new input column for the database

[mancow]

I've never understood the paranoia. I've used it in an official capacity. Some information is better than no information when you are short on time.

It's not like it's difficult to figure out manually if someone is determined to cause problems anyway.

 

[mikewazowski]

Time to report this thread and lock the door.

There is absolutely no reason to report or lock this thread. The OP asked a reasonable question and the discussion has remained civil.

Continue on gentlemen.

 

[Sconnick]

Profoundly irresponsible if they are doing so (programming PS radios).

Geez, in eighteen years in law enforcement, I've never been called "profoundly irresponsible."

I work in a county that includes over 40 individual police jurisdictions and agencies, and we respond regionally to several other counties, covering more jurisdictions, in the normal course of business. Occasionally, a department will change a frequency or a PL code and, yes, we're never, ever notified. We figure it out one day when we're flying overhead and realize that we can't talk to the boots on the ground. If I can't get new information through channels, then I'll absolutely give RR a try. Nobody had to condone or encourage it. Doesn't take me but ten minutes to change a codeplug, write the radio, then go for a test flight and see if it works.

 

[Sconnick]

Yes, it happens. Several years ago, I sat in a radio dealer's conference room for about two hours while one of their techs reprogrammed my county-issued radio. His reference material was print-outs from the RadioReference database for both conventional and trunked systems operating in my county. The tech's comment when I asked him about it was that the info on RadioReference was more accurate than what he could get from the various agencies. Since then, the county has hired their own techs to program our radios.

I have found the case to be similar here, on occasion. We had a department on the north end of the county that, all of a sudden, one day, we couldn't hear. Called our communications supervisors and nobody was aware of any changes. Checked with the department themselves, and the boot at the desk wasn't aware of any changes. Signed into RR, and right there, highlighted in yellow (recent change!), was a new PL. Suburban NY RR users are acutely in tune with what's going on around here!