Documenting Quick Keys

[jasoyeom]

Since Sentinel doesn't have any printing capabilities I'm documenting my quick keys in a spreadsheet. I presume that in a trunking system the site & talk groups use the department quick keys together?

Here is one system as an example: If I have talk groups with system keys then they are the same as the Department QK?

Favourite List	FL Quick Key	System Name	System QK	Department/Site	Department QK
Fleetnet & Fire	0	Fleetnet	0
				Simcoe	0
				Alymer	1
				Brantford	2
				Cayuga	3
				Woodstock	4
				London	5
				Hamilton	6
				Halton	7
				Peel	8
				Toronto	9

 

[tvengr]

You can assign only one favorites list to each favorites list quick key. Sentinel allows you to assign the same quick key to multiple favorites lists, but you are OK if the favorites list quick key is used only once in each profile. If you write multiple favorites lists with the same quick key to the scanner, the scanner will accept the quick key of the first favorites list and change all subsequent favorites lists to a quick key of none. You have 100 (0-99) quick keys for systems within each favorites list. It is OK to assign multiple systems to the same quick key. Each system has its own set of 100 quick keys (0-99). These quick keys are shared between departments and sites. For each system, you can determine how to allocate those quick keys. If you have one of the SDS scanners which display the department/site quick keys, you may want to use quick keys 0-9 for departments and 10-99 for sites so that you can readily see which departments are active at any time. You can assign multiple departments or sites to the same quick key. If a system has only a single site, set the site quick key to none. The site will be active anytime the system is enabled. Any favorites list, system, department, or site with a quick key of none will be enabled all of the time.

 

[jasoyeom]

Thank you for that. I understand the idea of the quick keys but when putting them in a spreadsheet I get confused because department quick keys are used for both site and talk groups in a trunking system.

 

[jonwienke]

You can print out a QK cheat sheet in ProScan.

Site and Department QKs are shared within each System. So if you assign QK 25 to a Site in System X, you can't assign QK 25 to a Department within System X, as it's already in use within that System.

 

[jasoyeom]

I understand the quick keys but if you have sites and talk groups in the same system then they could potentially have the same Department quick key.

Example: In that system with multiple sites one site can have a QK of 0 and a talk group can have the same QK of 0 since Departments and Sites use the same quick key.

F0:0
S0:0
D0:01 0 Could be a site with 1 as talk group.

So when listing sites & talk groups in the same system:

Favourite List 0: Norfolk County
System 0: P25 System X
Department 0:1: Site-1
Department 0:2: Talkgroup

Or split Sites into one Department QK 0 and talk groups in Department QK 1

 

[jonwienke]

Talkgroups don't have QKs, only Departments and Sites. Talkgroups can have Tags, which are a completely different thing.

 

[jasoyeom]

Still Talkgroups are in departments which can have the same quick key as a site.

 

[cg]

You can add another column in your spreadsheet and use single letter codes to differentiate the Departments vs Sites.
You also could add text to the Alpha Tag name to show which are Sites and which are Departments (groups of talkgroups in this example).
I think Butel (ARC) had an option to add the Quick Key number to the name. I ended up using it with Proscan because I like seeing the quick key numbers rather than looking at a chart or at the little blinking numbers

[F1] Favorite Name
[S1] System Name
[D1] Department Name
[T10] Site Name

chris

 

[jasoyeom]

You can add another column in your spreadsheet and use single letter codes to differentiate the Departments vs Sites.
You also could add text to the Alpha Tag name to show which are Sites and which are Departments (groups of talkgroups in this example).
I think Butel (ARC) had an option to add the Quick Key number to the name. I ended up using it with Proscan because I like seeing the quick key numbers rather than looking at a chart or at the little blinking numbers

[F1] Favorite Name
[S1] System Name
[D1] Department Name
[T10] Site Name

chris

Thanks!

 

[werinshades]

Sites do not have to have a quick key assigned...Favorite List, System, Departments is how I set it up. Assign site(s) to each system. You can assign multiple sites and they will be scanned..set hold time to 0.

 

[Eng74]

Sites do not have to have a quick key assigned...Favorite List, System, Departments is how I set it up. Assign site(s) to each system. You can assign multiple sites and they will be scanned..set hold time to 0.

But if you have a system with 30 sites it speeds up the scanning to be able to turn off the sites when you do not need them. I assign the different departments a QK first then the sites after. I have a list saved on my phone’s notes if I need to look it up.

 

[jonwienke]

If you have Location Control turned on, distant sites are automatically not scanned. It's a lot easier than manually toggling sites, especially with large statewide systems.

 

[werinshades]

But if you have a system with 30 sites it speeds up the scanning to be able to turn off the sites when you do not need them. I assign the different departments a QK first then the sites after. I have a list saved on my phone’s notes if I need to look it up.

It would probably be easier to assign areas a different system then trying to turn off sites. Example which I use..Statewide System Favorite list 11...County A is System 1 (11.1)..site(s) within range (no quick key(s) assigned, departments within site reception that you'd like. County B..System 2 (11.2),,,site(s) within range (no quick key(s) assigned, departments within site reception....etc.

 

[Eng74]

It would probably be easier to assign areas a different system then trying to turn off sites. Example which I use..Statewide System Favorite list 11...County A is System 1 (11.1)..site(s) within range (no quick key(s) assigned, departments within site reception that you'd like. County B..System 2 (11.2),,,site(s) within range (no quick key(s) assigned, departments within site reception....etc.

