Sentinel - Favorites Lists, Quick Keys & Nothing to Scan

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y84media

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First off, I'd like to thank those who have taken the time to create youtube videos on how to create A favorites list. Thank you.

The only problem is, I've watched all the videos that show how to do this, and I'd like to point out 2 small problems.

1. Everyone who has created a video, does it differently, there's no consistency.
2. You create -1- Favorites List, which isn't as helpful as I feel it could be.

Here's the problem I'm having. I created a Favorites List for:
Favorite---Quick Key
Police------0
Fire---------1
EMS--------2
CB-----------3
GMRS------4
FRS---------5
AIR----------6
HAM--------7

Police, works fine, since I was able to follow the "single favorites list" instructions that are out there on youtube. Fire works correctly after a lot of shuffling of Quick Keys

EMS doesn't work -> Nothing to Scan
CB doesn't work -> Nothing to Scan
etc etc -> Nothing to Scan.

I think that there's something messed up in the quick keys, (which Upman points out that if there are no Quick Keys that it won't scan them).

The issue is that there has to be something that I'm doing wrong where a 2nd, 3rd, and 4th aren't working.
I've gone through the trouble to (by hand) create a spread sheet in Excel to see a "road map" if you will of what is in my scanner....which also shows the inconsistencies in the Uniden (Radio Reference I'm sure) DB.


As a separate issue, I found that going through Sentinel for that past several days trying to figure this all out, there are inconsistencies in some of the frequencies in the database, some follow "Department Name" and "Site Name" and then some are combined into "Department/Site". Why are some separated and some combined?

If anyone wants to follow along, look at USA/Missouri/St. Charles/County Systems".
If you click on St. Charles, everything is listed under "Department Name". If you scroll down to St. Charles City, everything is listed under "Department/Site". So, some are "Department" and then "Site" and some are combined into "Department/Site". WHY?

As I've stated before, I'm a recent convert from a PRO-197 to a BCD536HP...Pardon my being a newbie to the Uniden "Department/Systems/Site" (I'm sure I messed that up) way of organization, but it seems to me that the DB has problems, and I'm wondering if that's where part of my problems are coming from, along with assigning quick keys.

Someone needs to explain the difference in the Favorites List portion of Sentinel and explain what the difference is between the Quick Key and the (options tab) FL Quick Key and FL Number Tag & how to properly use them.

Thanks!
 

fxdscon

¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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Jan 15, 2007
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7,162
First off, I'd like to thank those who have taken the time to create youtube videos on how to create A favorites list. Thank you.

The only problem is, I've watched all the videos that show how to do this, and I'd like to point out 2 small problems.

1. Everyone who has created a video, does it differently, there's no consistency.
2. You create -1- Favorites List, which isn't as helpful as I feel it could be.

Here's the problem I'm having. I created a Favorites List for:
Favorite---Quick Key
Police------0
Fire---------1
EMS--------2
CB-----------3
GMRS------4
FRS---------5
AIR----------6
HAM--------7

Police, works fine, since I was able to follow the "single favorites list" instructions that are out there on youtube. Fire works correctly after a lot of shuffling of Quick Keys

EMS doesn't work -> Nothing to Scan
CB doesn't work -> Nothing to Scan
etc etc -> Nothing to Scan.

I think that there's something messed up in the quick keys, (which Upman points out that if there are no Quick Keys that it won't scan them).

The issue is that there has to be something that I'm doing wrong where a 2nd, 3rd, and 4th aren't working.
I've gone through the trouble to (by hand) create a spread sheet in Excel to see a "road map" if you will of what is in my scanner....which also shows the inconsistencies in the Uniden (Radio Reference I'm sure) DB.


As a separate issue, I found that going through Sentinel for that past several days trying to figure this all out, there are inconsistencies in some of the frequencies in the database, some follow "Department Name" and "Site Name" and then some are combined into "Department/Site". Why are some separated and some combined?

If anyone wants to follow along, look at USA/Missouri/St. Charles/County Systems".
If you click on St. Charles, everything is listed under "Department Name". If you scroll down to St. Charles City, everything is listed under "Department/Site". So, some are "Department" and then "Site" and some are combined into "Department/Site". WHY?

As I've stated before, I'm a recent convert from a PRO-197 to a BCD536HP...Pardon my being a newbie to the Uniden "Department/Systems/Site" (I'm sure I messed that up) way of organization, but it seems to me that the DB has problems, and I'm wondering if that's where part of my problems are coming from, along with assigning quick keys.

Someone needs to explain the difference in the Favorites List portion of Sentinel and explain what the difference is between the Quick Key and the (options tab) FL Quick Key and FL Number Tag & how to properly use them.

Thanks!

Have you seen this post?

http://forums.radioreference.com/un...4-x36-nothing-scan-checklist.html#post2121181

.
 

ofd8001

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Premium Subscriber
Joined
Feb 6, 2004
Messages
7,891
Location
Louisville, KY
Unfortunately I'm not familiar with St. Charles MO, but let me offer a guess on why the Sentinel Database may, at first blush, seem "strange":

The "St. Charles" stuff appears to be conventional systems. But the "St. Charles City" is a trunked radio system.

Trunked systems have to have sites which is just the way it has to be for the whole nationwide database scheme to make sense, particularly when there are large statewide trunked systems with sites all over the state. On the other hand, conventional systems do not use the "site" concept.

Yeah a guy could probably split hairs and say every radio system has a "site" which is where the transmitter is located. But for Radio Reference Database purposes, it's more the context of how that term is used.

With regard to FL Quick Keys and FL Number Tags:

A Favorites List Quick Key is something that allows you to quickly turn on or off a grouping of Systems which contain Departments (and Departments contain Channels).

Number Tags are an optional feature that allow you to quickly go to a desired channel. You don't have to program Number Tags for the scanner to function. Rather if you want the ability to rapidly access a channel, then you have to do some additional programming. (As in assigning a number tag to a Favorites List, a number tag to systems in the Favorites List and numbers to channels in the system).

My suggestion is to wait until you are very comfortable with programming your scanner before making a stab at number tags. (I've got several Favorites Lists programmed each with several systems. However, there is only one system that I've programmed for number tags).
 

y84media

Member
Joined
Dec 26, 2010
Messages
94
Location
Orlando, FL
My suggestion is to wait until you are very comfortable with programming your scanner before making a stab at number tags. (I've got several Favorites Lists programmed each with several systems. However, there is only one system that I've programmed for number tags).

That may be one of the problems, and that's also what I learned in Upman's video (BCDx36HP Sentinel Creating Custom Favorites List - YouTube).

That checklist helped.
Turned on ID Scanning (while scanning press Func & then E-yes)
Also turned on Service types (press Serv & turn everything you want to hear).

Then BAM it all started working!
Now it's picking up FRS, GMRS, CB, HAM, everything!
 
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