How do YOU have your EDACS systems programmed?

[KI4LIV]

I live in a county where there are 4 EDACS sites in one big system used for the county's public safety agencies. Most of the talkgroups are simulcast from system to system...

What I am looking for is to get some folks to share their programming setups in hopes that we may be able to help one another come up with ideas on how to better streamline their setups.

Here's a basic layout of mine.

4 towers / 4 systems for law enforcement - all programmed identically except for frequencies.
I then have 4 additional systems programmed - one for each tower - setup the same way except for fire/ems.
What I have done here is allow me to pick between towers, between agencies (toggled on/off), and between law enforcement and fire/ems.


Not all agencies are simulcast on all towers, but since with EDACS the admins have the capability to move around agencies to be simulcast from tower to tower, I've left my options open in case Agency X who normally is on System 1 is now for whatever reason now also showing up on System 2.

System 1 - Law Enforcement (South Tower) - System quick key 1
Law Enforcement Agency A - Group quick key 1
--Talkgroup 1
--Talkgroup 2
--Talkgroup 3
--Talkgroup 4
--Talkgroup 5
Law Enforcement Agency B - Group quick key 2
--Talkgroup 1
--Talkgroup 2
--Talkgroup 3
--Talkgroup 4
--Talkgroup 5
Law Enforcement Agency C - Group quick key 3
--Talkgroup 1
--Talkgroup 2
--Talkgroup 3
--Talkgroup 4
--Talkgroup 5

System 2 - Law Enforcement (Central Tower) - System quick key 2
Law Enforcement Agency A - Group quick key 1
--Talkgroup 1
--Talkgroup 2
--Talkgroup 3
--Talkgroup 4
--Talkgroup 5
Law Enforcement Agency B- Group quick key 2
--Talkgroup 1
--Talkgroup 2
--Talkgroup 3
--Talkgroup 4
--Talkgroup 5
Law Enforcement Agency C - Group quick key 3
--Talkgroup 1
--Talkgroup 2
--Talkgroup 3
--Talkgroup 4
--Talkgroup 5

System 3 - Law Enforcement (North Tower) - System quick key 3
Law Enforcement Agency A - Group quick key 1
--Talkgroup 1
--Talkgroup 2
--Talkgroup 3
--Talkgroup 4
--Talkgroup 5
Law Enforcement Agency B - Group quick key 2
--Talkgroup 1
--Talkgroup 2
--Talkgroup 3
--Talkgroup 4
--Talkgroup 5
Law Enforcement Agency C - Group quick key 3
--Talkgroup 1
--Talkgroup 2
--Talkgroup 3
--Talkgroup 4
--Talkgroup 5

System 4 - Law Enforcement (Central Southern Tower) - System quick key 4
Law Enforcement Agency A - Group quick key 1
--Talkgroup 1
--Talkgroup 2
--Talkgroup 3
--Talkgroup 4
--Talkgroup 5
Law Enforcement Agency B - Group quick key 2
--Talkgroup 1
--Talkgroup 2
--Talkgroup 3
--Talkgroup 4
--Talkgroup 5
Law Enforcement Agency C - Group quick key 3
--Talkgroup 1
--Talkgroup 2
--Talkgroup 3
--Talkgroup 4
--Talkgroup 5

----------------------------------------

System 1 - Fire/EMS (South Tower) - System quick key 5
Fire/EMS Agency A - Group quick key 1
--Talkgroup 1
--Talkgroup 2
--Talkgroup 3
--Talkgroup 4
--Talkgroup 5
Fire/EMS Agency B - Group quick key 2
--Talkgroup 1
--Talkgroup 2
--Talkgroup 3
--Talkgroup 4
--Talkgroup 5
Fire/EMS Agency C - Group quick key 3
--Talkgroup 1
--Talkgroup 2
--Talkgroup 3
--Talkgroup 4
--Talkgroup 5

System 2 - Fire/EMS (Central Tower) - System quick key 6
Fire/EMS Agency A - Group quick key 1
--Talkgroup 1
--Talkgroup 2
--Talkgroup 3
--Talkgroup 4
--Talkgroup 5
Fire/EMS Agency B - Group quick key 2
--Talkgroup 1
--Talkgroup 2
--Talkgroup 3
--Talkgroup 4
--Talkgroup 5
Fire/EMS Agency C - Group quick key 3
--Talkgroup 1
--Talkgroup 2
--Talkgroup 3
--Talkgroup 4
--Talkgroup 5

Yada yada yada....

