I'm running into a lot of Stratas DK280's and DK242's etc,,,is there a way to program these systems with a laptop and on site?

In my experience, the only way to program these systems is through button programming from a 20 button set.

There is a way to program via laptop, I think the program is called DK Admin and you need some sort of special dongle. I think most techs prefer programming with a phone though. I don't do any work with the DK systems so can't provide any insight other than this.

The last version of DKAdmin did not require a dongle. I have had mixed luck getting it to work. Some systems were already setup to work wit DKAdmin and I was able to connect. I was also able to completely wipe out all the VMID codes on the entire system.

Most of the time it is just easier to use the phone. It did come in handy when migrating a medium sized company to a Strata CIX.