Freescan and Range Rings

I can't seem to find any reference to it, but does anyone else see a major error in Freescan's range rings when you plot a system?

If you plot a system in Freescan, then plot the EXACT same coordinates and range in Google Earth, Street Atlas, etc - you get a MUCH larger coverage area than what Freescan shows.

Did I miss a configuration menu somewhere - or do others see this as well?

Thanks,

Bill

Freescan is using Google maps, is it not? I am clicking on a spot on the map as a center and then setting the range (I presume diameter).
It gives me the coordinates and then you click it into the system location settings. Are we talking the same thing?

Mark
536/996P2/HP1e/HP2e/996XT/
396XT/PSR800/PRO668/PRO652

Yes - Freescan is using google maps - but look carefully at the range ring. Take the coordinates of a county in the RR database and load it into Freescan - then observe the range ring in detail. Then do the same in google earth using a program called "rings" - or you can draw a circle in Delorme Street Atlas. The Freescan range ring will be considerably SMALLER than either of the other two - for the same radius input (ie. 25 miles)

When you use the Freescan system plot function, it is even more obvious - with gaps in coverage of multisite systems...

There must be a very small percentage of people that use Freescan to not notice this...


Thanks,

Bill

I just tried it for the 1st time ( i have NO need for it FWIW).

Using an area I'm familiar with at a 20 mile range - actually had roughly a 17 mile diameter using Google's measure tool. So IMHO - that one was not that far off - if at all.

There does seem to be an error there. It is in how the ring is displayed ONLY, it does not effect the scanner. I've tested with sites and if I have 10 miles programmed in as the radius, they turn off at 10 miles. I just did a test in FreeScan and see that a 10 mile radius on a site extends out 3.92 miles...or 6.31 kilometers on the system plotter.

phask,

I tried your method - but found a different result. I made a "20 mile" range setting in Freescan and plotted the circle. Then I used the same center point in google maps and used the measuring tool. The measuring tool reported a 12.31 mi radius (vs. the 20 I had set in Freescan). I verified the measurement in google earth as well.

My results appear to be different than yours - do you remember any special menu setting in Freescan (like units) that I may have missed?

Thanks,

Bill

I'll have to check on the units setting....but I can tell you that 12.31 miles is equal to 20 kilometers...so it sounds like some units are crisscrossed somewhere.

trumpetman,

You are 100 % correct - if you use the GPS settings in the RR database, the scanner will work fine.

If you use Freescan to try to gauge your coverage area - you will be off by a substantial margin. When I started using Freescan to set up location-based systems, I found they turned on much sooner that I expected when entering a county. Now I know why....

Thank you for verifying I'm not crazy! i just wanted to make sure this info was out there so others would not be confused when setting up Freescan. It's an awesome program (once you identify the quirks).

Thanks,

Bill

trumpetman,

I think you nailed it - Freescan is displaying 20 km - NOT 20 miles (as it reports)... I just tried to find a menu setting, but didn't see anything... At least now we understand what's going on...

Thanks for the responses all...

Bill