Wayne and gmclam, I know that expanded info should go into the Wiki. I have completed a couple of Wiki pages, helped write the pages for Yellowstone National Park and have contributed a portion of the CHP Wiki page. I would write more of them, but the formatted of Wiki pages is very cumbersome. I tried to rearrange some tables to show channel plans and repeater tone lists for all the National Forests in the California portion of the database. I can't seem to rearrange the tables for the Sequoia and Angeles National Forests, they keep getting intermixed so that the repeaters for the Angeles show up with the channel plan for the Sequoia. If I could figure out how to correct it I would then go on and do the remaining 16 National Forests. I think this is why many people, who have knowledge to share, don't try to add something to the Wiki.
It reminds me of the day when the Forest Service had DOS computers, but had a graphics program. You needed to attend training for 3 days to understand how to use it. You received a notebook to refer to when you attended. A simple 8.5" by 11" sign took a lot of gyrations with symbols and such, just like the Wiki. Give me something more straightforward and I would write things from scratch. I think others might experience similar difficulties and than might be the reason so few people contribute pages. Some people are more challenged with writing and that may contribute also.
Where I disagree is the explanations of all the abbreviations for all of the talkgroups on the Sacramento Regional Radio System will fit into the description column, There are database pages where abbreviations are explained. That is what the description column is for and why it is as wide as it is on the pages. If abbreviations are not explained then those talkgroups or frequencies might as well be deleted.
I had ask questions of a handful of employees to find out what some of the abbreviations meant on a particularly well built Smartzone system for a large southern California utility. With answers in hand I made a submission for the listing. Now people are able to understand what they are hearing better. If all those abbreviations were explained in an eight year old, long dead, thread that very few people knew existed, it would do little to help people understand what they are hearing.
I'm three files short of writing programs for my GRE 500/600's scanners to cover all of California, Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico, the places I visit the most frequently. The way I've written them 17 are needed for California. If I'm in a motel in Albuquerque and a large incident occurs in the immediate area that would affect me if I went outside I don't have time to figure out what CIRMT means, but it might be the most informative frequency/talkgroup possible for the situation. I don't live in Albuquerque and don't have time to have it be second nature. I made that abbreviation up and note that "Critical Incident Response Management Team" (five words) can easily fit into the description column. My 16 character alphanumeric display has to be abbreviated, that is obvious, but that leaves me 11 more characters (16 possible minus "CIRMT") to describe it once I know what it means. I would erase the short abbreviation given in the alpha tag column after downloading the system and insert "ALBPD Crt IncRsp" I can't write a good alpha tag that I might understand when the need presents itself unless I know the meaning in the first place.
If I could not write something I could remember or describe well with 12 or 16 characters, or have the radio in sweep or search, I would bring up the Albuquerque PD page and cross reference the frequency or talkgroup I was hearing and see that I'm listening to not just "CIRMT", but "Critical Incident Response Management Team."
You've missed my point gmclam, the definition of the abbreviation needs to be put in the description line where there is plenty of room. I'm not addressing any problems in the "alpha tag' column, rather I'm addressing the "description column." A database line with "CIRMT" for the alpha tag, with a description of "CIRMT" is useless. How can it become second nature unless we know the meaning in the first place? Our database is for locals and visitors as well, with perhaps more need for the latter.