SDS100/200 What are your strategies for quick navigation? Use of quick keys?

[downeydigs]

Not sure if this is the appropriate forum to ask this, but I’m needing help with scan/avoid, favorites list(s), and quick key(s) strategies.
I am new to the Uniden SDS100 and SDS200. I have one of each; the 100 for the truck and the 200 with a mast-mounted Discone for beside my chair. I am completely ignorant to the proper use of quick keys and the best strategy for using favorites lists to my advantage. I’ll provide a scenario to help explain what I mean: I was monitoring my one and only favorites list when State Police Highway Patrol (P25 Phase I) had an incident. HP had to involve the local county sheriff’s department (Conventional DMR/DMR One Freq) and local ambulance service (150 MHz High Band). It was all happening very fast, and I wanted to monitor all three systems/frequencies. However, the three frequencies that I needed to monitor were all on different systems that were on one favorites list along with a bunch of other frequencies that I did not want to monitor at that time. The number of systems, departments, and channels on this one favorites list slowed down the scan speed, and many of them had traffic that would stop the scan. I had my finger on the Avoid button and was avoiding them as quick as they would start broadcasting, but I still missed out on quite a bit. There has to be a better way. I feel like there should be a way that I can quickly chose what I DO want to monitor and what I DO NOT want to monitor without having to do a bunch of avoids. I figure quick keys and/or favorites lists will do just this, but I can’t wrap my head around the right way to configure it. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[TailGator911]

I break everything down to its own Favorite List and number them accordingly (also put FL number in title such as ...(1) PD..(2)FD etc etc, and I only deal with the FL prefix and turn my FLs off and on like an old school scanner with banks. Rest assured, I may have a few more FLs than most, but I find it very useful when scanning a major event and hopping back and forth between systems/FLs. I can navigate very quickly. Works for me.

 

[jonwienke]

You can Avoid a System or a Department by pressing the System or Department key, then AVOID.

 

[greggk]

From what you described, you had so many things going at once and you were rushing to push that button, or avoid that button, etc. Thats not the way to go with your two fine scanners.
First you should go to your state forum and post there. Since you are so new to this, and since you have two very high tech scanners, perhaps there will be someone there who can help you with what you need to program, and if your lucky, there will be a local scanning club or even someone willing to teach you.
We have a lot of very smart and experienced people here. Sometimes when you must start with the basics its good to have someone to personally help you.
Also, buy that subscription to RR. Then life becomes much easier after you learn Sentinel and can download directly to your scanners. Its a long journey, but needn't be a painful one. FWIW Greg

 

[ofd8001]

Assuming that "critical" incidents are consistently on the same systems, what you want to do can be done.

I'd create a separate Favorites List with just the Sheriff, Highway Patrol and Ambulance with its own FLQK. You could have that FLQK off during "normal" times. When the "critical" incident happens, turn on that "critical" FLQK and turn the others off. Then you are scanning just the "important" stuff.

Usually it's not good to do redundant scanning because of the increased potential to miss traffic, so that's the reason for turning on the critical Favorites List during specific times. The "why" this is inefficient can be explained, but it would be a lot of reading.

You may also consider the use of Number Tags, which are different creatures than Quick Keys. These will allow you to "jump" to or rapidly access certain channels. Not all of my channels are number tagged, rather just those "important" ones I see myself needing to quickly access.

Uniden BCDx36HP Quick Keys and Number Tags - The RadioReference Wiki

wiki.radioreference.com

 

[awhitej2002]

The way I have my radio programmed, I have too many systems to keep track of quick keys. I just choose scan selection from the favorites menu. I find that it works OK.

 

[holeinace]

The way I have my radio programmed, I have too many systems to keep track of quick keys. I just choose scan selection from the favorites menu. I find that it works OK.

thanks for that information. That's exactly what I was looking to do.

