering if maybe the database was changed in the year or so since I last downloaded RR data. It may have been that the geographic data was previously included in the "channel description" field

Win500 seems to offer the most options and control over RR imports with three options for alpha tagging (without having to edit after downloading);

-1st 16 characters of the "Channel's Description"
-1st 16 characters of the Channels Display Attribute"
-Customized description plus Channel Display Attribute"

When I try the third option, I'll add "New Haven", but the channel "Display Attribute" will not include the descriptive information I need from "Channel Description". Apologies for sounding so confusing. Anyhow, I am now simply importing the data with the first option then manually adding the town/city name to the alpha tag afterwards. WIn500 is a great program, by the way.

 

[loumaag]

The problem is that apparently the "Alpha Tags" for the agencies you are looking at are not properly formed. Which brings up another point, Butel has improperly configured it's software (to the users' detriment) by using descriptions of sub-categories or talk group "groups" as part of of the download process into your scanner. That is they are using those, in DMA scanners as "group" names. This is not, nor was it ever, part of the web service specification.

"Alpha Tags", talk group or conventional channels, should each stand on their own and at least (given that you know what system or county/agency you are dealing with) completely describe the channel. For example, an "Alpha Tag" that says "PD Dispatch" is not correct. Using the example given, the New Haven police main channel "Alpha Tag" should read "NwHaven PD 1" (or something similar) instead of "PD Main".

 

[oilmillcharlie]

"Alpha Tags", talk group or conventional channels, should each stand on their own and at least (given that you know what system or county/agency you are dealing with) completely describe the channel. For example, an "Alpha Tag" that says "PD Dispatch" is not correct. Using the example given, the New Haven police main channel "Alpha Tag" should read "NwHaven PD 1" (or something similar) instead of "PD Main".

Amen!!!!!!