GPS and Travelling

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Ishmole

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Hello all
I have some questions regarding connecting the GPS to the 536. I will be travelling by car through several states this summer with the GPS connected. I have the Full Database loaded. After setting the range to about 20 miles, and the services selected to what I want to hear will the scanner automatically add the channels as I travel? I checked the manual and could not figure it out.

I have traveled with the GPS connected to a BCD992P2, but only after adding the Long & Lat and setting the range and programming in the frequencies I wanted to monitor. The radio locked and unlocked as I drove along. Will the 536 do this automatically?

Thank you in advance!

Mike
 

troymail

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Hello all
I have some questions regarding connecting the GPS to the 536. I will be travelling by car through several states this summer with the GPS connected. I have the Full Database loaded. After setting the range to about 20 miles, and the services selected to what I want to hear will the scanner automatically add the channels as I travel? I checked the manual and could not figure it out.

I have traveled with the GPS connected to a BCD992P2, but only after adding the Long & Lat and setting the range and programming in the frequencies I wanted to monitor. The radio locked and unlocked as I drove along. Will the 536 do this automatically?

Thank you in advance!

Mike

Yes... it will automatically choose for you what system and channels to monitir.... based upon the RRDB information (right or wrong). This may or may not be what you really (would) want.... long story.

20 miles might be a bit much.... you're probably better off at 0-5 miles....
 

movinon

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Yes it will scan the selected services automatically.
I set my range at 5 miles and it worked fine for me.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
 

jonwienke

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Yes, the scanner will automatically monitor nearby frequencies based on the location provided by the GPS and the data in the database. You will want to be selective about the Service Types you enable, and I agree that 0-5 miles is a better Range option.

The biggest challenge is keeping the scanner from getting bogged down trying to scan too much stuff. Carefully think about why you want to listen and enable Service Types accordingly. I listen to avoid road hazards, so I listen to police fire and EMS dispatch service types, and CB channel 19. YMMV
 

marksmith

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Agree with all above. If you leave a lot of service types active you will hear way too much junk and miss what might be useful during travel.

I would stick with dispatch on police, fire, EMS. The CB19 Is a good idea too.

I keep range at zero, 5 miles at absolute max. A system with a range of 20 miles will load and start scanning, and come in 20 miles away, and not try to come in 40 miles away if you set radio range to 20.

Range of 20 adds 20 miles to what it loads based on GPS and the system range, meaning it will be loading and scanning for a lot of stuff out of your range, while you miss stuff closer.

As you pass within the range of systems and users, they will load and receive. Range at zero means you are using the transmit range of the systems and frequencies themselves.


536/436/ws1095/996p2/996xt/325p2/396xt/psr800/396t/HP-1/HP-2 & others
 
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ofd8001

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The answer to your question is "Yes, absolutely". I just finished a 1,000 mile trip with the 536/GPS set up and it served me well.

An issue with scanning the full database you should be mindful of: There are systems/frequencies in the database that are NXDN, ProVoice and DMR. If you don't have the ProVoice and DMR upgrades, when your scanner "hits" on these, all you hear is a "nuisance noise". This is true of NXDN and there is no upgrade for that.

Thus be sure your Avoid button is reachable as you'll use it occasionally when these things happen.

I'll be the "odd guy out" on the Range subject. The RR database rules are that Ranges for Departments are set to approximate the geographic service area of a community. That means the ABC County Sheriff's "stuff" will not become active until you just about enter ABC County.

If among other things, your hopes are that your scanner gives you a "heads-up" about an incident affecting your travel, the Range matter is a consideration. While you may not always hear every incident affecting travel, my experience is more often than not you do. Usually those big incidents generate a lot of radio chatter.

My suggestion is to factor whatever advance notice you may need to plan a detour if needed. My choice on this is 10 miles.

