Additional Elements
- Talkgroup Priorities
- The priority level (0 to 255) of each talkgroup can be adjusted
via the Edit Talkgroup interface. One would normally assign
higher priorities to more important/interesting groups.
TRUNK88 will preempt lower priority comms to monitor higher
priority traffic.
- Talkgroup Priority Options
- Every talkgroup record has a priority override field that can be
toggled to:
"L/O" - group locked out
"Pri" - very high priority
"---" - use talkgroup's numeric priority field
Use the spacebar to cycle through the choices.
- Talkgroup Delay Options
- Each talkgroup has a configurable delay setting; the choices are:
"NoD" - no delay: TRUNK88 will tune to next comm immediately
"Del" - delay: TRUNK88 waits until until the interval defined
by TG Delay Time has expired before tuning to
other equal or lower priority comms
"---" - default: TRUNK88 will use TG Delay Time
(unless it has been disabled with the F3 key)
Use the spacebar to cycle through the choices.
- Talkgroup Banks
- Edit Talkgroup can also be used to change the bank assignments
of individual talkgroups. One could use bank F for fire groups,
bank P for police, etc. More than one bank can be assigned to
a talkgroup; for example a District 1 fire group could be in
banks F and 1 while a District 1 police group could be in banks
P and 1. This lets you control what you hear: fire only (bank F)
or police only (bank P) or only District 1 comms [fire and police]
(bank 1)
- Radio Priorities
- As radio records are created, they are assigned a very low priority.
The priority level of each radio ID can be adjusted via the
Edit Radio interface. Normally, the effective priority of a
voice comm is the highest priority of any component of the call.
E.g. for a group call, priority = max(TG priority, RID priority).
For a private call, priority = max(Source RID pri, Target RID pri).
If you give a radio a very high priority, TRUNK88 will preempt
other comms when that radio is active.
Note: If a talkgroup's priority override field is set to "L/O",
radio priorities have no effect; TRUNK88 will never
automatically tune to a locked out talkgroup, even if
a high priority radio is active on it.
- Channel Time Limit
- If you find yourself in the unfortunate position of having one
or more trunk voice channels that you just can't receive well
enough to provide intelligible comms (e.g. the signal is too
weak or it's wiped out by constant interference), you can
"lock out" the offending RF channel(s) by going into
System Menu / Edit Channels and setting each problematic
channel's Time limit value to 1.
TRUNK88 will not tune the voice receiver to trunk channels
that have been locked out. When a tuning action is blocked
due to a locked out channel, TRUNK88 will display a slashed
zero character (ASCII 237) in the channel's status column.
- Set Hold TG
- You can force TRUNK88 to hold on any talkgroup or patch with the
Set Hold TG command. You can either enter the talkgroup/patch
number or use the up/down cursor keys to scroll through the
talkgroup/patch list. TRUNK88 will tune to a held talkgroup
even if the group is locked out or not part of any active bank.
When you hold on a talkgroup, "H<TG#>" is displayed in the
Monitoring Mode Display field until the hold is released.
You can release a hold by holding on talkgroup zero or by
pressing F2.
Hotkeys
- F1: Hold on current comm
- If you press F1 while the voice scanner is tuned to a comm,
TRUNK88 will hold on that group call, private call or
interconnect until you release the hold. If no trunk traffic
is being monitored when F1 is pressed, TRUNK88 holds on the
last monitored trunked comm.
Pressing F1 again while holding on a comm toggles between
hard (only tune to held comm) and soft (tune to other comms
while held comm is inactive) hold modes.
- Shift-F1: Repeat last hold
- You can reinstate the last hold by pressing Shift-F1.
It doesn't matter if that comm is currently active or not;
TRUNK88 just reestablishes the previous hold and waits
until the selected group call, private call or interconnect
is seen again.
- F2: Scan / release hold
- The F2 key logic is similar to a scanner's SCAN key.
If TRUNK88 is holding on a comm, pressing F2 will release the hold,
but does not force the voice scanner off that comm if it is
currently active (unless a higher priority comm is also active)
If TRUNK88 is NOT holding on a comm when F2 is pressed,
any currently monitored comm is effectively locked out briefly
while TRUNK88 looks for other comms to tune to.
