a couple of question on the 436hp-2

[cmccarter]

The 436hp-2 is one of my possible choices for my new scanner. I have a few questions someone may be able to help with

1. when using a GPS is info selected pretty generic? I mean will it pull pretty much the same info as inputting zipcode? Does it get the trunked stuff as well?

2. DMR---is it really needed? I'll be on PD/Fire for the most part but have heard that there are a few DMR areas I may want power company etc

3. Provoice-- needed? no idea if there is any activity in this area for that. Will also ask this in the SC forum.




Chester --- WA4BFE

 

[jonwienke]

There is no such thing as a 436HP-2.

There is a HP-2, which cannot be upgraded to receive ProVoice or DMR.

The BCD436HP can be upgraded to receive ProVoice and DMR. Whether the upgrade cost is worth it to you depends on whether there are any of those systems in your area. You can check the database to see what is in your area, and decide whether the upgrades would be useful to you.

Everything in the database is tagged with GPS coordinates, so GPS affects all programming in the main database (which is fed from RadioReference). If you travel with a scanner, a GPS is pretty much a necessity, as it turns things on and off as you move so you don't have to manually toggle channels on and off while driving. You can drive anywhere un the USA or Canada and hear local traffic as you drive. All you need to do is select the types of traffic you want to hear and a range value. The range value specifies how far outside a city or county the scanner will try to monitor traffic from that city or county.

 

[cmccarter]

yeah, i got that hp-2 wrong should have been HP

 

[ofd8001]

I agree that a GPS device is a really nice thing to have for travel. Chaning zip codes is a pain while moving down the road.

It's too hard to equate GPS location with zip code location because of the great variation in the land mass covered by a zip code. Some zip codes cover very small areas and some cover hundreds of square miles (99557 in Alaska has 13,000+ square miles).

The scanner has an internal table with zip codes and the lat/long for the center point of a zip code. When you enter a zip code, the scanner does a lookup for the zip code, grabs the lat/long for the zip code and establishes that as the scanner location.

So if you are in a small area zip code, you are spot on for location. If it's a large land mass zip code, you could be way off the mark and not receive "stuff" you might want to.