SDS100/SDS200: Sentinel, SDS100 and Ohio MARCS

[scanman75]

I read an old post about when trying to program a County in a favorite list and it selected every site in the state, the suggestion was to go to options in the favorite list and select location control. Well I did all that and it still lists every site in the state. The only option I can see is going in and deleting each site I do not want.
why does location control no longer work? or is there an easier way to program this with sentinel? I am about to purchase software and delete this uniden program.

 

[MStep]

I read an old post about when trying to program a County in a favorite list and it selected every site in the state, the suggestion was to go to options in the favorite list and select location control. Well I did all that and it still lists every site in the state. The only option I can see is going in and deleting each site I do not want.
why does location control no longer work? or is there an easier way to program this with sentinel? I am about to purchase software and delete this uniden program.

You need Sentinel to do firmware updates, although I am not holding out hope that there are any more coming. So I would not delete the program. Although I have not experimented recently with any other software, I find Sentinel does everything I need to do.

Setting up the radio may require some patience, as with any complex radio device, but you really only go through the setup process once, and perhaps make some tweaks to the favorites lists as you go along.

I recommend that you spend the time to work with the Sentinel program, and then, if you find shortcomings, you investigate other software.

 

[phask]

ANY time and I mean ANY and EVERY time you add a site to a statewide type system like MARCS it will add ALL sites.

Just avoid them, don't delete them as if you EVER add a site in the future, it loads the ones deleted.

- in the time it took me to write this post I could avoid every site in MARCS-

Note it's usually easier to avoid all, then un-avoid the few you need.

 

[jtwalker]

What do you mean when you say “it still lists every site”? Do you see the scanner dwelling on each site, or it shows them in the favorites list? How do you have your location set? What is your range set to?

Location control still works, so you must be interpreting something incorrectly or have something set wrong.

 

[hiegtx]

What do you mean when you say “it still lists every site”? Do you see the scanner dwelling on each site, or it shows them in the favorites list? How do you have your location set? What is your range set to?

Location control still works, so you must be interpreting something incorrectly or have something set wrong.

I agree. The OP is not understanding how location control works.

I read an old post about when trying to program a County in a favorite list and it selected every site in the state, the suggestion was to go to options in the favorite list and select location control. Well I did all that and it still lists every site in the state. The only option I can see is going in and deleting each site I do not want.
why does location control no longer work? or is there an easier way to program this with sentinel? I am about to purchase software and delete this uniden program.

When you first append a specific department, and/or site, from a trunked system in the main database, to a Favorites list in Sentinel, it does indeed append every single site in the system to your list.

But, all of those sites, that you just appended, are not set to Avoid, which is the correct way they should be if you intend to use location control. If you manually avoid one or more sites, or departments, those sites will remain in Avoid status, and would be ignored when scanning.

To correctly use location control, all of them should be left open (not avoided). Changing or updating your location and range settings in Sentinel will never change that status in Sentinel itself. On the other hand, once your list is actually written to the scanner, if you have location control set as On, then the scanner itself will disable any out of range items when scanning. While it is not displayed that way in Sentinel, Sentinel is not the scanner. It only creates the list that is sent to the scanner. The scanner will use your location details to determine what is to be scanned, and what should be skipped.
For more explanations on Location control, see How it Works: Location, Location, Location

I prefer to remove the extra sites, not simply ignore them via setting them as Avoid. Since I almost never use location control (I make my lists based on what I know I can receive at a given location), having that extra clutter of unused sites (even if avoided) is useless.

You need Sentinel to do firmware updates, although I am not holding out hope that there are any more coming. So I would not delete the program. Although I have not experimented recently with any other software, I find Sentinel does everything I need to do.

Setting up the radio may require some patience, as with any complex radio device, but you really only go through the setup process once, and perhaps make some tweaks to the favorites lists as you go along.

I recommend that you spend the time to work with the Sentinel program, and then, if you find shortcomings, you investigate other software.

Correct. Sentinel is an essential program for any of the Uniden database scanners. You need it for maintaining the man database, as well as any firmware updates. (There's been a drought of updates since the untimely passing of UPMan, but JoeBearcat has indicated that some may be in process.)

scanman, your profile indicates that you are a Premium subscriber. As such, you can use either ProScan or ARC536 to download only the systems, sites, and departments that you want into a Favorites list. Instead of appending the whole smear from the main database in Sentinel, import only the specific items you want using the web import.

 

[amcferrin90]

I agree. The OP is not understanding how location control works.

When you first append a specific department, and/or site, from a trunked system in the main database, to a Favorites list in Sentinel, it does indeed append every single site in the system to your list.

But, all of those sites, that you just appended, are not set to Avoid, which is the correct way they should be if you intend to use location control. If you manually avoid one or more sites, or departments, those sites will remain in Avoid status, and would be ignored when scanning.

