SDS 200—Quick Keys, I'm overwhelmed

[werinshades]

The sticking point for me was not understanding the difference between a Favourite's List QK and System QK. I didn't realize that Favourites Lists are "above" the System in memory hierarchy. I also didn't realize that I could have multiple "systems" active at the same time in one FL. That was very counter-intuitive to me.

A very real case for me is my local community, where every small town has its own police department and fire department. There are still a handful of VHF-HI and UHF conventional channels (FD mostly), plus about 10 talkgroups on one site on the statewide trunking system. Those are the ones I always want to monitor. It seems as if I could put both the conventional channels and trunked TGs into two "systems" in a Favorites List. The downside to that, though, might be it takes so long holding on the control channel I won't catch a call on conventional.

I'm re-working my lists now based on the info here and will post once finished. The next issue is how QKs work with Number Tags, so I can quickly go right to one talkgroup or conventional frequency.

Good to hear, and the only way to find what works for your needs is trial and error. If you do put the Trunking and Conventional in one Favorite List, set the System Hold time to 0. Might optimize the speed for you.

 

[W2IRT]

OK, here's the new programming in ProScan format:



What I found when I uploaded this was that certain FLs and systems were not activated and, another one I normally never listen to (22) was. Using ProScan, where do I set which QKs are enabled by default? I don't want to disable the unwanted items, just have them not turned on until I manually do so.

 

[W2IRT]

More: After refining things a bit, no matter what I do I can't get 1.1.1 to load at startup.

If my understanding is correct, this top screenshot should enable systems 01 and 02 in FL1


This should enable departments 1,2, and 3 in system 1 (conventional). These are NOT loading by default now.


And these should enable departments 1 and 2 in system 2 (these are OK)

 

[werinshades]

Are all these systems set to Monitor ON, Download ON in the scanner? I don't use ProScan, but if you Read it to Sentinel, might be able to get a different view.

 

[W2IRT]

I can't understand Sentinel, which is why I bought ProScan.
By default now EVERYTHING is turned off and I get Nothing To Scan whenever I activate any new FL. I thought those check boxes should mean when I turn on a FLQK the appropriate systems and departments would be there by default. They are not. Not a single one of them. What I have done now is turn on 1.1 and 1.2 and they're working normally.

If I turn on FLQK 3 I get Nothing to scan, even though the blue check boxes are checked. I don't want FLQK3 to load at startup, but when I press "3" I'd like it to work.

Same with FLQK 4, 5, 6, etc.

 

[werinshades]

I can't understand Sentinel, which is why I bought ProScan.
By default now EVERYTHING is turned off and I get Nothing To Scan whenever I activate any new FL. I thought those check boxes should mean when I turn on a FLQK the appropriate systems and departments would be there by default. They are not. Not a single one of them. What I have done now is turn on 1.1 and 1.2 and they're working normally.

If I turn on FLQK 3 I get Nothing to scan, even though the blue check boxes are checked. I don't want FLQK3 to load at startup, but when I press "3" I'd like it to work.

Same with FLQK 4, 5, 6, etc.

Yea sorry, don't know enough about ProScan to help.

 

[dave3825]

I append the FQK# before the name of the favorite list, SQK# before the system name and the DQK# before the dept names. I have much of this memorized but still helpful.

By default now EVERYTHING is turned off and I get Nothing To Scan whenever I activate any new FL. I thought those check boxes should mean when I turn on a FLQK the appropriate systems and departments would be there by default. They are not. Not a single one of them. What I have done now is turn on 1.1 and 1.2 and they're working normally.

I am late to the party and not sure what you did but I can say if you were on the screen with all the checkboxes, and checked them, then those are set to on. So if you have nothing, then something somewhere else is not on.

I also do not use any start up stuff. Whatever state the scanner is in when its shut off is the state I wish it to be in when I turn it back on.

 

[W2IRT]

I append the FQK# before the name of the favorite list, SQK# before the system name and the DQK# before the dept names. I have much of this memorized but still helpful.

I have done this to mine now as well.

I am late to the party and not sure what you did but I can say if you were on the screen with all the checkboxes, and checked them, then those are set to on. So if you have nothing, then something somewhere else is not on.

Yes, as you can see from my pasted screen shots the boxes are checked for each system and department that I would want to come up when I activate the FLQK, however that isn't happening.

