STARS File Request

[tglendye]

Would anyone mind sharing their STARS files with me? I use PSRedit and Win500. I was updating STARS for my Pro-197 and PSR-500 and believe there is a better way to program the system. Just looking for some more ideas.

Thanks!

 

[QDP2012]

As yet, I don't use PSR... or Win..., so I can't help you with the file-request.

As far as programming-ideas go, one method is to break-up STARS into separate "Trunk Systems" to avoid scanning things unnecessarily:

• The following method of grouping is intended for someone who is based in the "Bear Den" coverage area, but who might travel throughout the state randomly.
  • TSYS: "VSP Div 1, 5 (East)"
  • TSYS: "VSP Div 2, 7 (North)"
  • TSYS: "VSP Div 3 (Central)"
  • TSYS: "VSP Div 4, 6 (SW)"
  • TSYS: "VSP Div 3 - Bear Den Tower only"
  
  This way, the unwanted TSYS's can be locked-out as desired, so that the Division of interest can be monitored without scanning the others. Having a tower-specific TSYS (like Bear Den) lets you lockout the other TSYS's as desired when wanting to focus on local activity. Choosing to lockout an entire TSYS is easier than trying to lockout a bunch of TGs that are specific to that unwanted area This way, the listener doesn't have to individually lockout the TGs within that unwanted TSYS--just toggle the TSYS as a whole. The Div 3 (Central) does also contain the Bear Den site, so there is some minor duplication, but for the convenience, it seems to be a small "cost". Wildcards can also be used with each TSYS as desired.
  
  
• Other ways of grouping the TSYS's could be based upon a frequently-used travel-route, like an Interstate. If a person travels I-95 frequently, the traveler could make one TSYS "STARS I-95" and have other TSYS's for other portions of the state based upon their travel habits. The Travel Reference (VA) Wiki pages might help identify which towers are near a particular route.

Other listeners have likely discovered better ideas than these. I'm interested in learning about them also.

Hope this helps,

 

[tglendye]

Thanks for your reply. Currently I am using a method similar to your suggestions. I have 3 TYS's created for STARS, but have all of VSP and most other law agencies in each TYS. The TYS's are basically geographic... with each containing one site in my area (Harrisonburg, Fork Mt or Bear Den), and all the other sites are split into the TYS's in kind of a geographic manner, for when I travel. I have them split into North, South and Central/ Eastern.

I may take your suggestion and program the local TG's into the 3 current ones. Then create additional TYS's containing all the TG's and towers for STARS. I will probably end up creating a couple of other "local" TYS's for new sites as they come on line, such as Elliot's Knob and Massanutten.

Thanks again for your suggestions.

 

[QDP2012]

To clarify, only the related TGs were assigned to each TSYS, (not "all STARS TGs" in each TSYS).

Example: "TSYS: Div 3 (Central)" was assigned only TGs related to Div 3.

This method might miss some out-of-area traffic, or an out-of-district unit roaming into Div 3, but for general-purpose local scanning, it seems sufficient, and saves scanner-memory that gets wasted by duplicate TGs.

Hope this helps, and you're certainly welcome.

 

[kc4jgc]

Hi Todd!

I have 7 separate virtual scanners for VA, divided by VSP divisions. I do include neighboring VSP divisions TG's in each. On my Pro 106, for example, SL's 1-7 in my Eastern VA (CPK VSP D5) VS file I have counties and cities covered by VSP CPK 2; SL's 11-16 counties and cities covered by CPK 1.

This scheme repeats through my other VA, WV and NC virtual scanners.

 

[tglendye]

Thanks, everyone for the suggestions. I think I am basically finished with the "tweaking". Originally, I had STARS in 3 scanlists. I had all TG's in each scanlist and they were named after the closest towers to my area (Harrisonburg, Bear Den and Fork Mountain) and then each tower in the state was in one of the scanlist for when I traveled.

With the addition of new STARS sites in my area I have created 5 TYS's with STARS, for what I would call my basic scanlists.. I reduced the number of TG's in each list to include 2nd and 3rd Division TG's, and some other law enforcement TG's as well. These sites are Harrisonburg, Fork Mountain, Bear Den, Rawley Springs and the new one that Ghstwolf62 and N4JRI have been looking at that we're pretty sure is Elliott Knob (152.5625). I also have the group wildcard entered but locked out. Private wild card is also entered and unlocked, but I have never heard a private call on STARS.

STARS still will fit into two TYS's on the GRE/ Radio Shack's. So then, I created two other TYS's to cover all of the towers. I also have each TG in these TYS's, although I have a lot of them locked out that I am not interested in. I have the wild cards enabled in these- but the hits should be limited since I have all TG's programmed, even if a lot are locked out.

I plan to usually scan the Harrisonburg, Bear Den and Rawley Springs sites. These seem to provide good coverage when I am in my home area and the towers seem to be associated with these TG's pretty reliably.

...

Other listeners have likely discovered better ideas than these. I'm interested in learning about them also.

...

Yes, that's what I was going for. With a big system such as this, there are many different ways to program STARS. I was just trying to get my mind to figure out which works the best.

Thanks!

.