 

[Kaleier1]

I don't use the quick keys either because they end up being a big mess and having to remember what is what or consult a cheat sheet and by the time you do that the incident is over. Then you have the number tags that are different than quick keys but appear the same and I have yet to understand the difference. I just use favorites lists I turn on and off.

Luckily in my county there is a county wide trunked system with police, fire, and medical on the same system. One time I heard police and fire get dispatched where a car with 3 people drove into the back of a parked semi truck at 65 MPH. Then I heard the fire department trying to extract the people from the car. Then I heard the ambulances taking the 3 people and calling the hospital with their conditions and following the doctors orders.I was cool to listed to it al from start to finish.

In your case perhaps you could make a separate favorites list with the just HP, Sherriff, and ambulance and then when a similar incident goes down, just turn off all favorites lists but that one.

 

[brumey]

Great idea for a thread. I am just now starting to think about building my FL. I have them now but they are crude and I am not using Quick Keys or Number Tags. I think I am starting to understand QK but I am trying to understand why and how I would use them. I like ti idea of including the QK in the FL name.

Number tags, still a mystery to me. Like many technology tools and solutions, we don't have to use everything. Its good to know these features and functions are available but, like others have said, I can see it getting more complicated than needed.

Keep the ideas coming on how you are using QK, Number Tags, etc.

 

[VA3ADP]

I don't use the quick keys either because they end up being a big mess and having to remember what is what or consult a cheat sheet and by the time you do that the incident is over. Then you have the number tags that are different than quick keys but appear the same and I have yet to understand the difference. I just use favorites lists I turn on and off.

Luckily in my county there is a county wide trunked system with police, fire, and medical on the same system. One time I heard police and fire get dispatched where a car with 3 people drove into the back of a parked semi truck at 65 MPH. Then I heard the fire department trying to extract the people from the car. Then I heard the ambulances taking the 3 people and calling the hospital with their conditions and following the doctors orders.I was cool to listed to it al from start to finish.

In your case perhaps you could make a separate favorites list with the just HP, Sherriff, and ambulance and then when a similar incident goes down, just turn off all favorites lists but that one.

I couldn't of said it better myself. Quick keys are certainly a mess on the database scanners. I just select what a want to hear and listen to those particular favourite lists.

 

[jonwienke]

I use quick keys to toggle favorite lists (a list for each state I can hear--VA, WV, MD, PA, and DC, plus a separate list for multistate stuff like DC Metro, railroads, etc), and use Location Control and Service Types to choose what is scanned within each list.

 

[ofd8001]

Quick Keys are a way to turn "things" on or off. Could be a "big thing with lots of stuff" like a Favorites List, a "medium thing with a moderate amount of stuff" like a System within a Favorites List, or a "small thing with a little stuff" like a Department within a System which is within a Favorites List".

Number Tags on the other hand is a method to assign an address to a given channel so you can rapidly access it. Just like a home address, there are multiple parts to an address: the city/state, the street name and the house number.

So for this example, city/state would be the Number Tag part of the Favorites List. The street name would be the System Number Tag and the house number would be the Channel Number Tag.

The only real difference is that the way Number Tags go is the opposite of an address. For Number Tags, it is Favorites List Number Tag.System Number Tag.Channel Number Tag. (Periods separate the different parts).

Yes there is a lot of memory and cheat sheets are sometimes required. To help make things easier for me, the Number Tag of a Favorites List will be the same number as a Favorites List Quick Key. Same for System Number Tag/Quick Key. A little less to remember.

 

[Kaleier1]

Quick Keys are a way to turn "things" on or off. Could be a "big thing with lots of stuff" like a Favorites List, a "medium thing with a moderate amount of stuff" like a System within a Favorites List, or a "small thing with a little stuff" like a Department within a System which is within a Favorites List".

Number Tags on the other hand is a method to assign an address to a given channel so you can rapidly access it. Just like a home address, there are multiple parts to an address: the city/state, the street name and the house number.

