iSCAN Post-Release Discussion Thread

[CStarr59]

I have questions?

I'm interested in this scanner, but I have no trunking in my area... all conventional analog frequencies. So would this radio work for me? Just turn it on and click on my state and my county and start listening? I like it and it's in stock at several RS around my home. Would this radio be overkill for my area???

 

[jpunix]

Wirelessly posted (Blackberry: BlackBerry8330/4.5.0.175 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/104)

The 107 does a great job on conventional frequencies as well as trunking. You should be fine with one.

 

[DonS]

Capacities...

The scanner's manual doesn't go into any detail at all, and I'm not at liberty to give too much, but here are some rough sample values for what the PRO-107 can "hold". All numbers are per-gigabyte (1,000,000,000 bytes) of available SD Card space, and all values are "exclusive" of all others (e.g. if you have the max number of conventional channels, there's no room left for trunked systems, etc.)...

* Conventional channels, each in two playlists: 8 million
* Trunked systems, minimum 20 talkgroups per system: 6 thousand
* Trunked systems, every possible talkgroup (~65,000) in every system: 151
* Minimum number of total talkgroups (@ one per system, 6000 systems): 6 thousand
* Maximum number of total talkgroups (@ ~65,000 per system, 151 systems): 9.8 million
* Entire 15NOV2009 USA RadioReference database imported (including digital): twice

In the above, each trunked system has up to 50 sites (though there's no practical limit). All talkgroup numbers presume all systems are "Motorola Type-II" - the system type that a) uses the most space per talkgroup, b) potentially wastes the most space per talkgroup, and c) has the largest number of possible talkgroups. The minimum and maximum numbers of talkgroups are absolutes; actual values depend on system types as well as how talkgroups are distributed among systems and within systems. No "RadioIDs" are included in the above.

In more general terms:
* Conventional channels: limited only by SD Card space and max FAT32 file size
* Trunked systems: limited only by SD Card space
* Sites per system: limited only by SD Card space
* Frequencies per site: fixed at 32 (yes, I know it's too many)
* Talkgroups per system: limited only by SD Card space, up to maximum for system type

 

[jpunix]

Wirelessly posted (Blackberry: BlackBerry8330/4.5.0.175 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/104)

Is there a easy way to move a entire playlist from on place to another within the playlist list? For instance moving the playlist in position one to position three? I've created several playlists and would like to sort them in order of popularity without having to start all over.

 

[DonS]

Is there a easy way to move a entire playlist from on place to another within the playlist list? For instance moving the playlist in position one to posistion three? I've created several playlists and would like to sort them in order of popularity without having to start all over.

Presuming you want to move contents of playlists around (e.g. everything in playlist X to playlist Y, everything in playlist Y to playlist Z, etc.)...

The only easy way is within the included PC software, and it's only "easy" if you have a playlist that is currently empty. You'd use the "Playlists" tab, selecting everything in one playlist and moving it to another, repeating as necessary.

For example, if you had objects in playlists 1, 2, and 3, playlist 10 was empty, and you wanted to move:
* current playlist 3 --> playlist 2
* current playlist 2 --> playlist 1
* current playlist 1 --> playlist 3
you could do this within the Playlists tab:
1. select everything in playlist 1 and move it to playlist 10
2. select everything in playlist 2 and move it to playlist 1
3. select everything in playlist 3 and move it to playlist 2
4. select everything in playlist 10 and move it to playlist 3
("move it to playlist X" means "while those items are selected, click on one of the items' "Playlists" cells, un-check the box for the current playlist, and check the box for playlist X")

 

[jpunix]

you could do this within the Playlists tab:
1. select everything in playlist 1 and move it to playlist 10
2. select everything in playlist 2 and move it to playlist 1
3. select everything in playlist 3 and move it to playlist 2
4. select everything in playlist 10 and move it to playlist 3
("move it to playlist X" means "while those items are selected, click on one of the items' "Playlists" cells, un-check the box for the current playlist, and check the box for playlist X")

I'm really not that clear on the "move" part. Are you saying to highlight the playlist you want to move and then click the box on the playlist you want it moved to?

 

[DonS]

I'm really not that clear on the "move" part. Are you saying to highlight the playlist you want to move and then click the box on the playlist you want it moved to?

On the Playlists tab:
1. select the "from" playlist from the drop-down box at the top-left of the display
2. click on one of the "POS" cells in the displayed objects list
3. press CTRL-A (select all)
4. click on one of the "Playlist" cells in the displayed objects list
5. in the "Select Playlists" window that pops up, un-check the current playlist (the one you selected in #1 above), and check the target playlist (the one you want to "move to")
6. repeat steps 1-5 for every playlist whose contents you want to "move"

 

[jpunix]

I just tried it. I went to the playlists tab, selected everything in a active playlist, selected a different empty playlist from the pulldown within the playlist tab. It was empty but there's no "paste" feature or anyway I can see to populate the empty playlist with the selected info from the populated playlist. I guess I'm just not following what you are saying.

Update: we weree typing at the same time. Let me try what you just described.

