996XT GPS Question

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gpswx4cster

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Group,

Imade my first trip today with my 996XT with a GPS connected. I had my scanner programmed to follow the State Police Troops while traveling the interstate. I had all the systems locked out except for my first group. Am I supposed to have all the systems unlocked and the scanner will switch to the corrct group (system) asi travel?

I also observed that some systems went to id search instead of id scan when traveling. Is this something that Ihave incorrectly programmed into my scanner? (I use freescan)

Thanks!!
 

ka3jjz

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Re the 2nd question - yes. Make sure you have the 'ID Scan' option set in the Trunked System Setup form. It's nearly the center of the page, bracketed by the EDACS ID Format and Tape Out

Re the first question - keep in mind that there is a known bug with GPS programming right now - I see ProScan just issued a fix - but it's not FreeScan's fault. Google Maps changed the way their maps read, so it throws any software that uses it off. Our own database has/had that issue as well. Assaf is working on a fix.

That being said, I don't believe you would need to have anything manually locked out. That's part of what location based scanning is supposed to do. Someone here who is more familiar with this than I can chime in here. I *think* LBS is supposed to select groups automatically without manually locking anything out....Mike
 

frazpo

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Group,

Imade my first trip today with my 996XT with a GPS connected. I had my scanner programmed to follow the State Police Troops while traveling the interstate. I had all the systems locked out except for my first group. Am I supposed to have all the systems unlocked and the scanner will switch to the corrct group (system) asi travel?

I also observed that some systems went to id search instead of id scan when traveling. Is this something that Ihave incorrectly programmed into my scanner? (I use freescan)

Thanks!!

Gary,
I had my GPS connected today as I traveled to keep up with the winter storm in our area. Awesome function! Anyway, Yes, Once your GPS locks on location your scanner will begin locking out systems that are out of range. Have your systems that you are wanting to scan unlocked and the scanner will only scan what is in range according to you have setup in your software. Keep in mind that any systems you have unlocked and are NOT setup for GPS will scan. So make sure whatever you have unlocked is setup for GPS scanning. Hope this helps.
 

ofd8001

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Also, be sure that any groups and/or sites (having GPS location information assigned) that you wish to monitor along your trip are unlocked.

I'm thinking that the GPS/scanner feature will lock-out such sites/groups that are out of range and then unlock them as you get into range.

However the GPS/scanner does not unlock anything (systems/sites/groups) that you have deliberately programmed to be locked out. I imagine the engineering wisdom was "The user must have locked these out for a reason, so we're not going to second guess the user by unlocking something for him."
 

gpswx4cster

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Re the 2nd question - yes. Make sure you have the 'ID Scan' option set in the Trunked System Setup form. It's nearly the center of the page, bracketed by the EDACS ID Format and Tape Out

Thanks. Some how I missed that during programming. That was a easy fix!!

Re the first question - keep in mind that there is a known bug with GPS programming right now - I see ProScan just issued a fix - but it's not FreeScan's fault. Google Maps changed the way their maps read, so it throws any software that uses it off. Our own database has/had that issue as well. Assaf is working on a fix.

Can you elaborate more on the GPS issue? I manually entered the gps coordinates during programming. I did find that on two simulcast systems the range was set way too high.
 

ofd8001

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I'm not of much help with ProScan or FreeScan. While I've played around with these a little, my "workhorse" for programming my scanners is Butel's ARC products.

There's a nice feature on the Butel software. When you download data from RR you can open a window that shows a Google map of the location it will use.
 

ka3jjz

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<snip>
Re the first question - keep in mind that there is a known bug with GPS programming right now - I see ProScan just issued a fix - but it's not FreeScan's fault. Google Maps changed the way their maps read, so it throws any software that uses it off. Our own database has/had that issue as well. Assaf is working on a fix.</snip>

Can you elaborate more on the GPS issue? I manually entered the gps coordinates during programming. I did find that on two simulcast systems the range was set way too high.

See 2 problem reports filed in the FreeScan forum (same place as you got the software)

Mike
 

UPMan

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ofd's information was not quite correct. GPS will control the lock/unlock status, even if you have the system set to be locked. What it will not control is the SQK/GQK status. If the SQK is disabled, then the system assigned to that SQK will never be monitored.
 

frazpo

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ofd's information was not quite correct. GPS will control the lock/unlock status, even if you have the system set to be locked. What it will not control is the SQK/GQK status. If the SQK is disabled, then the system assigned to that SQK will never be monitored.

Good idea to clarify that. I was afraid there was going to be some confusion about system quick keys lock/unlock and actually locking out sites and groups.
 

frazpo

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Group,

Imade my first trip today with my 996XT with a GPS connected. I had my scanner programmed to follow the State Police Troops while traveling the interstate. I had all the systems locked out except for my first group. Am I supposed to have all the systems unlocked and the scanner will switch to the corrct group (system) asi travel?

I also observed that some systems went to id search instead of id scan when traveling. Is this something that Ihave incorrectly programmed into my scanner? (I use freescan)

Thanks!!

Gary, What GPS model do you have? I use an older one that gets its five volts from the PS2 port on my computer. I am going to wire in USB plug to replace it. Just wondering what you use.
 

frazpo

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I had to do some tweaking as I drove. I'm sure a lot depends on the terrain in the area. I live an hour from rolling hills one way and the Kansas plains the other.
 
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