Operational questions/comments re: Unitrunker

[gmclam]

I am a newbie to using UniTrunker. I've had it running constantly for several days now. I am running the 14th beta version and have read the documentation several times. But I have some comments and questions that hopefully someone here can help me with. Thanks in advance.

To keep your changes, press the enter or return key. This will save your modifications before returning to a previous menu.

I go into Find -> Group and add an Alpha Tag. If I press RETURN at this point it bails and does not save what I've entered. I've found the shortest keystrokes to save is actually SHIFT-TAB (which highlights Save) and THEN press ENTER. (I know ALT-S works too). This action seems to contradict what the manual indicates. Can you clarify?

The upper half of the display shows the frequencies of the trunked system I am monitoring (Motorola). The window only shows 22 of the 31 frequencies I have captured. How can I get my cursor into that window so I can scroll through the entire listing? I did this once, but it must have been a fluke.

The top line of the display says:
"Channel Pr Destination Party ID T ID Calling Party CT"
I am able to figure out Channel (which means frequency), Pr (which means Priority), Destination Party (which is showing the Alpha text I added for the talkgroup) and the ID (the talkgroup ID). But I can't find what the rest of the line means. ??

Under Editing a System it reads:

You can annotate a system (a network of one or more sites) with extra information that you provide. These include a text label or "alpha tag" which appears at the top of the display when the system (or more correctly, when any member site belonging to this system) is actively being monitored.

I used Find -> System to bring up the editing screen for this, but it does not provide a place to add the Alpha tag for a system. The manual leads me to believe that I do not need to Load a file (or download from RR) since I am monitoring Motorola; as it is required for EDACS. How do I enter an Alpha Tag for the Motorola system being monitored?

Thank you for your help!

 

[SCPD]

I go into Find -> Group and add an Alpha Tag. If I press RETURN at this point it bails and does not save what I've entered. I've found the shortest keystrokes to save is actually SHIFT-TAB (which highlights Save) and THEN press ENTER. (I know ALT-S works too). This action seems to contradict what the manual indicates. Can you clarify?

The manual is getting stale. It's not as accurate as needed.

The upper half of the display shows the frequencies of the trunked system I am monitoring (Motorola). The window only shows 22 of the 31 frequencies I have captured. How can I get my cursor into that window so I can scroll through the entire listing? I did this once, but it must have been a fluke.

From the main menu, select [F]ind. Now you can use the up/down arrow keys to step through the channels in the top activity display.

You can also scroll through items in the view area (the middle panel below the call activity display). Select [V]iew ... followed by the menu letter of type of view you'd like to see. You can use up / down arrows and PgUp/PgDb keys to scroll through large lists.

The top line of the display says:
"Channel Pr Destination Party ID T ID Calling Party CT"
I am able to figure out Channel (which means frequency), Pr (which means Priority), Destination Party (which is showing the Alpha text I added for the talkgroup) and the ID (the talkgroup ID). But I can't find what the rest of the line means. ??

The Channel column will display the LCN if the frequency is unknown. Progressing from where you left off .. "T" is type of ID to the left - "I" or "G". The destination party may be a talkgroup or a radio ID. The second "ID" column is the radio ID of the calling party. If you've added a label to a radio ID, that text will appear under "Calling Party". The CT is the Call Type. A short two or three letter mneumonic is used. For Motorola, you may see "XP" or "MS" for patched calls or "Emg" for emergency.

I used Find -> System to bring up the editing screen for this, but it does not provide a place to add the Alpha tag for a system. The manual leads me to believe that I do not need to Load a file (or download from RR) since I am monitoring Motorola; as it is required for EDACS.

You don't need to download anything from the RR DB. The primary benefit of RR is the talkgroup descriptions - which equally applies to EDACS and Motorola.

How do I enter an Alpha Tag for the Motorola system being monitored?

After selection [F]ind -> ystem ... type in the sysid of the system you're currently monitoring and set the system type to match. Select "[L]oad from disk". (I know, it's poorly phrased and/or ambigous.) On the next panel you can fill out the system's label.

 

[gmclam]

The manual is getting stale. It's not as accurate as needed.

Thank you. That statement helps clear things up. (as I recently posted in another thread ... another reason most people don't read manuals I suppose).

In the case of pressing ENTER causes the editing to be aborted - I think the manual is correct and it is the software which should be updated to reflect that. It is very natural to just type and press ENTER. I got very frustrated when I didn't remember to substitute shift-tab first.

From the main menu, select [F]ind. Now you can use the up/down arrow keys to step through the channels in the top activity display.

I guess I wasn't hallucinating afterall. Please add this to your updated manual.

You don't need to download anything from the RR DB. The primary benefit of RR is the talkgroup descriptions - which equally applies to EDACS and Motorola.

I didn't think I did, but was uncertain how to get where I wanted to go. Plus I don't like the alpha tags in the RR database.

Thank you. These directions worked like a charm.