- F3: Toggle talkgroup delay mode
- This hotkey enables and disables the TG Delay Time hold timer.
When the timer is enabled, TRUNK88 implements a hold delay at
the end of every voice comm (except for group calls that have
their delay option set to "NoD" [no delay] )
When the timer is disabled, TRUNK88 does not implement a delay
at the end of every comm, except for group calls that have their
delay option set to "Del" (always delay).
When F3 toggles the TG Delay Time mode on, a "D" is displayed
in the Monitoring Mode Display field.
- F4: Cycle monitoring mode
- If an interesting comm is heard while the voice scanner is scanning
its own programmed systems, you can press F4 to disable TRUNK88's
trunk following. TRUNK88 will not attempt to tune the voice
scanner until you press F4 again.
- Shift-F4: Toggle Private Call Priority mode
- Normally, the priority of private calls and interconnects is
determined by the priorities of the radios involved in these
calls; pressing Shift-F4 gives all private calls and interconnects
very high priority until you press Shift-F4 again.
- Alt-F4: Toggle radio ID mode
- When radio ID mode is activated, any comms made by unID'd radios
(radios with no alias text) are given very high priority;
this tends to make the voice scanner tune to these comms
immediately, which gives you a good chance to snag a unit ID.
- Ctrl F4: Toggle TG ID mode
- Same as Alt-F4, but for unID'd talkgroups. Good for figuring out
those tough groups.
- F5: Lock out current TG
- This locks out whatever talkgroup the voice scanner is currently
tuned to. If no group comm is currently being monitored,
this hotkey has no effect.
You can review which talkgroups you've locked out by using the
L/O Review keys (PageUp and PageDown) in the Edit Talkgroup function.
- F6x2: Clear all lockouts
- If you hastily locked out a heap o' talkgroups to focus on a select
few, you can unlock them all by pressing F6 twice. All groups
will have their lockout flag cleared.
- (Shift)F10: Adjust cutoff priority
- These keys adjust the value of the Cutoff Priority parameter.
F10 raises the cutoff level (e.g. blocks more comms) and
Shift-F10 lowers the cutoff, which lets TRUNK88 tune to lower
priority comms.
- Alt A-Z,1-6
- These hotkeys enable and disable the 32 banks. You can enable
and disable the tuning of many groups by toggling banks on or off.
The status of all 32 banks is displayed in the Banks Display field.
Normally, a talkgroup will never be tuned to if none of its banks
are enabled. The exception to this rule is when you have ALL 32
banks turned off. When you do this, TRUNK88's bank control logic
is disabled; this lets you control voice scanner tuning by
priority levels only.
Monitoring Mode Display
The Monitoring Mode Display field shows what the voice following logic
is currently doing. If the global delay mode (toggled by F3) is active,
a 'D' character is displayed at the left side of the display in the
normal, hold and skip modes.
Note: If you haven't modified the layout of line 2 on your TRUNK88 display,
you should be able to set the Width of the Monitoring Mode Display
to 26 characters; that will give it some room to display talkgroup
names, and it'll stop before it overwrites the System Date field.
normal display (not holding on any comm):
Mode:
or
Mode: D
talkgroup hold display (user pressed F1, holding on talkgroup 1277):
Mode: H1277 East Command Tac3
PC hold display (F1 hold on private call between RID 123 and RID 456):
Mode: HPC123-456
IC (phone patch) hold display (F1 hold on RID 555 interconnect):
Mode: HIC555
delay mode display (comm has ended; in delay period defined by TG Delay Time):
Mode: h1277 East Command Tac3
Mode: hPC123-456
skip mode display (user pressed F2 (scan) and TRUNK88 is temporarily
locking out the currently tuned comm while it searches for other active comms):
Mode: s1277 East Command Tac3
Mode: sPC123-456
trunk following disabled display (user has pressed F4):
Mode: Data Monitoring
Program Title Bar Display
As TRUNK88 tunes to voice traffic, information relating to the tuned audio,
such as talkgroup and radio aliases, is displayed in the program's
title bar. If you position TRUNK88's title bar at the top of your desktop
and keep other program windows slightly below it, you can see at a glance
what traffic TRUNK88 has tuned your voice receiver to, even if you're
working in another program, browsing the Internet, etc.