To correctly use location control, all of them should be left open (not avoided). Changing or updating your location and range settings in Sentinel will never change that status in Sentinel itself. On the other hand, once your list is actually written to the scanner, if you have location control set as On, then the scanner itself will disable any out of range items when scanning. While it is not displayed that way in Sentinel, Sentinel is not the scanner. It only creates the list that is sent to the scanner. The scanner will use your location details to determine what is to be scanned, and what should be skipped.
For more explanations on Location control, see How it Works: Location, Location, Location

I prefer to remove the extra sites, not simply ignore them via setting them as Avoid. Since I almost never use location control (I make my lists based on what I know I can receive at a given location), having that extra clutter of unused sites (even if avoided) is useless.

Correct. Sentinel is an essential program for any of the Uniden database scanners. You need it for maintaining the man database, as well as any firmware updates. (There's been a drought of updates since the untimely passing of UPMan, but JoeBearcat has indicated that some may be in process.)

scanman, your profile indicates that you are a Premium subscriber. As such, you can use either ProScan or ARC536 to download only the systems, sites, and departments that you want into a Favorites list. Instead of appending the whole smear from the main database in Sentinel, import only the specific items you want using the web import.

I've had the same problem as the OP and recently. Unfortunately my scanner had the deaf bug occur and is out for repair. I set my location based on zip code, but every MARCS site was searched still.
I do create a separate FL from the built in MARCS, then remove all the sites I will probably only once in a lifetime ever be near. Then I use the FL scan, force site lock onto the site I want to monitor. The only downside to this is keeping the talkgroup updates applied to the FL.

 

[tvengr]

I read an old post about when trying to program a County in a favorite list and it selected every site in the state,

Which county in Ohio?

 

[bearcat]

I've had the same problem as the OP and recently. Unfortunately my scanner had the deaf bug occur and is out for repair. I set my location based on zip code, but every MARCS site was searched still.
I do create a separate FL from the built in MARCS, then remove all the sites I will probably only once in a lifetime ever be near. Then I use the FL scan, force site lock onto the site I want to monitor. The only downside to this is keeping the talkgroup updates applied to the FL.

I am not sure why your radio would scan sites outside of the location/range data, but you can just assign a Quick Key # to each site such as 99 (or any number you choose) then turn off Quick key 99, this can be done with a simple cut and paste in Sentinel very quickly. Every site with QK99 will be ignored, but can be easily reactivated if you travel throughout the state/area. Leave the sites you can hear and want to hear with NO Quick key #. Those are the only ones it will scan. Much quicker than deleting and you still have the other sites when needed.

 

[bearcat]

I read an old post about when trying to program a County in a favorite list and it selected every site in the state, the suggestion was to go to options in the favorite list and select location control. Well I did all that and it still lists every site in the state. The only option I can see is going in and deleting each site I do not want.
why does location control no longer work? or is there an easier way to program this with sentinel? I am about to purchase software and delete this uniden program.

Listing every site in Sentinel and scanning every site are two different things. Sentinel will include every site and talkgroup for that matter. Location control comes into play in the radio. Once you put in a zip code or actual Lat/Lon manually or via GPS, the radio will only scan the sites and talkgroups within your specified location and range. Make sure you actually turn on location control for your FL. It it is OFF then the radio will not use location control at all.

 

[amcferrin90]

I am not sure why your radio would scan sites outside of the location/range data, but you can just assign a Quick Key # to each site such as 99 (or any number you choose) then turn off Quick key 99, this can be done with a simple cut and paste in Sentinel very quickly. Every site with QK99 will be ignored, but can be easily reactivated if you travel throughout the state/area. Leave the sites you can hear and want to hear with NO Quick key #. Those are the only ones it will scan. Much quicker than deleting and you still have the other sites when needed.

I've tried that. Then trying to remember which site is which quick key. I never got the whole quick key thing anyways. I've watched many videos and read many walk thrus. It never always worked right for me and then I had to remember which QK was which site. Then also befuddling around thru those it was too easy to turn them all off and lock me out of turning anything back on until I could hit it with Sentinel. If I'm somewhere outside of central Ohio, I just turn off the FL and go back to the built in list. Before the SDS100 or the BC896 I had a BC235XT. My memory works in groups and zones. If I wasn't in central OH where there's a half dozen different systems then QK might be more manageable for me. Now that MARCS has shut down Franklin Co and reworking things, it might get easier.

 

[GregOH]

I used Sentinel to put what I wanted of the Ohio Marc's system on a backup SD card and avoided like 90 of the 100+ sites within a few minutes.
This YouTube upload will show how to do avoids of sites and departments...

 

[bearcat]

I've tried that. Then trying to remember which site is which quick key. I never got the whole quick key thing anyways. I've watched many videos and read many walk thrus. It never always worked right for me and then I had to remember which QK was which site. Then also befuddling around thru those it was too easy to turn them all off and lock me out of turning anything back on until I could hit it with Sentinel. If I'm somewhere outside of central Ohio, I just turn off the FL and go back to the built in list. Before the SDS100 or the BC896 I had a BC235XT. My memory works in groups and zones. If I wasn't in central OH where there's a half dozen different systems then QK might be more manageable for me. Now that MARCS has shut down Franklin Co and reworking things, it might get easier.

Ok, do what works for you, but you do not need to give each site a different QK #. Just give all of the ones you want to shut off the same number. I do not have any other suggestions other than using QK's and Location Control. I hope you can wrap your arms around QK's they can be a very powerful tool shutting off sites and departments.