StL County / City Database Uodates

[dpm3]

As is not unusual, I noted that the database county-by-county map today (Feb 16) showed "updates" available for either the City Of St. Louis or St. Louis County; but, on checking, I am unable to find any new data or frequencies other than "older" (updated within past 7 days) information about what has been identified as "MOSWIN". In point of fact, much of the "MOSWIN" information so referenced is no more than the advice that there are future plans for the implementation of the system within the affected county - which itself is often pretty far removed from the Metro St. Louis area. First, is there some way to better identify the purported new frequencies so as to make them easily accessible via the map? Second, can we reach some kind of agreement that "MOSWIN" updates might be limited to those frequencies and systems now in use and then referenced only by those (and immediately adjacent) counties in which they are actually active? Such clarifications and changes might better serve those utilizing this otherwise excellent resource.

 

[kruser]

Did you go to the actual county page and then click the Downloads and Reports tab? The reports tab is the very first thing I check when I see a county go green.
That report will tell you what changed within a given county. Sometimes the report is not very clear and you must do some sub-digging to drill down to other reports within a large agency but the change on the 15th was very easy to spot from just the main report page for the county.

I saw it and the Transportation agency (I call Transportation a category myself) under Other Agencies was what was updated on the 15th causing the change to green for the county indicating a change in the last 24 hours or less.

 

[dpm3]

My bad! There are none so blind as those who refuse to look! I had simply gone to the list of frequencies (fire, public safety, hospital, education, etc.) and scrolled down looking for an item highlighted in green - and often finding none. Thank you for the directions. I now know better what to do and appreciate the help!

 

[kruser]

My bad! There are none so blind as those who refuse to look! I had simply gone to the list of frequencies (fire, public safety, hospital, education, etc.) and scrolled down looking for an item highlighted in green - and often finding none. Thank you for the directions. I now know better what to do and appreciate the help!

Ha, no worries! It took me a long time before I figured this one out as well.
I still find some instances where the reports tab does not show what was changed in great enough detail. As you click through the so called "agencies", look again for a new reports and downloads tab for finer detail of the change(s) within that agency.
One area I'd like to see a reporting change is when a frequency is deleted or changed - I'd like to see what was actually deleted in better detail in the report. Another words, list the numeric frequency removed or changed in the report.
That would make it easier for figuring out what to remove from the radios that cannot be programmed with a computer. As it is now for an older radio, one must look at what is in the radio and then try and determine which frequency is no longer listed in the database so you know which one to remove or lockout. Once they are removed from the database, they are gone from view with no notes of what they were other than something was deleted!
Or maybe in the database itself, maybe a new color (red maybe) could be assigned to removed frequencies indicating they were removed. Leave that up for a month or so plus set a flag so the software based radios applications would no longer download those frequencies.

Currently, I often see that something was removed in the reports but nothing really indicates exactly what it was other than a report entry saying x amount of frequencies were removed. This frustrates me more than anything not knowing what was actually deleted!

All in all, Terry (Starcom21) does a very fine job keeping our areas database updated plus he does add notes when he can if the info was provided to him. I appreciate the time he puts into this taking time away from his personal life.
I think the thing about showing the frequencies that were deleted is something that would need to be changed in whatever tools they use when the changes are made. I'd bet it could be automated.

Oh well, that's my suggestion for the day.

Glad you figured this one out!