Uniden GPS usage - any tips or best practices?

[jonwienke]

Both Departments and Sites have GPS location settings. If you're entering stuff in the database, start by entering Sites with a circle that reasonably approximates the area the site can be received. For Departments, use either a circle or rectangle, whichever best approximates the service area of the Department entity.

Sites frequently have overlapping coverage areas, and Departments are often carried on more than one Site, so that there is a backup if a site fails, and to reduce coverage dead spots. Don't assume that there is a 1:1 relationship between Departments and Sites.

 

[fenderblue]

I haven't really tried to rectangular install but I do know that the circles work with GPS. I see how the rec would beneficial. Once I figured out the from RR and it's members how to edit the FL's using GPS I found that I don't have half the chatter in the car and that is good. What really helps is editing the dept. & sites ranges & turning the location control ]ON]. I had play with the range til it was closer but I think the weather conditions can alter it. You think you know how to program and then you learn something day.

 

[ofd8001]

Both Departments and Sites have GPS location settings. If you're entering stuff in the database, start by entering Sites with a circle that reasonably approximates the area the site can be received. For Departments, use either a circle or rectangle, whichever best approximates the service area of the Department entity.

Sites frequently have overlapping coverage areas, and Departments are often carried on more than one Site, so that there is a backup if a site fails, and to reduce coverage dead spots. Don't assume that there is a 1:1 relationship between Departments and Sites.

That brings up a point to consider: A department's location is programmed so that the department is only active when the scanner is in the department's service area. If the traffic is carried on another site and the scanner receives that site, but the scanner is out of the service area, then the traffic will not be heard. That's because the department is turned off due to location control.

So the moral of the story is those who wish to listen to an agency only while they are in the agency's service area should use the default location range value for the department. Those who want to listen outside of the agency's service area may wish to bump up the range value for the department.

 

[SOFA_KING]

This is really not that complicated. Put a box (or even multiple rectangle boxes to cover odd shaped borders) around a county for the simulcast site. Then put a box around the department (like a city or town in the county) border. If it is a county agency, copy and paste the site lat/lon settings from the site to the department. If your sites are multicast (different frequency or group of frequencies at each tower site) then, and only then does a circle type coverage area make sense. You have to know exactly where the tower is, and know its usable range. But to keep scan time as trim as possible it is more efficient to use rectangles as much as possible. In Google maps you can right click and get the lat/lon in decimal format for the upper left and lower right corners of a border by selecting "where am I". Then you can plug that into your rectangle data. But using circles in place of rectangles (when you can define a system/department jurisdiction border) causes a lot of wasted overlap. Don't believe me? Try plotting a circle around your county so that every corner is covered. See what I mean? Sometimes the circle covers two or more counties away!

On another note...When I actually checked the lat/lon coverage areas for systems in my state, I discovered almost all of the "circles" were off and clipped district borders by quite a bit. That means missed reception in the intended area(s). And the spillover into unintended areas was horrendous. So I started a project to fix them all with precision rectangles. It worked great! But it got to be too much work, and I was completely overwhelmed in densely populated city areas...especially the ones I didn't live near to be able to verify site design. Now I just maintain GPS data for my county and surrounding counties...and federal stuff I personally verified all around my state. But things change, so the maintenance is never ending and more work the greater you travel.

Of course it would be helpful if the GPS data I sent in was used to update the RR database. It was not used in most cases (what a shame). Others would have benefited. I think the reason rectangles are not used for the RR database is because not all Uniden scanners can use rectangles. But even if that limits the data to inefficient use of circles, at least those circles could have covered the intended areas without lopping off part of the district. I found that happened quite often, so my suggestion is to audit what is coming from the RR database and replace it if it is wrong. Do rectangles in place of circles where it can be done. Make tight borders. This will make scanning much more efficient. If you want to hear further, use the range control. That is what it was designed for.

Phil

 

[UPMan]

To amend my previous reply, the system will be scanned (if you are within the defined range for a site) but only TG's in departments that are also enabled by location will be monitored.

 

[SOFA_KING]

To amend my previous reply, the system will be scanned (if you are within the defined range for a site) but only TG's in departments that are also enabled by location will be monitored.

True, but if the scanner lands on a system defined as in range, with no enabled department talkgroups, won't it still spend some time looking at the system control channels? I believe it does. If so, that is about a second of wasted scan time for every "beyond district range" system that is checked unnecessarily. That can add up to a lot of wasted time.

I think it is better to keep those borders as tight as you possibly can. It's an awesome feature when properly adjusted!

Phil

 

[UPMan]

Correct. That is why I had made the same suggestion. I was clarifying because from his response it sounded like he thought DEPT GPS control didn't work at all...but it does.

 

[fenderblue]

I found my lat\lon for all corners. But in the rect mode it only ask for lat\lon for the top left and use the other opposite corner. What about the other corners?

 

[fenderblue]

Oh, I did a search and found thanks

 

[nessnet]

You only need 2 points to determine a box.
And, I have a cool way to make it easy.

https://www.maptechnica.com/search?type=city
You have to sign up, (free).

Once you do, when you pull up a city/county/whatever, down below the map, it gives you a "Bounding Box of..."

Example:
Bounding Box of Redmond, WA (NWSE): 47.717018, -122.164981, 47.627135, -122.034617

Now, just cut/paste into Sentinel in the appropriate box.
NW=Upper Left, SE=Bottom Right
Sentinel will translate into the proper degrees, minutes and seconds.

Be sure to hit save.

 

[bee]

When traveling ,is it ok, to just use the GPS with the full database with range set to about 4?

And using the proper service types, that you want to hear?

That is what I do.

 

[dave3825]

When traveling ,is it ok, to just use the GPS with the full database with range set to about 4?

And using the proper service types, that you want to hear?

That is what I do.

Thats what I do when I travel. I usually set mine for 1 mile and if theres little activity, I bump it up..

 

[ofd8001]

I found my lat\lon for all corners. But in the rect mode it only ask for lat\lon for the top left and use the other opposite corner. What about the other corners?

For others who may be curious, it is a function of geometry. Rectangles have 90 degree corners. So if you can plot the upper left and lower right corners, the remaining two will be calculated.

 

[nessnet]

I think I figured out why I was scanning depts when I wasn't within their rectangle.

I had not only the dept itself in their FL, I had some other stuff, such as interagency/interop.
Which were set as the default circle(s) from RR.

I think if I set everything within a FL as the same (or multiple) rectangles, same as the dept, this will then function as I want.

 

[bee]

Thank you "dave3825"

 

[SOFA_KING]

You only need 2 points to determine a box.
And, I have a cool way to make it easy.

https://www.maptechnica.com/search?type=city
You have to sign up, (free).

Once you do, when you pull up a city/county/whatever, down below the map, it gives you a "Bounding Box of..."

Example:
Bounding Box of Redmond, WA (NWSE): 47.717018, -122.164981, 47.627135, -122.034617

Now, just cut/paste into Sentinel in the appropriate box.
NW=Upper Left, SE=Bottom Right
Sentinel will translate into the proper degrees, minutes and seconds.

Be sure to hit save.

Great resource... Thank you very much!

That makes for a lot less work from what I was doing with Google Maps.

Phil