Site range in DB and HomePatrol

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mckeeb

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Mar 8, 2009
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Location
Bedford, IN
Howdy folks,

I finally bought myself a HomePatrol, and now have ALL of Indiana programmed in a scanner (something I could never get done with my 396XT). Upon entering my zip, it loaded up some channels and was off scanning. Sitting next to my 396XT I noticed it spent more time holding on SAFE-T. So i went to check the sites, and sure enough, way too many selected. Most of the ones I checked in the DB were 30 miles. I currently have stock antenna on, and no way is it gonna pick up tower 30 miles away. I adjusted range down to 0 miles, and also 0.5 miles. Didn't help. I even put in GPS coords, didn't help. I guess I'm just in the bubble of all these sites. I'm currently in and around Bedford, IN. Lawrence county. It has surrounding county sites enabled such as, Monroe county (bloomington, hindustan, paynetwon), Orange county (paoli) and more. I was able to simply go in and temp. avoid them to increase scan speed, but when I play around more, it seems to revert back. I do plan on hooking it up to GPS for travel, and want to see how it does with that. I also remember reading about locations being done with rectangles rather than the big circle. Do I have any options to work with to help myself out? Or is going in and avoiding (only temp so far) my best bet. I have not messed with favorite lists yet, but I don't think that applies here. Thanks for any info you got, and ENJOY the SuperBowl!

- Brian
 

seagullplayer

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Feb 1, 2013
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Location
Marengo, IN
I live not all that far from you, I am interested in how the home patrol works out for you.

So you just entered you zip code and it was up and running? That sounds pretty sweet.
 

JStemann

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Premium Subscriber
Joined
May 17, 2004
Messages
500
Location
SE Indiana
Using the hp1, myself. I ended up creating a couple of favorites lists to handle my local stuff. Then I used Arc Patrol to edit SafeT and the county stuff down to just the local sites and then the ranges down to a more realistic range. I only did this for my little corner of the state. Any time I get out of the local area, I put it back on the full database and let the gps do it's thing.

The gps works pretty good with the hp1 out on the road. There are some things a little annoying, here & there. I wish there was a way to get the range of statewide systems down to something more reasonable...It's still trying to scan KY air helicopters up by Indy and it's trying to scan the Ohio toll road down in SE Indiana. That's part of the problem with using circles for the range. Just have to hit the avoid button now & then.

Anyway, it's much nicer than spending hours and hours setting up my 1,000 mile vacation route or reprogramming everything on my 996xt for rebanding.

Jeff.
 

mckeeb

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Joined
Mar 8, 2009
Messages
22
Location
Bedford, IN
Thanks for the replies. Still loving my Home Patrol. I guess the 30 miles range is reasonable for some. I'm looking into maybe getting an outdoor antenna. Maybe that will pull in those sites 30 miles away. The part about favorites lists is in the manual it talks about scanning and a fav list AND the full database. I don't see the point in that. Everything in the fav list, is in the full DB. I guess the only perk I can see about it is if I edit a system in a a fav list it will stay that way. Are you doing permanent Avoids when avoiding sites? I want them to work if I use GPS and get within range. I was traveling on I-69 with it (w/o the GPS unfortunately), manually putting in GPS coords. It eventually loaded the Illinois database. When I hit E-ville, it loaded KY stuff. I wish there was more control over the range. On the scanner, it's already at it's lowest at 0 miles. So the programming seems to be the only other way. A mobile range vs. base station range option would be nice.

On a side note, I would like to know some folks setups with their HP. Antenna type, etc. and what range they are picking up. Heck, I'm curious on range for anybody's setup. I've yet to pickup anything out of the county myself. Happy Scanning!
 

JStemann

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Premium Subscriber
Joined
May 17, 2004
Messages
500
Location
SE Indiana
I use the included antenna or my radio shack 800 rubber duckie in the house. In the car I use a Larsen nmo 150/450/800 and on the truck I have a comet(?) c24sxr or something like that. It's a broad coverage 150/450 antenna that does OK on 800. On either mobile antenna 20-25 is about the max for the SafeT system and a lot of that depends on the site. I'm getting a little more on the 150 mhz stuff, maybe 30-35 miles give or take. The 450 stuff is over in KY mostly, and I haven't tried to see what kind of range I'm getting on it. At least 20 miles, though.

With either the factory or the RS antennas, I can get the some of the counties around me on VHF. I don't think I can get any SafeT site beyond the local one (reliably), but the next closest is about 15 miles away and it's just a short tower.

Come to think of it, I think I tried my outside yagi when I first got the HP. It's meant for cell phones in the 800-900mhz range. I'm pretty sure I listened to Cincinnati PD, just to see if could. If so, that would be at least 40-45 miles to the nearest site, maybe even more. Maybe I'll try it again, just for fun.

Jeff S.
 

mckeeb

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Joined
Mar 8, 2009
Messages
22
Location
Bedford, IN
Sounds like a good setup! I threw on a RS 20-023 Mag Mount today, it's doing a lil better. Might use that for mobile in the car as well. No DB admins have replied, so I guess they are happy with the ranges in the database. In Avoca, IN (zip 47420) If I put in that zip, it unlocks 18 sites (towers) for SAFE-T. Bedford is strongest and pretty much only needed one. I can get a signal from the Georgia tower (same county). NONE of the others will even hear the control channel. I checked. I read in another thread that the HP stops on each site for approx. 1.5 seconds. That's alot of holding on SAFE-T system with 18 sites unlocked. First attempt to fix problem, I change range to 0.0 miles. That only drops the sites down to 11. I don't wanna avoid 9 sites. And if using GPS, which also uses that range, that means the same thing while traveling. I thought the whole point of using GPS was to precisely lock and unlock stuff. if I gotta go in while driving and avoid 4-10 sites as I move through the counties, GPS becomes worthless. I'm surprised no HP owners have replied. Are you guys happy to have that many sites unlocked, but can't pick them up??
 
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