BC-436HP + BC-GPSK = Junk?

I picked up a BC-GPSK earlier this week for a road trip. I thought the idea behind the BC-GPSK was to avoid having to input a zip code every time I got to a new town. I drove over 450 miles and I could never get a GPS lock.

The antenna puck was almost dead center on the roof of my Tahoe. The only other thing on the roof was an external antenna that's about 2 feet away. I have the scanner setup according to the instructions and the range was 5 miles. I tried time and time again to get the GPSK to figure out where I was but it was generally off by hundreds of miles if I was lucky to get anything at all. I tried using both formats and nothing changed.

So I wound up googling zip codes every 20-30 miles and manually input them which brings me up to another thing that was annoying. I had my range set at 5 miles yet I was seeing systems over 50-100 miles away show up in the list of systems being scanned. I watched the scanner when it was loading the database in Columbus GA and it was loading data from North Carolina. WTF?

It works great when properly set up. Was the red light blinking on the unit? The GPSK is one of the fastest ones to get a lock in intermittent use, but initial acquisition the first time you use it can take a while until it calculates the exact cycle the satellites are in. I use mine on the dash and had no issues.

What antenna was 2' away? You don't want any GPS receiver within 2' of any other GPS receiver, and I would say not within 2' of any transmitting antenna. I've had experience with mutual interference from multiple GPS receivers of many different brands. Get them about 3' away from each other and they all worked fine. Until I did that, I thought I had some dead ones.

On the range, if you have something programmed with a range of 500 miles away, it will lead even if your range is 5 miles. The solution is to properly set the range of the user to something less than 500 miles - preferably to the area they cover only.

You can confirm whether the GPS device is sending location information to your scanner a couple of ways:

1 is without the GPS connected, set the scanner zipcode to something far away such as Los Angeles if you are in New York. Then see what the scanner loads (hopefully LA stuff). Next, connect the GPS to the scanner (giving it time to track satellites) and see if it loads the New York stuff.

2 is to determine what the scanner has for location (lat/long). To do this press Menu>Set Your Location>Set Manual Location and note the Latitude and Longitude. Then drive a short distance (1/4 mile or so) and repeat the Menu>Set Your Location>Set Manual Location and note the Latitude and Longitude. If the numbers are different, then the GPS is reporting information to the scanner.

I'm not sure of the merits of placing the "puck" on the outside of the vehicle on the roof. I've used several GPS devices all of which were on a vehicle dashboard with good results.

Did you have to do something to lengthen the cable to achieve the needed length? If so, perhaps something is amiss in the connections. Just thinking, I wonder if the cable might have been too long to get the data from the puck to the scanner.

With regard to the systems 50-100 miles away, it isn't unusual for statewide systems to have large range values (North Carolina is 200+ miles) and thus "turn on" at great distances.

When you set your scanner range to 5 miles, that does not mean you are limiting your scanner to receiving "things" only within 5 miles. You might review the link below which describes how location based scanning works.

How it Works: Location, Location, Location

Maybe it's broken. Things do happen. I made one from a surplus GPS. If I leave it in the sun it loses lock due to thermal issues. Nothing is foolproof.

I always place the puck on the dash board. I've used mine with the 436, 536, and HP2 and it's been nothing short of excellent. Could be a bad unit.

+1, mine is on the dashboard and has no problem with my 436

Voyager said:

It works great when properly set up. Was the red light blinking on the unit? The GPSK is one of the fastest ones to get a lock in intermittent use, but initial acquisition the first time you use it can take a while until it calculates the exact cycle the satellites are in. I use mine on the dash and had no issues.

What antenna was 2' away? You don't want any GPS receiver within 2' of any other GPS receiver, and I would say not within 2' of any transmitting antenna. I've had experience with mutual interference from multiple GPS receivers of many different brands. Get them about 3' away from each other and they all worked fine. Until I did that, I thought I had some dead ones.

On the range, if you have something programmed with a range of 500 miles away, it will lead even if your range is 5 miles. The solution is to properly set the range of the user to something less than 500 miles - preferably to the area they cover only.

Click to expand...

The LED is extremely difficult to see in sun light but I believe at each stop when I checked it it was blinking red. I know the initial acquisition time does take longer but I in about 8 hours of driving I would think it could manage to find a lock.

