This article is copyrighted (c) 1997 by Bill Cheek. Permission to reprint for FREE access and FREE use by others is automatically granted so long as this entire article, including signature box at the end are retained intact and unaltered. A TUTORIAL ON THE CE-232 SCANNER/COMPUTER INTERFACE'S AUTO-REJECT FUNCTION INTRODUCTION ============ The CE-232 Scanner/Computer Interface is a 2.5" x 3" electronic board that goes between an IBM-PC/compatible computer and a VHF-UHF scanning receiver for a host of powerful capabilities. The CE-232 is a -smart- RS-232 Interface controller and data acquisition system for some scanners and at least a drudgery-free automatic programmer and remote controller for all supported scanners. The CE-232 eliminates a lot of the drudgery and labor in scanning by its ability to "AutoProgram" up to 999 memory channels from a plain ASCII text file in a short time, error-free and exactly the way you want the scanner configured. The CE-232 also allows REMOTE control of the scanner from the computer keyboard; a strong +plus+ for handheld scanners and those with hard-to- operate keyboards like the PRO-43, PRO-2035 and PRO-2042! The CE-232 is a one-way controller and AutoProgrammer like described above for MANY scanners, including the PRO-2042, PRO-2035, PRO-2022, PRO-43, PRO-39, PRO-37, PRO-34, PRO-26, etc. The CE-232 is a TWO-WAY controller, AutoProgrammer and data acquisition system for the time-honored PRO-2004, PRO-2005, and PRO-2006 scanners which have unique circuitry that allows the CE-232 to do MUCH more than just AutoProgram and Remote Control, including AutoLog data on "hits", AUTO-REJECT undesired signals, LOOKUP data about a certain frequency, and much more. AUTO-REJECT OVERVIEW ==================== ** CE-232 rejects "birdies" and other undesired signals! ** The CE-232 can AutoReject "birdies" and other undesired signals when the scanner stops on them, say during a SEARCH. Birdies, pagers, computer data, IMTS tones, and dozens of other kinds of obnoxious non- voice signals infiltrate every nook and cranny of the RF spectrum. The CE-232, however, can do something about those signals that disrupt your scans and searches! The AUTO-REJECT function "rejects" (prevents the scanner from locking on) any frequency in a "Reject List". The List is initially empty, but can be loaded from a file or added while on-line (or both). Press F7 to pop up the Reject Menu. The available controls are as follows: Reject listed activity - toggles Reject checking on and off; must be ON to enable rejection of unwanted signals, however, it does not have to be on to perform any other Reject List functions. Add freq - Select this item to add the currently displayed scanner frequency to the Reject List. Clear freq - Clears the last freq on the Reject List. Save - Saves Reject List to a file. The user is asked for a filename. Load - Loads the Reject List from a file. Erase list - Erases the entire list. View Reject List - This item pops up a window showing the Reject List. Selected frequencies may be deleted and the List saved while viewing the List. The Reject List file format is described in DETAILS below. Auto-Reject is a feature available only to the PRO-2004/5/6. AUTO-REJECT DETAILS =================== You can do like I did.....disconnect the antenna; set the ATT switch to the -10 dB position and do a SEARCH from 25 MHz - 1300 MHz with the AutoLog feature ON. (Or, you can automate that task with a Script called BIRDFIND.SCR). About two hours later, you'll have a file that contains just the BIRDIES in your scanner! Now you edit and rename this file to something like BIRDIE.REJ, and the next time you do a frequency or band Search, you can specify the CE-232 function called AUTO-REJECT, that prevents the scanner from locking or stopping on "birdies". But that's not all! You can easily insert other undesirable frequencies into the BIRDIE.REJ or another *.REJ file, so not only can you EASILY make the scanner forever reject birdies, but also pagers, data channels and other obnoxious signals that you don't want to monitor or even log!!! The Reject function automatically "rejects" (resumes scanning or searching) when activity is detected on a frequency that is on the Reject List. The List is initially empty and may be loaded from a file and/or added to while the program is running. NOTE: A quick and easy way to add a specific frequency to the Reject List is to pick a channel in Program mode and enter the desired freq. Then select the Add Freq item above. After adding the freq to the list, another freq may be entered into the same channel and the process repeated. An entire list can be developed this way if desired. Don't forget to save the list if you want to keep it. The program will NOT prompt you to save the list. The AutoReject feature is most applicable in the Search mode. It is also operable in Scan mode (somewhat silly unless the