Help me help you

[werinshades]

That's what the OFT system type is for, so you can distinguish and alias talkgroups, and alias Unit ID's.

Yes, I'm aware, but I have a system that uses one talkgroup for dispatch, another talkgroup for the mobiles. I have it programmed as conventional on my 996's because transmissions are missed. Since the UID's are displayed, maybe a firmware tweak could be made in Sentinel and the scanner to allow this feature in P25 conventional systems?

 

[GTR8000]

Yes, I'm aware, but I have a system that uses one talkgroup for dispatch, another talkgroup for the mobiles. I have it programmed as conventional on my 996's because transmissions are missed. Since the UID's are displayed, maybe a firmware tweak could be made in Sentinel and the scanner to allow this feature in P25 conventional systems?

Maybe, but tbh the whole OFT is silly anyway. There's no reason they couldn't have anticipated needing to have TGID and UID as part of conventional digital frequencies, but instead we're stuck with the OFT instead.

 

[werinshades]

Maybe, but tbh the whole OFT is silly anyway. There's no reason they couldn't have anticipated needing to have TGID and UID as part of conventional digital frequencies, but instead we're stuck with the OFT instead.

Eliminate the entire OFT on P25, NXDN, and DMR as that seems to be very confusing for many and make the UID/UID Name feature available in conventional modes of these digital formats? I believe that's the only advantage to programming OFT that i've found. And...it slows the scan speed because it's searching the frequency for activity.

 

[GTR8000]

Eliminate the entire OFT on P25, NXDN, and DMR as that seems to be very confusing for many and make the UID/UID Name feature available in conventional modes of these digital formats? I believe that's the only advantage to programming OFT that i've found. And...it slows the scan speed because it's searching the frequency for activity.

OFT isn't entirely useless. I have an example where a local town uses 3 P25 frequencies in conventional mode, but the UID's are all the same. Create a OFT "system" with the 3 frequencies (so much for the ONE in One Frequency Trunk lol), setup the TGID's if needed, then add the common list of UID's and it works fairly well. Yes, scanning between normal conventional stuff and OFT slows things down, same as programming an actual trunked system would. It's always going to be a compromise of some sort.

 

[werinshades]

OFT isn't entirely useless. I have an example where a local town uses 3 P25 frequencies in conventional mode, but the UID's are all the same. Create a OFT "system" with the 3 frequencies (so much for the ONE in One Frequency Trunk lol), setup the TGID's if needed, then add the common list of UID's and it works fairly well. Yes, scanning between normal conventional stuff and OFT slows things down, same as programming an actual trunked system would. It's always going to be a compromise of some sort.

This is where it work well. You can copy and paste the UID's per P25 conventional channel. Also allow slots to be added. So...461.000 could be programmed twice conventionally, each with it's own slot, text tag (Channel 1,2...etc). Copy and paste the UID's per entry.

 

[Ubbe]

And...it slows the scan speed because it's searching the frequency for activity.

It scans using the squelch to detect if there's a carrier on the frequency. And only then will it check for activity. If you have 5 frequencies programmed in one OFT system it takes 1/10th of a second to scan them when there's no conversations active.

/Ubbe

 

[mikewazowski]

Eliminate the entire OFT on P25, NXDN, and DMR as that seems to be very confusing for many

Until Uniden respects the slot, colour code and group ID information from the database, OFT cannot be eliminated.

Without OFT, you have no way of distinguishing between different users and more importantly, data such as AVL. Your scanner will hang up on the data and your scanner will be useless.

 

[werinshades]

Until Uniden respects the slot, colour code and group ID information from the database, OFT cannot be eliminated.

Without OFT, you have no way of distinguishing between different users and more importantly, data such as AVL. Your scanner will hang up on the data and your scanner will be useless.

That's why I suggested a firmware tweak if possible on Conventional systems to allow this information to be displayed on P25, DMR, NXDN. I'm aware as I have many systems programmed so it's possible to document radio ID's, talkgroups etc. It would eliminate the "scanner is hanging up when I program in single channel systems"..

 

[JoeBearcat]

Usually when you display info, someone will next demand they be able to PROGRAM that info into the channel. That's why OFT was created - so you can program conventional channels using trunking features.

If you want to OFT, use OFT.

 

[GTR8000]

That's why OFT was created - so you can program conventional channels using trunking features.