 

[dave3825]

The screen with the boxes, they are at systems level and department levels. So when your in you fav list, you can set all systems you wish on by selecting the boxes. Then when in each system, you can, with those boxes at that level, select what departments you want on for when the system is enabled.

 

[W2IRT]

I'm pretty sure this is what I've done, but when I bring a system up for the first time after writing to the radio I get Nothing To Scan.
EDITED TO ADD: I must have done something even worse, because now I can't bring up any systems/departments in any FL other than FL1! I cannot under any circumstance bring up anything in systems 3, 4, or anything else. 3.1.1 = nothing to scan, 4.1.1 = nothing to scan. Yet the blue checkboxes are checked for system and department. Gaaaah!

 

[dave3825]

Yet the blue checkboxes are checked for system and department. Gaaaah!

System and dept. You also have the sites in those set to on? Can you export that HPE file and zip it and post it here?

 

[W2IRT]

OK, here are all the pertinent HPE files.

 

[dave3825]

If you on the scanner hit Menu-Set Scan Selection, are the said favorites list set to on?

 

[W2IRT]

Under "select lists to monitor" all are set to on.
Under "Manage QuickKey Status-Favorites Quick Key, at the moment only 1 and 3 are on.

 

[dave3825]

And when you
Menu- Set Quick Key Status-Favorites

what does the scanner say?

 

[dave3825]

And also,

Menu- Set Quick Key Status-System Quick key- Select Favorite List- then look in each list,

everything on?

 

[dave3825]

I took 2 of your HPE files and imported into @ProScan in new fav lists and gave first Fav list fqk of 95 and the second 96 and wrote to the scanner. Your programming in Newark Fire and West Orange are definitely fine and scanning right now.
F9 -----56 Fav 95 and 96
S0-1 System 1
D0-1 Department 1

 

[werinshades]

I took 2 of your HPE files and imported into @ProScan in new fav lists and gave first Fav list fqk of 95 and the second 96 and wrote to the scanner. Your programming in Newark Fire and West Orange are definitely fine and scanning right now.
F9 -----56 Fav 95 and 96
S0-1 System 1
D0-1 Department 1

View attachment 139702

So what I see is you have 6 Systems assigned to QK-1, 2 assigned to QK-2, and 1 assigned to QK-5. Is that correct? Also in the screen shot, I don't see a signal or Data indicator?

Try this, see if it helps. Found a couple of MY mistakes, just corrected.

 

[W2IRT]

If you on the scanner hit Menu-Set Scan Selection, are the said favorites list set to on?

I don't understand that question. I have 5 choices under Set Scan Selection. Under "select lists to monitor" 00 through 22 are all set to on. I want to download them at startup. But I don't want them all to start scanning. Just FLQK1, and maybe one other, depending on my mood. FLQK 3 or FLQK 4 are the ones I'll usually want to toggle.

Under "select lists to monitor" all are set to on.
Under "Manage QuickKey Status-Favorites Quick Key, at the moment only 1 and 3 are on.

That is by design. When I exported the HPE files I wanted Local and Newark Fire to scan.
Initially only 1.2 was scanning (the local trunked TGs). 1.1.1 was not. Likewise, 3.1.1 wasn't scanning and I was getting the "Nothing to scan" message until I activated 3.1.1.

Yes, it is working, but I want to know why it wasn't, and what I didn't set correctly.

And when you
Menu- Set Quick Key Status-Favorites

what does the scanner say?

At the moment, 1 and 3 are on. All the others are off.

And also,
Menu- Set Quick Key Status-System Quick key- Select Favorite List- then look in each list,
everything on?

Yes, they are now.

 

[W2IRT]

I took 2 of your HPE files and imported into @ProScan in new fav lists and gave first Fav list fqk of 95 and the second 96 and wrote to the scanner. Your programming in Newark Fire and West Orange are definitely fine and scanning right now.
F9 -----56 Fav 95 and 96
S0-1 System 1
D0-1 Department 1

Yes, as of right now, this is correct, and it's how I want it to be. HOWEVER, I would like to understand what settings I had wrong so that when I hit a FLQK I got the nothing-to-scan message. After a lot of tinkering it's working, but what's to stop it from messing up again when I mess with programming.