Hex vs Dec (again)

[N9JIG]

dainom89  wrote:

Im new to scanning, and ive seen this 

DEC HEX Mode Display Description
16368 3ff A TriSvcs Announce All-Calls - Fire/Police/EMS-Wide 
17040 429 A B9 COMMAND Tri-Services Command 
17072 42b A B10 COMMAND Tri-Services Command 

What is it that the "DEC" & "HEX" mean?

and how to i get to those frequencies that have these numbers and such

thanks

For some reason every time someone asks about Hex and Decimal numbers the conversation gets closed early. Dunno why, it is a valid and fascinating subject for scanner listeners....

While most scannists use Decimal to identify talkgroups on Motorola systems some use Hex. Hex is used on the subscribers radios programming and often when you see Hex listings they came from a system radio. Hex is also extensively used in some software applications such as Trunker.

If you are just programming a scanner then you could probably just ignore any references to Hex. On EDACS systems you need to decide whether to use Decimal or AFS. This decision is a little more difficult as some lists only use on or the other while radios often have both. (Personally I prefer decimal, it is easier to deal with...)

Understanding the relationship of Hex and Decimal as well as Binary and the AFS format derived from Binary one can understand how several formats of trunked system numbers were derived. It can also help you decide which format(s) you want to use in your personal lists.

A couple quick questions would be why the analog Motorola systems always seem to be divisible by 16, or how did they come up with AFS for EDACS?

I wrote an extensive treatise about Hex, Dec, AFS and Binary back when I did a website for the BC780 and ScannerMaster. I think they are still accessible at http://www.bc780xlt.com/moreinfo.htm and http://www.bc780xlt.com/faq.htm

A chart that lists the various formats (Decimal, Hex, AFS and Binary) is at http://www.bc780xlt.com/hex.txt. (Be advised that these sites have not been maintained in some time so some information may be dated.)

 

[loumaag]

For some reason every time someone asks about Hex and Decimal numbers the conversation gets closed early. Dunno why, it is a valid and fascinating subject for scanner listeners....

I will address you points one at a time and (again) close the thread. It is not fascinating, it is confusing and HEX is of NO use to scanner listeners, no scanner uses it for anything. All it does is confuse the new scanner listener.

While most scannists use Decimal to identify talkgroups on Motorola systems some use Hex. Hex is used on the subscribers radios programming and often when you see Hex listings they came from a system radio. Hex is also extensively used in some software applications such as Trunker.

Exactly why it is not necessary for scanner users, it is not used in scanners (a point I keep trying to make), people who can program a subscriber radio don't need an explanation, for that matter (another point I try to make with considerably less success) they don't need lists of them so having them displayed in the DB just leads to these sorts of questions and confusion. HEX is used in Trunker, but so is decimal, it is a couple of keystrokes difference in how it is displayed. If you are running Trunker, you don't need HEX numbers in the DB. By the way the HEX value we display in the DB is not the HEX value Trunker displays. Take the following example:

Examples from STARNet, Harris Co., TX (includes fields header)
From the DB:
DEC    HEX   Description
9008   233   Dispatch 4 - District 4  

The same TG from an actual Trunker File:
;ID_hex,COLOR_dec,PRIO_dec,TITLE_str,LASTNOTED_hex,HITS_hex,USAGE_hex,ID_dec,ID_str,LASTNOTED_mm/dd/yyyy,LASTNOTED_hh:mm
2330,3,10,"HCSO-4 WestDisp",445245ad,35653,4,9008, 9008,04/28/2006,12:41

If you are just programming a scanner then you could probably just ignore any references to Hex. On EDACS systems you need to decide whether to use Decimal or AFS. This decision is a little more difficult as some lists only use on or the other while radios often have both. (Personally I prefer decimal, it is easier to deal with...)

Not "probably just ignore" HEX; the correct term is "necessarily ignore", since no scanner uses it.

Understanding the relationship of Hex and Decimal as well as Binary and the AFS format derived from Binary one can understand how several formats of trunked system numbers were derived. It can also help you decide which format(s) you want to use in your personal lists.

Perhaps this argument has some value, but this is not a math forum and the information is in the RR Wiki for all to study on their own if they are so inclined.

A couple quick questions would be why the analog Motorola systems always seem to be divisible by 16, or how did they come up with AFS for EDACS?

See the RR Wiki, as I just said. The answers you seek to those questions are there.

I wrote an extensive treatise about Hex, Dec, AFS and Binary back when I did a website for the BC780 and ScannerMaster. I think they are still accessible at http://www.bc780xlt.com/moreinfo.htm and http://www.bc780xlt.com/faq.htm

A chart that lists the various formats (Decimal, Hex, AFS and Binary) is at http://www.bc780xlt.com/hex.txt. (Be advised that these sites have not been maintained in some time so some information may be dated.)

While fascinating, I find it hard to believe that you could have done that and still not understood why Motorola Talk Groups are divisible by 16!

To recap:
The HEX values in the DB have nothing to do with scanners. They can be determined by the Uniden Decimal number we display as DEC; however you need to take into account the type of system being studied before you can determine exactly which calculation to use. Since this is not a Motorola programming support site, nor a mathematics site, and we do attract a lot of NEW scanner users, the display of HEX (which is explained by mousing over the header) is as unnecessary as these constant forum posts on the subject.

This topic is closed (again.)