Avoiding Filtering By Service Type on SDS100

[stront233]

First of all I want to say a big thanks to everyone posting on this forum for helping me get up and running with the SDS100. So many of my questions had already been answered and I've gotten so much help understanding the context of what they're trying to get at in the manual and the easier to read manual.

But I think I've still missed something fundamental when it comes to dealing with service types. While I can see how filtering by service types can be a big aid with a full database, often with my own favorites lists I find I just want to ignore service types and hear everything there is to hear. But the only way I know how to turn off filtering on the unit is to scroll through 39 different options and select them all on, one by one. And since I can only set types that are available in the currently active lists, there's no knowing what I'll find turned on or off when I move to another group of favorites. Often I belatedly figure out why I haven't been hearing things.

I'm guessing there's some simple option that I just missed here, like the existing menu items to turn off location filtering for a favorites list, or turning on or off all favorites lists with one click. For now I created a kludged script that brute-force reaches into the profile.cfg file on the scanner and turns on all service types (regardless of current favorites lists) with one click. But this requires connecting to a computer, and I'm sure this is just overkill and there's a correct way to do this.

Apologies if this has already been answered. Please refer me to the correct keywords to search, as I didn't come up with anything. And thanks again for everyone's help here on the forum.

 

[hiegtx]

First of all I want to say a big thanks to everyone posting on this forum for helping me get up and running with the SDS100. So many of my questions had already been answered and I've gotten so much help understanding the context of what they're trying to get at in the manual and the easier to read manual.

But I think I've still missed something fundamental when it comes to dealing with service types. While I can see how filtering by service types can be a big aid with a full database, often with my own favorites lists I find I just want to ignore service types and hear everything there is to hear. But the only way I know how to turn off filtering on the unit is to scroll through 39 different options and select them all on, one by one. And since I can only set types that are available in the currently active lists, there's no knowing what I'll find turned on or off when I move to another group of favorites. Often I belatedly figure out why I haven't been hearing things.

I'm guessing there's some simple option that I just missed here, like the existing menu items to turn off location filtering for a favorites list, or turning on or off all favorites lists with one click. For now I created a kludged script that brute-force reaches into the profile.cfg file on the scanner and turns on all service types (regardless of current favorites lists) with one click. But this requires connecting to a computer, and I'm sure this is just overkill and there's a correct way to do this.

Apologies if this has already been answered. Please refer me to the correct keywords to search, as I didn't come up with anything. And thanks again for everyone's help here on the forum.

You can reset all Service Types to 'Enabled' if you open the Profile Editor. Do that by either choosing it from the drop-down Edit menu, or by clicking the small icon on the second row at the top that resembles a piece of lined paper with a pencil on it. It's right under the V of the View dropdown menu.
In the Profile Editor, click on the Service Types tab.
Now, out in the middle of the Service Types list, <Right Click on a blank spot.
That will give you a small pop-up menu where you can either enable all Service Types on, or turn all of them off (Disabled).


Similarly, if you <Right Click> in the Scan Selection tab in the Profile Editor, you can then select all of them so that you can set all to either on or off for Download and/or Monitor.

 

[stront233]

You can reset all Service Types to 'Enabled' if you open the Profile Editor. Do that by either choosing it from the drop-down Edit menu, or by clicking the small icon on the second row at the top that resembles a piece of lined paper with a pencil on it. It's right under the V of the View dropdown menu.

Thanks a lot for the tip and taking the time to get a screen shot. I hadn't seen that right-click option hiding there. This tip will definitely help others trying to figure out the software. Unfortunately that route still requires the computer, and a download/upload operation.

What I was hoping for is something exactly like that but hidden in the menus of the unit itself. I'm mostly portable with this SDS100, and the only time I really turn off any services is when I use the built-in database, which is only when I'm on the road and away from my preloaded favorites lists. I wish the service types filter was by favorites list instead of being global, as my lists are pretty targeted and service type filtering turns from being a help to being more of a nuisance.

 

[W4EMS]

Works with setting Quick Key status too.

 

[jonwienke]

In general, enabling all service types is a bad idea, because it means you scan so much stuff that it can take a minute or more to scan everything once. If a scan cycle takes one minute, you have a 50% chance of missing a 30-second transmission completely, and in the other 50%, you'll average missing half of the transmission. For shorter transmissions, your odds are even worse. The other problem is the scanner hanging on traffic of marginal interest, like drive-through orders at the burger joint or hams rag-chewing about their hemorrhoid surgeries, meaning you miss more interesting traffic, like the cops trying to find the guy reportedly waving a gun at people a few blocks from your house. If your scanner takes more than 10 seconds to scan everything once, you're going to start missing traffic you want to hear.

 

[trunker]

...While I can see how filtering by service types can be a big aid with a full database, often with my own favorites lists I find I just want to ignore service types and hear everything there is to hear...

It sounds like you just made a favorites list(s) from the database. If that is the case, just switch back to the database.
Yes, you could just leave service types all on if you program (weed out) your favorites list(s) accordingly.

 

[trunker]

Ok I see that won't work either. You want separate settings for each.

