Wiki News and Maintenance

[ka3jjz]

Welcome to the first news item to report on improvements to our Wiki section. A big Thank You goes out to those folks who have taken the time and effort to improve this section. Anything in blue is a link - just click on it and away you go. From time to time, I'll try to let folks know what has been happening - and what new stuff has been added.

• A new article that outlines dealers for everything from mobile mounts to batteries, speakers and much more has been added. Check out the new Scanner Accessories article

• Links for the PRO-96 DSP Upgrade and PRO-2096 DSP Upgrade has been added to their respective pages on the Wiki.

• For the Milcom'ers amongst us, the Patuxent River Complex article has been updated; frequencies in italics still need verification.

• A new article for Fort Belvoir/Davison AAF has been added, courtesy of CitationJet

• In addition, the Military Web Pages and Mailing lists article has had some minor maintenance; each webpage is now categorized by state, where possible; this should make it a bit easier for folks looking for something specific

• Satellite chasers, this one's for you - we've added a SATCOM page, which
  for the moment, is a mix of milsat and amateur links. But if it's expanded enough, perhaps two pages can be made out of this...(hint,hint)

• Our chief bottle washer Lindsay has added an article for the new Icom IC-R9500
  mega radio. Wonder who's going to be the first on the block with this baby <pun intended>?

• Another new article for Icom has been added; this one on the new R2500

• Minor changes applied to the RR FAQ page. In addition, something I really hoped wouldn't happen did - Ben Saladino, the author of the popular Radio Manager software, has decided to leave the software field. He wrote me about this, citing the wide availability of the UASD for the new DMA radios, and lack of time to update his software. We have since purged the Wiki of his software links, and are saddened to see him go.

• Lastly, some cleanup and organization has been added to the Live Scanners article.

As always, you are encouraged to contribute! All you need to do is register (free), and you may edit almost any of the existing pages, or add a page yourself. It's a very good idea to download the Quick guide to editing, the link for which is right on the first page, to give you a good starting point. If you have questions or are hesitant about starting a page, please ask - there's lots of help available.

73s Mike

 

[blantonl]

Great work Mike, thanks so much for your dedication and support of the wiki - it is greatly appreciated!

 

[SCPD]

• Our chief bottle washer Lindsay has added an article for the new Icom IC-R9500
  mega radio. Wonder who's going to be the first on the block with this baby <pun intended>?

*snicker*
Thanks Mike!
-rick
(glad I don't have to change ... um, I mean ... wash ... bottles ... any more.)

 

[tonsoffun]

Yes, I would like to thank Mike as well for his help when I was trying to set an Article up, I bugged him lots. I appreciated your help.
Take care

 

[car2back]

FYI: I did some work on the Uniden radio page: now all the scanners have pictures (except for the OLD BC-350)

I am gonna do the RS page next, but after an hour of tonight I am worn out! :lol:

 

[ka3jjz]

Can't blame ya, Phil. Nice job, by the way. 73s Mike

 

[car2back]

UPDATE: HALF of the Radioshack scanner page has been revamped!

 

[car2back]

Thanks to some info posted by nsammon68, I made several new wiki pages for discriminator taps:

Pro 93, 95, 96
Pro-2052
Pro-2053

I also re-did the main Discriminator page to make it a little more user friendly. : Discriminator Taps

 

[ka3jjz]

Phil - that link has an error in it; quote marks instead of a colon, I believe.

Thanks for all your work - so far, what I've seen suggests you've put some thought into what you're doing. I wish others would do likewise.

73s Mike

 

[car2back]

Phil - that link has an error in it; quote marks instead of a colon, I believe.

Thanks for all your work - so far, what I've seen suggests you've put some thought into what you're doing. I wish others would do likewise.

73s Mike

thanks Mike! I felt it was my joint duty as a wikipedian and RR member

 

[ka3jjz]

Phil - please check your private mail on this board. I've sent you a somewhat important message. 73s and thanx Mike

 

[car2back]

the Radio Shack page is complete! check it out!

 

[ka3jjz]

Looks real nice, Phil. My only suggestion would be, for consistency's sake, would be to put the links before the EBay listings. The EBay stuff is usually the last item on the scanner's page, so people might not think to use the index to find the links, or to scroll down.

Nice job! 73s Mike

 

[car2back]

good idea Mike! I'll see what I can do!

 

[ka3jjz]

I see several folks have put regional frequency pages up; while I don't want to discourage working in the Wiki, there is a specific format that should be used for this. It's explained somewhat at the bottom of the United States page...

http://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/United_States

Basically it says that no frequency information should be posted on those pages; rather, the data should be sent to the Admins, and then use Wiki tags to build the page directly from the database. There is a specific example in the text, and it looks like someone built a nice Tucson Arizona page using this method.

Someone is currently building quite a nice Palmetto SC page; in addition, we have several regional pages with no links to anything ('orphan' pages) that list regional information.
They can be found listed here;

http://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/Special:Lonelypages

I would request that the Admins for these sections please add this data - if it isn't already - to the databases. These pages can then be redone, and attached to the US page, where they properly belong.

Thanks to everyone for contributing - without you, it simply wouldn't be what it is and is becoming - a comprehensive, flexible method to present data from the local databases, and elsewhere.

73s Mike

 

[ka3jjz]

It's time for another quick summary of what has been happening in our Wiki - and we've got some really big news, if you haven't heard of this already...as always, anything in blue is a link - just click on it and you'll be sent there...

• 
  No doubt the hottest news has to be the announcement of the new BC-RH96
  remote head which will be available for the BCD996, BCT15, BCD396 and BR330 handhelds and available this Feb. (thanx UPman). I have cross linked these pages to those scanners' articles.

