So, I had a codeplug put together for Texas for my 578, but didn’t have anything in the 878. I just didn’t have the time to generate a new codeplug while I was on travel. The Anytone software could export/import CSVs for the channel lists, and maybe talkgroup lists, but they couldn’t handle ZONES. This was a real pain, because building zones takes some time to search through the entire channel list to find what you need.
Before I spent a ton of time rebuilding a codeplug in new software, I followed up with RT systems based on an earlier email, in which they said the ability to open a 578 codeplug with 878 software and vice versa. It took a couple days (mainly because of the Christmas holiday), but I got a response that this capability is now available in a new update! (I had run an update back in November while I was on travel, and this didn’t pop up the new functionality).
Now… a couple new notes on the software…
DONT delete talkgroups. this seems to upset linking between channels and talkgroups. It’s best to just put a different talkgroup in that spot, if you want to remove one for some reason.
I’m going to walk back a few thoughts on my typical programming theories –
First, if you want to have more than one state or group of states, it might not be a major issue – with the “hide zone” feature, it is possible to hide the unused states. This would mean that these states can be called up when needed, but wouldn’t show up when just scanning through zones with the up-down keys. It might then be worthwhile to keep several versions of the codeplug… for example, if I had TX, IA, and IL/WI in a single codeplug, I could hide TX and IL/WI when I was in Iowa. Then, I could have 2 alternate versions of the codeplug saved off – one with IA and IL/WI hidden and one with IA and TX hidden. If I didn’t get a chance to swap plugs, I could manually enter the zone I wanted. I’m still working through the logic on this. I’m STILL not in favor of challenging the radio’s memory capability, though.
And second – on Talkgroup lists… while I don’t see the value directly, I guess I can get behind loading, let’s say, all the worldwide and US brandmeister talkgroups into the list, even if most of them aren’t used within the codeplug. This allows them to be pulled up manually through the “scratch” channel in each zone.
Finally…. I tried this before but missed one crucial step to make it work. Adding a talkgroup 4000 hotkey- a quick disconnect…. As the link below illustrates, it’s a lot faster than searching for a dedicated channel. Then again…. The guy in this link has zones with “hundreds of channels” in them… no. Just no. Nevertheless, this is a good idea:
The above process is VERY similar in the RT Systems software, too.