SDS100/SDS200: Tower Location Scanning Only

[radiochuck]

Wondering if there's a way that I can use location scanning based on Tower locations only (and not department location). In other words, if I'm in range of one or more of the sites, it scans, and if I'm not, it doesn't. I tried setting all of the department locations to Lat: 0.0 Long: 0.0 Range: 0.0, but that didn't work. Everything in that faves list was ignored "Nothing to Scan." Am I missing something, or is this just not possible? Thanks.

 

[nessnet]

Setting to 0.0 / 0.0 tells the radio you are in the middle of the Atlantic somewhere.....

 

[jtwalker]

I don't know the answer to your question, but with simulcast a site can contain multiple towers. And you don't set up towers in the scanner. Now I am curious as to what the location on a site represents...

 

[n1chu]

Use the Lat/Long of the sites. I believe that info is listed with the FCC.

 

[radiochuck]

Setting to 0.0 / 0.0 tells the radio you are in the middle of the Atlantic somewhere.....

Yep. Hence the no scanning. I should have seen that one coming.

I don't know the answer to your question, but with simulcast a site can contain multiple towers. And you don't set up towers in the scanner. Now I am curious as to what the location on a site represents...

I'm guessing it looks at all of the tower sites and draws a ring around the outer edges of them all. But I never looked to see if that is true or not. Can't imagine how else they would do it.

 

[RandyKuff]

You can find Site location info in RR's database... As in specific geographic location coordinates...

 

[radiochuck]

I'm trying to ignore the department location and only use the tower location.

 

[RandyKuff]

Site = Tower or ant's on top of a building etc...

 

[radiochuck]

Sorry, I meant ignore the location of the actual department and only use the tower location.

But as I stated in my original post, I only want to use location information for the towers/sites and not for the actual department. I have all of the coordinates that I need. I just have to find a way to ignore the ones for the departments, while still using location control/GPS to observe the tower locations.

 

[RandyKuff]

Just because a department uses a specific site, doesn't mean thats were the department is located...
Especially so in a simulcast system...

 

[radiochuck]

Just because a department uses a specific site, doesn't mean thats were the department is located...
Especially so in a simulcast system...

I understand that. Hence my desire to follow the tower and not the department, geographically.

 

[a417]

I understand that. Hence my desire to follow the tower and not the department, geographically.

So you want to configure site-based scanning?

Go here, and then 'F3' and put in 'site', and you will quickly see how supported & configurable site based scanning is. I think "Site Hold" might interest you the most.

 

[phask]

Try this
Create a new Fav. list Enable location based scanning and ID Search
Enter all the sites with location data.
Enter at least 1 talkgroup. I think it would work with even a dummy TG.

In my head it sounds like it would work.

 

[radiochuck]

Try this
Create a new Fav. list Enable location based scanning and ID Search
Enter all the sites with location data.
Enter at least 1 talkgroup. I think it would work with even a dummy TG.

In my head it sounds like it would work.

Interesting. I can tell you that I'm pulling the data in from the RR db, so the sites (and everything else) are being populated from there.

My other idea was to create a department with a rectangle around the entire state (AZ) and see what happens when I travel outside of the tower's circle, but not outside of the department's rectangle. I would hope the department would be ignored and nothing would scan. Seems like it should work, I just haven't tried it.

Just to summarize what I'm trying to achieve here is essentially the same as having location based scanning off, but not scan towers of which I am not within range. That will obviously slow scanning. The hope is to only scan a system/site when I'm within range of one of its towers, regardless of the location of the department. This would also allow me to hear a unit that's affiliated with site that's distant from the user's home location (in the case of a statewide system), but is affiliated with a tower that's near to me. Hypothetical example: A Yuma PD unit travels to Flagstaff and affiliates with a site up there. You would still hear the traffic because you're within range of the tower, but the department isn't geo-fenced to it's home area on the scanner. My idea above seems like it would achieve that goal. I know I could use ID search, but I don't wish to go that route.

 

[donc13]

Sites

Interesting. I can tell you that I'm pulling the data in from the RR db, so the sites (and everything else) are being populated from there.

My other idea was to create a department with a rectangle around the entire state (AZ) and see what happens when I travel outside of the tower's circle, but not outside of the department's rectangle. I would hope the department would be ignored and nothing would scan. Seems like it should work, I just haven't tried it.

Just to summarize what I'm trying to achieve here is essentially the same as having location based scanning off, but not scan towers of which I am not within range. That will obviously slow scanning. The hope is to only scan a system/site when I'm within range of one of its towers, regardless of the location of the department. This would also allow me to hear a unit that's affiliated with site that's distant from the user's home location (in the case of a statewide system), but is affiliated with a tower that's near to me. Hypothetical example: A Yuma PD unit travels to Flagstaff and affiliates with a site up there. You would still hear the traffic because you're within range of the tower, but the department isn't geo-fenced to it's home area on the scanner. My idea above seems like it would achieve that goal. I know I could use ID search, but I don't wish to go that route.

Sites that are further away from your scanner's position than the range you set will not be scanned.

Example, most local police and fire agencies near where I live use the Colorado DTRS radio system. There are over 100 sites (towers) in the system. My SDS200 knows where I am (via GPS but zip works too) and the radio only scans about 8 of the towers.

If I move around the state, different departments become active and others become inactive and likewise the towers being scanned change too.

I only listen to police, fire and ems via service types.

 

[Ubbe]

Just to summarize what I'm trying to achieve here is essentially the same as having location based scanning off, but not scan towers of which I am not within range.

Having departments and TG's active in scan doesn't put any load on the scanner, those are only checked when a conversation are detected and TG's are searched very quick and you can have thousands of them.

If you use a favorite list then just go into each department and change the range to max 6000 miles or whatever you think would be suitable.
If you scan from the DB then search the state file for "T-Group", I.E. a TG department, and on the same line you can change the range value to a more suitable one. Continue the text search with F3. You can do the same with the favorite file if that are quicker than editing in Sentinel or Proscan/ARC.

It looks like this in the DB. C-Group are a conventional department and T-Group are a TG department. The range are that 50.0 value in this case and you can set it to a maximum of 6000.0

C-Group CGroupId=75081 CountyId=70 Amateur Radio - Repeaters in Anchorage County Off 61.170000 -149.260000 50.0 Circle Off Global

The favorite list looks the same in text format. The text files are in the My Documents/Uniden folder and then BCDx36HP. The DB are in the Profiles folder. But it's probably wise to edit the files on the SD card, and perhaps make a backup of the files you edit so it will be easy to restore them if they get overwritten. If you manage to successfully edit a favorite list then you can read the scanner to have the updated file available in Sentinel or Proscan/ARC.

/Ubbe

 

[radiochuck]

If you use a favorite list then just go into each department and change the range to max 6000 miles or whatever you think would be suitable.

That's essentially what I've done by drawing a rectangle around the state for each department. The results are how I had hoped. I set my radio's physical location outside of the range of any site in the system and I got the 'Nothing to Scan' message, which was the desired result. It will skip that out-of-range system, while scanning multiple systems.

I appreciate all of the points of view on this. Thank you.