Help appreciated with Faveorites Lists

[tvengr]

I guarantee that file will work. It is the same one I use in my scanners. You can uncheck the Monitor Full Database box in the profile editor so that it will not be used when you Write to Scanner. In Sentinel, let the know if the Baltimore Co MD favorites list shows a favorites list quick key. Click on Favorites Lists at the top of the left pane in Sentinel. It will show the quick keys of all favorites lists.

 

[alleyoop]

In the folder name that Sentinel had me create, there is NO quick key listed (it says NONE).
In the Baltimore County MD folder that got imported, Quick Keys 0-22 are listed, and "Blank" and "Simulcast" both say NONE.
BTW - From the EDIT PROFILE page, Sentinel shows MONITOR as OFF. I assume that I must change that to ON, correct?

 

[tvengr]

Sentinel shows MONITOR as OFF. I assume that I must change that to ON, correct?

Yes, Monitor needs to be On. If the favorites list quick key is none, the file will scan as soon as it is uploaded to the scanner. Just leave Baltimore County as the only system in that favorites list. It is a lot easier to work with each of your local counties in their own favorites list. When you add additional favorites lists, set the FL quick key for each one to a different number. You cannot assign the same number to more than one favorites list. You will be able to toggle the favorites list for each county on and off by pressing its FL quick key number followed by E. Since Baltimore County will be your main favorites list, you can assign it a FL quick key of 0. All of your local counties only have 1 site. With a quick key of None, the site will scan whenever system is enabled. That is why the system quick key for Baltimore County is also set to None. The county system and its site will both scan whenever the favorites list is turned on. The blank department with no quick key is there to prevent getting the dreaded Nothing to Scan message in the event you turn off all of the department quick keys. The favorites list quick key is the only one that should be changed.

 

[alleyoop]

Thank you, things are starting to sort of make some sense. I started looking around the RRDB, contemplating how to build my own Favorites lists, but I'm not quite ready to try that yet. I watched Upman's video, seems relatively straight forward. The hard part is deciding exactly what to put in it!

I DO have another question that is confusing me. Looking at your BC Favorites list, it seems obvious that I can set AVOID to the Police Precincts that are not near me. I am in Catonsville, so I would normally only want to listen to Wilkins and maybe Woodlawn, avoiding all the others should cut down on the chatter I'm not interested in. The FIRE ZONES are trickier. Is there some way to determine where the zones are, like maybe a map with the zones identified and circled, maybe? Or is it "safe" to assume since I am in the south/southwestern part of BC that avoiding anything labelled NORTH or EAST might make sense? My best guess would be keeping Stations 3, 4, 5, and 13. But, how do I determine which departments cover them?

 

[tvengr]

Baltimore County Fire is divided into 3 divisions: Central, West, and East. Catonsville is in the West division. There is no need to avoid departments. That is why there are quick keys to turn them on and off using the keypad. In the file I created, I have only department quick keys 0 thru 9 enabled. That is all of County Fire. The police quick keys are 10 thru 22. Quick key 10 is Regional Auto Theft which covers all of the precincts. For the police precincts, add 10 to the number of the precinct for its department quick key number. Wilkens precinct 1 is quick key 11 and Woodlawn precinct 2 is quick key 12. There are no quick keys 15 and 20 because there is not a precinct 5 or precinct 10. If you want to toggle a police precinct on and off, press the decimal point twice followed by its quick key number followed by E. To turn on the Wilkens and Woodlawn precincts, press the decimal point twice, 11, and E for Wilkens and then the decimal point twice, 12, and E for Woodlawn. You must be scanning when you enable or disable departments. Use the same procedure to toggle a department off. County Fire Central division (Zones B and C) is on department quick key 1. County Fire West division (Zones D and E) is on department quick key 2. County Fire East division (Zones F and G) is on department quick key 3. The North division really does not exist. It is a holdover from when there were north and south sites and would be used if there were a site communication failure or major incident in the northern part of the county. Baltimore County now has a single simulcast cell. I have heard tone outs on a North division talkgroup, but that is all. Each fire division has 2 zones, each with a divisional talkgroup (Central, West, or East}, Dispatch, and Tactical talkgroups. The divisional talkgroup is common to both zones. The Dispatch talkgroup is common to all 3 divisions. You will hear Dispatch for the entire county on the Dispatch talkgroup The divisional talkgroups are generally used for EMS response and minor incidents. Larger incidents will be assigned a tac talkgroup. The main tac talkgroup for Central zone B is tac 12, Central zone C is tac 62, West zone D is tac 22, West zone E is tac 52, East zone F is tac 32 and East zone G is tac 42. If you only want to listen to Fire activity in the West division and Police activity in Wilkens and Woodlawn, you can turn off the other zones and divisions using the same procedure with the quick keys so that only department quick keys 2, 11, and 12 are enabled. The Baltimore County Fire talkgroups are set up exactly like the County Fire radios, using a template from Baltimore County Fire Communications. I program scanners for a lot of firefighters in my area.

 

[tvengr]

To add to my previous post, the 2 zones in each fire division each contain a separate set of tac talkgroups for 2 different incidents. For the West division, Zone D Tac 22 will be used for a first incident. For a second incident, Zone E Tac 52 will be used. If there are 2 simultaneous incidents occurring in the West division, you can use the DEPT soft key to hold on Zone D or Zone E for either incident.

 

[alleyoop]

Wow, a lot of info in there, it's like an entire training course! You should charge for all that knowledge.
Thank you VERY much. After I re-read that a few tines, hopefully it will sink in.

 

[alleyoop]

I've made up Favorites Lists for Howard County and Worcester County/Ocean City. Haven't played with them yet and I won't be able to get to Ocean City till mid/late June due to health issues. Anyway, I do have a question about the Maryland State Police. Using the RR Database, it appears that, when looking at each county, the SAME police channels/barracks are listed for ALL counties. However, when I look at the Database entries for the state police specifically, EVERY Barracks is listed separately. When adding the State Police to each county favorites list, should I be using the ones listed in each county's database or the State Police database itself? Thanks!

 

[tvengr]

Many of the local county systems have state police talkgroups on their systems. For Howard Co, Waterloo is on their system. For Golden Ring in Baltimore County, you will need to use the First Responders statewide system (FIRST) with the Baltimore site. Ocean City PD and Worcester County Sheriff recently encrypted and cannot be monitored by any scanner. Here is a favorites list file for Howard County you may want to try. Save the attached zipped file to your computer and extract. Go to the File tab in Sentinel and click on Import from hpe file (Favorites List). Click on New Favorites List and name it: Howard Co MD Click on OK. In the Downloads folder open the extracted file. It will appear as a favorites list in Sentinel. You can make the favorites list quick key whatever you like.

 

[alleyoop]

Thanks, I'll give it a try later tonight.