So can you assign a quick key to an individual channel and can you assign a number tag to just an entire system?

To me it would make sense if quick keys let you go to an individual system, department, and channel separating each with a decimal point allowing you to stop or go as deep as you need to, while number tags simply take you to a specific channel within a specific system and department by pressing only two keys like 04. In my example I would call the ability to go directly to a specific channel a quick key while number tags would be to tag the systems, departments, and channels but it seems Uniden calls it the opposite.

 

[TailGator911]

What with all of the different systems and the different scanners we have, it seems we all have our own different navigation techniques and expedient programming shortcuts to hear what we want to hear. One of the many things I like about this forum is the intelligent ideas that are posted. I'm sure I speak for quite a few in here when I say I am grateful for all of the tips and tricks and info that I have come by here. Thanks to all of you!

 

[siouxfan]

You can Avoid a System or a Department by pressing the System or Department key, then AVOID.

Thanks for the info, I myself am still learning!!

 

[darkness975]

In my area most of the things that the full database has based on my zip code is either out of range due to topography or it's all of those federal channels that rarely (or never) get used and therefore would just slow down scanning the void and I would miss what I CAN hear. For my SDS200 and HPII I have certain systems on (state PD, immediate surrounding town PD, FIre, EMS, etc) as well as Citizen's Band. Similar thing for my SDS100 since that rarely leaves home. For that, I have custom Favorite's Lists.
My BCD325P2 is my traveling companion and because of that I have everything I can programmed into that. But I have certain things grouped into certain quick key lists that I can turn off when I have it at home and I turn them on when I travel with it.
None of the others I have are worth mentioning; too old and rarely (or never) used anymore.

 

[bondo_06092]

Just purchased a SDS100 and was trying to figure out how I would manage my scanning abilities. What I am going to end up doing I think is using the Favorite hierarchy and break down from there. In CT we have 8 counties so favorite list will be 1-8 to cover thoses, Systems get broken down further into groups or towns or areas (Northern hartford vs southern hartford county for example) then Departments will go into the Department favorites. In theory all i have to do to change my listening area is enable or disable the corresponding favorite list.

I'll do the same with the statewide network but I need to play around with that a bit more.This may seem like a bit of work for some but I like the ability to be able to really dial into what I want to listen to if desired.

 

[jonwienke]

Just don't split up a trunked system across multiple favorite lists, or put the same trunked system in a favorite list multiple times. There are a bunch of reasons why that is a bad idea.

 

[maus92]

My strat for "quick navigation" is to use location / gps based scanning and the on/off/vol rotary switch when I get into the vehicle. I only occasionally need to touch a hold or avoid button throughout an day driving through multiple jurisdictions.

 

[wa8pyr]

Took quite a bit of manual programming, but here's how I did my SDS100:

I set up my basic favorite lists following the Ohio Highway Patrol Districts. The favorite file for that district is then set up with all of the trunked sites and talkgroups for each system in that county grouped using the county number as the system number, then department number 1 for county fire, department 2 for city fire, department 11 for county law, department 12 for city law, and so on. Departments 9 and 19 are fire and law conventional, and Department 0 is Railroad.

This enables me to use the 0-9 Quick Keys to bring up a favorite list quickly and easily when I'm traveling.

I then use other favorite numbers to break various counties out separately if needed, but I don't use Quick Keys with those, I just select manually using the menu.

Just don't split up a trunked system across multiple favorite lists, or put the same trunked system in a favorite list multiple times. There are a bunch of reasons why that is a bad idea.

Not sure why; I've got Ohio MARCS broken out over the various favorite lists I mentioned above; only the sites and talkgroups for that district are contained within the favorite file. It's broken up by county as well; only the sites and talkgroups for a given county are entered under the system (county) number for that county.

It would be a lot easier if Uniden did things the way Whistler does it; one system entry, but any given talkgroup can be in multiple scan lists.