Entry of Slot in Conventional systems

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HogDriver

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I will bring this up again as I’m seeing more of this occurring. Is it possible to put a column in Sentinal and other programming software to enter the Slot number when programming conventional DMR systems. I have at least two cases in my state where the same freq is used but one is Slot 1 and the other is Slot 2.

Just take a look at Okmulgee County in Oklahoma!


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troymail

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Uniden expects you to manually program this as a DMR One Frequency type system (a Uniden 'thing') - even though they don't do that for you with their own provided programming software. Of course, this is even more of a problem if using the full database.
 

jonwienke

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Uniden expects you to manually program this as a DMR One Frequency type system (a Uniden 'thing') - even though they don't do that for you with their own provided programming software.

Not true. DMR One Frequency Trunked is supported by RRDB (although those systems are labeled as "DMR Conventional Networked"), and that system type is imported into Sentinel as DMR One Frequency Trunked. Here's an example:
https://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?sid=8699

The advantage to programming as One Frequency Trunked is that scanning is at least twice as fast. Each frequency is scanned once, rather than once for every slot and talkgroup ID permutation.
 

mikewazowski

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I will bring this up again as I’m seeing more of this occurring. Is it possible to put a column in Sentinal and other programming software to enter the Slot number when programming conventional DMR systems. I have at least two cases in my state where the same freq is used but one is Slot 1 and the other is Slot 2.


You'll have to use ProScan to convert those frequencies to One Frequency Trunked since Uniden ignores slot information from the database.

Or.... get a Whistler scanner which uses all the information in the database.

I took a look at the county and yes, those are conventional channels. Use ProScan to do what Sentinel can't or do it manually.
 
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troymail

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Not true. DMR One Frequency Trunked is supported by RRDB (although those systems are labeled as "DMR Conventional Networked"), and that system type is imported into Sentinel as DMR One Frequency Trunked. Here's an example:
https://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?sid=8699



In some cases - in others, the entries are listed as conventional (because they are) and those when downloaded by Sentinel and loaded into a Uniden just don't work correctly. They work they way the are supposed to on a Whistler directly from the library with no user intervention required.
The advantage to programming as One Frequency Trunked is that scanning is at least twice as fast. Each frequency is scanned once, rather than once for every slot and talkgroup ID permutation.
This so-called "advantage" means absolutely nothing for conventional channels that are in the RRDB/library....at least on a Uniden.
 

jonwienke

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You'll have to use ProScan to convert those frequencies to One Frequency Trunked since Uniden ignores slot information from the database.

Or.... get a Whistler scanner which uses all the information in the database.

I took a look at the county and yes, those are conventional channels. Use ProScan to do what Sentinel can't or do it manually.

Or do a RR database submission with the frequencies specified as a "conventional networked" system, in which case the system will import into Sentinel as One Frequency automatically. If the system is submitted to RR as conventional freqs then it will download into Sentinel as conventional freqs. If it is submitted as "conventional networked", then it will download into Sentinel as a One Frequency Trunked system.

Regardless, if traffic on the frequency is segregated by slot or talkgroup, then it should be programmed a One Frequency. And if it is, whether because it is "conventional networked" in the RR database or converted from conventional to One Frequency with ProScan, it will scan at least twice as fast as the equivalent set of conventional frequencies.
 

troymail

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Or do a RR database submission with the frequencies specified as a "conventional networked" system, in which case the system will import into Sentinel as One Frequency automatically.
Guess you just can't have the answer all the time - that has been done - and rejected.

Posting a complete trunk system for a frequency just because there are different dedicated users assigned to each slot is just dumb.
 

mikewazowski

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It's a conventional repeater that's not networked and the same group does not roam across slots hence the rejection.

Modifying the database because Uniden refuses to use slot and group info is against policy.

Uniden will either have to convert these conventional repeaters to OFT systems in Sentinel or their back end software or use the slot and group information as Whistler does.
 

jonwienke

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Then what about the system I noted in post #4? Why is that one OK?
 

HogDriver

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I found a license, WRBP722, in Oklahoma County, Oklahoma, that belongs to the Oklahoma Zoological Society. I appears to be a OFT with 463.9625 operating as channel 1, on Slot 1, channel 2 on Slot 2, and the remaining frequencies as simplex direct. If I just add those direct channels to the frequency list of the OFT, will it still scan them and treat them as simplex?


