Entering Trunk System Data in the Wiki - Using Categories

A wiki category is a gathering of articles with a common theme or topic. Per policy, every article in the wiki must have at least 1 category. If this isn't supplied, it shows up on a maintenance report that lists uncategorized articles.

The trick here is to decide which categories to which a particular article would belong. If you are defining an article that uses one of the infoboxes, then at a minimum, it should be assigned to that state's (or province's) Trunked Radio Systems category. This is accomplished by placing the category at the very bottom of the article and writing the following, assuming you are defining a trunked system in Maryland:

[[Category:Maryland Trunked Radio Systems]]

There are numerous categories in our wiki, and while one can navigate their way through the maze of links to get to the special pages area that lists them, there is a much faster way to find them.

Simply go to the Collaboration Gateway and select the state or province on which you are working. Then go to the very bottom of that article, and you will find a Related Categories section in the article. There are 3 different methods for viewing the list of categories; select the one that you find most useful.

We also have a listing of categories grouped by theme, rather than some geographic region. See our Collaboration Categories article for more on this topic.

Each article can belong to more than one category. Placing each category on a separate line makes maintaining the category list for an article a breeze.

If you find you need to define a category, you may do this yourself. There are 2 required components;

1. Preamble - which describes the category and what it's used for, and
2. Members - which you populate each time you issue the Category directive.

If you have used a category in your article and it turns up red when you store it, this means the wiki either can't find the reference, or is incomplete. If it's not misspelled, you can easily define the preamble by using a template from a category that already exists for another state. Then copy the template and substitute your state or province. Once it's stored, the reference to the new category will be resolved properly.

Special Categories

These categories are used to gather specific types of data. If you have data that belongs to these categories, please create a separate article for them and link it from the main trunked article (where the Infobox is found). That way, should the category grow, it won't overwhelm the original article, and keeps the data manageable. The entryname reference would refer to the state or province you are trying to define for this data.

• entryname DMR - used for capturing information on single channel DMR or networked DMR systems. Articles found here are likely to be using the Trboconventional template, as described elsewhere.
• entryname MOTOTRBO Information - Used for capturing all information related to a MOTOTRBO trunked system. This would include the TRS article itself along with talkgroups under investigation. Should be listed along with the Trunked Radio System and Unknown Talkgroups categories. Bandplans should be described using the Trbosys template, described elsewhere
• entryname NXDN IDAS - Like the MOTOTRBO information category, but this is for NXDN IDAS systems
• entryname NXDN NEXEDGE - Like the MOTOTRBO information category, but this is for NXDN NEXEDGE systems
• entryname Regional Programming - Used for capturing unusual programming that a scanner would need to properly trunk this system, except for Rebanding, which is covered elsewhere. This includes special bandplans or settings in a particular scanner.
• entryname RID/UIDs - Used for capturing Radio IDs and/or User IDs
• entryname Unknown Talkgroups - Used for capturing and documenting talkgroups that aren't yet identified
• entryname Trunking Information - this is the default category for other trunked-related items, such as zone configurations, physical system information, radios, etc.
• Statewide Public Safety Systems - Notice that this one doesn't use a state or province; it's reserved for documenting, as the name suggests, public safety systems that cover an entire state.

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