There is a "downside". That being I hear radio traffic for a jurisdiction that is 10 miles in my mirror. So you need to weigh the good and bad and decide what you like. Fortunately it's really easy to change the Range value on the scanner if you need to adjust things.
 

jonwienke

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My personal preference for Range is 5 miles. Given that no county or state is a perfect circle, on average you start hearing stuff from Stoolbend County 5-10 miles before you actually enter it.So if you have a range of 0, you will start monitoring stuff from a jusridiction before you enter it. Adding a 5-mile fudge factor doesn't increase the scanlist all that much, but does ensure that you have a minimum 5-mile heads-up when traveling.

The setting is easy to change. Just don't try to change it while driving!

And yes, learn to find the Avoid button by touch. You will need to use it.
 

Ishmole

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Thank You all who replied! I understand this above what I expected! Thanks!
Mike
 

troymail

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Here is an example of my earlier comment.... yesterday, I loaded up the Palmetto P25 system (along with other things) and took a drive into Myrtle Beach SC.

My TRX-2 was pretty chatty on the drive but the 436 (using GPS) was nearly silent on the same system. I had my ideas on what the problem might be.... and they turned out to be right....

https://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?siteId=30253

Note: in case the changes/corrections I just submitted cause the above link to no longer show the problem, as of my writing/posting here, the North Myrtle Beach site is actually showing in the RRDB as being in southwest China....

I submitted a few other changes as well for this system based on my drive yesterday.

If I hadn't had another radio running during the drive, I wouldn't have even known there was a problem (or even worse, I'd get frustrated and fight with it while driving - never a good idea....)
 

ofd8001

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It appears that a minus sign (-) was missed on the database.

The real puzzler is if Uniden and Whistler both get data from the RR database, meaning the same data is in both scanners, why did one work but not the other?
 

phask

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Yea - that missing - symbol makes a huge difference.

One way to a quick check is to monitor these sections.

https://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?rpt=7&sid=5042

Listed under here :

https://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?sid=5042&tab=reports

Note a lot of the counties have a 150 mile range as does one site - probably not correct either

Here is an example of my earlier c
omment.... yesterday, I loaded up the Palmetto P25 system (along with other things) and took a drive into Myrtle Beach SC.

My TRX-2 was pretty chatty on the drive but the 436 (using GPS) was nearly silent on the same system. I had my ideas on what the problem might be.... and they turned out to be right....

https://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?siteId=30253

Note: in case the changes/corrections I just submitted cause the above link to no longer show the problem, as of my writing/posting here, the North Myrtle Beach site is actually showing in the RRDB as being in southwest China....

I submitted a few other changes as well for this system based on my drive yesterday.

If I hadn't had another radio running during the drive, I wouldn't have even known there was a problem (or even worse, I'd get frustrated and fight with it while driving - never a good idea....)
 

jonwienke

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Any kind of scanning is only as useful as the accuracy of the data being used to program the scanner. If the frequency, color/NAC code, PL tone, location data, or anything else is wrong, scanning isn't going to work correctly.
 

troymail

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It appears that a minus sign (-) was missed on the database.

The real puzzler is if Uniden and Whistler both get data from the RR database, meaning the same data is in both scanners, why did one work but not the other?

I loaded the systems directly on the TRX-2 (whole system, all sites, etc.). I used the GPS on the 436 load (which I reduced to the 3 sites I knew I'd be in range of). In this case, I trusted the location data -- which was wrong.

Any kind of scanning is only as useful as the accuracy of the data being used to program the scanner. If the frequency, color/NAC code, PL tone, location data, or anything else is wrong, scanning isn't going to work correctly.

Absolutely - but there are some functions that most people don't see/don't know to look at/don't care about -- such as location information. Even when it is correct, it may not be what you want -- some "departments" are hundreds of miles in size (right or wrong) while others are as small as 1/2 mile.

In the case of other things "most" people don't care about -- WACN, SYSID, RFSS, and SiteId values have been determined to be wrong and/or changed and not updated. Again, most people don't even care but if you fly fat, dumb, and happy leaving the computers to do all the work for you, you'll get what you pay for.
 