 

[u2brent]

In general, enabling all service types is a bad idea, because it means you scan so much stuff that it can take a minute or more to scan everything once. If a scan cycle takes one minute, you have a 50% chance of missing a 30-second transmission completely, and in the other 50%, you'll average missing half of the transmission. For shorter transmissions, your odds are even worse. The other problem is the scanner hanging on traffic of marginal interest, like drive-through orders at the burger joint or hams rag-chewing about their hemorrhoid surgeries, meaning you miss more interesting traffic, like the cops trying to find the guy reportedly waving a gun at people a few blocks from your house. If your scanner takes more than 10 seconds to scan everything once, you're going to start missing traffic you want to hear.

All the above issues are avoided by creating FL's that only include the things you want to monitor. Then the select all types turned on is not a problem.

 

[Joe_Blough]

In general, enabling all service types is a bad idea, because it means you scan so much stuff that it can take a minute or more to scan everything once. If a scan cycle takes one minute, you have a 50% chance of missing a 30-second transmission completely, and in the other 50%, you'll average missing half of the transmission. For shorter transmissions, your odds are even worse. The other problem is the scanner hanging on traffic of marginal interest, like drive-through orders at the burger joint or hams rag-chewing about their hemorrhoid surgeries, meaning you miss more interesting traffic, like the cops trying to find the guy reportedly waving a gun at people a few blocks from your house. If your scanner takes more than 10 seconds to scan everything once, you're going to start missing traffic you want to hear.

If you scan the whole database you have this issue. To me the option should only apply to the full database. It's a moron option to have for favorites lists and can result in a "nothing to scan" error.

 

[Joe_Blough]

All the above issues are avoided by creating FL's that only include the things you want to monitor. Then the select all types turned on is not a problem.

Exactly. It's a moron option (meaning the person who decided it should apply to favorites lists is a moron) to affect favorites lists. It should only apply to scanning the entire datatbase. It's 1920's computer logic. If scanning entire database use service types option, else don't.

 

[jonwienke]

It's not a moron option. The moron option would be scanning the same trunked system multiple times in separate favorite lists for each service type--separate scans for police, fire, EMS, schools, etc. (Hint: you miss a lot more traffic scanning that way.)

 

[N9JIG]

What I have found to be the easiest thing to do is to use the Custom Service Types for my Favorites Lists. Since "Custom #" are not used on the Full Database they would only apply to the Favorites Lists. This way you can use Service Types to help segregate your targets. Turn off all the "normal" Service Types and leave on the Custom service types you set in Sentinel on your Favorites Lists.

While it is still better to turn off the Full Database when you want to listen exclusively to Favorites Lists, using the Custom Service Types is another way to easily set your listening to the Favorites Lists.

 

[Joe_Blough]

It's not a moron option. The moron option would be scanning the same trunked system multiple times in separate favorite lists for each service type--separate scans for police, fire, EMS, schools, etc. (Hint: you miss a lot more traffic scanning that way.)

It's a moron option. No one is going to put a service type in a favorite list that they don't want to listen to. Scanning the same trunked system multiple times in different favorites lists is a moron scanner owner.

 

[jonwienke]

It's a moron option. No one is going to put a service type in a favorite list that they don't want to listen to. Scanning the same trunked system multiple times in different favorites lists is a moron scanner owner.

Just because you don't want to listen to a service type one day doesn't mean you don't the next. The snowplow channels on Public Works aren't very interesting most of the time, but during a snowstorm they are very much so, especially when waiting to get plowed out. It's a lot easier to toggle Public Works back on for a day or two than go back and re-add those freqs and talkgroups to your FL and reprogram the scanner and then re-delete them.

 

[Joe_Blough]

Just because you don't want to listen to a service type one day doesn't mean you don't the next. The snowplow channels on Public Works aren't very interesting most of the time, but during a snowstorm they are very much so, especially when waiting to get plowed out. It's a lot easier to toggle Public Works back on for a day or two than go back and re-add those freqs and talkgroups to your FL and reprogram the scanner and then re-delete them.

Make a separate favorites list for that. The Service types option does more harm than good if not zip code scanning.

 

[jonwienke]

Then I'm scanning the same trunked system twice--once for the snowplow talkgroups (which will miss all other traffic), and a second time for everything else (which will miss all snowplow traffic). As opposed to scanning the system once, and hearing what I want to hear that day.

 

[Joe_Blough]

Then I'm scanning the same trunked system twice--once for the snowplow talkgroups (which will miss all other traffic), and a second time for everything else (which will miss all snowplow traffic). As opposed to scanning the system once, and hearing what I want to hear that day.

Well you are too lazy to avoid the talk group so that's what you have to do.

 

[jonwienke]

Enabling/disabling a single service type is easier than manually toggling Avoids on multiple talkgroups across multiple systems. That's sort of the whole reason toggling by Service Type was invented.

 

[Joe_Blough]

Enabling/disabling a single service type is easier than manually toggling Avoids on multiple talkgroups across multiple systems. That's sort of the whole reason toggling by Service Type was invented.

You said it was just the snowplow talkgroups. Now you are saying multiple systems when before you were saying you would have to scan the same system twice.

 

[jonwienke]

A combination of talkgroups on two different trunked systems, and a few standalone analog freqs actually. Toggling the service type is far more convenient than toggling a dozen avoids.