If you would like to manage DMR Talk Group, Channel, and Zone definitions outside of your radio manufacturer's CPS software using an SCM-friendly textual format, then this tool may be for you! If your CPS software supports the import of ".csv" (comma separated values) or ".xlsx" files then this tool will allow you to maintain all of your Talk Group, Channel, and Zone definition information in a set of independent, text-based ".csv" files. The Python script in this project takes care of converting these independent definition files to suitably-formatted import files for use by your manufacturer's CPS software.
If you have radios from different manufacturers this tool may allow you to synchronize the Talk Groups, Channels, and in some cases the Zones across each of your radios without manual editing. You maintain one set of text-based definition files, and can target the following supported CPS software packages:
If you're stumbled onto this tool and don't have any idea what "SCM-firendly" means, what "git" or "GitHub" is, then I recommend you take a look at the following online book:
There are four main input file types used by this tool which together define a set of Analog and DMR channels for your radio(s). The file type is indicated by a prefix in the file name. The prefixes are:
The layout and purpose of each of these files is described in more detail in separate sections for each file type below.
For normal functionality the tool expects at least one file of each type in it's "input directory". To facilitate management of the input files, the tool allows any number of files for each input type to be present in it's working "input directory". The input directory defaults to "./input_data_files", but any directory can be specified as a command line argument to the script.
The script processes the files in the order shown in the prefix list above. If there are more than file one of each type, the script will process the input files in alphabetic order. This behavior is significant if you have a talkgroup or channel definition in more than one file. The script ignores subsequent re-definitions, keeping the attributes of the first definition that it sees while processsing. If you are using reference definition files and you want to override a specific talkgroup or channel definition without altering the reference file, you can simply create a file containing your overriding definition and give it a filename that sorts first alphabetically.
A set of sample input files are provided in this repository, located in the "N7EKB_shared_files" directory under the "reference_data_files" directory. If you look at this directory, you'll notice for example that there is an "Analog" file named "AnalogN7EKB_MURS_Channels.csv" which defines analog channels for the MURS radio service. There is another "Analog" file named "AnalogNOAA_WX_Channels.csv" which defines analog channels for the NOAA weather service in the United States. By carefully organizing your reference channel definition files into modules like this, you can easily create separate, purpose-specific input directories that you can point the script to for processing. This facilitates building one codeplug for friends and family, another for your EMCOMM team, another for a trip to a different area, etc.
Advanced users are encouraged to fork this repository and then create and maintain their own "CALLSIGN_shared_files" directory under "reference_data_files". Pull requests for updates to such directories will be gladly added to this project repo.
Zone, Channel Name, Bandwidth, Power, RX Freq, TX Freq, CTCSS Decode, CTCSS Encode, TX ProhibitThis file type provides definitions of analog FM channels.
Zone. The Zone column is used to specify the name of the zone this channel should be assigned to. If you want the same channel to appear in multiple zones, you can specify it on multiple rows with different Zone Name values.
Channel Name. The channel name must be unique and can be up to 16 characters long. If the script encounters another definition later with the same name, it will maintain the first definition and issue a warning message.
Bandwidth. The bandwidth value can be either 12.5 or 25, representing narrow or wide FM mode is used for the channel.
Power. The power represents the RF output power setting to be used by the channel. The value can be "Low", "Medium", "High", or "Turbo". Depending on the radio CPS, "High" and "Turbo" may be equivalent. The script translates these to the appropriate values accepted by the CPS software.
RX Freq. The receive frequency for the channel specified as a numeric value in MHz.
TX Freq. The transmit frequency for the channel specified as a numeric value in MHz.
CTCSS Decode. The value of the CTCSS or DCS tone decoded upon receive for the channel. The value can be "Off" if CTCSS/DCS is not used for receive on this channnel.
CTCSS Encode. The value of the CTCSS or DCS tone used for transmitting on the channel. The value can be "Off" if CTCSS/DCS is not used for transmit on this channnel.
TX Prohibit. If set to "On", this value marks the channel as receive-only - no transmit will be allowed. If set to "Off", then transmitting is allowed on the channel. Remember to set this to "On" for any channels with transmit frequency values that lie outside of ranges you are licensed to operate within.
TG Name, TG IDFiles with the Talkgroups__ prefix define the name and DMR ID (talk group number) of talkgroups used with DMR mode channels.
