Posting to Twitter Part 2

Welcome to the second installment on how I automate my twitter posts.

Part 2: Decoding the pages
Sending the Fire/EMS pages to twitter  is similar to the CAD system.  I still use the TTYtter program, however another program is needed to create the mp3's.

I run Twotonedetect (http://www.twotonedetect.net/) which decodes the pages.  Currently I run it on a windows machine, however I would eventually like to migrate it over to a raspberrypi setup.

The system starts running at 7:15pm and shuts down at 5:59pm.  This allows the county to do their nightly pager tests and not flood my twitter account with useless pages.

TTD has a nice feature where after it decodes and creates the mp3, it will run a command.  This is where it calls my script that moves the file to the webserver, creates the link and posts to twitter.  The process is a bit different than the CAD posts, but the end result is the same.  The mp3's are kept for 7 days before being automatically deleted, so if you want to save the file, you have a week to do so before it is gone forever.

Part 3: So how did this all start anyway?
I'm not sure of the exact year, probably around 2007, we knew of a News/Fire notification service that sent out text pages on 900Mhz using the old text pagers.  I setup a decoder program called PDW (which would email you the decoded pages), along with an old Pro-2004 scanner with a discriminator tap and set out to find the frequency.  Few days later we found it and had it up and running and were sending pages to our phones.

That got old quick.  We had stuff coming in from NJ, PA, NY, CT and beyond.  I changed it to email it to my server and then I wrote a script to filter out only the things we wanted to see.  During this time, I learned more scripting than I had from the $3000 shell scripting course my company sent me to.

It wasn't long before I decided I didn't want to look at my phone every 10 minutes, so I set it up to send the pages to AOL IM via a program called centerim.  Eventually, AOL shut the account down thinking I was spamming and eventually we moved over to gtalk.  More people wanted in and eventually we had about 10 people on the system and the script ballooned to over 1000 lines of code, mainly for filtering.  It was ugly but it worked.

At the time, many of us were on the County TAMI system, but we only had access to a few departments.  The Warren County CAD one day showed up and after looking at it, I set out to add that to our system (the script for that hasn't changed much since).  Now we had access to everything.

Eventually, the 900Mhz Frequency went away and most people outside of the county dropped off.  It was at this time I got tired of seeing everything from the county on my IM, and started to filter by specific towns.  I still did want access to see everything in case I needed it.  I first experimented with RSS which worked but did not refresh automatically.  Eventually I went with twitter, where we are today.

Today we are at over 500 follows, many who do not have access to a police scanner, and now can keep up with what is happening around them.  In addition to twitter, IM has been replaced with a mobile app called Pushover.  There are about 10 user's who get alerted through it now (mostly Firefighters & OEM members).

That is the history of @WCAlerts and now @NorCoAlerts.

How do you get this stuff on twitter?

This is a common question.  If you follow one of my notification twitter accounts @WCAlerts or @NorCoAlerts, the first thing you realize is that everything is completely automated, unlike some of the other ones where some guy is cutting and pasting information in his spare time.  I will manually post if there is an ongoing incident and I happen to be at the computer, but 99% of my info is done without any user intervention.

So how do I do it.  The very short answer is this:
/usr/bin/perl /usr/local/bin/ttytter.pl -status=$msg -ssl

A less short answer is I use a program called TTYtter (http://www.floodgap.com/software/ttytter/).  Once you set it up, you can send a twitter post through the command line, with the $msg variable above being the actual post.  This is  done in a linux bash shell, so you either need to be running linux/Unix, or cygwin (https://www.cygwin.com/) under windows.  This should also work in MacOS 10, although I have never tried it.

Setting up TTYtter is actually pretty easy, however getting your data to a state where you can easily send it is not. 

My Backround

I went from working as a paid EMT back in the early 90's  the IT industry.  The last 15+ years I have dealt mainly with Unix/Linux systems.  Everything is done via a bash script.  These scripts are  very specific to my systems and the county websites, so it isn't something I can just hand someone and say go for it.They are adaptable and if another county comes online with a CAD, should be easily made to work with it.  I was able to get Northampton County up and running very quickly.  

Part 1 - CAD Posts

Sending out the CAD entries from Warren & Northampton Counties work pretty much the same way.  The scripts are a bit different due to differences in their formats, however they both basically work the same way.

