Assistance with FCC Data Extract

[Kirk]

I'm about to purchase a BCD-996T, and it occurs to me that the most obvious use for GPS-based scanning is monitoring the CHP.

At first, I fired up Delorme Street Atlas, and started drawing circles in areas where I presumed dispatch areas began and ended. I know the beat areas for Monterey, SLO and Santa Barbara Counties, but some of the others are less clear.

Then a lightbulb went off, and I decided to plot Lat/Lon of all CHP FB's, and label them with the frequency. I could then draw radiuses to approximate coverage from each of the base stations, and probably get a better idea what covers what by looking at the mountaintop sites.

The problem is, FCC data is in DDMMSS.S (degrees minutes seconds) and my mapping software wants DD.DDDDDDD (decimal degrees). So, given this, here's my procedure:

Use the Freqofnature website to determine all base frequencies in use. Take the first frequency, plug it into the FCC site, and get a list of multiple sites. Take the lat/lon from each site and paste it into another web page which converts DMS to DecDeg. Take these numbers, and put them into my comma delimited text file for importation into Street Atlas.

At this rate, I should be done in time for the BCD-998T to come out. ;-)

I'm looking for a more advanced way to get an extract out of the FCC database in some decent readable format (comma delimited text, Excel, etc) that lists lat, lon, freq and site description/address. Bonus points if the lat/lon can be in decimal degrees.

Anyone have tips?

My plan is to create a 996 system for each site (yeah, probably lots of them, as long as it's less than 300 or so, it should be fine) and to assign them all the same System key.

Other ideas would be most appreciated. Oh, and if someone else has beat me to this and wants to share their 996 file, then that'd be even more appreciated (probably even more by my wife). :-D

 

[jim202]

Why don't you just change the Delorme Street Atlas program to give you the required DDMMSS that it has the option of doing. Not sure which version your running. If it is the 2006 version, just click at the top of the screen where you see the 2 check marks. A new window will come up. Click on the "display" setting and select the middle window block on the right. It has a DDMMSS choice.

If you have a different version, you may have to go into the setup file and add a line to the file there. Can't find what your looking for, go to Delormes web site and search around. They have the info on there someplace that tells you how to change the setting to what your looking for.

Jim

I'm about to purchase a BCD-996T, and it occurs to me that the most obvious use for GPS-based scanning is monitoring the CHP.

At first, I fired up Delorme Street Atlas, and started drawing circles in areas where I presumed dispatch areas began and ended. I know the beat areas for Monterey, SLO and Santa Barbara Counties, but some of the others are less clear.

Then a lightbulb went off, and I decided to plot Lat/Lon of all CHP FB's, and label them with the frequency. I could then draw radiuses to approximate coverage from each of the base stations, and probably get a better idea what covers what by looking at the mountaintop sites.

The problem is, FCC data is in DDMMSS.S (degrees minutes seconds) and my mapping software wants DD.DDDDDDD (decimal degrees). So, given this, here's my procedure:

Use the Freqofnature website to determine all base frequencies in use. Take the first frequency, plug it into the FCC site, and get a list of multiple sites. Take the lat/lon from each site and paste it into another web page which converts DMS to DecDeg. Take these numbers, and put them into my comma delimited text file for importation into Street Atlas.

At this rate, I should be done in time for the BCD-998T to come out. ;-)

I'm looking for a more advanced way to get an extract out of the FCC database in some decent readable format (comma delimited text, Excel, etc) that lists lat, lon, freq and site description/address. Bonus points if the lat/lon can be in decimal degrees.

Anyone have tips?

My plan is to create a 996 system for each site (yeah, probably lots of them, as long as it's less than 300 or so, it should be fine) and to assign them all the same System key.

Other ideas would be most appreciated. Oh, and if someone else has beat me to this and wants to share their 996 file, then that'd be even more appreciated (probably even more by my wife). :-D