There is so much to like about Rdio-Scanner, but the UID approach is useless. After years of fire departments having their own discrete VHF channel, now they huddle together in shared Talk Groups. UIDs are the only way to identify fire departments and I've found them to be surprisingly static, especially for vehicles in our market.
What doesn't work with Rdio-Scanner, at least for me:
1) Despite listing the option to do so, there appears to be no way to import UIDs. In our area, there are hundreds of fire department UIDs. Premium software should allow uploading from a spreadsheet file. If there is a way to do this, I would be grateful to know how.
2) Every UID is a completely separate data entry, which requires a label -- a fire department -- to be typed for every entry. We are talking hundreds of these. This is Dark Ages database hierarchy. Please give us structure that allows multiple entries for each department, at least for the premium app.
3) Occasionally UIDs do change, but it's a needle in the haystack to find one in this software. The Search Call filter function appears to be nothing more than a list of calls, nothing searchable. And the list does not display either the Talk Group IDs or UIDs, but it does list the Talk Group label twice. This could help identify the offending UID, but its worthless in its current format. There may be a switch somewhere to address this.
4) Editing UIDs must done in a separate admin login, where UIDs are identified only by the label -- a fire department, in my case. UIDs are presented as a list of dozens of UID labels, nearly all with seemingly duplicated entries. Each UID with the same label must be opened to find the offending UID, with separate entries for the label and ID.
I very much want to love this software, and I would willingly pay the $40 for a premium version and support the author. But this is a bust for me without a reasonably workable tool for creating and managing UIDs. I hate posting this on Thanksgiving Day when we should be celebrating an otherwise terrific app. Fix this, and it's a winner. As it is, the $40 premium is like a bull's eye on this software.
What doesn't work with Rdio-Scanner, at least for me:
1) Despite listing the option to do so, there appears to be no way to import UIDs. In our area, there are hundreds of fire department UIDs. Premium software should allow uploading from a spreadsheet file. If there is a way to do this, I would be grateful to know how.
2) Every UID is a completely separate data entry, which requires a label -- a fire department -- to be typed for every entry. We are talking hundreds of these. This is Dark Ages database hierarchy. Please give us structure that allows multiple entries for each department, at least for the premium app.
3) Occasionally UIDs do change, but it's a needle in the haystack to find one in this software. The Search Call filter function appears to be nothing more than a list of calls, nothing searchable. And the list does not display either the Talk Group IDs or UIDs, but it does list the Talk Group label twice. This could help identify the offending UID, but its worthless in its current format. There may be a switch somewhere to address this.
4) Editing UIDs must done in a separate admin login, where UIDs are identified only by the label -- a fire department, in my case. UIDs are presented as a list of dozens of UID labels, nearly all with seemingly duplicated entries. Each UID with the same label must be opened to find the offending UID, with separate entries for the label and ID.
I very much want to love this software, and I would willingly pay the $40 for a premium version and support the author. But this is a bust for me without a reasonably workable tool for creating and managing UIDs. I hate posting this on Thanksgiving Day when we should be celebrating an otherwise terrific app. Fix this, and it's a winner. As it is, the $40 premium is like a bull's eye on this software.