 

[jpunix]

On the Playlists tab:
1. select the "from" playlist from the drop-down box at the top-left of the display
2. click on one of the "POS" cells in the displayed objects list
3. press CTRL-A (select all)
4. click on one of the "Playlist" cells in the displayed objects list
5. in the "Select Playlists" window that pops up, un-check the current playlist (the one you selected in #1 above), and check the target playlist (the one you want to "move to")
6. repeat steps 1-5 for every playlist whose contents you want to "move"

I tried that and although I have all the talkgroups selected using Ctrl-A as you stated I clicked on the playlist column on the right, unclicked the current playlist, clicked the one I wanted the list to be moved to and it only moved the first talkgroup, not all of the selected talkgroups.

Update: I got it! You right-click on the playlist column rather than just click. I move a playlist successfully. Thanks!

 

[DonS]

I tried that and although I have all the talkgroups selected using Ctrl-A as you stated I clicked on the playlist column on the right, unclicked the current playlist, clicked the one I wanted the list to be moved to and it only moved the first talkgroup, not all of the selected talkgroups.

When you pressed CTRL-A, did the entire grid of objects show up as "selected"?

I'll post some screen shots of what things should look like...

 

[DonS]

I tried that and although I have all the talkgroups selected using Ctrl-A as you stated I clicked on the playlist column on the right, unclicked the current playlist, clicked the one I wanted the list to be moved to and it only moved the first talkgroup, not all of the selected talkgroups.

Update: I got it! You right-click on the playlist column rather than just click. I move a playlist successfully. Thanks!

You shouldn't have to right-click. If you [left-] click on one of the cells in the "Playlists" column (not the column "header"), the "Select Playlists" box that appears should affect all selected items.

EDIT: clicking on the "header" cell for the Playlists column definitely screws things up... don't do that.

 

[jpunix]

Yes... Clicking on the playlist column header is a *BAD* thing. I also confirm that just left-clicking on the playlist column works. Thanks Don!

Psst... Are you the same Don from Starrsoft?

 

[DonS]

Psst... Are you the same Don from Starrsoft?

Yes... that would be the 'S' in my RR username.

 

[DaveIN]

On the Playlists tab:
1. select the "from" playlist from the drop-down box at the top-left of the display
2. click on one of the "POS" cells in the displayed objects list
3. press CTRL-A (select all)
4. click on one of the "Playlist" cells in the displayed objects list
5. in the "Select Playlists" window that pops up, un-check the current playlist (the one you selected in #1 above), and check the target playlist (the one you want to "move to")
6. repeat steps 1-5 for every playlist whose contents you want to "move"

Looks like you need to implement Win107

Why not add a button to move Playlist up or down in order?

 

[jpunix]

Here's another question... I'm tweaking my playlists at the moment. Is it possible to modify the "Sites" list for a particular playlist?

 

[DonS]

Here's another question... I'm tweaking my playlists at the moment. Is it possible to modify the "Sites" list for a particular playlist?

"Sites" don't have anything to do with playlists. Only talkgroups (and conventional channels) have playlist associations.

 

[DonS]

Looks like you need to implement Win107

At present, there is little or no chance of that happening.

Why not add a button to move Playlist up or down in order?

"Playlists" on the PRO-107 are the equivalent of "Scan Lists" on the PSR-500 family, but have a little more stored data on the PRO-107. "Moving" the contents of one playlist to another, without operator control/intervention, is a pretty big undertaking and is probably not best left to software.

 

[jpunix]

Ok then let me re-phrase the question. When you go to "Library Import" and select a particular trunking system for a particular location there are two lists that can be modified. The first one is "Sites" and the second one is "Talkgroups". Talkgroups is pretty obvious when building a playlist. On the "Sites" button you are allowed in include or not include certain sites. Are you saying this list is NOT associated to the specific playlist? If the Sites list is associated with the Talkgroups list can it be changed with editing later to optimize the "Sites" list?

 

[DonS]

Ok then let me re-phrase the question. When you go to "Library Import" and select a particular trunking system for a particular location there are two lists that can be modified. The first one is "Sites" and the second one is "Talkgroups". Talkgroups is pretty obvious when building a playlist. On the "Sites" button you are allowed in include or not include certain sites. Are you saying this list is NOT associated to the specific playlist? If the Sites list is associated with the Talkgroups list can it be changed with editing later to optimize the "Sites" list?

When you import sites/talkgroups for a trunked system, you get this in the scanner's data:
* One trunked system
* One or more sites - tied to the system, not associated with playlists
* One or more talkgroups - tied to the system, each associated with one or more playlists

There's no way to say anything like "only monitor Site X when Playlist A is enabled".

 

[jpunix]

When you import sites/talkgroups for a trunked system, you get this in the scanner's data:
* One trunked system
* One or more sites - tied to the system, not associated with playlists
* One or more talkgroups - tied to the system, each associated with one or more playlists

There's no way to say anything like "only monitor Site X when Playlist A is enabled".

So when enabling/disabling certain sites when in "Sites" screen exactly what is being saved and what is being affected by enabling/disabling certain sites? If you can't say "only monitor Site X when Playlist A is enabled" what happens when you add a playlist from a completely different area that uses a completely different set of towers i.e. a different trunk system? Are both sets of towers stored?

BTW I'm not trying to be picky. I'm just trying to understand the various interactions.