It's more than 2 feet away from the Tahoe's Multi XM/GPS antenna, at least 4 feet. The other antenna on to roof was the receive only antenna for the 436HP.

The systems that are showing up are systems I've never monitored before. I've ever made any changes to the full database and use favorites when I'm in my home area. I don't understand how I can set the range to 5 miles and in Southern Alabama why it's loading stuff from North Carolina.

Check baud rate

I think I remember having an issue once because I had the baud rate of a non-Uniden GPS incorrectly set. Don't remember if I had to reset it when I bought the Uniden GPS, but I wonder if that could be your issue.

It loads it because that system has a range of 100 or more miles - either DB error or a statewide system.

You need to read this to understand how location works. I usually run 0 for range and expect los of errors when using the full DB.
How it Works: Location, Location, Location

I'm in Ohio - will load Wv and a few in VA .

battleop said:

The LED is extremely difficult to see in sun light but I believe at each stop when I checked it it was blinking red. I know the initial acquisition time does take longer but I in about 8 hours of driving I would think it could manage to find a lock.

It's more than 2 feet away from the Tahoe's Multi XM/GPS antenna, at least 4 feet. The other antenna on to roof was the receive only antenna for the 436HP.

The systems that are showing up are systems I've never monitored before. I've ever made any changes to the full database and use favorites when I'm in my home area. I don't understand how I can set the range to 5 miles and in Southern Alabama why it's loading stuff from North Carolina.

Click to expand...

I just look at the scanner and see the letters GPS on the display but then that is a 536.

eaf1956 said:

I just look at the scanner and see the letters GPS on the display but then that is a 536.

Click to expand...

I dove 90 miles from Panama City Beach to Pensacola this morning. Half the trip was with the puck as far away as possible from the Tahoe's GPS/XM/OnStar/etc antenna as I could possibly get. I had the scanner in the rear hatch just to see if I could get a lock. After an hour I got nothing so I moved the puck to the dash and still nothing after an hour.

The 436HP does show GPS on the display when connected.

One thing I can't seem to find online is the owners manual. The one that comes with th box only tells you what baud but not the location format or anything else about the GPS setup.

I'm extremely dissatisfied with this product. It should not be this difficult to get working.

sibbley said:

I always place the puck on the dash board. I've used mine with the 436, 536, and HP2 and it's been nothing short of excellent. Could be a bad unit.

Click to expand...

Me, too, except lit was a 436, HP1& HP2. Never had any kind of problem.

Did you check as described in Post#3?

battleop said:

I dove 90 miles from Panama City Beach to Pensacola this morning. Half the trip was with the puck as far away as possible from the Tahoe's GPS/XM/OnStar/etc antenna as I could possibly get. I had the scanner in the rear hatch just to see if I could get a lock. After an hour I got nothing so I moved the puck to the dash and still nothing after an hour.

The 436HP does show GPS on the display when connected.

One thing I can't seem to find online is the owners manual. The one that comes with th box only tells you what baud but not the location format or anything else about the GPS setup.

I'm extremely dissatisfied with this product. It should not be this difficult to get working.

Click to expand...

phask said:

Did you check as described in Post#3?

Click to expand...

Yes.

What did you see when you did the test?

I don't have a 436 (just the 536), so I can't try this myself, but try Menu>Set Your Location>Set Up GPS>Set Serial Port. If you can get to Set Serial Port, confirm the value is 4800.

Some times I'll forget to reset my baud rate for 4800 after I use a Virtual Control program which uses a higher baud rate and my GPS doesn't work. GPS devices set data at 4800 baud and the scanner has to be "married up" for that value.

Other than the device being defective, ithe problem has to be something simple.

Also describe exactly how you have it connected to power and the scanner.

I have the scanner set to 4800 and I've tried both location formats. The GPS is getting its power from the vehicles cigarette power port. I've tried connecting the GPS and the turning on the scanner and power cycling the GPS after the radio is on.

Shouldn't I get a solid green LED on the puck eventually even with the scanner not connected?

I have the scanner powered by battery and the GPS gets powere from the cigarette plug.

You should get a pulsing green LED (1 Hz duty cycle).