GPS for 996

[soupbones]

okay who on scanSydney has a GPS connected to the scanner?

I have been running GPS on one of my 996 scanners in one of my cars now for several years. I use a 'mouse' type GPS which is tucked into the corner of the windscreen and wired back to the scanner in the dash. Works great. The mouse type GPS with serial are hard to get these days due to the phasing out of the serial port. I wish Uniden would update to USB like the rest of the world.

what POI have you put in?

Mainly red light and speed cameras. Not much else I really need in there.

how far have you set the range for your NSWGRN sites

This varies depending on the footprint the site is designed to cover. For example, most country sites are meant to cover large footprint areas. Some sites in the city, say like Little Bay, and designed to cover black spots. Best to check out the sites for yourself, or check them out on Google Earth. Ask here if your not sure.

does it take a fair amount of time to before the scanner connects with the gps
I use google earth and RR for the gps lat and long in DMS format

This depends on your GPS. Most GPS have to 'warm up' a bit till they receive enough satellites before they output data to your scanner. GPS warm up time depends on the GPS model.

[Chrisco]

I have been running GPS on one of my 996 scanners in one of my cars now for several years. I use a 'mouse' type GPS which is tucked into the corner of the windscreen and wired back to the scanner in the dash. Works great. The mouse type GPS with serial are hard to get these days due to the phasing out of the serial port.

I have a Garmin GPS18x PC with the serial port with no issue there. I bought this in a mapping shop in the northen beaches of Sydney. The size would be smaller than a DVD disk which is mounted in the cnr of the back window. Unlike the remote head and scanner hard wire to the car bettery I have the GPS powerd by the cigarette outlet.

I wish Uniden would update to USB like the rest of the world.

Yes that would help then one wouldn't have issue with serial to usb cable drivers

Mainly red light and speed cameras. Not much else I really need in there.

Yeah same red light cam and speed cameras in areas I don't know. Driving on a 60km/h road a speed camera ahead everyone slows down to 45-50km/h once past back to 60km/h. Oh yeah i have put Home in.

This varies depending on the footprint the site is designed to cover. For example, most country sites are meant to cover large footprint areas. Some sites in the city, say like Little Bay, and designed to cover black spots. Best to check out the sites for yourself, or check them out on Google Earth. Ask here if your not sure.

Okay I have installed google earth now magically the program has dissipated from my PC anyway like GPT I have put 32km range and I think 18km for 16km and Manly Nth Head 8km. I guess It would be a trial and error approach.

This depends on your GPS. Most GPS have to 'warm up' a bit till they receive enough satellites before they output data to your scanner. GPS warm up time depends on the GPS model.

Yeah your right just like sat nav.

[soupbones]

One thing I found with the distance settings is larger is better, but be careful. With larger settings you get an overlap which means you scan several sites at once in the city, which means better coverage of talk groups. But the smaller sites will lock in, and it they are only short range ones that cover black spots that have limited coverage, your scanner will end up scanning dead air, meaning your missing out on what happening on active sites.
Not sure on any other way you can see which sites have a wide footprint or which ones have a small foot print. I thought maybe look up the original date of a site on the ACMA data base, as most of the black spot sites are the newer ones, but given that licenses get renewed I don't think this will work.
Asking on here would be your best bet in sorting this out.

[Chrisco]

Yeah I am going down to the Southn Hilands in the coming weekends so if i set it up right the GPS will unlock and lockout the grn sites on the Hume H/way nicely. A bit of overlapping is always going to happen which isn't bad because you might have no systems unlocked traveling between two sites.

[Bigfella237]

...Not sure on any other way you can see which sites have a wide footprint or which ones have a small foot print...

You could always use the coverage maps from the GRN website?

Andrew

[Chrisco]

yeah thats another way andrew

[soupbones]

Yes that would work. Excellent place to start.
I go from personal experience, specially in areas I have travelled in and listen to the GRN. You get a good feel for the range of many sites when you listen to them while mobile. You can then make your own assumptions. Coverage maps are not always 100% accurate, that's for sure.

[Chrisco]

One also needs to factor in weather: ducting

[soupbones]

Why would you need to factor in weather when setting up a GPS 996 file?
Firstly, ducting usually comes from at least 100Km away, sometimes more and you can't set that into your scanner anyway. Secondly, the whole point of the GPS is to allow the scanner to monitor a GRN site when you move into its foot print, and lock it out when you leave.
If you want to listen out for ducting from far away GRN sites, then setting a GPS coordinate is a total waste of time, and won't work anyway.

So no you don't factor in ducting. Ducting is very unpredictable anyway.

[Chrisco]

yeah your right
belated tinkning