RadioFeed 3.0 vs. BCT8 - Alpha Tags

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KC1UA

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In an effort to add alpha tags to my MA State Police Troop D feed, I switched the feed scanner to a Uniden BCT8 on the assumption that RadioFeed would add alpha tags via its Metadata tab using the "Channel Name Lookup" feature. However I am having zero luck in making this work.

The BCT8 is connected via a Keyspan 4 port USB to serial converter. It is using COM7 at a baud rate of 57600. This is a known good configuration as I can successfully use the Virtual Scanner Control feature of a demo version of the Butel ARC8 software. Under the metadata tab of RadioFeed, using the Auto Detect Ports option, RadioFeed sees the BCT8 on the above port using the above baud rate. I select the proper entry and click the "Set..." button, but I am not seeing the Scanner Data light blinking as I do with another feed that uses a BC780XLT.

I believe the no Scanner Data light blinking is the problem, as the RadioFeed software is not seeing data being sent by the BCT8 and therefore not using the Channel Name Lookup text file I've set up. The only metadata that shows when connecting to the feed via Winamp is "Scanning".

I have tried adjusting baud rates to no avail. I have not tried moving to another COM port on the Keyspan device as it is communicating perfectly fine using the ARC8 software via COM7/57600.

I am running 3 instances of RadioFeed on a Windows 8.1 64 bit quad core Dell Inspiron PC, brand new out of the box within the last week. The aforementioned BC780XLT is using a different USB to serial cable with a Prolific chipset. That adapter was installed before I discovered that the reliable old Keyspan device had drivers available for Windows 8.1.

If it talks fine to the BCT8 via ARC8, why doesn't it do so with RadioFeed 3.0? Has anyone come across a similar issue?

Thanks in advance for any assistance.
 

KC1UA

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Well I found this link where another user posted pretty much the exact same symptoms as I did above:

BCT-8 Meta Data broken on Radio Feed 3.0 | ProScan Support Forums

Either Bob is still working on the problem or doesn't have an answer yet, which is fine. I need to apparently find the older version of RadioFeed (2.4) and use it until such time he finds the issue.
 

KC1UA

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Solved. I was able to download a copy of 2.8 and install it alongside 3.0 in a different folder. It immediately worked, so 3.0 is indeed broken for alpha tagging with the BCT8.

So My MSP Troop D feed now has alpha tags. Yay. :D
 

KC1UA

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Au contraire. The BCT8 does not itself have alpha tags. However, in RadioFeed a text file can be used as a reference for this scanner to insert alpha tags into the stream. What happens is the BCT8 is connected to RadioFeed via a COM port. RadioFeed sees either the frequency or talkgroup and looks it up in this file. When it finds it the appropriate text tag is inserted.

The file looks like this:

42.5000 MA State Police Low Band CH4
34032 D-PTL-3 D2, D7, Cape Cod

Etc...

So when RadioFeed sees 34032, it finds the above tag and shows it in the feed.

The problem is that this feature apparently was broken when 3.0 came out. As I didn't use this setup for a feed and started with 3.0, therein was my problem. Rolling back to 2.8 solved it.
 
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