Every couple of minutes I pull down all the CAD entries into a file (using lynx).  Then I do a series of of ugly unix commands (awk, sed, cut), and remove all the spaces and unwanted content.  The end result is everything in the CAD listed in a file which looks like this:

MVA W/INJURIES , RTE 57, MANSFIELD TWP

FALL 94 YOF, 73 W JOHNSTON ST, WASHINGTON BORO

CHEST PAIN 49 YOM, 130 POLKVILLE RD, KNOWLTON TWP

ELECTRICAL FIRE , 1041 RIDGE ST #33A, PHILLIPSBURG TO

The next step is I take each line of the file, compare it to an archive of all the previous posted entries.  If the entry does not exist, I post to twitter and add it to the archive.  If it is in the archive file, it moves on to the next line.  I keep about 75 of the newest entries to compare to.

That is really the high level explanation of how it works.  The next Blog post will cover the fire page mp3's (Part 2), and for those really bored, the history on how this whole thing developed (Part 3).

uniden firmware updates are out (notice no caps or explanation marks)

This was a big let down.  Fixed very little and added nothing.  Here are the links to the pages if you are interested.

http://info.uniden.com/UnidenMan4/BCD436HPFirmwareUpdate

http://info.uniden.com/UnidenMan4/BCD536HPFirmwareUpdate

In other news:
.
MONOC is continuing testing on NJICS

Middle Twp. appears to be gearing up to move to NJICS.  Radios are currently being programmed.

New Brunswick is reported to move to either Middlesex County or the State 700 system.  The bad news is they are probably going to be encrypted.

Rumor has it.....

MONOC is going to be moving to the NJICS 700 system.  This is welcome news to scanner listener's, especially if you have ever subjected yourself to listen to the North Jersey UHF repeater for any length of time.

Since MONOC dispatches the Atlantic Health Units, we may very well be hearing MONOC now all over North Jersey, since Atlantic's MICU/EMS coverage is pretty wide spread.

Now if only MICCOM would jump on, then we would have the 3 big players on 700.

BCDx36HP Updates are coming

Uniden Update
Uniden's Upman stated that some firmware updates are coming.  That was about 2 weeks ago, so they should be here any time.  Of course no one knows exactly what has been fixed.  I can only hope at this point the Analyze features have been updated so they actually are usable.

While we are on that subject, there are other rumblings that they finally have a permanent fix for the RTC Clock issue.  Of course that is going to mean returning the units to Uniden to be repaired.  No word on the screen dimming, or if there is even a permanent fix for that issue.

All is quiet on the Whistler Front
Everyone who bought the new 1095 scanners must be happy with them, as there has been very little posted about it.

Speaking of Whistler scanners (and their clones), if anyone has the ability to fix a Pro668 (My keyboard connector came off the circuit board), please contact me directly.

NJ Scanning News
There was an apparent issue with the NJICS system that went on for many months.  If you were experiencing dead air, that issue may now be resolved.  I can report that everything off the Montana Mountain tower is coming in great once again.

NJDOT must be ramping up for winter, over 100 new radio ID's have appeared over the last week.  NJSP has been busy adding radios as well. Speaking of NJSP, for some reason they seemed to have moved the Met Life Stadium ops over to StateCom-2.  Maybe to provide better inter-ops with other agencies.

Now that football season is almost here, Rutgers will be busy with their home games.  They generally will be on one of the StateCom talkgroups and will NOT be encrypted so they can coordinate with Middlesex County and NJ Transit Police.

Look for another update once we hear from Uniden.

Update:  After posting this, I came across this on Radio Reference from Uniden's Upman.  Apparently we will have a back light fix for the x36HP radios...eventually:

The above is a little premature. While we are setting up a process for those of you who are experiencing this issue, the fix will require some parts that have a long lead time. We expect to be able to start the program in a couple of months. In the mean time, we appreciate your patience while we get everything in place. At this time, if you are experiencing either the display backlight fading or real-time clock battery issue, please do not send your scanner in for repair.

