BCD436HP gps questions

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Fidpal

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May 17, 2017
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I am a new owner (and new to radio in general) so please go easy on me.

Is it possible to use the gps feature to have the scanner scan a set list of frequencies in a given radius around my current position? I would like to program several groups of channels and have the scanner only look at ones in whatever mile radius around me I specify.

Are there any newbie guides to all the features of this scanner?

Thanks
 

troymail

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Dec 19, 2002
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Supply (Lockwood Inlet area), NC
I am a new owner (and new to radio in general) so please go easy on me.

Is it possible to use the gps feature to have the scanner scan a set list of frequencies in a given radius around my current position? I would like to program several groups of channels and have the scanner only look at ones in whatever mile radius around me I specify.

Are there any newbie guides to all the features of this scanner?

Thanks

That's more or less the way the GPS works....

Data in the library has a location and radius assigned to it (whatever the RRDB admins applied to the data when they added it to the database).

The GPS connected to the radio tracks your current location. There is a "range" set in the radio as well. So, effectively, the radio is a DOT (lat/lon) in a CIRCLE as large as the range setting.

Using the full database or properly programmed/location enabled favorites list, the radio will automatically enable any systems/frequencies/departments where the radio's DOT/CIRCLE overlaps the circle defined by the RRDB location data. The larger the RANGE setting on the radio, the more the radio will try to scan.

If you have your own set of frequencies you want to use in the same way (GPS location controlled), you need to create a favorites list and set the lat/lon and range for that data.
 

ofd8001

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Using a GPS device connected to a scanner more or less "contemplates" the scanner is moving and thus changing locations.

Another way of setting a location for a scanner is to use the Zip code entry. What happens is that when a zip code is entered, the scanner looks up that zip code in an internal table and retrieves the lat/long associated with that zip code. The scanner then uses that lat/long as the scanner location.

You would want to use the Sentinel software to build Favorites Lists. There are several Youtube videos showing how to do this, one of which is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECOUceSdVCo. You'll want to set the Location Control option to On to restrict your scanning to a given area.
 

Fidpal

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Is there a faster way to import mass amounts of channels into a favorites list? Right now i have to drill into every folder and pick out the channels i want. How do i search based on filters? I just want Law Dispatch/Tac channels (there is a column where they are tagged as such in the UI)
 

ofd8001

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You might consider leaving all of those "extraneous" channels in the Favorites List as they are imported and just set the desired Service Types in the Profile. So if you only check the boxes for Law Dispatch, Law Talk and Law Tac and uncheck all the other Service Types the scanner will ignore them.
 
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