Anyone else care to share a rough picture of how their programming is setup? Like I said, maybe we can benefit from the sharing, or give someone ideas for their setup!

Thanks!

 

[cws]

Well, you are forcing me to "think", again!
I don't have your multi-site problem, but I have a Bell County, TX system that has more than 200 TGIDs, so I have it set up as 2 systems, on the same SQK. However, searching both still causes the AFS to display, about half of the time, instead of the Alpha tag, due to the same freqs on both, but separate TGID alpha tags.

Now that I think about it, and read the manual, I'm going to try to change some of the TGIDs to "global" - i.e. AF"globalSubfleet". So, for example, instead of:
Nims 1 emer 05-041 UNLOCKED OFF AUTO
Nims 2 emer 05-042 UNLOCKED OFF AUTO
Nims Tac emer 05-043 UNLOCKED OFF AUTO
Ops 1 emer 05-044 UNLOCKED OFF AUTO
Ops 2 emer 05-045 UNLOCKED OFF AUTO

I will have just:
CtyWideOps 05-04* UNLOCKED OFF AUTO

By doing just 10 or so of these, I can reduce the number of TGIDs to <200, get all the info I need for identifying, and always get the alpha tag.

Does anyone here use "global" Fleets, or Subfleets? How is it done - with an asterisk? I can't find it in the manual or in UASD's Help screens.

 

[KI4LIV]

Luckily I don't program in everything in the system - there are 524 talkgroups available! But that's everything from law enforcement to fire to ems to road crews to schools to lifeguards to public transportation! LOL

 

[cws]

Luckily I don't program in everything in the system - there are 524 talkgroups available! But that's everything from law enforcement to fire to ems to road crews to schools to lifeguards to public transportation! LOL

This is the first system I ever set up, when I first got a scanner, so I figured - why not put them all in? - so I did. Now, as I'm reworking it, I may reconsider, since in the three years I've been listening to it, I haven't heard most of the TGIDs.

I hope the 'global' thing works, though, so I'll never see an AFS number again (unless it's a really new one).

 

[cws]

VOILA!!! So much better!
I didn't even have to use a 'global' TGID (Good thing, since nobody told me how, yet). I had only 206 TGIDs, a few of which were duplicated, and a few I didn't care to have at all, so after reworking it, I have 196. It seems to search MUCH faster, and now I can actually figure out what's going on, and where, since I can see ALL of the alpha tags come up.

Thanks for getting me started, KI4LIV. By the way, I just love your sig; it's the first time I've seen/heard that one.

 

[stpd438]

My county utilizes a 5-frequency, 2-site simulcast EDACS system. Since it is entirely simulcast, I definitely don't have the "multi-site" problem that you have. I'm guessing my county is also a lot less populated than yours, therefore enabling me to monitor more agencies without becoming overloaded with too many active talkgroups. Nonetheless, I do somewhat have my scanner programmed similar to yours. However, I have everything programmed into one system (due to the simulcast). The groups are broken down as follows (with each group as a separate quick key):

Group 1 - "Main" (contains all dispatching talkgroups - police, fire, and EMS)

Group 2 - "LE Tacs" (contains all tac talkgroups for law enforcement)

Group 3 - "Fire / EMS Tacs" (contains all tac talkgroups for fire/EMS)

Group 4 - "Common" (contains all common interop talkgroups that are programmed in all radios on the system)

Group 5 - "Hospitals" (contains all tac talkgroups for EMS-to-hospital communications)

Group 6 - "Schools" (contains all tac talkgroups for school buses)

Looking at your description, if my system was a multi-site system with varying simulcast and non-simulcast talkgroups, I would probably program my scanner in the exact same manner as you have. I think you're definitely on the right track.