• To anyone looking to acquire commercial radio programming software:

    Please do not make requests for copies of radio programming software which is sold (or was sold) by the manufacturer for any monetary value. All requests will be deleted and a forum infraction issued. Making a request such as this is attempting to engage in software piracy and this forum cannot be involved or associated with this activity. The same goes for any private transaction via Private Message. Even if you attempt to engage in this activity in PM's we will still enforce the forum rules. Your PM's are not private and the administration has the right to read them if there's a hint to criminal activity.

    If you are having trouble legally obtaining software please state so. We do not want any hurt feelings when your vague post is mistaken for a free request. It is YOUR responsibility to properly word your request.

    To obtain Motorola software see the Sticky in the Motorola forum.

    The various other vendors often permit their dealers to sell the software online (i.e., Kenwood). Please use Google or some other search engine to find a dealer that sells the software. Typically each series or individual radio requires its own software package. Often the Kenwood software is less than $100 so don't be a cheapskate; just purchase it.

    For M/A Com/Harris/GE, etc: there are two software packages that program all current and past radios. One package is for conventional programming and the other for trunked programming. The trunked package is in upwards of $2,500. The conventional package is more reasonable though is still several hundred dollars. The benefit is you do not need multiple versions for each radio (unlike Motorola).

    This is a large and very visible forum. We cannot jeopardize the ability to provide the RadioReference services by allowing this activity to occur. Please respect this.

Road trip ... (or "What did I learn today?")

Status
Not open for further replies.

troymail

Silent Key
Joined
Dec 19, 2002
Messages
9,981
Location
Supply (Lockwood Inlet area), NC
Traveled to various areas today on a big road trip/loop. Learned a couple of things with my G4...

1. Use caution when entering WACN, SYSID and particularly RFSS and site values. I was getting "out of range" messages on multiple occasions and systems over the past few days and it turns out that I was entering RFSS and site information in decimal when the input screen was expecting HEX. I really ought to know better....

2. I learned for the second time now that you cannot trust the information on RRDB that most people do not use. A year (or more) ago, I learned that there's alot of system/site location (lat/lon/range) data that is bad and/or not what you'd expect. Today I found a case here the RFSS/site information for a system was incorrect on RRDB and once again, the G4 just kept reporting "out of range" (it was not - the G4 just didn't find a RFSS/site value pair on the active frequencies/control channel that matched what was programmed).

For Unication: it might be better to provide a different message (other than "out of range") if a CC in the programming is detected and active but the system characteristics (SYSID, WACN, RFSS, site) do not match what the radio extracts. It would have helped me solve both of the above problems much more quickly.
 

KevinC

Big Dog...celebrating 10 years of abuse!
Super Moderator
Joined
Jan 7, 2001
Messages
11,335
Location
Home
2. I learned for the second time now that you cannot trust the information on RRDB that most people do not use. A year (or more) ago, I learned that there's alot of system/site location (lat/lon/range) data that is bad and/or not what you'd expect. Today I found a case here the RFSS/site information for a system was incorrect on RRDB and once again, the G4 just kept reporting "out of range" (it was not - the G4 just didn't find a RFSS/site value pair on the active frequencies/control channel that matched what was programmed).

This bit me as well. Not blaming Unication or RR, but as you said, it's not something "scanners" use so the database may have lots more of these errors we don't know about.
 

guyiv

Member
Feed Provider
Joined
Aug 26, 2004
Messages
220
Location
Lower Delmarva
Road trip ... (or "What did I learn today?")

I usually just put the FFF/FFFF(Wildcard) in so it uses whatever site information it finds on that CC.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

troymail

Silent Key
Joined
Dec 19, 2002
Messages
9,981
Location
Supply (Lockwood Inlet area), NC
I usually just put the FFF/FFFF(Wildcard) in so it uses whatever site information it finds on that CC.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It's an option - something I'll use in areas I haven't been in before.

However, while it isn't likely, I think that can cause issues if you have alot of frequency reuse in your area.

It also doesn't work if you're trying to control which site you're trying to monitor.
 

sparklehorse

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
May 15, 2003
Messages
1,207
Location
Portland, Oregon
<snip> I learned for the second time now that you cannot trust the information on RRDB that most people do not use. A year (or more) ago, I learned that there's alot of system/site location (lat/lon/range) data that is bad and/or not what you'd expect. Today I found a case here the RFSS/site information for a system was incorrect on RRDB and once again, the G4 just kept reporting "out of range" (it was not - the G4 just didn't find a RFSS/site value pair on the active frequencies/control channel that matched what was programmed).

I have observed both of these issues with the RR database in my area as well. 'Trust but Verify' has become my RR mantra.

.
 

RRR

OFFLINE
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Dec 6, 2005
Messages
1,970
Location
USA
I usually just put the FFF/FFFF(Wildcard) in so it uses whatever site information it finds on that CC.


Negative. I have had NO luck doing that with my G4, if the WACN isn't correct, I get "Out of area" every time. The F's do not allow me to get a lock on any system I try to monitor.
 

troymail

Silent Key
Joined
Dec 19, 2002
Messages
9,981
Location
Supply (Lockwood Inlet area), NC
Negative. I have had NO luck doing that with my G4, if the WACN isn't correct, I get "Out of area" every time. The F's do not allow me to get a lock on any system I try to monitor.

There must be a different problem with the system, radio or programming. Is your G4 receiving any P25 trunk system?

I've used all F's several times including on several different systems this week. It's pretty much how I figured out that I was being dumb and programmed one system RFSS/site as "10" and "10" but it should have been "A" and "A".

On a trip a few weeks ago, I even created a wildcarded (all F's) system and enabled "Full Spectrum" to search 769-775 and 851-866 for any P25 system. The configuration found several systems (some that baffled me at first) and even tracked the sites of two different state systems as I drove through the state.

It does work.
 
Joined
Mar 2, 2005
Messages
1,915
Location
parma,ohio
My G5V

I'm in cleveland and last weekend went to Jackson Michigan i did enter all CCs from Cleveland to Toledo and monitor the Ohio Turnpike State Patrol it worked 100% never missed a beat.
 

KevinC

Big Dog...celebrating 10 years of abuse!
Super Moderator
Joined
Jan 7, 2001
Messages
11,335
Location
Home
Negative. I have had NO luck doing that with my G4, if the WACN isn't correct, I get "Out of area" every time. The F's do not allow me to get a lock on any system I try to monitor.

May be a dumb question, but did you enter FFFF for the WACN or FFFFF?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top