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DaveNF2G

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You best solution appears to be to build the controversial systems on your own as a Favorite List with the correct parameters for your scanner. There are many drawbacks to simply scanning the database as downloaded.
 

UPMan

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If programmed as conventional and there are multiple slot and/or TGID differentiated users on that frequency, then each iteration in RRDB would result in a new OFT being made, for just that one slot/TGID. This results in many missed comms and inefficient scanning. Properly documented as an OFT (or DMR networked in RRDB), all traffic on the channel would be evaluated in one pass, not multiple passes.


The way RRDB is now caters to a Whistler scanner at the expense of Uniden scanners (and counter to how the system is actually used...if multiple user groups are on a DMR system, differentiated by TG and/or slot, this is trunked operation, not conventional).
 

troymail

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You keep dragging this conversation to something other than the examples I've encounterd.

The examples I have are cases where a single licensed frequency became DMR and the licencee opted to use the two slots as dedicated "channels" independent of (no) talkgroups. A fixed user is on slot 1 and a different fixed user is on slot 2. This isn't a trunk system.

As far as catering - I believe Uniden is attempting to get RR to cater to Uniden with this OFT thing - purely a Uniden thing.
 

jonwienke

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I found a license, WRBP722, in Oklahoma County, Oklahoma, that belongs to the Oklahoma Zoological Society. I appears to be a OFT with 463.9625 operating as channel 1, on Slot 1, channel 2 on Slot 2, and the remaining frequencies as simplex direct. If I just add those direct channels to the frequency list of the OFT, will it still scan them and treat them as simplex?

If you have the system set to ID SEARCH, definitely. The simplex frequencies will still have something set for a talkgroup ID, though they may all use the same talkgroup ID. Log traffic for a while (ProScan works great for this) and you should be able to figure out which talkgroup/slot combos are used for various purposes and then program them accordingly.
 

UPMan

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Every DMR transmission occurs on an assigned TG. Some are also limited to a particular slot. To say that DMR conventional does not use TG is inaccurate. If you select "None" when programming the channel into an actual system transceiver, the TG is actually still assigned (to 0). Here is a citation for this from Whistler:


https://whistlergroup.com/pages/understanding-dmr-digital-mobile-radio said:
There are 6 different "flavors" of DMR. TalkGroupIDS (TGID) are used with all 6 flavors of DMR.


As Whistler has no capability of trunktracking DMR at this time, conventional is their only option. If at some point they add trunking capability, this functionality would benefit both manufacturers.


Any time a digital frequency has to be scanned multiple times to check for traffic for multiple TG or TG+slot combinations, the scanner is going to be ensured to miss more comms. Regardless of manufacturer.


Any time multiple user groups are sharing one or more frequencies and are differentiated by TG or TG+Slot, the operation is trunking.
 

sibbley

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Every DMR transmission occurs on an assigned TG. Some are also limited to a particular slot. To say that DMR conventional does not use TG is inaccurate. If you select "None" when programming the channel into an actual system transceiver, the TG is actually still assigned (to 0).

I have actually seen this in operation. There are several users in my area that are "part time" DMR users. Every TGID shows as 0 when they transmit, always slot 1 as far as I have seen.

I argued in favor of having TGID programming added to conventional in the Uniden, DMR, early days. I've since found that no matter what type of "conventional" system, OFT seems to work the best.
 

UPMan

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If one group is using 1 slot on 1 frequency, conventional would be equivalent to OFT. As soon as you add 1 more group (using a different slot or TG on that frequency), OFT is better.
 

troymail

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I've since found that no matter what type of "conventional" system, OFT seems to work the best.


...OFT is better.

Of course on a Uniden OFT is going to be better on a Uniden because that's a Uniden "in between" thing (not conventional and not trunked). In their implementation they choose to ignore RRDB documented parameters for conventional channels so you get multiple entries of the exact same thing in the programming resulting in poor performance. I don't own it but I understand third party software vendors understand this and address it - Uniden simply is being stubborn and chooses to ignore it hoping RR "caters" to them.

If they believe OFT is so much better, then they should fix Sentinel to import properly (in their eyes) as a OFT system....like the third party vendors already do (as I am told).
 
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