Another HAM-friendly scan feature: "Zone Link"

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ok1pt
Posts: 167
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2020 3:38 am

Another HAM-friendly scan feature: "Zone Link"

Post by ok1pt » Sun Apr 04, 2021 12:04 pm

What I'm really missing on OpenGD77, are classical Scan Lists. For example, on AT-D878UV, I can create a new Scan List "on the fly" from the keyboard, and add there any channel.
If I understand OpenGD77 scan strategy, we can just scan channels in a zone, ans because there is also always the "All Channels" zone, we can scan it, and eliminate unwanted channels only by "Nuissance delete" function.
I understand that generally it's possible, but if you have, say, 600 channels in 15 zones, it's not too much handy. I understand that I can create zone with just the channels I want to scan, but creating new zones just for scanning purpose seems a bit non-systematic (it's just my personal opinion).
HAM radios like ICOM ID-51 or Yaesu FT-3D also don't have the possibility to create customized Scan Lists, but they have another, relatively handy, function: As these radios don't have "Zones" but they have something equivalent called "Banks", they have a function called Bank Link. It's practically a list of all channel "Banks" with checking button for each of them. You can check or uncheck any bank from the list at any time (even during scanning) and if you have the "Bank Link" scan mode active, the channels in the scan will be promptly added / removed according to the bank contents.
What about implementing this as the "Zone Link Scan" function ? An example:
Let's have 4 zones (for a small country like Czech Republic and purely HAM usage, it's a rather typical configuration): Analog VHF RPT, Analog UHF RPT, Digital VHF RPT, Digital UHF RPT.
Let's check-mark Analog VHF RPT and Analog UHF RPT in the Zone Link list. Then, after activating Zone Link Scan, all analog repeaters will be scanned.
Similarly you can scan All Digital RPT, All VHF RPT (analog or digital) and All UHF RPT... Of courese, the "Nuisance Delete" will help you to mute unwanted repeaters, which you just don't want to listen to now... With more zones, the Zone Link functionality may be relatively useful extension to the OpenGD77 scanning features.

G4EML
Posts: 919
Joined: Sat Nov 16, 2019 10:01 am

Re: Another HAM-friendly scan feature: "Zone Link"

Post by G4EML » Sun Apr 04, 2021 1:38 pm

There is one other feature to scanning that you may have overlooked.
Every channel has two ‘Flags’ included. These are called ‘Zone Skip’ and ‘All Skip’.
These control which channels are scanned in the Zone and in the All channels Zone.

Using these flags you can control exactly which channels are scanned. You can create a custom scan list on the fly by just setting the channels you want to be included in the scan and skipping the others.

Your idea of a multi zone scan is something some other radios have and might be possible but it would need extra storage to save the selection and new logic to control it. We are getting low on available storage so it may not be practical to implement this.

ok1pt
Posts: 167
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2020 3:38 am

Re: Another HAM-friendly scan feature: "Zone Link"

Post by ok1pt » Sun Apr 04, 2021 3:36 pm

G4EML wrote:
Sun Apr 04, 2021 1:38 pm
There is one other feature to scanning that you may have overlooked.
Every channel has two ‘Flags’ included. These are called ‘Zone Skip’ and ‘All Skip’.
These control which channels are scanned in the Zone and in the All channels Zone.

Using these flags you can control exactly which channels are scanned. You can create a custom scan list on the fly by just setting the channels you want to be included in the scan and skipping the others.

Your idea of a multi zone scan is something some other radios have and might be possible but it would need extra storage to save the selection and new logic to control it. We are getting low on available storage so it may not be practical to implement this.
Hi!
Oh yeah, I really overlooked it! But... Before I wrote my post, I carefully read the chapter "Channel Scanning" in the recent version of User Guide, and it's not there! Just now I really found it in the "Channel details" chapter, it's exactly how do you write, but this information is not intuitively available. So, I recommend either to add this information to the Channel Scanning chapter as well, or add at least the "See also:" with reference to the appropriate parts of the manual.
WIth regards, Pavel

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F1RMB
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Location: Grenoble, France

Re: Another HAM-friendly scan feature: "Zone Link"

Post by F1RMB » Sun Apr 04, 2021 4:35 pm

ok1pt wrote:
Sun Apr 04, 2021 3:36 pm
G4EML wrote:
Sun Apr 04, 2021 1:38 pm
There is one other feature to scanning that you may have overlooked.
Every channel has two ‘Flags’ included. These are called ‘Zone Skip’ and ‘All Skip’.
These control which channels are scanned in the Zone and in the All channels Zone.

Using these flags you can control exactly which channels are scanned. You can create a custom scan list on the fly by just setting the channels you want to be included in the scan and skipping the others.

Your idea of a multi zone scan is something some other radios have and might be possible but it would need extra storage to save the selection and new logic to control it. We are getting low on available storage so it may not be practical to implement this.
Hi!
Oh yeah, I really overlooked it! But... Before I wrote my post, I carefully read the chapter "Channel Scanning" in the recent version of User Guide, and it's not there! Just now I really found it in the "Channel details" chapter, it's exactly how do you write, but this information is not intuitively available. So, I recommend either to add this information to the Channel Scanning chapter as well, or add at least the "See also:" with reference to the appropriate parts of the manual.
WIth regards, Pavel
OR, you can make this change and raise a PR.


Cheers.
---
Daniel

ok1pt
Posts: 167
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2020 3:38 am

Re: Another HAM-friendly scan feature: "Zone Link"

Post by ok1pt » Sun Apr 04, 2021 4:40 pm

F1RMB wrote:
Sun Apr 04, 2021 4:35 pm
[
OR, you can make this change and raise a PR.

OK, will do. A good idea.
Pavel

VK3KYY
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Joined: Sat Nov 16, 2019 3:25 am
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Re: Another HAM-friendly scan feature: "Zone Link"

Post by VK3KYY » Sun Apr 04, 2021 9:04 pm

IMO The primary use of the firmware is not as a scanner

Also its impractical to have the entire functionality of the CPS in the radio.

Its very easy in the CPS to make a Zone for each group of channels you want to scan, and often these channels are already in a zone, eg Marine channel!s.
And as Colin has already said, you can specify if a channel in a zone is scanned or not.

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