Probably Not Understanding A Basic Thing?

[kudzu_kid]

Hi All,

I'm relatively new with my SDS200, I bought last month. I've had very little time to read up on DMA tech or much detailed op of the scanner. My previous scanner was a yellow portable Uniden of some sort with a fixed # of "channels" with a ducky*. I bought that thing maybe 20 years ago. So I guess I've made a quantum leap in tech with the SDS200.

There are 2 services I like to listen to. Local public service (PD, FD, EMS) and railroad. The railroad stuff is what I have a question about. I've downloaded the database (only when I see changes in OK since the last update I did). Currently, all I have is a Smiley 5/8 161 MHz slim duck & the stock telescoping antenna. It's rare that I heard any RR traffic at the house. I'll get a decent external antenna. But I digress (somewhat! ).

Today's questions:
1) When I drive to an area rail yard (Cherokee in Tulsa), I hear a lot of traffic. But the channels seemed to be specifically tagged - like instead of "Railroads - USA" and "AAR001-106" I'll see "Oklahoma Railroads" and "Union Pacific Cherokee Yard" (or some such). But when I look in Sentinel I don't see the later set, just the generic (Railroads - USA) ones. So WHERE do these explicitly tagged ones live and can I see / edit them (if I wanted to add something or correct something)?

2) Am I needlessly prolonging my scanning cycle time by apparently scanning RR freqs 2x (once as the Railroads - USA / AAR nnn and then again scanning the ones tagged as the "Union Pacific Cherokee Yard")? How do I edit the tagged ones if I wanted, and how do I remove the generic if they're duplicates?

Thanks a lot!

* = I just looked it up, it was a Sportcat SC150Y, lol. Great for NASCAR races back in the day.

 

[sadatoni]

1) In Sentinel, Edit / Favorites List / select the list with railroads. Expand it out, pick any of the channels that you want to edit, and in them are Channel Name you can double click on and change them (it puts the cursor at the end of the current name).

2) Same sequence. When editing a channel, can either right click the row and then delete the entry, or you can go to the avoid column and set it to avoid.

 

[N4DJC]

I’d make a guess that you have the national frequencies as well as the ones for your state programmed. Railroads USA will show the AAR numbers. Oklahoma state RR frequencies will be alpha tagged with the specifics. If you want to keep both, you can assign a quick key for the Railroads USA as a system, and one for the Oklahoma railroads as a system. Toggle either on or off as needed.

 

[hiegtx]

Hi All,

I'm relatively new with my SDS200, I bought last month. I've had very little time to read up on DMA tech or much detailed op of the scanner. My previous scanner was a yellow portable Uniden of some sort with a fixed # of "channels" with a ducky*. I bought that thing maybe 20 years ago. So I guess I've made a quantum leap in tech with the SDS200.

There are 2 services I like to listen to. Local public service (PD, FD, EMS) and railroad. The railroad stuff is what I have a question about. I've downloaded the database (only when I see changes in OK since the last update I did). Currently, all I have is a Smiley 5/8 161 MHz slim duck & the stock telescoping antenna. It's rare that I heard any RR traffic at the house. I'll get a decent external antenna. But I digress (somewhat! ).

Today's questions:
1) When I drive to an area rail yard (Cherokee in Tulsa), I hear a lot of traffic. But the channels seemed to be specifically tagged - like instead of "Railroads - USA" and "AAR001-106" I'll see "Oklahoma Railroads" and "Union Pacific Cherokee Yard" (or some such). But when I look in Sentinel I don't see the later set, just the generic (Railroads - USA) ones. So WHERE do these explicitly tagged ones live and can I see / edit them (if I wanted to add something or correct something)?

2) Am I needlessly prolonging my scanning cycle time by apparently scanning RR freqs 2x (once as the Railroads - USA / AAR nnn and then again scanning the ones tagged as the "Union Pacific Cherokee Yard")? How do I edit the tagged ones if I wanted, and how do I remove the generic if they're duplicates?

Thanks a lot!

* = I just looked it up, it was a Sportcat SC150Y, lol. Great for NASCAR races back in the day.

The "explicitly tagged" frequencies are in "Oklahoma Railroads", which is located in the 'statewide' folder for each Oklahoma County.
See this example (I used Cherokee County, but the same system will be, in the same place, for any other Oklahoa County).

You can <right><click) on the 'Oklahoma Railroads' in the right side pane of Sentinel & append it to a Favorites list, either a list you already have, or create a new one for this. Once you have it in a Favorites list, then you can edit it however you want. (You cannot successfully edit the list in the main database; it would be overwritten each time you updated the database.)

The 'main' railroads list, which has the all of the frequencies for the U.S. is under the Nationwide folder. You'll find it in the 'Nationwide' section for any Oklahoma county, as well as the Nationwide folder for any county in any other state.

 

[kudzu_kid]

Thanks Steve, N4DJC & John.

Your responses were most helpful. I'll try to spend some time with Sentinel tomorrow and groom it a little better. Screenshots helped tons.

Enjoy the weekend. I spent 3 hours today just pulling the dead alternator in my son's 2002 Ford Escort ZX2. Tomorrow i replace it. Gotta be the worst one on the planet. I did it in my Toyota Corolla last weekend in literally 1/2 the time. Ugggghhh.

Cheers, regards, 73

--Pete (N5KBD)