BCD436HP/BCD536HP: Uniden GPS/ Autolocate bcd436hp

[BlueMoon2]

Once a yearI drive with my family from va to fl and like to listen to fire/rescue, police, dot, highway patrol, etc. To avoid having to program in every locality going up and down i95 n and south, I connect up the uniden gps to my bcd436hp with all the cables and go into the menu and hit 'autolocate'. It has been finding my current location while rolling correctly.

My question is, will the gps continuously update my scanner with my current location after the initial find OR will I have to continue to go back to menu and hit 'autolocate' again? My guess is that I will have to do the second option correct?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[jonwienke]

I connect up the uniden gps to my bcd436hp with all the cables and go into the menu and hit 'autolocate'. It has been finding my current location while rolling correctly.

My question is, will the gps continuously update my scanner with my current location after the initial find OR will I have to continue to go back to menu and hit 'autolocate' again?

Do not ever use autolocate when you have a GPS. It is totally pointless. The GPS automatically updates the scanner location with far more precision than autolocate does, and it does it several times a second. It will override whatever the autolocate comes up with immediately. The scanner remembers the last location it got from the GPS. As long as you run the GPS at your destination, you don't need to do anything else.

 

[BlueMoon2]

To clarify I have the uniden Bc-gpsk serial GPS receiver.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[marksmith]

Autolocate DOES NOT USE the GPS. It tries to figure out where you are by listening to area RF and trying to find a system it knows.

It is a horrible way to determine where you are and will just do nothing if you connect a GPS.

As long as a GPS is connected, it tells the scanner precisely where you are continuously.

Mark
536/436/WS1095/HP1/HP2/996T/996XT/996P2/396XT/325P2/PSR800/15X/others

 

[BlueMoon2]

Mark, so it's better just to set up the gps and then what?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[jonwienke]

And then use the GPS.

That's it.

Don't over-complicate it.

 

[ofd8001]

Yes, just connect the scanner and GPS device. Forget there is an Auto Locate feature. The GPS device will tell the scanner where it is and is the best way of doing so.

As an aside, Auto Locate is an alternative means of establishing a scanner's location. It only works with a Motorola or P25 trunked system that is in the database. What happens when you use the feature, the scanner monitors the system. It does some "internal research" with the stored database, noting the location associated with the system. It then says "I'm hearing this system whose location is X, so therefore my location must be X" and sets its location to be X.

 

[marksmith]

And then use the GPS.

That's it.

Don't over-complicate it.

Exactly. You should get confirmation from the scanner it is using GPS, and as you travel, periodically it will reload either the full database, or your favorites list, as long as the favorites list has location control YES enabled.

Mark
536/436/WS1095/HP1/HP2/996T/996XT/996P2/396XT/325P2/PSR800/15X/others

 

[BlueMoon2]

Very helpful to know. Thank you guys. I know how to enable location control on favorites lists, but how do I do that with the full database when I'm not using favorites lists?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[ofd8001]

Location Control is "automatically" On for the full database. So there isn't anything you need to do (other than turn the full database on).

 

[jonwienke]

It's always on when scanning the main database, because otherwise the scanner would try to scan every frequency and trunked system in the US and Canada. That would probably take an hour or more for the scanner to cycle through, and would probably crash the scanner.

 

[W5RGP]

It only works with a Motorola or P25 trunked system that is in the database. be X.

Wrong
As long as any systems coordinates are in the database it will work doesn't have to just be a p25 system




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[marksmith]

Every conventional frequency in the database has location information.

Location control works on EVERYTHING

Mark
536/436/WS1095/HP1/HP2/996T/996XT/996P2/396XT/325P2/PSR800/15X/others

 

[kma371]

Everything will at least default to the county it's located in/assigned to.

 

[jonwienke]

Wrong
As long as any systems coordinates are in the database it will work doesn't have to just be a p25 system

Autolocate only works on P25 systems, because the NAC works reasonably well as a unique identifier for the system, and P25 control channels broadcast continuously. There are enough NACs (4093 that are not reserved for system functions) that hearing a system with a given NAC has a high probability of meaning you are in range of one and only one system.

DMR systems are not used for autolocate because there are only 16 color codes, and the odds of picking the correct location based off "I hear a DMR system using color code X" is less than 2%.

But do not confuse autolocate and Location control. Autolocate guesstimates a scanner location based off p25 NACs that the scanner can hear. Location control enables and disables systems and departments based on where the scanner thinks it is. GPS gives the most accurate location, followed by ZIP code, then autolocate.

The only time using autolocate makes any sense is when you don't know your zip code, and don't have access to GPS.

 

[marksmith]

I believe he was referring to GPS operation, not the useless autolocate function. That's the way I took it.

Sent from my LG-V410 using Tapatalk

 

[ofd8001]

Well, if I'm wrong, so is the Uniden manual on page 24.

Auto Locate – The Auto Locate feature works by trying to monitor any Motorola or P25 system in your area that is also in the Radio Reference Database.

 

[mikewazowski]

Well, if I'm wrong, so is the Uniden manual on page 24.

Auto Locate – The Auto Locate feature works by trying to monitor any Motorola or P25 system in your area that is also in the Radio Reference Database.

You're correct, jonwienke is wrong.

It's looking at System ID's not NAC's.