This is a county system that is as big as some state systems, San Bernardino County, California. It is better than how it was in years past where you had 7 systems plus conventional fill in areas.

 

[jonwienke]

It would probably be easier to assign areas a different system then trying to turn off sites.

You should never do that. Scanning multiple iterations of a single system is more complicated, duplicates programming, and guarantees you will miss more traffic compared to programming the entire system, scanning it once, and using Location Control and/or QKs to prevent scanning of out-of-range sites.

 

[werinshades]

You should never do that. Scanning multiple iterations of a single system is more complicated, duplicates programming, and guarantees you will miss more traffic compared to programming the entire system, scanning it once, and using Location Control and/or QKs to prevent scanning of out-of-range sites.

Not if you scan one at a time. I use this method on larger systems, manually program the necessary sites/departments..name each system by county. So if I'm going to be in Cook County (11.1) and plan on traveling to DuPage County (11.2) a few simple key strokes as a I start my drive takes care of it. Even when I'm not able to safely press 11.1, it's ok as the traffic I would like to hear will be on the DuPage County System 11.2. Traffic not being missed, scan in ID Scan only the talkgroups I want to listen, and all works well.

Location control is not necessary and I've used this method of programming for many years since the the x36hp series.

 

[jasoyeom]

I have all the counties I'm near in their own favourites list. I have one trunking system that has multiple sites for emergency services. I have all departments set with no quick key but each site has a system quick key. I simply enable the appropriate system when I'm about to go into that site's location.

 

[jonwienke]

Not if you scan one at a time. I use this method on larger systems, manually program the necessary sites/departments..name each system by county. So if I'm going to be in Cook County (11.1) and plan on traveling to DuPage County (11.2) a few simple key strokes as a I start my drive takes care of it. Even when I'm not able to safely press 11.1, it's ok as the traffic I would like to hear will be on the DuPage County System 11.2. Traffic not being missed, scan in ID Scan only the talkgroups I want to listen, and all works well.

Location control is not necessary and I've used this method of programming for many years since the the x36hp series.

And when you're near the border between county A and county B and copies of the system active for both, you're missing traffic from county B while scanning the county A copy of the system, and vice versa, that you'd get if you were only scanning one instance of the entire system, There are zero advantages to your method, and several disadvantages. Doing a bad idea for a long time doesn't make it a good idea.

 

[werinshades]

I have all the counties I'm near in their own favourites list. I have one trunking system that has multiple sites for emergency services. I have all departments set with no quick key but each site has a system quick key. I simply enable the appropriate system when I'm about to go into that site's location.

And when you're near the border between county A and county B and copies of the system active for both, you're missing traffic from county B while scanning the county A copy of the system, and vice versa, that you'd get if you were only scanning one instance of the entire system, There are zero advantages to your method, and several disadvantages. Doing a bad idea for a long time doesn't make it a good idea.

John...I'm not missing any traffic and you debate programming methods that you don't understand. I've traveled many times between both counties, and I'm hearing everything I programmed. OP asked for alternatives, I suggested one and if he/she doesn't use or agree with it, that choice is up to them. I don't use zip code or location control or gps and manually program via Sentinel with the information from the database or from my own observations. I use ID Scan, which might flip you out, I don't know. When someone posts a question and asks for alternatives, leave it up to the individual as to what they decide. No wrong or right way, as long as the goal is achieved.

 

[jonwienke]

John...I'm not missing any traffic and you debate programming methods that you don't understand.

I understand exactly what you're doing, and you're wrong about missing traffic, for the simple reason that in most systems, there is not a neat 1:1 mapping between sites and departments. Site coverage is planned based on RF propagation, not county boundaries. And the system programming that dictates which talkgroups are broadcast from each site follows the same principle.

For example, a small town PD near the edge of county A may mostly use a tower across the border in the county B because its location gives them better coverage. In that situation, if you have one instance of the system for County A and another for county B, you'll miss all or most traffic from Smalltown PD. Here's why:

When you're listening to the County A copy of the system, you won't hear Smalltown PD, because it's not normally broadcast from any of County A's sites.

When you're listening to the County B copy of the system, you won't hear Smalltown PD unless you:

1. Program county A's talkgroups in county B's copy of the system. But that defeats the purpose of programming separate copies of the system for county A and county B. If everything for county A is programmed in county B's system, you've forfeited any advantage of programming multiple copies of the system.
2. Turn on ID Search in the county B system. But then you will only see the talkgroup ID, and the scanner won't tell you what you're listening to, even though it could.

So to solve this, you have to either program a department that lives in county A into couty B's system (silly and counterintuitive), or you will miss traffic.

Another problem with your approach is that since RF propagation doesn't follow county boundaries, toggling sites by county guarantees you're going to spend more time scanning out-of-range sites than if you used Location Control. If you're on the south side of county A, that doesn't mean you can hear sites on the north side, and vice versa. Location Control toggles sites individually, irrespective of jurisdictional borders that mean nothing to radio waves. If set up correctly, when you're near the border of county A and county B, Location Control will activate nearby site(s) in both counties, but not the ones at the far reaches of either county, that you can't hear anyway.