Sentinel: ohio marcs programming

[phask]

This can be a hassle with any statewide or large regional system.

However, you are a Premium Subscriber. If, instead of appending in Sentinel, you used software such as ProScan or ARC536, you could select and import only the sites & departments you wanted, without ending up with the whole state.

Aware - and I do have Proscan. The advantage, at least for me, is if I add all, then avoid them it will not add them back if I append them at a later date.

For me, the trick to mass avoid is changing the name to the few sites I want by adding a Z to the beginning of their name, then sorting, Drag and mark avoid, then change the name back. This might take me 2-3 minutes (using Sentinel) and is easier than future hassles.

 

[wa8pyr]

i live in cleveland it scans as far as cincinatti in the marcs sysyem in my favorites list without avoilding all channels whenever i program it with a marcs system in it.the only time it ignores them is when i use zip code. but it still goes way farther than the 5 miles i have range for it goes to medina county ,summit county which are10-15 miles away

The range you're setting is within the range set in the database for Medina and Summit counties. Try setting your range to 1 or 0; that should fix you up so you're only scanning Cuyahoga County.

 

[glenn12416]

yes i have done that and it fixed the problem for the most part ,

 

[JoeBearcat]

FWIW - that does not work very well in parts of Ohio.

That is probably largely due to MARCS. One MARCS zone will cover 1/4 of Ohio, so it's not able to narrow it down much.

In many cases, MARCS may be the only system in range, so it's an issue of those two extremes.

 

[glenn12416]

I started using proscan and i have it narrowed down to a favorites list just for cleveland and suburbs it has been working well

 

[wa8pyr]

That is probably largely due to MARCS. One MARCS zone will cover 1/4 of Ohio, so it's not able to narrow it down much.

Actually, in the case of Zone 2, about 1/3 of the state or a tad more. It covers all of the northern part of Ohio from Delaware County east, west and north to the state lines.

Zones 1 and 3 each cover a tad more than half as much, and Zone 4 is smaller still, only covering the I-75 corridor from Cincinnati up to Shelby County.

I've found that setting the range in the radio to zero will limit the sites scanned to the closest few fairly reliably.

Zone 2:

 

[JoeBearcat]

Actually, in the case of Zone 2, about 1/3 of the state or a tad more. It covers all of the northern part of Ohio from Delaware County east, west and north to the state lines.

Zones 1 and 3 each cover a tad more than half as much, and Zone 4 is smaller still, only covering the I-75 corridor from Cincinnati up to Shelby County.

I've found that setting the range in the radio to zero will limit the sites scanned to the closest few fairly reliably.

Zone 2:
View attachment 118512

Did it used to be four quadrants? I see zone 2 covers as you show now.

 

[wa8pyr]

Did it used to be four quadrants? I see zone 2 covers as you show now.

It's always been four zones, but what's shown on the maps for Zones 1, 3 and 4 was based on the old system. For the P25 system they realigned those three.

Zone 1 lost a few counties to Zone 4, and shares others with Zone 4.
What was Zone 4 on the old system is now Zone 3 (more or less).
What was Zone 3 on the old system is now sort of Zone 4 (which only comprises the counties from Hamilton to Miami along I-75, plus Clark County).

However, the zones for MCALL1-4/MCOMM1-4 are still based on the old map.

I've never bothered to draw a new map showing the physical zones.