Well, that's the rub...those aren't "trunking features", they are 100% applicable to conventional channels. Look at any real subscriber radio's codeplug, even one that doesn't have any trunking features provisioned, and you will find the capability to assign talkgroups and user ID's to conventional digital channels. Obviously a Uniden scanner is not a real subscriber radio, but to suggest that these are trunking features is being disingenuous to suit Uniden's narrative and provide a justification for creating the OFT concept in the scanners.

 

[JoeBearcat]

When I say "trunking features", I'l talking about things like slots, talkgroups, and the like. Call them what you want.

The point is when you use non-traditional conventional features such as CTCSS/CDCSS, you want to use OFT to support that EXPANDED feature set.

What is the official term for that expanded feature set?

 

[jonwienke]

Yes, I'm aware, but I have a system that uses one talkgroup for dispatch, another talkgroup for the mobiles. I have it programmed as conventional on my 996's because transmissions are missed. Since the UID's are displayed, maybe a firmware tweak could be made in Sentinel and the scanner to allow this feature in P25 conventional systems?

No. That's the whole point of OFT. Use it.

 

[werinshades]

No. That's the whole point of OFT. Use it.

I do use it, but not for this situation. In conventional mode, the UID is displayed on the SDS series, however their is no option to text tag them. The system has separate talkgroups for Dispatch and mobile so in this case OFT doesn't work as other systems that use a single talkgroup for both. Many missed transmissions is the issue.

 

[jonwienke]

That doesn't make sense. The only reason you're having problems is because you're not using OFT. Programming as OFT instead of conventional lets you alpha tag unit/radio IDs, filter traffic by talkgroup, and everything else you're asking for. You have the solution available, but you're not using it.

 

[werinshades]

That doesn't make sense. The only reason you're having problems is because you're not using OFT. Programming as OFT instead of conventional lets you alpha tag unit/radio IDs, filter traffic by talkgroup, and everything else you're asking for. You have the solution available, but you're not using it.

What doesn't make sense? Dispatch using one talkgroup, mobiles using a separate one? That hasn't made sense since they put the system on line, so in this scenario OFT doesn't work as well. I do use OFT on systems that utilize a single talkgroup, this is not the case. Chicago Fire Dept. is the system I'm referring to. It can be monitored in OFT, but many transmissions missed unfortunately. I've done many comparisons, tweaks over the years and when I compare it to a scanner running it in conventional, it's obviously missing many replies etc.

I have this system in my SDS scanners, and I see the UID's, but can't text tag them while in the conventional mode. I'm very aware of OFT, and use it on others that only utilize one TGID. What would be "convenient" is if their was an option to text tag UID's while running it in conventional mode. If the system. I know...it doesn't make sense, but I work around it.

 

[jonwienke]

No, assuming that multiple talkgroups somehow precludes the use of OFT is what makes no sense. Handling multiple talkgroups is the whole point of why OFT was created. Or at least a major one. You're literally complaining about the ideal solution to your problem.

 

[werinshades]

No, assuming that multiple talkgroups somehow precludes the use of OFT is what makes no sense. Handling multiple talkgroups is the whole point of why OFT was created. Or at least a major one. You're literally complaining about the ideal solution to your problem.

Like I said Jon, I've tried to make this system work in OFT, but unfortunately with two separate talkgroups for base and mobile with 0 second delays, it will miss replies. When I run the same system in conventional mode, it does not. The ideal solution would be to eliminate all OFT and allow it to be programmed with the same benefits of OFT in conventional mode From an outsiders point of view, the concept is unusual and unique, but we deal with it.

 

[sallen07]

Like I said Jon, I've tried to make this system work in OFT, but unfortunately with two separate talkgroups for base and mobile with 0 second delays, it will miss replies.

Are base and dispatch on the same time slot? What happens if you leave out the TGs, set it to ID Search, and set the Delay to 0 seconds?

 

[buddrousa]

This does not sound it like it would work in comerical radios

 

[jonwienke]

The ideal solution would be to eliminate all OFT and allow it to be programmed with the same benefits of OFT in conventional mode From an outsiders point of view, the concept is unusual and unique, but we deal with it.

No. The ideal solution is to to look into why the scanner is hanging on a channel with a 0-second delay. There shouldn't be any difference in scanning behavior between conventional and OFT with a 0-second delay, if you're doing a site hold on the OFT system and a channel hold on the conventional, and only have one frequency programmed per OFT site.