Trouble with BCD436HP and Favorites

[TC10284]

Looks pretty good.

You haven't set Quick Keys for each Favorites List. (Of course you might be waiting to see if you are the right track before doing so, which you are.) That means they will always be scanned and the only way to turn them off is with a cumbersome keypress sequence.

Actually I don't know if the saved favorites will show that, but I actually do have them set AFAIK.
http://i.imgur.com/gDf65pa.png

I encourage you to set Location Control to On for your VIPER Favorites List. Otherwise the scanner will probably spend a lot of time trying to monitor sites too far away to receive. With there being some 215 sites and 5 frequencies per site or so, the scanner is going through 1,000 frequencies, which is time consuming and will lead to missed transmissions. You can try it both ways and will see what I mean.

Same here as above. Hopefully I have it right:
http://i.imgur.com/h5tEX4x.png

I use the GPS device for mobile scanning and consider it almost "essential equipment". Setting the scanner location via keypad/zip code is efficient when the scanner is stationary. When the GPS device is connected, it feeds correct location information to the scanner as the scanner moves around. Very helpful for travel.

FWIW, my typical way of doing things is to use Favorites List only scanning for when I'm at home or a travel destination. When I'm on the road, I'll turn the full database on and let the GPS/Scanner combo do its thing to turn on/off "stuff" as I get in the area.

As Upman said, the setup is pretty easy. The only issue I had and it was my "doing" was the Baud Rate for the port. I use a Virtual Control program with the Baud Rate of 115200. The GPS works on a Baud Rate of 4800. If I forget to change it back, some bad language is involved.

This is exactly what I plan to do! Thanks!

 

[ofd8001]

Excellent!

I guess some of that didn't get carried forward in the export process.

If you are open to another suggestion. . .

As you noted, right now you are monitoring only the VIPER and County Favorites Lists. The others (Weather, etc.) have the Monitor status set to off. That is one of several ways of not listening to something. You may wish to set the Monitor status to On and just turn off the Favorites List Quick Keys (0, 1, 2 and 3).

That way if you want to begin monitoring any of them, just turn the FLQK on. Otherwise you'd have to go through the menu to turn them on.

If you were to start your Sentinel and edit the applicable Profile, you will see a "Quick Keys Status" tab on the top row. You can use the check boxes to set the default status of Favorites List Quick Keys. Checked means they are On, unchecked means they are Off. Thus those FLQKs that are off are not "scanned" until you take action to do so (0 Eyes for the Weather FL).

Enjoy your scanning!

 

[MarcInIllinois]

i just simply cannot get my head around the department and system concepts and the associated quick keys.

I don't think it would do me any good to go to another brand as their software looks just as hard to understand. I've been in IT for 20 years now so I really doubt I'm lacking in understanding concepts.

At this point I'm willing to pay someone to sit down with me that has one of these things and show me how to make it work. Seriously.

 

[UPMan]

Favorites lists contain collections of systems.

For trunked systems:
Systems contain departments which contain channels (TGIDs) and sites (frequencies).

For conventional systems:
Systems contain departments which contain channels (frequencies).

FL
----v
....SYS
.....-----v
...........DEPT 1
..............--------v
........................CHAN 1
........................CHAN 2
........................CHAN 3
........................CHAN 4
........................CHAN 5
...........DEPT 2
..............--------v
........................CHAN 1
........................CHAN 2
........................CHAN 3
........................CHAN 4
........................CHAN 5
...........DEPT 3
..............--------v
........................CHAN 1
........................CHAN 2
........................CHAN 3
........................CHAN 4
........................CHAN 5
...........DEPT 4
..............--------v
........................CHAN 1
........................CHAN 2
........................CHAN 3
........................CHAN 4
........................CHAN 5

 

[ofd8001]

Alternatively, think of your scanner as a File Room in an office.

There are many file cabinets in that room. In the scanner, each Favorites List would be a single file cabinet. The Favorites List Quick Key (FLQK) is the key to lock or unlock that cabinet.

Each drawer of the file cabinet is a system. A System Quick Key (SQK) is the latch to release/latch the drawer. You have to have the file cabinet unlocked to open the drawer. So in the scanner it is FLQK plus SQK (the "plus" is replaced by the period button on the scanner), or FLQK.SQK Eyes.

In the drawer of the file cabinet you have file folders. These file folders hold pieces of paper. On the scanner, the file folder is a "Department" and the pieces of paper are channels (either frequencies or talkgroup IDs). The Department Quick Key would the act of grabbing or replacing the file folders. You have to have the file cabinet unlocked and the drawer unlatched to access the file folders. So in the scanner it becomes FLQK plus SQK plus DQK (or FLQK.SQK.DQK Eyes)

Like a young child learning how to tie shoes, kind of tough to learn at first, but with practice you don't give the task much more thought.

