UCAN and BCDx46HP

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N7OLQ

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It's been a while since I visited here.

Can anyone share their approach to setting up favorites lists and quick keys using the BCD436HP or BCD536HP?

I'm just coming up to speed on my 436, and I'm a little lost as to how to set it up (why one approach is better than another).

Thanks
 

N7OLQ

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Ok, how about anyone from anywhere that has loaded a big statewide system while preserving the ability to turn fairly small departments on and off.

there are so many options with favorites, multi levels of quick keys, avoids, etc. I don't think I can remember endless levels of QKs.

anyone?
 

enosjones

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I've got 536 but I've only got the favorites lists for some of Utah that I transferred from my uniden 396xt, all I have is some of northern Utah and most of carbon and emery four corners and Colorado Ucan system Colorado system stuff like that
 

troymail

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Ok, how about anyone from anywhere that has loaded a big statewide system while preserving the ability to turn fairly small departments on and off.

there are so many options with favorites, multi levels of quick keys, avoids, etc. I don't think I can remember endless levels of QKs.

anyone?

Many options and what works for some won't work for others. Having said that, here's what I've done for the State of Maryland:

We have 23 counties so I've assigned each county a number from 1-23. I use 0 for the State

Next, I assigned a number to groups of users/usages (fire, local police, State police, corrections, local government, highways, etc.). These are numbered roughly from 50 and up.

I mostly work within Favorites list 0.

I put our state system in as System 0.

Each county is programmed as the county system ID (1-23)

The sites are mostly county based so each site is assigned the same 1-23 (roughly).

Within the state and county systems, each department is assigned as I describe above - state or county level.

So, for Baltimore County (3) Maryland, fire (50) is the QK sequence 0.3.50 (FL=0, Baltimore County=3, fire=50)

For Prince George (16) County Maryland, fire (50) is 0.16.50 (FL=0, PG County=16, fire=50)

For State police in Prince George (16) Maryland, state police (61) is 0.16.61

For those State police (61) talkgroups on the State system (0), the QK sequence is 0.0.61 (FL=0, State=0, State police=61)

When I move around in the state, I enable the site(s) closest to the county I'm currently in (again, my site QK values match the county IDs).

Hopefully you can see the pattern.

There are some exceptions but the general rules apply (I keep a cheat sheet handy too).

The frustrating part is that it is really hard to tell what is enabled (or not) with those little numbers and and stars on the display.
 

N7OLQ

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Thanks for the detailed reply. It's going to take me a bit to figure it out.
Quick keys seem almost unusable to me other than turning on and off FL and systems. It seems like there is sort of a qk map, but it doesn't seem to tell me anything. Do you just have memorize all of them?
 

troymail

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Thanks for the detailed reply. It's going to take me a bit to figure it out.
Quick keys seem almost unusable to me other than turning on and off FL and systems. It seems like there is sort of a qk map, but it doesn't seem to tell me anything. Do you just have memorize all of them?

With a pattern, over time you start remembering the primary Qk values.

I forgot to mention that when programming in Sentinel, I add the Qk values in front of the names. For example:

Favorites Lists
F0 Home
F33 SF Bay Area

Systems
S0 Maryland state system
S3 Baltimore County
S20 Talbot County
S22 Worcester County

Sites within systems
s20 Talbot County
s22 Worcester County

Departments (common across all systems/programming)
d50 Fire
d52 Local Police
d53 Sheriff
d54 Local Government
d61 State Police

These put constant reminders on the display to build your memory but I still need the cheat sheet for some lesser used things.

Depending on your programming, turning things on (and off) are essential to get the best performance (scan speed).

Note: I've suggested in the past that Uniden add a feature to automatically add these prefixes to the programming when the user assigns qkeys. Doesn't hurt to suggest but they don't seem to listen to their users much.....

Edit: I should have mentioned that I think these Qk options are a great feature... but it is a hard feature to manage and use with so many options and no easy way to track anything. Another suggestion I made was to have a "all on" and "all off" switch (in both Sentinel and on the radio itself). That way the user could always "start from zero" and enable/disable whatever they want. I constantly end up with some things enabled that I don't want enabled - particularly when I'm driving/traveling.
 
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kf7yn

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Well look what the cat dragged in! Welcome back Brett, nice to see you active again. I don't have the new Unidens so I can't offer up any programming info but you can get a hold of Justin who has both new Unidens.
PM me and let's catch up.
 
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