Cluster update...i guess i should have waited....gps linked multiple sats..scanning fine....but if u have ideas on power..i'll takem...are either one of these units (60csx and 996t) capable of showing a map where radio transmission is coming from like police station or cars ? just curious..that would be cool if it worked that way....once a hit on the scanner..it would show you on the gps or google earth or what not....
I do not recall where I read it but there was a mod that one could do to the 996T or XT and use I think pin 9 on the rear connector to send power out to the GPS for those that have a remote power supply lead in with the serial cable wires. It may have been pin 4 also but I'm not sure so try and find the article. I also do not recall if pin 9 (or 4) was unused in the 996 or if I had to cut a trace before hooking the 5 volt output from a voltage regulator to the unused pin.
It did involve soldering inside the 996 to small components and the addition of a 5 volt regulator to power the GPS.
I modded my older T model and it worked great. When I bought my XT, I removed the mod and never added it back into the XT so I'd only be guessing if I tried to tell you for sure how to do it.
There is no way to power a GPS from a 996 in its default configuration.
You may be able to find a serial adapter that breaks out the power leads (between the 996 and the GPS) to a cigarette lighter plug. The serial signals pass straight through. One of my Garmin pucks had that very cable. It also came with a cable that broke the serial cable out to a ps/2 keyboard connector so you could grab gps power from a laptop or computers PS/2 ports. Hopefully your GPS has some type of documentation so maybe you can roll your own power interface.
All of my GPS devices are old and simple so that made it rather easy for me. One did not have any connector at the end of the cable. That is the one I'd used with the 996T as it had full cable pinouts.
Most of the cigarette lighter breakout plugs have 5 volt regulators built into the cig plug. So don't cut that off and hardwire the two power wires as you will then send 12 volts to your GPS and it will fry unless it is designed for 12 volts.
Edit: No on the question about showing a map of the signal source. The GPS unit nor the 996 has no way of knowing where the signal is coming from. The 996 only knows that it is hearing a signal but it has no direction finding ability in it. And the GPS only receives from the birds in the sky which it does know their location but it has no idea that your are even listening to a scanner! You will need expensive RDF equipment if you want to try and determine a signals distance and location and then display it on a map.
Some amateur operators do use a technology called APRS that does send their location data. That type of stuff could be displayed on a map.
I'm sure many police cruisers also report postion data over a data channel but now your getting into encrypted data.
It would be the same technology that service companies and truck and car rental places use to keep track of where their vehicles are at and teh number one reason, to see how fast they are going or if they are sleeping when they call in and say they are working!!