Other equipment article additions include:

• A new article on the DX394
  HF receiver has been added. It shows up in the photos section from time to time, so I thought it might be nice to have a little something on this radio. It was, AFAIK, the last HF desktop RS/Realistic sold in the US.

• An article on the Kenwood TM-G707 has been added by AmRad

• Frank has started an article on the old RS PRO-2050 scanner.
  This was RS's answer to the old BC895 by what was then Uniden Bearcat, without the PC interface.

• 
  Phil Smith has added numerous thumbnails of Uniden and RS handhelds, as well as done some work on the Discriminator Output article

• I uploaded a copy of the JPEG for a discrimnator tap point for the BCD996, courtesy Rich Carlson N9JIG of CARMA. It's been linked to the Discriminator Output and BCD996T articles.

There's been other changes, too...

• If you're a NASCAR fan, check out Chrome69's article

• LouMagg split off the Powering Your Scanner section from the Scanner Accessories article and created a new one just for this topic.

• PLaws (yes, the head honcho of Scan-L) has made several changes and updates to our trunking articles

• Many folks have been posting information on unknown/new talkgroups found on the
  Palmetto SC 800 System Hopefully the South Carolina database admin is watching (hint, hint)...

• ND5Y added a bunch of data, some of which has to do with the new 700 Mhz allocations, to the Common Public Safety article

• TeRayCodA put up a nice JPEG on how to reinforce the ScanTenna - the longest element, that works on VHF lo band, specifically - against high wind damage. If you are using one of these antennas, this might be a worthwhile mod. The link has been placed in our Scanner Antennas wiki, and can be viewed here.

A big Thanks goes to everyone who contributes, no matter if it's a minor edit or a whole new article. Let's keep the momentum going!

73s Mike

 

[ka3jjz]

Would wiki user EXPL16 please contact me directly at ka3jjz@netscape.com regarding his wiki article? Thank you....Mike

 

[ka3jjz]

Well since our last report on the 10th of October, there have been some good sized additions to our Wiki section; as always, a big Thanks goes out to those who have contributed (anything in blue is a link);

• 'canukcam' has added a huge amount of data on Motorola commercial radios

• 'cubn' has added several articles;
  The National Football League
  The Bloomington/Normal Illinois area (used the wiki extensions)
  The 'World of Outlaws'
  and 'Charter Buses'

• 'amusement' has added articles on the RS PRO-433 and PRO-528 analog trunking scanners. Incidentally, BuTel has announced that they will be releasing software for these 2 radios in December; Scancat Lite Plus reportedly already supports them.

• 'trunker' has been adding more details to various Radio Shack and Uniden scanner articles

• 'RFMobile' has added some detail to the UniTrunker
  article. This is a Windows driven Trunker-like application that does not currently require a data slicer; a good shielded connection from your discriminator to your soundcard is required.

• ND5Y has added an article on Cordless Mics -
  those in the broadcasting industry might find this useful. He's also done some work on the
  FAA article

• For those into Fire apparatus, Lucky13 has added some data for the
  Keysville Va. Company 7 VFD

• For our Ontario Canada members, Mike Oxlong has added a huge amount of information to the Canadian section of the regional Wiki pages

• It seems webmasters have been busy poking around the new PCR2500; Scott of Scan Cape Cod put up an article on
  Enabling P25 reception above 780 Mhz
  while Lindsay has an article for the 10.7 Mhz IF Output

Just a reminder for those that would hope that Santa brings 'em a new radio - our wiki has a huge number of links regarding scanners (including reviews), HF Radios and a host of other topics. Be sure to check these articles first before you buy or put something on your wanted list - make it an informed decision....

and a safe Holiday season. 73s Mike

 

[ka3jjz]

I wanted to take a moment to thank trunker for the huge amount of work that has been done on just about every scanner and receiver article we have; basically doing some cleanup and organization work, as well as adding some details on models we don't see very often here in the US. In particular, he's added 2 manufacturers to our list;

• Alinco Radios

• Yupiteru Radios

Many of the Yupiteru radios (often just referred to as 'Yupi'), which come from Japan, cannot be legally imported into the US due to their wide frequency coverage, which makes them valuable to many scannists. Folks trying to import them from Europe (many times via Javiation in the UK) or Asia risk having them seized when they come into the US for this reason.

The links above (in blue) will give you a peek at some of the radios coming out of Japan that we rarely see here in the States. Thanks trunker for your concerted effort in improving the wiki. 73s Mike

 

[ka3jjz]

Welcome to the first report for 2007. Due to work and family concerns, I let a lot of news build up - so let's not wait any longer...

• Here's one that should be read by all Uniden DMA radio owners, even though it's written for one specific radio; loumagg has an article on 'Nothing to Scan' problems

• 'BirkenVogt' has added a great deal of information on frequencies used by EMS; and not just the standard Med channels, either. I found it rather informative, particularly with those split UHF channels

• ND5Y has modified numerous articles on frequencies in different services, such as Amateur Radio, Family Radio Service, Multi Use Radio Service and a bunch more. PLaws has also contributed to these articles

• DiGiTaLD has added some information on the Vertex VX-130, Jaguar 700P and LPE200 professional handhelds

• Tweatherford and cubn continue to build onthe Public Safety Answering Points by County article, for Illinois listeners.

• For us Maryland Milcomers, j333_76484 made some minor changes to
  the Pax River article

• Wdz has added a good deal of information on various Vertex commercial radios, such as the
  VX-900

• Hotdjdave has made some modifications to several of the PRO RS scanner articles, such as the
  new Pro-528

Thanks to everyone for contributing! Without you, the wiki goes nowhere - simple as that.

73s Mike