WS-1090 IF Out (Discriminator Audio)

This is from the Radio Reference forum:

When the scanner was first designed, IF Out was a desired feature, and it was going to be ported over from the PSR-800. However, because the audio paths are different in the PSR-900 and GRE couldn't get the speaker IF Out to work, they removed the feature.
Whistler resurrected the PSR-900 design, and after months of hardware and software changes, created the WS1095. Renewed interest in the IF Out function from RR caused Whistler to take another look and determined that it could be made to work through the headphone jack but not the EXT speaker.
Unfortunately, the first production run was already complete and shipped from the factory.
The first production run has date code (sticker on the back of the unit) 04A15. This run does not have IF Out Subsequent production runs (date code 05A15 or later) does have IF Out circuitry and only required a CPU update to make functional.
If you have a unit with date code 04A15 and want the IF Out feature, the recommendation is to contact customer service at 1-866-923-8719 and you will be directed to a repair center that can update your unit.

It is nice to see that Whistler has jumped right in and offered to update the first run units.  Had they added GPS to these units, I would have probably had my 536HP up for sale already.

Speaking of Uniden, still no word from Uniden on the x36 issues.

WS-1095 Out in the Wild

There have been some reports, and pictures as well of the Whistler WS-1095 mobile finally ending up in the hands of the users.  Reports have been limited so far, but over all people seem happy with it.  The main feature here is the remote head.   In today's vehicles, it is very difficult to mount anything.  The head is thin enough to be able to be mounted just about anywhere.  This is also a superior design, compared to Uniden's RH-96 head sold for the old T/XT scanners.

Not that this is a surprise, but despite the awesome remote head, unfortunately scanner isn't any different from the WS-1080 scanner (and RS Pro668), and has the same limitations.    Even still, it makes the base/mobile playing field that much more crowded.  Uniden's lack of a decent remote head gives this scanner an advantage, despite the lack of GPS and quick keys to easily change scan lists.   Uniden's iPhone app, although works, doesn't even let you change the volume on the radio itself.   Comparing this against the Home Patrol, the HP has more install options due to its unique form factor, however the need to use an amplified speaker and the awkward setup of cables coming out both sides complicates that as well.

The big issue I find with the scanner (and it's hand held cousins) are that you cannot put a trunk site in a favorite list.  If I were to set this scanner of for all of NJ, I would have to duplicate the NJICS system at least 6 times, and the NJSP system 3 times (not including any of the IR sites).  I have tried to use the multi-site settings, however I found that more often than not, it tends to sit there for up to 5 minutes at a time polling all the sites and never worked well.  This feature goes back to the PSR-500 radios and as far as I can tell, has never really worked right.  If they can make that work, the need for quick keys becomes less important (and GPS to an extent).   Aside from that, having to turn scan lists on and off manually through the menu isn't really something I would want to do, however with more flexible mounting options, that will negate that to a degree.

If you want to talk desktop scanner only, it really comes down to preference if you like Whistler over Uniden.  Reports are still pending, however you may run into the same intermod issues when using an external antenna, similar to the hand held models.

Overall, for a mobile install, it is worth considering, especially if you do not need/want the GPS feature.  The remote head puts it ahead of Uniden as far as mounting wise.

Pros:
Remote Head
Bright Clear Display

Cons:
No GPS
No Quick keys
Quirky software

On a semi-related note, there are rumors circulating that Uniden is preparing a hardware update to the x36 line, to address the battery and possibly the display issues.   Hopefully this will put an end to some of the issues with these radios.

Hot 97 Summer Jam Incident at Met Life Stadium

For those of you who missed it, the Hot 97 Summer Jam went into complete chaos when people started jumping the fence.  NJSP was operating on Statecom 2 at the time.

I posted the audio for download.  I cut out the dead air, except for when the emergency button was it, which keeps the carrier open.  Each file is approx. 15 minutes long.  Most of the action takes place on parts 3 thru 6, but it is worth listening to the entire thing to see how things escalated.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/74iv1yojrnkerr6/AABV-tbniD6Z_jLH-tiv97BYa?dl=0

Happy Friday Pro 668 owners

Whistler dropped an update yesterday for the Pro 668.

- Fixed EDACS patching bug. 

- Add delay in USB startup required by some USB host hardware. 

- Changed algorithm used for battery level icon. 

- New default voltages for NiMH icon thresholds. 

- Fixed Audio Boost handling for analog frequencies. 

