Another HAM-friendly scan feature: "Zone Link"
Posted: 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.
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.