Sites from Same Trunked System in Different Favorites Lists?

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dtscho

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I'm assuming the answer to this is "no," but I'll ask anyway...

Is it possible to have sites from the same trunked system assigned to different Favorites Lists? Let's say one has a statewide trunked system. FL 1 is used for the northern part of the state, and the user wants all the relevant northern sites from the TRS in FL 1. FL 2 is used for the southern part of the state, and the user wants the southern sites in FL 2. Is this possible?

Thanks,
Dave
 

hiegtx

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I'm assuming the answer to this is "no," but I'll ask anyway...

Is it possible to have sites from the same trunked system assigned to different Favorites Lists? Let's say one has a statewide trunked system. FL 1 is used for the northern part of the state, and the user wants all the relevant northern sites from the TRS in FL 1. FL 2 is used for the southern part of the state, and the user wants the southern sites in FL 2. Is this possible?

Thanks,
Dave
There's no reason you couldn't do that.

You could append the system to both FL 1 & FL 2, from the main US database in Sentinel.

Then, use the system's database page to get the correct site names for each region (you'd probably be better served to leave it accessed so that you can toggle back & forth between it & Sentinel).

In Sentinel, for each FL, click on the system name in the left side window.
The right side window will then display all the various "departments" (cities, counties, agencies), as well as the sites.

You can either hold down the <Ctrl> key then click each site and/or department you want to remove, or if they are consecutively listed, hold down the <Shift> key and click the first and last one in the string. If you're doing your "northern" list, then you'd be selecting the sites and departments from the southern half of the system. The southern list, of course, would simply be the reverse.

When you have the ones to be removed highlighted, hit the delete key, and confirm that you do want them removed. Repeat as necessary to "trim" the FL to what you want.

Then, using the same process for the other list, trim the sites and departments that you don't want in it.

Someone else may have a different method, but that's the way I'd approach it, and have done it for a large regional system (TxWARN P25) in my area. I can only monitor a small part of it, the bulk of it being out of range, so I eliminated those sites and agencies from my favorites lists.

I should add that you are doing this in the main menu, the Profile screen, no need to use the favorites list editor.
 

TedRHayes

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The answer is yes and no.

You can copy the same trunked system into different FLs, and choose which Sites you wish to include for each FL. But when scanning through the FL/Systems, each copy of the system is treated as separate system (i.e., requires another acquisition and processing of the CC each time).

Another approach you you might consider is the use of QuickKeys for Sites. (Note: Departments and Sites share the same # space, 00-99, within a given system.) Multiple Sites/Departments can share the same QK #. You could group Sites by region in to selected QKs, and enable/disable as desired. (Remember, Sites or Departments not assigned a QK value will be included in the scan regardless of QK status.)

Are you planning to enable Location control? That changes how you might scan a system that us spread over a wide area.
 

TedRHayes

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Here is the approach I've adopted to monitoring the Ohio MARCS-IP system which is statewide.

I enable Location control – this in general takes care of "auto-avoiding" any Sites/Departments that are well out of range. The location on my scanner (436) is always set in some manner (either through Zip code, actual Lat/Long, or connected to a GPS while operating mobile). If you don't understand how Location control and Range works on the Uniden HP scanners, I'd encourage you to search the forums and spend some time reading – it's imperative to maximizing the effectiveness of your scanner.

I still employ QuickKeys to allow me to refine what I'm scanning beyond that provided by Location control:

By convention I use QKs 00-09 for Departments groups. Typically I use 00 for the ones I'm most interested in, 01-03 for the next closest or statewide Departments I'm interested in monitoring, and then 09 for all other Departments in the system (note: there is no performance penalty if all Departments (i.e., known TGIDs) are included.)

Also by convention I use QKs 90-99 for Sites. Typically I use 90 for the Site closest to me (in my case its a Simulcast Site), 91-93 for the Sites the are closest to my home location (may or may not be in range unless I'm mobile locally), the 99 for all other Sites. (note: only Sites that are with Range of my current Location are scanned – there is no performance penalty for including all Sites defined for the systems since most will be "auto-avoided" by the Location control.)

This approach allows me some flexibility. Even when Location control is active, I can easily disable all Sites except the primary site at my home location through the QKs. Should I choose to manually disable Location control for a given FL (can be done through the menus, though clumsy and time consuming), I can still disable all the Sites except the close ones through the QKs.

I've chosen not to employ more that 00-09 and 90-99 QKs for Departments/Sites; that's about all my mind can remember, and even that it pushing it.

Hope this gives you some ideas,

Ted
 

ofd8001

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I too would encourage the assigning of Quick Keys for sites rather than using two different Favorites Lists.

Having the same system in two separate Favorites Lists would mean twice as much effort on maintaining your files. Anything you did in Favorites Lists 1 means you have to duplicate it in Favorites List 2.

The only up side to using two Favorites Lists is a reduction in the number of keypad presses needed to "activate" or "deactivate" sites.
 

dtscho

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Thank you for the tips. Looks like I'm going to rearrange my programming a bit.

By the way, I'm not using any kind of location control.

Dave
 
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