I am asking, in the sense that, the service type has something interesting that I didn't think to program or, I program something the Service Type doesn't have.
Because I don't use GPS and I don't use zip code scanning, I don't even have service types on my display. I eliminated it as I did a lot of things.
Nothing has changed for years that I listen to so my 100 and 200 are the same program that I've had for a long time. Every once in awhile I might read about a frequency or something I'm interested in, I just manually put it into the radio and add it to one of my favorites lists and when I get to the option to put a service type in I ignore it and it goes to custom. Custom has to be enabled for me to hear it and it always is.
I have all of my service types turned on. If I want to control what I listen to I use the avoid button, not by enabling or disabling certain service types.
In reality you will find that the service type label on a talk group or frequency has absolutely nothing to do with reality of what the object is, it just isn't labeled right it's tac instead of dispatch or dispatch instead of tac, It isn't always accurate or relevant.
For example there's a local UHF repeater for a small town near me that is on our tdma Phase 2 simulcast County system for dispatch of fire and police. This UHF repeater frequency is used just by this town by the mayor, EMA and as a car to car for the police that is off of the county system. The county does not monitor it. It has a fire tac service type.
Since things rarely change in my programming I do a lot of stuff right on the radio itself using the keyboard which is fine, again if I program a new frequency, like maybe a new VHF digital conventional Coast Guard frequency I don't even attach a service type to it, I skip that option, it just goes to custom 1.
I rarely hook up to the computer anymore because obviously we don't have firmware updates that are relevant or useful since April of 2019 unless you have a new radio with hardware that needs to be accommodated.
I update the database once in a blue moon but again I don't use GPS or zip code scanning but when I do hook up to the computer I make sure that I transfer my card to my profile first thing and that saves all of the changes, like filters, avoids, new frequencies, offset volume adjustments Etc. On my profile.
When you're done your business and you transfer the card back to the radio all of the changes I made on the radio prior to hooking up to the computer are permanently saved on the radio.
If I didn't transfer the card first thing to my profile before doing anything else and went ahead and did my business and then transferred the card back to the radio I would lose all of the changes that I made on the radio like new frequencies, filter adjustments, avoids Etc. It would revert back to whatever was in the profile before I hooked up.