 

[fdnyfish]

I don't get the whole quick key structure, why remember what the heck you programmed for QK's 12.3.12 and 7.3.8.

I find it really simple to set up all my favorites like banks. One department per favorite list, or group of analog channles I want together.

Now I simply select what favorite lists I want to receive and activate them. No more trying to remember the dewey decimal system

 

[jonwienke]

That's a really inefficient way to scan if you monitor any trunked systems. You're scanning the same sites over and over again, each time looking for a different set of talkgroups. It's a guaranteed way to miss a lot of traffic.

 

[fdnyfish]

Favorites lists contain collections of systems.

For trunked systems:
Systems contain departments which contain channels (TGIDs) and sites (frequencies).

For conventional systems:
Systems contain departments which contain channels (frequencies).

FL
----v
....SYS
.....-----v
...........DEPT 1
..............--------v
........................CHAN 1
........................CHAN 2
........................CHAN 3
........................CHAN 4
........................CHAN 5
...........DEPT 2
..............--------v
........................CHAN 1
........................CHAN 2
........................CHAN 3
........................CHAN 4
........................CHAN 5
...........DEPT 3
..............--------v
........................CHAN 1
........................CHAN 2
........................CHAN 3
........................CHAN 4
........................CHAN 5
...........DEPT 4
..............--------v
........................CHAN 1
........................CHAN 2
........................CHAN 3
........................CHAN 4
........................CHAN 5

My problem with this is that you cant select the channel level (level 4) as the QK's only have 3 levels.

an example is I wanted to put all NYPD in one FL (level 1), Then break it down by Borough (Level 2), then have the local precients (Level 3).

But sentenial makes NYPD > Borough Name> NYPD - Borough> Channels.

Borough Name> & NYPD - Borough> is basically duplicate data and a un-needed level that prevents me from getting to the channels using QK's

 

[drdispatch]

When I visited NYC a few years ago, (Had a great time, BTW!) I set up an FL named "NYC". I put each borough into a system. (Since most of my time was spent in Manhatten, that was SYSQK 1.) Then I put each zone in as a Department: Manhattan South, Manhatten Central, etc. Within that Department were the frequencies/channels used there. If I was south, I only had that DQK turned on. I put FDNY in its own system, with each borough being a Department. That seemed to work well for me. Granted I was only there for a few days, but I was able to keep track of what was where. Full disclosure: I also printed up a "cheat sheet" that I carried with me since dispatchers gotta have cheat sheets, and they say that the memory is the first thing to go. (Someone once told me what the second thing to go is, but I can't seem to remember what it is...)

 

[hiegtx]

My problem with this is that you cant select the channel level (level 4) as the QK's only have 3 levels.
QK's

Actually, you can go to a specific channel (or system) using number tags. See NumberTags < UnidenMan4 < TWiki

an example is I wanted to put all NYPD in one FL (level 1), Then break it down by Borough (Level 2), then have the local precients (Level 3).

But sentenial makes NYPD > Borough Name> NYPD - Borough> Channels.

Borough Name> & NYPD - Borough> is basically duplicate data and a un-needed level that prevents me from getting to the channels using

As long as you are using a Favorites list, instead of only using location and the main database to scan, you can group channels and modify the text tags however you wish.

 

[marksmith]

You can build favorites lists any way you want. In the above example, if you want to you can put each borough in a different system and adjust levels as such, so you can turn on/off using either system or favorites quick keys.

536/436/ws1095/996p2/996xt/325p2/396xt/psr800/396t/HP-1/HP-2 & others

 

[rwier]

It gets a lot simpler if you make more FLs (less Systems/Depts/channels/TGs/Sites in each) and ONLY assign QKs to the FLs. I know ... that leaves a lot of the QK features unused, but it sure makes it easier on the aged, lol.

 

[ofd8001]

There are many ways of programming Favorites Lists. Probably the most important thing is to use what method is easiest to remember. Sometimes that comes at the cost of scanning efficiency.

Kind of like walking from point A to point B. You can go two blocks north, then two blocks east, or two blocks east then two blocks north.

 

[marksmith]

It gets a lot simpler if you make more FLs (less Systems/Depts/channels/TGs/Sites in each) and ONLY assign QKs to the FLs. I know ... that leaves a lot of the QK features unused, but it sure makes it easier on the aged, lol.

That's my way of going at it. Lots of small favorites lists, so I can add or turn off specific stuff at the favorites list level.

536/436/ws1095/996p2/996xt/325p2/396xt/psr800/396t/HP-1/HP-2 & others