The script allows multiple talkgroup names for the same talkgroup ID. When processing the Talkgroups*.csv files, the name used in the first definition of a talkgroup ID is the name that will be used for all channels in the generated CPS import file. By carefully crafting a Talkgroupsxxx.csv file with a filename that sorts alphabetically first in the list of Talkgroup*.csv file names you can easily re-map all talkgroups to use that first file's naming convention. This is an important behavior if you are trying to override the channel names generated by entries in a Digital-Repeater*.csv file.
Note: This file type does NOT have a header row. In other words, you will not have "TG Name,TG ID" as the first row in the file - just data rows.
TG Name. The name for your talkgroup. Can be up to 16 characters long.
TG ID. The DMR ID number of the talk group. This can be any number from 1-?.
Zone, Channel Name, Power, RX Freq, TX Freq, Color Code, Talk Group, TimeSlot, Call Type, TX PermitThis file type provides definitions of digital mode DMR channels.
Zone. The Zone column is used to specify the name of the zone this channel should be assigned to. If you want the same channel to appear in multiple zones, you can specify it on multiple rows with different Zone Name values.
Channel Name. The channel name must be unique and can be up to 16 characters long. If the script encounters another definition later with the same name, it will maintain the first definition and issue a warning message.
Power. The power represents the RF output power setting to be used by the channel. The value can be "Low", "Medium", "High", or "Turbo". Depending on the radio CPS, "High" and "Turbo" may be equivalent. The script translates these to the appropriate values accepted by the CPS software.
RX Freq. The receive frequency for the channel specified as a numeric value in MHz.
TX Freq. The transmit frequency for the channel specified as a numeric value in MHz.
Color Code. The digital equivalent of CTCSS/CTDSS, this is a value between 1 and 14.
Talk Group. This is the name of the talk group to associate with the channel. The value can be a maximum of 16 characters and must be defined in one (or more) of the Talkgroup__*.csv input files.
TimeSlot. This is a value of "1" or "2", and defines the DMR time slot for this channel.
Call Type. The call type can be either "Group Call" or "Private Call".
TX Permit. This value can be "Same Color Code" or "Always". For repeaters you want to use "Same Color Code". For simplex channels, the convention is "Always".
Zone Name, Comment, Power, RX Freq, TX Freq, Color Code, TG 1... TG nThis file type provides definitions of digital mode DMR channels for a group of repeaters. The PNW Digital Network makes their repeater information available in this format. Each row is a specific repeater with columns for a Zone assignment, comment, power level, RX/TX frequency and color code, followed by a column for each talkgroup potentially available. The column value of "1", "2", or "-", signifies what slot the repeater offers that talkgroup on, or if "-" is specified, means the repeater doesn't carry that particular talkgroup.
By default, the script generates a channel for each talkgroup carried by a repeater with the appropriate parameters and zone assignment. The channel name is formed from the zone name plus the talkgroup name. To ensure the channel name doesn't exceed the 16 character limit, a means to specify a shortened name is provided in the zone name and and talkgroup name values (see column details below).
Zone Name. The zone name is actually two fields delimited by a semi-colon. The first part is the actual Zone Name which will be used (up to 16 characters) as the zone assignment for the channels generated for the row. The second part is an abbreviated value that will be used as a prefix to the channel names created for the row. The channel names are formed from the prefix plus the talkgroup name for each talkgroup on the row which has a slot value (either "1" or "2"). On radios whose CPS doesn't accept imports for Zone files this prefix is a key to finding the channels you want when building your zones in the CPS.
Comment. This is a comment that is ignored by the script.
Power. The power represents the RF output power setting to be used by the channel. The value can be "Low", "Medium", "High", or "Turbo". Depending on the radio CPS, "High" and "Turbo" may be equivalent. The script translates these to the appropriate values accepted by the CPS software.
RX Freq. The receive frequency for the channel specified as a numeric value in MHz.
TX Freq. The transmit frequency for the channel specified as a numeric value in MHz.
Color Code. The digital equivalent of CTCSS/CTDSS, this is a value between 1 and 14.
TG 1... TG n. These subsequent column headings signify a talkgroup name that is potentially available in this repeater network. The value can be a maximum of 16 characters. This talkgroup name value must be defined in one (or more) of the Talkgroup__*.csv input files. An optional semi-colon delimter followed by an abbreviated talkgroup name can be appended to the column heading. This abbreviated name will be used by the script when forming the channel name. Channel names cannot exceed 16 characters.