- DAC gain changes for digital "too loud" problem 

- EDACS ESK detection fixes 

- Fixes for password / alarm functions. Changes were not always preserved on power-down.

I updated mine last night and so far no problems at all.

Spring Round Up

Not too much happening in the scanner world lately.  My anticipated blog about re-purposing your old android phone for a Uniden Remote scanning head came to an abrupt halt when I shattered the screen of my Galaxy Note 3.  I will be revisiting that once the android app is released.  Speaking of that, here is the latest Uniden update:

Clock Battery fix (not firmware):  No word from Uniden
Android App: No word from Uniden
Screen dimming on the x36 scanners.  This is a fairly new one.  I can report both of mine have noticeably dimmed over the last year.  No word from Uniden.

So you see the theme here.  Lets move on to new and exciting products that will hopefully actually work as advertised.

The  long awaited Whistler 1095 Mobile scanner is supposed to be out any time now.  I can't wait to see some reports on how it performs.

AOR has released a very interesting radio that decodes pretty much everything and anything.  It is too bad they don't offer trunk tracking on their radios.

Specs: http://radioaficion.com/cms/aor-ar-dv1/
Discussion: http://forums.radioreference.com/aor-receivers/297029-aor-ar-dv1.html

Coming from Russia of all places, this is a new receiver that does Trunk Tracking, DMR and a bunch of other things.  It is not a dongle, but uses windows software to run it (similar to winradio).  This has real potential.

Site: http://hrw.3dn.ru/news/apco25_and_dmr_receiver/2013-05-06-3
Discussion: http://forums.radioreference.com/all-other-scanner-manufacturers/305124-adcr25-p25-dmr-receiver.html


Lots of new things coming, unfortunately, most require you to be at your computer.  An option (I am sure the FCC wouldn't be too happy with this), is to hook up an FRS radio with a VOX input, to your audio out of the sound card.  You can then add that FRS frequency to your scanner and the audio will come over just like any other frequency.  This could also work with Live feeds as well.

Don't forget to follow @wcalerts for all your Warren County, NJ Fire & EMS alerts.

Will the next generation police scanner be open sourced?

While we play cat and mouse with the Phantom Pro668 firmware update, could an open source scanner be the next big thing?

First of all, I am not a hardware guy (although I am not afraid of a soldering iron), and I am not certainly a programmer. I do however have a pretty good understanding on how things work.

While putting together a BCD396 size scanner is probably out of the question, a home patrol size scanner may just be feasible.  Now that 3d printers are accessible to just about anyone, we  have the ability to create some awesome things.

Now for the parts.  Starting out with processing, the Raspberry Pi (2nd gen) seems like a good choice.  Small and powerful.  Drop a 128 gig SD card in there and you have plenty of space for recording.  There are already small touch screens made for the pi.  One of those with a nice 3d printed case could make a nice size radio.  Unlike the home patrol, it could be made to to sit horizontal or vertical.  The only thing I am not sure about is the battery.   I don't know how long 4 AA batteries would power this.  Another option would be a smartphone lithium battery or even an option to run either one.

The existing sdr dongles could be used, however ideally, one could be manufactured with a smaller footprint, with the antenna easily wired to an external bnc connector.   I would engineer it with 2 dongles for optimal trunk tracking or dual receive.  Taking the dongles one step farther, I would like to see some optimized for say VHF to 900mhz, and maybe one optimized for short wave.  We could actually create a wide coverage receiver with very good sensitivity.

Finally the software and operating system.  Sdr sharp although works, is not the easiest thing to use.  A user friendly version of that with loadable modules is what I envision.   Load up only the modules you need (dmr, provoice etc).  Some sort of slimmed down Linux would be the OS of choice.

Finally, with the built in ethernet adapter,  you have a scanner ready to stream, or run twotonedetect.  In reality,  if you need a streaming scanner only, build it without a screen and manage it remotely.

These are just some basic ideas off the top of my head.  The possibilities are endless for a project like this.  Something like this may someday be a real home brew or kickstarter project.

PRO668 DMR....really?

So our new Pro668 hacker is now claiming to incorporate DMR decoding in his pending custom firmware.   I shouldn't even be wasting time following this train wreck, but I just can't help myself.

