[chirp_users] New user

[Tom Hayward]

On Tue, Apr 14, 2015 at 10:57 PM, Mike <wa4yur at gmail.com> wrote:
> As a new user chirp is still a learning experience. The data that is used in the download sites is old and outdated on the ones that it would let me access. It would not let me look at all of the sites so I can't comment on all of them. The one that I was able to access still has repeaters listed in my area thy have been off the air for at least five years. I realize this is something chirp can not control to a certain extent but they could get a site that is more up to date and dump the sites that are still in the dark ages with their lists. I had some problems trying to down load data but I think it's due to not being use to using chirp so I need more time with the program to comment there. One site I have found that is reasonably correct on their data is Artsi but even they have a few lists that are not accurate but they seem to have more accurate data than most others.radio reference is pretty close on some stuff but has old data on others. The data that comes up when you
>   download chirp and look at what is there is not accurate at all. It doesn't even show the repeater offset on some and on the vhf marine channels some of the channels are not even in the marine service they are public safety frequencies. All in all chirp is a good idea but it really needs some data updating and corrections by someone that is familiar with FCC band plans and repeater inputs and outputs and what frequencies are assigned to what radio services. This would make chirp a really great and very useful program. As the saying goes junk in junk out.

I read your whole message and failed to find a complaint specific
enough to be constructive. If you were a little more specific, we
could act on your recommendations. When you speak in ambiguities, it
just wastes everyone's time.

John and Barry are right--we focus our efforts on supporting 80+
models of radios. We could use a developer who wants to focus on the
data sources. If this is you, check out the Developers info:
http://chirp.danplanet.com/projects/chirp/wiki/Developers
Once you get the code, you'll find the stock configs in the
stock_configs directory.

You'll find the code to download from various data sources in the
chirp directory. The data themselves come from external sources, but
if what you see on their webpage and in Chirp are different, there may
be an opportunity for a bugfix in our code. If the data on their
webpage are wrong, well obviously you have to talk to them about that.

If you want to add Artsci (I'm guessing you meant Artsci, not Artsi),
you'll have to start by talking them into building a data export
service. It doesn't look like they have anything like that now. It
would be a great resource if they want to allow it.

We'll be happy to guide you through the process of contributing to
Chirp in the chirp_devel mailing list.

Tom KD7LXL