PFDRDC K14 and other channels out of order in Sentinel

[KB7MIB]

Some of you may have noticed that Phoenix FD's K14 in the Regional Wireless Cooperative system is out of order in Sentinel. It's because there is a blank space in front of the K that causes it to be placed where it is, instead of where it belongs, between K13 and K15.

I've also noticed that the channels line up as 1, 10, 11, 12, etc., then 2, 20, 21, 22, etc., because the single digit numbers don't have a leading zero. They should be 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, etc., so that they run in proper sequence.

This is how it shows in Sentinel, and subsequently in the SDS-100/200.

K14 - FDCOM 14
A10 VHF Patch
A11 VHF Patch
A12 VHF Patch
A13 VHF Patch
A3 VHF Patch
A5 VHF Patch
A6 VHF Patch
A7 VHF Patch
A8 VHF Patch
A9 VHF Patch
K1 - Alarm VHF - Patched Ch 1
K10 - FDCOM 10 - Major Incident / Mountain Re...
K11 - FDCOM 11 - Major Incident / Mountain Re...
K12 - FDCOM 12...
K13 - FDCOM 13...
K15 - FDCOM 15
K2
K3
K4 - Encrypted
K5 - Encrypted
...etc., up to K9, then it goes L10, L11, L12, L13, L14, L15, L16, and then L2, L3, etc., up to L9.

Can someone fix that in Sentinel so that K14 goes where it belongs? And so that all of the channels line up in sequential order like they're supposed to be?

My OCD thanks you.

(Radio Reference won't allow me to have a blank space in front of K14, above. It's in Sentinel, though.)

John
Peoria

 

[kd7eir]

Sentinel pulls from Radio Reference, so it would have to be fixed by Radio Reference, not Uniden.
The other option is to manually arrange the channels in Sentinel prior to uploading.

 

[KB7MIB]

The channels are in the right order in the RRDB, so the problem is with Sentinel, not the RRDB.

John
Peoria

 

[KB7MIB]

I'm assuming that Sentinel is autopopulating the channels due to the way the software was written. Sentinel additionally autopopulates the listings by alphabetical order, for example the RWC Interoperability TG's starts with the A agencies to all and goes through the G agencies to all, then the G-deck TG's, and so on. So my first thought is to change the software, which should correct the issue with the entire database download at once.

Alternately, it may be possible to force Sentinel to populate the channels correctly, by changing all the channel numbers in the RRDB from 1-9 to 01-09. But that would mean changing every listing, in every state, that doesn't already have the channels listed in that way, which could take days, if not weeks, to accomplish. It isn't just the RWC PFDRDC listing, it's every channelized listing in the RRDB.

Rewriting Sentinel's software to stop autopopulating the channels the way it does may actually be the easiest fix.

But, at the very least, someone should go into the RRDB and fix the blank space in front of PFDRDC K14 so it gets moved to its right spot would be appreciated.

John
Peoria

 

[kd7eir]

The channels are in the right order in the RRDB, so the problem is with Sentinel, not the RRDB.

John
Peoria

Well, that was embarrassing of me! I stand corrected.

 

[cellphone]

Interesting catch. I never use the DB to scan the RWC so I have never noticed. I always use Favorite Lists and I sort channels and groups to my liking. I encourage you to do the same as you can customize the programming to your liking and include other unconfirmed talkgroups that are not in the DB in your programming.

I did fix the leading space in K14. This is stripped out in the DB view, so it was not evident. It is definitely evident in Sentinel! This change should reflect in Sentinel next week.

Regarding the sorting, within Radio Reference, we are able to configure data to be sorted by Decimal, Alpha Tag, Description, or a hidden column called "Sort Order". Using the Sort Order column, we as DB admins can control the sorting of talkgroups as they are displayed. In your example of Phoenix Fire, the talkgroups are being sorted by this "Sort Order" hidden column. As this "Sort Order" column is simply used to control the display within Radio Reference and is likely not passed to Uniden as it is not needed for scanner operation, thus Uniden has chosen to sort on description.

I'm running this by the Radio Reference System Admins to see if they are aware. More to come.

 

[KB7MIB]

I have favorites lists, but they're downloaded from the DB, and I'm still trying to figure out how to customize everything to my liking. Sentinel allows you to change the order of things to a certain extent, but I haven't figured out how to get it to stay that way. It just reverts back to the default. I also haven't figured out how to add in TG's that aren't in the DB.

John
Peoria

 

[n0doz]

John, I share your pain. I went through damn near every list re-entering the names to suit my own idea of how it should be, including fixing that out of order thing. Computers do the same thing, and it drives me nuts sometimes, like when I go into a file and want to organize based on date the file was created...ARGH!

 

[hulka]

I changed the names and just move the stuff around to what I want it to look like. G deck is also all bonkers.


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