There are some optional files that may be required by the script if one or more of the following command line options are specified: --zone_order, --tg_filter, or --rptr_filter. The script expects to find these files in the input files directory. The --inputdir command line option can be used to specify an input files directory other than the default of "./input_data_files".
The optional files are (with associated option in parenthesis):
The layout and purpose of each of these optional files is described in more detail in separate sections for each file below.
Repeater NameThis single column .csv file allows you to exclude rows of the Digital-Repeaters__*.csv files from processing.
The PNW Digital Network (http://pnwdigital.net) provides a Digital-Repeaters*.csv file that includes a row for each repeater (59+) on their DMR network covering the Pacific Northwest Region in North America. A codeplug that contains a channel for each repeater/talkgroup combination specified in the Digital-Repeaters*.csv file would have upwards of 3000+ channels. This exceeds the channel capacity of CPS's targeted by this script.
You can specify --rptr_filter on the command line and then use the MyExcludedRepeaters.csv file to exclude any repeaters listed in the file from being processed. This will allow you to reduce the number of channels generated for the given CPS target(s), and eliminate entries for repeaters that you won't be using.
Rather than editing the Digital-Repeaters__*.csv file each time it is updated, you can use a MyExcudedRepeaters.csv file instead.
TG NameThis single column .csv file allows you to exclude talk groups specified in the Digital-Repeaters__*.csv files from processing.
The PNW Digital Network (http://pnwdigital.net) provides a Digital-Repeaters*.csv file that includes every talk group (50+) available on their network. If you are interested in creating channels from the Digital-Repeaters*.csv file for only a subset of talk groups that you regularly use, you can specify --tg_filter on the command line and place any talk groups you want to exclude from processing in your MyExcludedTalkgroups.csv file.
Rather than editing the Digital-Repeaters__*.csv file each time it is updated to trim down the number of talk groups to your custom set, you can use a MyExcludedTalkgroups.csv file instead.
Zone NameThis single column .csv file allows you to specify the order of zones that will be emitted in the zones import file for CPS targets which support zone file import/export.
Any zones that were specified in the input data files that don't appear in the MyZoneOrder.csv file will be appended to the bottom of the zone import file produced by the script in the order that they appeared in processing.
If a zone is specified in this file that has no corresponding channel members defined in the input data files, it will generate a warning message from the script that the Zone is unused.
Here is the usage message from the current script:
CPS Import File Builder
Supported CPS targets: ['868', '578', '878', 'cs800d', 'uv380']
Source: https://github.com/n7ekb/cps-import-builder
usage: cps-import-builder.py [-h] --cps CPS_TARGET [--inputdir INPUTDIR]
[--outputdir OUTPUTDIR] [--zone_order]
[--tg_filter] [--rptr_filter] [--debugmode]
optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
--cps CPS_TARGET specify CPS target; multiple targets allowed, or use
special target "all" to generate files for all
supported targets (default: [])
--inputdir INPUTDIR specify directory containing input files (default:
./input_data_files)
--outputdir OUTPUTDIR specify directory for output files (default:
./output_files)
--zone_order set the zone_order flag; if set, 'MyZoneOrder.csv'
must be present in the input files directory; useful
for CPS targets that support zone file import/export
(default: False)
--tg_filter set the tg_filter flag; if set,
'MyExcludedTalkgroups.csv' must be present in the
input files directory (default: False)
--rptr_filter set the rptr_filter flag; if set,
'MyExcludedRepeaters.csv' must be present in the input
files directory (default: False)
--debugmode set the debug flag for troubleshooting (default:
False)
This project requires a standard Python 3 execution environment. Most of the development and testing has been done on Linux systems, but there shouldn't be any obstacles to execution on a Windows or MAC system. If you do have problems, please file and issue so we can address it.
A "requirements.txt" document is included in this repo. You can ensure that you have all of the needed Python packages/libraries to run the script by feeding the requirements.txt file to PIP.
For example:
pip install -r requirements.txtAfter a successful run of the above PIP command your local Python execution environment should have all of the dependencies needed for this project.
We would like to build a collection of well-maintained channel definition files used by this script for anywhere in the world that a DMR radio might go. If you have channels you'd like to share, look at the "N7EKB_shared_files" directory to see an example of the suggested naming convention and file format. GitHub pull requests for new content are greatly appreciated!
Be sure to checkout the open issues and see if you can help out with any of them. If you have an idea for a new feature or improvement, please file an issue.