user is in the peculiar habit of programing birdie frequencies). The file format is simple: one frequency per line. The following is an example of a valid *.REJ file: 80.0200 84.0200 87.2500 101.0000 104.0500 108.0250 112.0250 Piece of cake, actually. Once a *.REJ file is loaded, the AutoReject function can be turned on and off at will from the main menu. The loaded reject frequencies will remain in memory until it is erased or a new Reject File is loaded. The Reject File must be a text file with one frequency per line and no comments or other text. The frequency must be in a form identical to the way the scanner shows it (ie; padded to four decimal places with trailing zeros). The user may lock-out over 32,000 (depending upon available memory) unwanted frequencies. When the scanner stops on an undesired frequency, press CTRL+L to add that frequency to the active Reject List. Reject must be enabled for the program to skip over locked out frequencies in Scan or Search modes. The Reject List may be viewed by pressing CTRL+V or selecting from Reject Menu. A highlighted frequency may be removed from the list by pressing CTRL+C. When the list is not being viewed, Ctrl+C deletes the last frequency on the list. The list can be saved by pressing CTRL+S. You will be asked for a path/filename for the list. AutoReject is easily used in a hands-off, automated mode controlled by the Script function. The syntax for AutoReject in a Script is as follows: REJECT {ON|OFF|ADD|CLEAR|ERASE|LOAD [filename]|SAVE [filename]} If a filename is not specified for the LOAD or SAVE versions of the command, then the reject function will ask for it. Example Script Commands: REJECT ON / turns ON AutoReject REJECT OFF / turns OFF AutoReject REJECT ADD / add current freq to Reject List REJECT CLEAR / clear last item from list REJECT ERASE / erase entire list REJECT LOAD birdlist.rej / load Reject List from file REJECT SAVE newbirds.rej / save Reject List to a file AutoReject Limitations ====================== The maximum Reject List size loaded from file is 32,511 entries. Hint: After starting load, press F7 once, the reject menu will pop up when the loading is finished. The program will not respond to any keys while loading is underway, however, they are stored in the keyboard buffer and will execute when loading is finished. The program performs no updates while loading the Reject File, therefore, the display does not change (blinking continues though) even though the scanner continues to do it's thing. The Reject List must be an ASCII text file with one frequency per line. The actual file size in bytes is not important, but the number of lines (entries) is. Attempting to load a file with too many entries will crash the program (subscript out of range error). The maximum number of entries that can be entered while on line is 128 more than the 32,511 entry file limit. When loading the file, the program throws in additional space for 128 entries. If running a Script that uses the AutoReject function such as our old "LogNlok.SCR", the program will crash when this limit is exceeded. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION ====================== The CE-232's AutoReject helps the scanner Search and find new and interesting frequencies by giving the operator full control over which signals are to be excluded from being found, AutoLogged, and saved. You can have as many *.REJ files as you want, and each file can hold as many as 32,511 frequencies. Chances are, you'll never need that many, but a typical *.REJ file will start with the nearly 100 birdies that are resident in the PRO-2004, PRO-2005, and PRO-2006. 500 or so reject frequencies would be a rather large list. The CE-232 comes with a Script called BIRDFIND.SCR that, with only a little operator startup assistance, finds and AutoLogs all birdies in the scanner. It is then a simple matter to edit the *.LOG file to remove everything but the frequency column and resave it in the \REJ subdirectory as a *.REJ file. You can then add to it, as described above, all the worthless pager, tone, and data frequencies that are encountered in your Searches. The AutoReject function alone can make scanning much more productive and less of a drudgery than ever. +---------------------------------------------------------------+ | Bill Cheek ~ COMMtronics Engineering ~ World Scanner Report | | PO Box 262478 ~ San Diego, CA 92196-2478 | | Busn-Voice: (619) 578-9247 (1:30pm-5:30pm, PDT) FAX: anytime | | E-mail: bcheek@san.rr.com | | WWWeb Site: http://204.210.9.236 | | Backup: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/bcheek | | FTP Site: ftp://204.210.9.236 or ftp.204.210.9.236 | | or 204.210.9.236 (depends on your FTP program) | +---------------------------------------------------------------+ Copyright (c) 1997 by Bill Cheek, September 18, 1997 =====================[End of Article]===============================