Communications
Your starting point for browsing the radio codeplug loaded for your agency.
The Communications screen is the hub for everything in one radio's programming. You reach it by picking a codeplug on the Radio Info screen, and its header shows that codeplug's name so you always know which radio you are reading. From here you branch off into the zones and channels, the menu item lookup, the MPL entries, the button and switch assignments, the voice announcements, and the settings that apply to the whole radio.
Overview
The screen is a set of navigation buttons. Each one opens one part of the loaded codeplug, and every one of them is read-only — nothing here reprograms a radio.
| Button | Opens | What you use it for |
|---|---|---|
| Zones | The zone list | Find channels by area or function, the way the radio's zone knob is organized |
| Channels | The unique channel list | Find a channel by name across the whole codeplug, and see which zones it appears in |
| Menu Items | Menu Items | Look up what a short code on the radio display means |
| MPL Config | The MPL entry list | Read the selectable PL/DPL tone positions |
| Radio-Wide Settings | Radio-Wide Settings | Read the settings that apply to the whole radio, grouped into sections |
| Buttons / Switches | Radio Control | Check what each button, switch position, short press, and long press does |
| Sound Profiles | Sound Profiles | Read the radio's audio and tone profiles |
| Voice Announcement | Voice Announcement | Read the voice announcement entries programmed into the radio |
| Back | Radio Info | Return to the codeplug list to pick a different radio |
The header is the codeplug name of the codeplug you opened. If you are working with more than one radio type, check the header before you trust a channel or a button assignment — the layout looks identical between codeplugs.
Getting Here
- From the Home screen, open References.
- Select Communications. The Radio Info screen opens listing the codeplugs available to your organization.
- Tap the codeplug you want.
- This hub opens, titled with that codeplug's name.
Everything you open from this hub stays tied to that one codeplug. To read a different radio, tap Back and choose another codeplug.
Open Zones
The zone list mirrors how the radio itself is organized: zones first, channels inside them.
- Tap Zones.
- The zone list opens, showing every zone in the codeplug with its position and how many channels it holds.
- Tap a zone to open just that zone's channels.
- Tap a channel to read its full programming.
Use this route when you know roughly where a channel lives — "it's in the mutual aid zone" — rather than its exact name.
Open Channels
The Channels button opens the unique channel list, which is organized by channel rather than by zone.
- Tap Channels.
- Every distinct channel name in the codeplug is listed once, with its type, mode, backlight color, receive frequency, and how many zones it appears in.
- Tap a channel to expand it and see each zone and channel position where it appears.
- Tap one of those occurrences to open its full details.
Use this route when you know the channel name and want to know where to find it on the radio — including whether the same name appears in several zones.
Open the Other Sections
| Tap | To read |
|---|---|
| Menu Items | The menu codes for conventional and trunking operation, each with a plain-language name and description |
| MPL Config | Each MPL position with its alias, receive and transmit squelch types, and tone frequencies |
| Radio-Wide Settings | Name and value pairs grouped into sections, covering settings that are not specific to one channel |
| Buttons / Switches | Each control's type and position with the feature, short press, and long press assigned to it, separately for conventional and trunking |
| Sound Profiles | The radio's sound profile entries |
| Voice Announcement | The voice announcement entries, each with its name, type, and hashcode |
Before a mutual aid assignment, read Buttons / Switches and Menu Items for the radio you will actually be carrying. Two agencies can run the same channels and still have completely different buttons.
Loading and Error States
Each section loads its own data when you open it, so the hub itself opens instantly and any delay happens on the screen you tapped into.
| State | What you see |
|---|---|
| Section loading | A loading indicator on that section's screen |
| Section empty | An empty list — the codeplug contains nothing for that section |
| Request failed | An alert with the message returned by the server |
| Codeplug not downloaded, no connection | "This codeplug isn't available offline." |
Choosing the Right Section
| Your question | Open |
|---|---|
| "Where is this channel on the radio?" | Channels, then expand the channel to see its zones and positions |
| "What channels are in this zone?" | Zones, then the zone |
| "What tone does this channel use?" | Channels to the channel, then read its Squelch block |
| "Which tone position is number three?" | MPL Config |
| "What does this button do here?" | Buttons / Switches, on the tab matching the channel type |
| "What does SCAN mean on the display?" | Menu Items |
| "Why does the radio announce this zone?" | Voice Announcement |
| "What are the radio's global settings?" | Radio-Wide Settings |
| "Does this radio have the same channel as theirs?" | A channel's three-dot Compare option |
What This Hub Does Not Do
| You might expect | Reality |
|---|---|
| Programming or changing a radio | Nothing in Communications writes to a radio; it is all reference |
| A search box on the hub | Search lives inside each section that has a list |
| Two codeplugs side by side | One at a time, except for Compare on a channel |
| Talking on a channel | Radio traffic through the app is elsewhere, see the audio pages |
| Downloading a codeplug on demand | A codeplug is downloaded by opening it while connected |
| A favorites or recents list | None; pick the codeplug again from Radio Info |
Everything you read here describes the codeplug, not the radio in your hand. If a radio has been reprogrammed since this codeplug was imported, the radio wins — check the import date on Radio Info.
How This Connects
- Where the codeplug comes from. A codeplug is imported for your organization and then read by the app section by section. With a connection each section is fetched fresh as you open it; with no connection each section is read from the downloaded copy of that codeplug on your device — see Radio Info.
- One codeplug at a time. Every screen you open from this hub carries the codeplug you selected. Nothing merges two codeplugs, with one exception: Compare on a channel's details deliberately checks one channel against another codeplug, described in Zone & Channel Details.
- Zones and channels are the same data. The zone route and the channel route reach the same channel records from different directions — see Zones and Channels.
- MPL ties into channels. A channel whose squelch is user-selectable is pointing at the MPL positions listed under MPL Config — see MPL Configuration and MPL Radio List.
- Used alongside incidents. The channel assignments recorded for an incident are read in Incident Comms Tab; this hub is where you look up what one of those channels actually is. In-app talk paths are separate radio traffic — see Audio Channels and Streaming Channels.
- Documents live elsewhere. Reference documents open in Internal Files, including from the Mobile Data Com area.
- Offline and reconnect. Codeplugs downloaded for your organization can be read with no signal, section by section. A codeplug that has never been downloaded cannot be opened offline. When the connection returns, the next section you open fetches the current version from the server.
Troubleshooting
| If this happens | What to do |
|---|---|
| The header shows the wrong radio | Tap Back and pick the correct codeplug on Radio Info. |
| A section opens empty | That codeplug has no entries for that section. Check another section to confirm the codeplug loaded. |
| "This codeplug isn't available offline." | This codeplug has not been downloaded. Connect to the internet, open it once, then it can be read offline. |
| A section shows an alert with a server message | The fetch failed. Check your connection and tap the button again. |
| Channel names look unfamiliar | You may be in a different codeplug than you expect. Check the header name. |
| Channels lists a name once but you need every zone | Tap the channel to expand it; each zone and channel position is listed underneath. |
| You cannot find a channel by name | Try the Channels route rather than Zones — it searches across the whole codeplug. |
Related Pages
Next: Channels ➡️