Ontario Fleetnet Database changes

[EJB]

Hi.
May I ask why the Ontario Fleetnet Database has been altered i.e. individual OPP (Ontario Provincial Police) soft id indicators have been removed?

It used to read for talkgroup 8672 Bulrington 5 Charlie now the 5 Charlie is removed?

Any reason for this?

If it matters does it have something to do with the Home Patrol Scanner?

 

[mikewazowski]

The Soft ID's really belong in the Wiki and not as part of the channel description.

 

[EJB]

The Soft ID's really belong in the Wiki and not as part of the channel description.

I disagree. The database it has been said many times is the backbone of this site. I would prefer having the soft id tags on the talkgroup discription.

I am sure you have a Home Patrol scanner. I much prefered having as much descriptions that the screen allowed on the channel tags. Now with the latest update only the actual talk group county or region appears,

The wiki is probably the weakest link on this site. How many people visit in on a daily basis and compare that with visit to the forums & the DB. Unless the site makes a better effort to educate them that a wiki exsists why hide information that I think is helpful there?
And as you might know, I have made a decent amount of wiki information that I think is helpful so please do not see this as a critique of the wiki and its users and providers.

Did someone ask you to do this or did you take it upon yourself to remove them?

Thank you

Eric

 

[Saint]

Soft Id

I disagree. The database it has been said many times is the backbone of this site. I would prefer having the soft id tags on the talkgroup discription.

I am sure you have a Home Patrol scanner. I much prefered having as much descriptions that the screen allowed on the channel tags. Now with the latest update only the actual talk group county or region appears,

The wiki is probably the weakest link on this site. How many people visit in on a daily basis and compare that with visit to the forums & the DB. Unless the site makes a better effort to educate them that a wiki exsists why hide information that I think is helpful there?
And as you might know, I have made a decent amount of wiki information that I think is helpful so please do not see this as a critique of the wiki and its users and providers.


Did someone ask you to do this or did you take it upon yourself to remove them?

Thank you

Eric

I totally agree with this post also, I always used the soft id's for my tag's in the scanner, it is more practical and gives me more information on the scanner.
Steve

 

[mikewazowski]

Soft ID's are radio tags and as such, they belong in the Wiki not the channel description.

The description already provides the location that the talkgroup covers.

With so much patching going on, you'll hear at least 2 different groups of radio id's on a talkgroup and more if any Headquarters units or special duty units are brought in.

 

[EJB]

Soft ID's are radio tags and as such, they belong in the Wiki not the channel description.

The description already provides the location that the talkgroup covers.

With so much patching going on, you'll hear at least 2 different groups of radio id's on a talkgroup and more if any Headquarters units or special duty units are brought in.

I agree with your above posts regarding multi-selects and such but I also agree with Steve St.Denis that the HP, a scanner that is dependent on this database, (until I decide to buy the ARC software) has the room to put in soft id's.

While you are a moderator and have certain powers on this site, your voice is one of many.
To whom might I bring this up to revert it back to the way it used to be?

 

[mikewazowski]

Keep in mind that the database is not supposed to be tailored to a particular brand of scanner. Even though the HP-1 can support the extra characters, this would not be a factor in the decision of what to limit the description to.

I'll PM Eric Carlson the Lead Database Admin with a link to the thread and he can decide.

 

[Saint]

Soft Id's

Soft ID's are radio tags and as such, they belong in the Wiki not the channel description.

The description already provides the location that the talkgroup covers.

With so much patching going on, you'll hear at least 2 different groups of radio id's on a talkgroup and more if any Headquarters units or special duty units are brought in.

The way you now have it every time someone comes up on a id, I will see things like,

1OPS02
1OPS02
1OPS03
1OPSO4

How does this make it better to see on your scanner, then this !
BRUCE COUNTY
CHATHAM-KENT
ELGIN COUNTY
ESSEX COUNTY

I think the last list is more descriptive then the first, and as I said more practical to look at when trying to figure out who it is talking.
Steve

 

[mikewazowski]

Steve, it's always been like that! That has not changed!

What Eric is concerned about is a change in the description.

The description used to have the County and then the first part of the radio ID.

I deleted the radio ID portion but the County is still there.

Whatever software you're using is using the alpha tag to program your scanner and not the description.

That's between you and the software developer.

Eric and I are discussing something totally different.