If this guy actually pulls this off, you are going to see Pro668 and whistler 1080 prices skyrocket.

Right now I am still calling this bullsh*t until he offers proof. 

Firmware updates

So Uniden  released a firmware update to the 536 scanner.  Fixes included bypassing the clock reset,  faster scanning and improved P25 decoding.   I tested it briefly and yes it does appear to be an improvement.  The 436 version will probably be out in the next week or two.

They also included the first analyze features.  They work but really don't do a whole lot.  The trunk system logging is what I have been waiting for and hopefully that will be next.  Despite the updates, I am still angry at Uniden for the way they have handled things.

On the Pro668 front, there is a guy who first caused a whole forum uproar stating he was able to flash the 1080 firmware into the Pro668.  After 2 days and messing around, we could not reproduce his success and the consensus was that he was full of shit. 

Now he claims to be rewriting the firmware and it going to release it and make the 1080 & 668 a "super scanner".  This is going to go either very bad, or we are moving into uncharted waters, since no one has ever done anything like this before.  The last time was back when Bill Cheek released his books, if any of you remember those days.  No matter which way it goes,  it is going to be an interesting couple weeks ahead.

What scanner to buy?

I get this question all the time, Which scanner do you recommend?  I used to say Uniden because they have always worked the best for me.    Then the BCDx36 line came out.

Everything was great the first few months.  Yes the 536 had the headphone issue, requiring me to send the unit back, however they extended the warranty from 1 year to 3, so they made up for it.

After that, weeks turned into months, which now had turned into over a year. the story has changed.

1) None of the extended features have been delivered
2) The WiFi works up to a point and only an incomplete IOS version of the software is out.
3) Both scanners have the clock issue, requiring you to reset the clock every time you power it on.
(as of 4/6 still no firmware patch to bypass the clock reset, and it has been over a month now)
4) No other bugs have been fixed.

At this point I feel I own $1200 worth of crap.  Since there appears to be serious quality control issues now, i would not buy any BCDx36 scanner until they address any of these issues.  I "think" you would be ok with the Home Patrol 2, since that is 90% based on an existing unit and 6 months later nothing serious has shown up.  I am a bit skeptical about the new "P" series like (Based on the XT scanners).   They may be fine, however I would suggest waiting a while to see.

If you need at TDMA capable scanner right now.  I would suggest a Pro-668.  You can still get they pretty cheap if you look around.  Anything under $250 is still a great deal for a TDMA capable scanner.    You can always sell it later on for most of what you paid, and then get a Uniden later on, assuming they work out the issues.

For mobile, it becomes less clear.  The HP-2 may be the way to go (especially if you need GPS).  The Whistler mobile should be out soon, however that will go for top dollar at first and I would not go that route until I see some reviews on it.

Finally, I think this clock issue is worse than we all think.  When the headphone issue turned up last year, within weeks they had a plan to fix it.  nearly 2 months later, not a word from Uniden which leads be to believe that this is going to be a giant recall of every x36 radio out there.  It took just over a year for this issue to surface on both my radio's, so those saying they bought a later radio means nothing.  See what happens when you hit 14 months.  

Pro-668 Update and Uniden needs to get a clue

So now I am 2 plus weeks with the Pro-668.  Now that the honeymoon period and ended and reality has set in, I can say that my opinion has not changed much.   There is some tweaking that you can do, and there are some really good posts on radio reference (in the GRE and RS forums) on what to adjust.

The TDMA issue I posted about, turns out the be a specific channel on the NJICS system coming off Montana Mountain.  After some testing, I determined that any TDMA traffic coming over on 773.03125, will not decode on either the Pro-668, or the Uniden BCDx36 radio's.  Normal P25 traffic will however decode.  Since I don't have a real TMDA radio, I can't tell if this is something with the scanner's themselves, or if that tower is having an issue.    We don't have a whole lot of TDMA radio's in this area, so this may very well be an issue and is just going un-noticed for a while.  I am also interested to see if this is isolated to my tower, or if this is a wide spread issue.

After getting a break with the iPhone Siren App release, The BCDx36 owners are once again screaming.  This time the internal clock batteries appear to be failing.  I never had a problem until I plugged that damn WiFi dongle in mine.  I made it through 2 months of minus temperatures, and I put the dongle in 1 time and the clock is all screwed up.   I have a feeling you may be seeing another recall.  Nice Going!

