Database updates

[KG7PBS]

Okay why is Lyon County showing Green in the database but when I go and look at all the channels there’s nothing added or modified or taken out. So what gives

 

[fxdscon]

Okay why is Lyon County showing Green in the database but when I go and look at all the channels there’s nothing added or modified or taken out. So what gives

Some info on that at this link:

DB Updates and Highlighting

Folks, we have had a lot of discussion of late in reference to highlighting on the DB maps and not seeing any changes when following the highlight from map. As such please refer to the following before you ask any questions or decide to be critical. The following uses the United States, but...

forums.radioreference.com

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[Paysonscanner]

I'm just beginning to understand this website more. I find that post from a long ways back not very informative at all. Sometimes I click on a change when a state map is highlighted. When I can't find the change highlighted I click on the downloads and reports tab. I then find a notation that says something like "6 frequencies updated." But what has been updated? What is an update? I've found changes in the description that are quite pertinent. Sometimes talkgroups or frequencies are changed from a tactical use to a dispatch use, but since the frequencies listed haven't changed I have no idea what the update is. Sometimes a city might change a PD dispatch frequency/talkgroup to one used by their animal control agency. That requires I make a change to a program file I have. So this "updated" frequency change is unknown. Am I supposed to reload an entire agencies comm system to do this. I don't like downloading data once I set up a file, as I usually heavily edit the tags to make sense to me, which the RR tags often don't. Sometimes I would like to know what has been deleted and comparing my program files to the RR data page one line by one line to find which one has been removed is a very laborious process.

Just wanted to vent about something that's been bugging me.

 

[kruser]

I can usually figure out the changes by looking in the USA DB folders in my Sentinel copy before I let it update on Mondays.
That seems a little easier compared to looking at what I've programmed as I've usually customized what's in the radio.
One of the changes I see often which are not highlighted green are the change from FM to NFM.
Sometimes entire frequencies are changed from an analog mode to a conventional digital mode but they are not highlighted.

Talkgroups in trunked systems may change the encryption flag but those are not highlighted.
Frequencies and even entire categories are removed but nothing really says what and other than comparing with an older copy of the DB on your computer, there is usually no easy way to find out.

It becomes tedious to try and figure out what has really changed when you have a bunch of favorites all taken from the master database.

I think the green highlighting is fine as it is but, there should be another highlight color like yellow or orange that highlights the changes that are not highlighted at all now. This would sure make it much easier to find so you will know if you need to make changes in your favorites or not.

I don't know what to do about frequencies and systems that are deleted.
Maybe those should just change to a deprecated status (so they no longer download with Sentinel or EZ-Scan) and also be highlighted (light red maybe) for a while before they are removed or moved into the wiki.

I would think this could be done with the current database software but maybe it is harder than I'm thinking.

That's my two cents worth of suggestions.

 

[Paysonscanner]

I can usually figure out the changes by looking in the USA DB folders in my Sentinel copy before I let it update on Mondays.
That seems a little easier compared to looking at what I've programmed as I've usually customized what's in the radio.
One of the changes I see often which are not highlighted green are the change from FM to NFM.
Sometimes entire frequencies are changed from an analog mode to a conventional digital mode but they are not highlighted.

Talkgroups in trunked systems may change the encryption flag but those are not highlighted.
Frequencies and even entire categories are removed but nothing really says what and other than comparing with an older copy of the DB on your computer, there is usually no easy way to find out.

It becomes tedious to try and figure out what has really changed when you have a bunch of favorites all taken from the master database.

I think the green highlighting is fine as it is but, there should be another highlight color like yellow or orange that highlights the changes that are not highlighted at all now. This would sure make it much easier to find so you will know if you need to make changes in your favorites or not.

I don't know what to do about frequencies and systems that are deleted.
Maybe those should just change to a deprecated status (so they no longer download with Sentinel or EZ-Scan) and also be highlighted (light red maybe) for a while before they are removed or moved into the wiki.

I would think this could be done with the current database software but maybe it is harder than I'm thinking.

That's my two cents worth of suggestions.

I can concur with the suggestion of having different updates be different colors. For deletions they need to be highlighted, kept on the database page for a week and then removed from the page. The concept of the green/yellow is nice because it indicates if you need to check something that just happened vs. something you probably already know about, if you log in every day, that is. However, when you reach a page the various updates need colors, just like you are saying.

I only have GRE and Radio Shack scanners, so my downloading is different from how the Uniden scanners work. I don't have any automatic updating. I don't like how the database groups and labels (especially the tags) frequencies. So when I download I have to edit nearly every line. RR defaults to delay, not recording, squelch mode and maybe some others. Then there is the choice of whether to use the tags or the first number of lines in the description. I don't find either very helpful as I must think very differently from those who submit and edit the DB. It might even be a male/female communications or logic difference. I'm a woman in a primarily male hobby so maybe that leads to my confusion sometimes. Men are from Mars, women are from Venus. What I don't like are abbreviations in the description such as "PTIA-S" or something like it. I haven't done it but once or twice in my 14 months of membership, having to start a thread to ask what the heck PTIA-S means. Is S south or secondary and who in the world knows what PTIA means. My one thread doing so or asking on someone else's thread resulted in everyone saying they had no idea. This one really bugged my late Hubby, he became frustrated with the site and didn't renew. This for other reasons as well. If something on the database can't be explained then why put it on there? I have other frustrations with the database as well, but won't bore everyone here with them.