So, I need some insight from you guys.

The radio supports 12 characters for zone/channel naming.

The 12 characters can be divided into any combination of 12 for the zone/channel.

For example, You can name a zone A, which would leave a channel name length of 11, but you realistically want a space between, so the channel name length would be 10.

If you named a zone PC, you'd have 10 (9 if you had a space).
Etc.

Generally, radios are set up in a zone/channel config, to switch to a channel relatively easily.. So, instead of saying 'switch to zone 3, channel 4', or 'switch to Pierce County 11', it would be 'Switch to Charlie 4' (C4).

The issue I'm running into, is........

Most people want the kitchen sink. This means I can't have a single zone for a county. Further,counties shortened into zone names can be problematic, when you think of things like klickitat county, kittitas county, king county, etc which all start with K, so you couldn't use KC for King County because it could be Klickitat too.

So, that means more than one zone for each county... I'm thinking one zone for PD/FD, one zone for feds, and one zone for ham.. So, counties would have 3 zones.

The small issue that is created by doing that, is some counties might only have 3 channels for each zone, so you now have 3 zones with only 3 channels each... BUT, those empty channels could be filled with what I call 'flex' channels, designated for FPP.


Thoughts?

What's the easiest way for you guys to know very quickly, what zone you're in?

If a display says 'C - FD DISP' would you be able to remember that C = Pierce county, as an example?

can you abbreviate it like this?:

klickitat county, KLC
kittitas county, KTC
king county, KNC

However you guys do it is fine by me. No chirp here, so no channel names, I keep things on a laminated reference card with the radio.

Tech querry: I've been experimenting with dipole made of coax and wires, etc. , and hooking up different coax to the rig, putting things up on bamboo poles, with some success increasing TX and rx a little.....

Question is, is it possible to damage the electronic innards of the radio doing all this? I'm reading that excessive SWR can do damage, but I'm only putting out 5-7 watts on a ht.

Am I gonna fuck shit up?

I noticed a distant repeater (Seattle) comes in a little fuzzier than before, but I think it might be on their end, or even increased vegetation in the signal path as summer moves along...

I'm having fun, still talkin' all over, just.....paranoid.

Then how do you differentiate between the 3 zones needed for king county? You start making the zone name too long, and you end up with channel names that are too short.

Yes, you absolutely can damage equipment.

A dipole is a dipole is a dipole. If you're getting different results each time you make one, then they're not the same and invariably will be off in one way or another. How far off depends on how they were assembled.

You can pick up an antenna analyzer for around $50....

hey, you started it!

We are brainstorming here... I was asking for ideas.. lol

Zones don't need to end at county lines. Three V's input of a decoder ring is a good one

I think setting it up South to North would make sense with occasional zones going east/west at given points (like I-90 or out to the peninsula)

The best starting point would be the channel list, which is somewhat mission driven. Do we really need fire channels? What should we be listening in on? How about communicating with each other? It's also somewhat personalized based on where we are. It might be interesting to hear what's going on with Tacoma FD but it's not high on my list

That's why I had the poll. The poll results were almost unanimously 'kitchen sink'....

The idea is, to have one unified codeplug, with only minor differences.

I think the majority of folk are in the Seattle-Tacoma area, so it would make sense to have it work from there, but I can see the idea of south to north, or north to south, or even following major roadways.

The idea is, you have a radio capable of monitoring WSP, Sheriff, fire, etc, so why not use it?

Arranging by counties and areas makes it easier to organize, since all of the freqs. will be used in that area. Now, for example, if you wanted to access a wide area repeater, say, in Seattle, and you're in Tacoma, then you would just switch to the zone with King county repeaters in it, and you'd be set.

The idea is, the radios are programmed the same, and other than small differences like some people having model 1 radios instead of model 3, and modifying how the channels and zones are navigated. It's much easier with a display. Without a display, i'd probably suggest reprogramming the zone up/zone down buttons to the side, and having voice announcement on almost every channel, but there is still a limit to voice announcement. Due to memory limits, you can only have about 150 channels with voice announcement, so there must be a priority set for some channels.

Nothing is off the table, and I'm trying to figure out what works best for everyone.

I'm developing the codeplug to coincide with the comm plan, and each zone will include an encrypted channel, no matter what, in addition to zones for marine, wx, murs, fed interop, etc

The mission, as I see it, is 3 fold...

1. Have something that people will want to keep with them at all times, even if it's just in a bag.
2. SIGINT. Being able to gather as much information as you can. This can be as simple as turning on the radio on your drive home to figure out where the troopers are running radar, to knowing to bypass a road because of an accident, or figuring out where a shelter has been set up after a major storm or earthquake.
3. Being able to communicate with hams, and other WGO members, either through public access like repeaters, or in a tactical environment with encryption.

Does anyone else wanna add to that mission profile, or think there's something there that doesn't belong?

Thoughts?

Makes sense to me.

personally i'd rename GY to GH, but either way it's fine

Ditto

Snag:

XTS5000 is limited to 50 zones.

There are 39 counties.

Organizing by county, especially the empty ones, will leave zones with 3 channels in them, essentially wasting a zone. No way I can even have 2 zones per county, and some counties have a dozen 2m repeaters, some might have none.

Firmware above R09 mandates a maximum of 240 channels, in 15 zones of 16 channels. So, putting 30 channels in a zone and using the keypad to go up/down is killed unless I downgrade radios.

Firmware below R09 allows any channel to be FPP, and does not limit how many channels you can use per zone.

So...

Option 1.
Downgrade the radios to R09. (My preference)

Option 2.
Find another way to organize the data. Maybe by WSP districts? Then have multiple zones of a single district. Ie D11 Would be district 1 zone 1 D72 would be district 7, zone 2. Which could allow more data to be put in fewer zones.



Option 3.
Set up a 'waguns' list, and other than that, let everyone do whatever the hell they want with their radio. (which, IMO, is a crap idea, since the idea is to have the same data in the same location in each radio)


Option 4.

As someone that travels a lot I like option 2. I think it would also work well for the more sedentary of members as well since their whole district is in one zone.