Optimize your scan list

First an update to my Pro-668 post yesterday.  My adapt level change isn't working out as well as I had hoped.  I am going to swing it the other direction today and see if that makes a difference (I  went from 64 to 16, now I moved it to 90).

I also forgot to mention that they Pro-668 battery life is much better than the 436, however it does have 4 batteries vs the 436's 3.

Optimizing your scanner
The nice thing about these new scanners is you can put in your zip code, everything in your area downloads and off you go.  The problem with that is the way it downloads is probably not the most efficient way to scan.

The radio scans in sequential order, and you hear the first active frequency or talkgroup it comes across.  By moving things you want to hear to the front of the list, you will improve your chances of hearing the things that are most important.  Things that are less important, or tend to hog air time, put them at the back of the list.  This applies to the system level as well.  Put your most important trunk or conventional system first.

This is particularly useful if your county or state is migrating to a new digital system from an old one.  Many times the old analog systems are simulcasted, either part time or full time.  This is the case for example with Somerset County, and often NJSP talkgroups show up in the NJICS 700 System.  By putting the newer system first, you increases the odds of listening to that particular talkgroup on the digital side, vs the analog side.  If you want to increase your chances even more, add a hold time (if you have a Uniden) of 3-4 seconds to the digital group.

You can also use this method to your advantage while mobile (especially if you use GPS scanning).  Many trunk systems have fill in sites, which are fill in sites for area's with poor coverage (usually referred to as IR Sites).  NJSP has them all over the place for the 800 system, and Bucks county has a couple as well.  Since they are only active when a nearby radio affiliates to it, they are normally not worth monitoring, since you only hear maybe 1 or 2 talkgroups and even that may be inconsistent.  However while you are mobile, by putting these sites first in the site list, you will be more likely to lock on to those when you are in an area where the main site has poor reception and hear the local traffic more clearly.    Your mileage may vary with this particular technique.   A good example of where this works well is the NJSP on route 78.  The Bedminster IR site was setup to improve coverage on Route 78 between Clinton and Route 287.  By scanning the IR site first, the 5 Comm traffic comes in much better, than when I was only relying on the main simulcast site.

Uniden BCD436HP Vs PSR-800/WS-1080/Pro-668 Revisited

When I got rid of my PSR-800 last year, I never thought in a million years I would discuss it ever again.  In the end it turned into quite a hate/hate relationship.  Thanks to Radio Shack blowing out the Pro-668 for $150, it was an offer I couldn't refuse.  The timing is actually perfect, considering Uniden's popularity right now is neck and neck with Congress.

I had a lot of issues with my PSR-800, and some of that has not changed.  One thing I have noticed with the new 668 is I don't have as much front end overload.  My 800 was an early model (with the faceplate issue),  and they have seemed to have made some minor improvements under the hood over the last couple years.

Since I deleted all my EZScan files, I had to start from scratch with the radio.  It took me a few days to get everything in order and to re-familiarize myself with the radio.

First thing I missed was the LED light.  Uniden gives you 2 options, 1 color and either flash or solid for 5 seconds, then it shuts off.  The 668 (going forward includes the PSR-800 & Whistler 1080), gives you the option of a solid light or flashing.  You can change how many colors to flash, and how fast.  You can even change the pattern.  It also stays on as long as the squelch is broken.  

Another thing is the Scan Lists (now called Play Lists for some awful reason).    You can setup a lists for specific purposes.  For example I have a slim list consisting of a few NJSP Talkgroups, and my local Fire/EMS/OEM frequencies, for when I don't want to listen to a whole lot and just what is happening locally.

There are also the V Folders, which lets you setup an entirely different configuration.  I always found this useful for when I am going away and want to setup the scanner in advance.

When I first got my 436, I thought the display was much better, a year later I am not so sure:
They both show pretty much the same information.
The 436 can show 23 characters vs 16 on the 668.
The 436 text is smaller and the fonts are thinner, the 668 has nice bold fonts which are easier to read.  The 436 does have text in 2 different sizes to differentiate things, where the 668 kind of runs together.
The 436 is not that bright, in fact the brightest level is the 668's lowest level.
The 436 light can come on with the squelch, but it is time limited, where you can set the light on the 668 to come on (per channel), and will stay on until the squelch closes.
I have to say I have changed my mind and I like the 668 display better now. 

