Decoder for a Pocket PC Trunking Program

[ke7au]

Dear UPman,
I am impressed with your support of your product on the various forums. I am a product manger for a small Audio Instrumentation manufacturer and don't think I would have the courage to provide the level of support that you do. Thanks!

I have been enjoying my BC246T and have given it a try in the computer control mode using your demo software. I have noticed that if I place a system in Hold mode I can sit on the data channel and watch the various talkgroups stream on by.

It occured to me that the BC246T could be the head-end (hardware) decoder for a very simplied trunking program. If the scanner could output a continuous stream of data via its RS232 port the data could be viewed by a simple Terminal program on a Pocket PC or any other Palm device or laptop.

It would be very easy for someone (maybe even myself) to develop a simple Trunker Program with a GUI similar to the existing DOS Trunker progam.

An additional mode could be added to the Xfer menu called "Trunk data" or some such name. The radio would then output the decoded data from the data channel. Frequency and it's associated Talkgroup would be a good start. The rest of the data (sys id, etc) might be added later.

A user could then use the scanner to view the entire activity on system.
I currently do this with one scanner looking for specific activity on Groups that I do not normally listen to.

Just a thought.

Thanks for taking time to read this.

Larry

[Voyager]

Originally Posted by ke7au

Dear UPman,
I am impressed with your support of your product on the various forums. I am a product manger for a small Audio Instrumentation manufacturer and don't think I would have the courage to provide the level of support that you do. Thanks!

I have been enjoying my BC246T and have given it a try in the computer control mode using your demo software. I have noticed that if I place a system in Hold mode I can sit on the data channel and watch the various talkgroups stream on by.

It occured to me that the BC246T could be the head-end (hardware) decoder for a very simplied trunking program. If the scanner could output a continuous stream of data via its RS232 port the data could be viewed by a simple Terminal program on a Pocket PC or any other Palm device or laptop.

It would be very easy for someone (maybe even myself) to develop a simple Trunker Program with a GUI similar to the existing DOS Trunker progam.

An additional mode could be added to the Xfer menu called "Trunk data" or some such name. The radio would then output the decoded data from the data channel. Frequency and it's associated Talkgroup would be a good start. The rest of the data (sys id, etc) might be added later.

A user could then use the scanner to view the entire activity on system.
I currently do this with one scanner looking for specific activity on Groups that I do not normally listen to.

Just a thought.

Thanks for taking time to read this.

Larry

Ala PRO-96 and PRO96COM, right?

Joe M.

[ke7au]

Originally Posted by Voyager

[
Ala PRO-96 and PRO96COM, right?

Joe M.

I don't know! I didn't know that the PRO-96 had such a mode.
I took the time to look through the PRO-96 manual for info
on this mode. I would really appreciate it if you could point
me to where I can learn about the PRO-96 data output mode.

Thanks in advance.
Larry D.

[Voyager]

Originally Posted by ke7au

I don't know! I didn't know that the PRO-96 had such a mode.
I took the time to look through the PRO-96 manual for info
on this mode. I would really appreciate it if you could point
me to where I can learn about the PRO-96 data output mode.

Thanks in advance.
Larry D.

It's not a doccumented feature. If you press PGM FUNC PGM PGM, it puts the PRO-96 into a mode where it will dump control channel data out the data port. PRO96COM is the only program I know of that uses this data in a 'trunker like' format. Many people suspect this was the 'secret feature' rumored about when the PRO-96 came out. More details on PRO96COM here:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pro96com/

Joe M.