 

[EJB]

The way you now have it every time someone comes up on a id, I will see things like,

1OPS02
1OPS02
1OPS03
1OPSO4

How does this make it better to see on your scanner, then this !
BRUCE COUNTY
CHATHAM-KENT
ELGIN COUNTY
ESSEX COUNTY

I think the last list is more descriptive then the first, and as I said more practical to look at when trying to figure out who it is talking.
Steve

Steve: My concern was about what information pops up from the database to the Home Patrol scanner. As you might or might not know the HP 1 scanner is reliant on this sites database until I decide to buy Arc software for it and write in my own decriptions of talkgroups.

It is just my preference to see the soft ID codes in the Channel are of the HP1, the scanner itself has a good deal of room for information, there is more room than the 16 characters or so with the older Uniden scanners.

Anyways as Mike as mentioned we are dealing with this via PM's and I am thankful that he has taken the time to respond to me and take my concerns seriously. I do think that he and Ron and Mike and others do a damm good job running this site and database and it is not intention to make more work for them.

Thanks


Eric

 

[Saint]

id's

Steve, it's always been like that! That has not changed!

What Eric is concerned about is a change in the description.

The description used to have the County and then the first part of the radio ID.

I deleted the radio ID portion but the County is still there.

Whatever software you're using is using the alpha tag to program your scanner and not the description.

That's between you and the software developer.

Eric and I are discussing something totally different.

Thank you Mike, I completely misinterpreted what this discussion was all about, I do Apologize for causing any undo postings that had nothing to do with your discussions with Eric.
Steve

 

[Jay911]

Stripping out the talkgroup ID makes it extremely difficult for a newbie to locate the conversation when a radio user says something like "I'll meet you on 1OPS5".

That may not happen on Fleetnet, but it does happen in many places - "Talk to me on A13" or some such - and removing "A13" from the title because "Alternate Chat Channel" is an apt description - is a dumb idea.

 

[ericcarlson]

Based on my understanding, I think the inclusion of the type of information is fine. MikeOxlong's interpretation of the rule on unit IDs here is a strict one and I don't think that we need to be so strict in this case. I think indicating the "group" of unit IDs assigned to a police patrol channel is a reasonable part of the description when there is a simple one-to-one "mapping" of those ID groups to channels. What I don't want is for this to get out of hand and have a whole list of every possible unit ID listed in every description (this is the type of thing that would belong in the wiki).

For example, if the "Adam" patrol units are assigned to one channel and the "Baker" patrol units to another channel then I think indicating that in the description is fine. This is about as far as I would go though.

 

[EJB]

And thank you Mike and Eric for taking this seriously and deciding on this matter.

It will be helpful to me and to others to at least see which general ids normally are on each talkgroup I.E. on Fleetnet Talkgroup 8656 normally carries 5 Bravo traffic for the highways north of Toronto in York Region but also 5 Lima units patrol the toll Highway 407, a roadway that extends across 4 large regions in my metro area.

Thank you both for your time.

Eric

 

[mikewazowski]

Stripping out the talkgroup ID makes it extremely difficult for a newbie to locate the conversation when a radio user says something like "I'll meet you on 1OPS5".

The talkgroup ID isn't being stripped out, it was the Radio ID that I stripped out.

Frankly, I'd rather see the talkgroup ID such as 1OPS05 instead of a Radio ID.

It gives much more information to the user then the Radio ID that they'll hear when the user talks.

 

[mciupa]

Restoration of Zone 1 OPP detachments are now complete.

 

[mciupa]

Zone 2 OPP detachments restored.

Zone 3 was intact.

Zone 4 unknown for the most part.

 

[EJB]

The talkgroup ID isn't being stripped out, it was the Radio ID that I stripped out.

Frankly, I'd rather see the talkgroup ID such as 1OPS05 instead of a Radio ID.

It gives much more information to the user then the Radio ID that they'll hear when the user talks.

I agree with you Mike, I woudlnt mind if the OPS Id indicators were there also but I wont press my luck.

There generally are patches set up for GTR patrols, the usual Cambridge Port Credit, Toronto-Whitby, Niagara-Burlington , etc but it seems that there are a few rare patches.

On weekends Caledon is patched with MNR and MTO enforcement, but they dont affiliate with my local tower, Charlton, but with your old area, Brantford. I betcha that newer listeners would be wondering what the Romeo and 1 Sierra call signs are.
As explained to me, Caledon is 'high' up and it wouldnt be a stretch for there units to trip the Brantford tower and there are still enough rural MNR units patrolling around the remaining rural areas to the west and south of me.

If I have time and feel inspired I will write a few wiki articles about what one can expect in the patches and such,