TRX-1: Ezscan - import one system at a time vs mass import?

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kc2kth

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Is it possible to do a mass import with ezscan, not put anything into scanlists, and then easily sort everything later? I'm trying to do exactly this but I'm running into issues with sorting everything later - what belongs to which county, muni, etc. Especially hard with conventional systems it seems, trunked are a bit easier to sort the tgs into lists later. I guess I'm really looking for some good tips on rapidly getting everything in and organized without the repetitiveness of multiple imports.
 

03msc

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I'm not in front of the software right now, but...from what I'm remembering off-hand...

You don't have to designate a scanlist at import.

Conventional you can just add to whichever scanlist you want after it's imported (last column). (And, you can add any item to more than one scanlist, if desired.)

And don't forget that the "scansets" feature allows you to group multiple scanlists into sets that you want to be able to easily recall for scanning together - and in scansets, a particular scanlist can be in more than one scanset.

I know this doesn't address trunked systems; maybe someone else can answer or I'll look at the software later if no one else has responded. But you indicated you've kind of figured that out anyway.
 

kc2kth

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Thanks Mark. Yes, we can definitely import without adding to a scanlist. It's the sorting everything I've imported later that I'm struggling with at the moment. I plan to stare at it a bit more today, maybe it will click!
 

03msc

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Oh, maybe I didn't follow the question properly. I must be interpreting "sorting" incorrectly.
 

Wackyracer

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Sure import then change the scanlist designations later for each frequency.
 

kc2kth

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Sure import then change the scanlist designations later for each frequency.

So here is an example using conventional frequencies to help demonstrate what I'm trying to describe. I just completed importing a large number of objects from the library. Included were my local fire department and my county fire channels. Looking in ezscan I see an object named "FD1" along with the frequency and other options. What I can't tell by looking at ezscan is if this is my local or the county channel.

So I could keep the RR database pages open and manually compare each object to see where it belongs and then put it in an appropriate scanlist. Or going back to importing one system at a time, sorting and naming the scanlists, rinse and repeat for each service. This seems very time consuming once I import a couple of trunked systems, sort by fire, ems, police, various other services into various lists, and do something similar for all of the local, county and start conventionals. I thought there had to be a simpler way to import, but perhaps not.
 

Swipesy

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Since EZScan is so crippled with regards to copy, paste, no export I have found the best, and in the long run easiest method is to -

1. Import Trunked System with no Talkgroups only.
2. Copy Talkgroups and conventional frequencies from RadioReference and paste them into Excel.
3. Edit the Alpha tags into something that makes sense (RadioReference Alpha tags are worthless), add Scanlist number and then import the Excel Spreadsheet into EZScan. In this manner you have a database you can manipulate with EZScan.
 

03msc

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Oh, I see now.

My suggestion...and it's a longer process, yes...is to import small batches via selection instead of everything at once - then you can rename the alpha tags or just assign the first batch to a particular scanlist (say, one department) and then import the next batch (department) and repeat the process, etc.

Is that along the lines of what you were meaning?
 

kc2kth

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Yes Mark, exactly what I was referencing. I think either your method or Swipesy's spreadsheet method would be good workarounds for the limitations of ezscan. I was thinking of also importing maybe "mid-sized" groups of conventionals into a temporary scanlist and then making my edits and reassigning to an appropriate scanlist may also be a good workaround. Thanks for the input folks!
 

03msc

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Yeah. Summary: you haven't missed anything, to do what you're wanting is somewhat cumbersome (and I speak from experience because I've done it how I was describing and it does take longer than you might otherwise think it should).
 

AggieCon

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When I use the library import, which is now quite infrequently, I find it best to sort as I import, which does slow import time--but oftentimes the alpha tags make no sense if you don't do it this way.

If you import into the undefined or a temporary scanlist, you can sort the frequencies by scanlist in either the conventional frequencies tab or the trunked system talkgroup details tab. That way you can make sure you have everything assigned properly.

However, I don't recommend spending all that much time on organization until you do some listening. Leave trunked systems all in one scanlist, conventional frequencies loosely grouped, etc. After listening for a few weeks or so, you will have a better idea of how you want them organized, based on what is active and how it is used. If you start prematurely, you might spend a lot of time on a complex setup that isn't exactly what you will end up wanting a little while down the line.

I strongly encourage sorting as much as possible on a spreadsheet, as mentioned above.

If you do a search here (Digital Frequency Quick Import), the results page has info about how to import conventional objects. Talkgroups are pretty much the same.
 

kc2kth

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Basically what I was hoping to do, and what I've now pretty well done, is come up with something on the TRX-1 similar to how I have my 436 setup. I didn't want to reinvent the wheel when it came to what and how I monitor various systems. I think I managed that quite well now using some "temporary" scanlists. For example I imported my county trunked system into scanlist 100 and then sorted from there by changing the assigned scanlists and renaming them as to what they are - county fire, county EMS, county roads... I repeated the process for my county conventionals and broke one of those "cardinal rules" - dropped them in the same scan lists as the trunked since I really didn't see a point to having two scanlists for "county fire" (as an example). I followed the same process for my township systems and frequencies. So far, so good!
 

AggieCon

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If you receive the trunked system nicely, then it's probably okay to combine them. However, you lose some flexibility to be able to fine tune radio settings if the trunked system performs marginally. Namely, the scanner won't be decoding the control channel continuously, and you won't be able to lower the squelch to improve digital decode issues.

If the scanlists are adjacent, it is easy to manage them split up. Unfortunately, mere channel organization isn't the only consideration for constructing v-scanner configurations.

If you are fortunate enough to be in a situation where you have good reception of all systems of interest, this won't matter as much to you.

By the way, to catch the beginning of every trunked radio call, you do need to have it monitoring just a single trunked system.
 

wa8pyr

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Since EZScan is so crippled with regards to copy, paste, no export I have found the best, and in the long run easiest method is to -

1. Import Trunked System with no Talkgroups only.
2. Copy Talkgroups and conventional frequencies from RadioReference and paste them into Excel.
3. Edit the Alpha tags into something that makes sense (RadioReference Alpha tags are worthless), add Scanlist number and then import the Excel Spreadsheet into EZScan. In this manner you have a database you can manipulate with EZScan.

Not sure why, but I've found when working with these radios that creating a system manually, then adding frequencies and talkgroups manually, just doesn't work right. When I've used Library Import by selecting the specific system, sites and talkgroups I want, it works great. When creating and adding manually using clipboard paste, practically nothing is received when scanning, even though settings and everything are just the same as received through a library import.

So I use Library Import.

I've fine-tuned the process as I've gone along so that when adding a system initially, the system and sites are imported from the library along with at least one talkgroup (usually a wildcard which is assigned it's own scan list). I then go through and do a library import for each scan list, leaving the sites unselected and manually checking the talkgroups I want for that scan list. This way only the desired talkgroups are imported, and into the scan list they're supposed to go to.

Works well and saves a couple of steps.
 

Swipesy

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Tom,

I have used the Excel method since the Release of the Pro-96 up through the WS-1080. Currently I get 100,000 hits a month monitoring 8 Trunked Systems and 100 Conventional frequencies. I am not sure why you have not had success using Excel. Interesting how what works for one does not for others. Quirky radio technology.

John
 
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