UPMan

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Apparently Whistler just looks at what county you are in and what county the site is in. It does not look at the lat/lon of the radio system in the dB.

That is why with Uniden location control selects nearby agencies even if the nearby agency is in a county 1 mile over and Whistler will not select such nearby agencies (but will pick agencies 35 miles away on the other side of the county you are in). At least, that is my understanding of how they implement location control.
 

Ishmole

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Here is an example of my earlier comment.... yesterday, I loaded up the Palmetto P25 system (along with other things) and took a drive into Myrtle Beach SC.

My TRX-2 was pretty chatty on the drive but the 436 (using GPS) was nearly silent on the same system. I had my ideas on what the problem might be.... and they turned out to be right....

https://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?siteId=30253

Note: in case the changes/corrections I just submitted cause the above link to no longer show the problem, as of my writing/posting here, the North Myrtle Beach site is actually showing in the RRDB as being in southwest China....

I submitted a few other changes as well for this system based on my drive yesterday.

If I hadn't had another radio running during the drive, I wouldn't have even known there was a problem (or even worse, I'd get frustrated and fight with it while driving - never a good idea....)

Thanks for checking this. I hope they get it corrected as my upcoming trip is to Myrtle Beach!
Mike
 

troymail

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Apparently Whistler just looks at what county you are in and what county the site is in. It does not look at the lat/lon of the radio system in the dB.

That is why with Uniden location control selects nearby agencies even if the nearby agency is in a county 1 mile over and Whistler will not select such nearby agencies (but will pick agencies 35 miles away on the other side of the county you are in). At least, that is my understanding of how they implement location control.

Can't say but as I said, in this case (and as is the case most times), I didn't use any type of location programming or control (other than my brain) to program and operate the TRX-2.
 

manlius

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My personal preference for Range is 5 miles. Given that no county or state is a perfect circle, on average you start hearing stuff from Stoolbend County 5-10 miles before you actually enter it.So if you have a range of 0, you will start monitoring stuff from a jusridiction before you enter it. Adding a 5-mile fudge factor doesn't increase the scanlist all that much, but does ensure that you have a minimum 5-mile heads-up when traveling.

The setting is easy to change. Just don't try to change it while driving!

And yes, learn to find the Avoid button by touch. You will need to use it.



Regarding the Avoid button, I know that normally a temporary Avoid clears upon power cycling. But if you are scanning while traveling with GPS , does a temporary avoid block it by system, department, talk group, frequency, etc. or some other means? Then, when you leave the "range" of that dept., system, TG or whatever, where the scanner would dump it from the scan list (based on your new location) would that Avoid be cleared?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

troymail

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Regarding the Avoid button, I know that normally a temporary Avoid clears upon power cycling. But if you are scanning while traveling with GPS , does a temporary avoid block it by system, department, talk group, frequency, etc. or some other means? Then, when you leave the "range" of that dept., system, TG or whatever, where the scanner would dump it from the scan list (based on your new location) would that Avoid be cleared?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You can avoid channels/talkgroups, departments, and/or entire "systems". However, on my recent travels, I found the radio was regularly "refreshing itself" along the way and re-enabling some wide-area/nationwide "systems" that I had previously "avoided" -- very frustrating - particularly while driving.
 

jonwienke

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If the system is unloaded due to being out of range, then any temporary avoids on that system are cleared when the system is unloaded. You should configure which nationwide systems you want to hear via the scanner menu (preferably not while driving), rather than temporary avoids.
 

troymail

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If the system is unloaded due to being out of range, then any temporary avoids on that system are cleared when the system is unloaded. You should configure which nationwide systems you want to hear via the scanner menu (preferably not while driving), rather than temporary avoids.

Sometimes you just don't know if you want to hear them until your start your trip and make that determination for various reasons. Given that, if I AVOID something, the radio should not take it upon itself to "over rule" my decisions/actions.
 
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