Another pet peeve I had was the front end overload, and with that being toned down (It is still present, but nothing like before), the 2 scanners seem to perform very similar, with the 668 pulling in signals a bit better than the 436.  I did have some difficulty pulling in some TMDA traffic, but changing the DSP Level Adapt to 16 seems to have helped the situation.

There are still plenty of things I think the 436 does better, and I also prefer the HP Sentinel software, and I like the one touch recording, and being able to actually make changes without a computer.  That is the one reason why I would probably take the 436 with me on vacation vs the 668.  I was burned too many times when my programming wasn't correct on my PSR-800 and I had no way to correct it.

In conclusion, for $150, this is the scanner deal of the year and you can't go wrong.  You will not find a deal like this again anytime soon.  After a year with the 436 and Uniden's drama over the last 6 months, the 668 (and it's clones) have redeemed itself.

Whistler 1095 Mobile scanner finally appears

Please see this thread on radio reference for pictures:

http://forums.radioreference.com/general-scanning-discussion/305241-ces-2015-starts-tomorrow.html#post2316267

From the pictures, the scanner has a nice minimalist look to it.  The SD Card is easily accessible from behind the detachable radio head.  The display is nice and of course the remote head is a much welcomed and overdue feature.

If anything beats the Uniden 536, it is the remote head.  I never liked the fact of having to use my phone, or an old ipod/tablet for a remote display.  The last thing I want to do when I get in my car is have to manually turn something else on, worry if the batteries are charged, or even coming up with a way to mount it.  Lets all not forget that this is still speculation, and that a year later, we still have no remote head option from Uniden.  I would not be surprised if the 1095 comes out before Uniden has the software out.  Fortunately, I never planned on using the wifi option to begin with.

Operational wise, I posed a blog a while back comparing the Uniden's to the PRS-800/WS-1080 radios.  My opinion hasn't changed much.  Bear in mind that this is essentially a 2+ year old scanner in mobile form.  If you already have a PRS-800 or WS-1080, you already know the pluses and minuses.

Without GPS, or an easy access to the scan list, I still don't feel this is really a great mobile scanner.  The exception is if you only keep to 1 or 2 area's, or plan on monitoring a statewide trunk system.  The radio can by design change to the trunk site with the strongest control channel.  There will come a day when most of the state is on the NJICS Trunk system, or their own county 700 systems, tied into the state system.  When that takes place many years from now, this scanner would surely be a winner.

As a base scanner, this is sure to be a nice addition, however you will probably run into the VHF overloading if you have a base antenna.  From what I have seen and read, the GRE/Whistler scanner either works great for some people, or it works like crap.  There seems to be no middle ground.  If you are one of the lucky ones, then this radio will be for you.  I had been considering this one to replace my Home Patrol 1 on my desk, however I am probably more likely to go with the HP-2.   Now that I have perfected the radio id import script, it makes more sense for me to stick with Uniden (despite how pissed I still am at them).  I also had problems with VHF overloading, so the Uniden makes sense for me.

I give Whistler credit for jumping into the scanner arena and coming out with this finally.  Although I will be passing this one up, I am hoping that within a few years, we will be seeing newer scanner models designed by Whistler and with improvements over the current scanner shortcomings.

Importing a Radio ID listing into your HP Series Scanner Favorite List

Yesterday I showed how you can export a list of Radio ID's from Unitrunker.  Today I will show how you import those into your Home Patrol Favorite list.

If you do not have Unitrunker, but want to import the ID's, you can always download my list (which is updated several times a week) from here:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/4rxgywkd7xe6fch/AAAxFoNA-CToO9WxjT2iLqJka?dl=0

Again, you will need access to a bash shell to follow my instructions.  Again I suggest installing cygwin on the same computer where you have your Uniden software installed.

I should also point out that since I have so many radio id's in my NJSP and NJICS systems, each one has their own favorite list.  This will probably not work if you have multiple systems in the favorite list you want to import ID's to.

I will say this again, BACK UP Everything before attempting this.  If you do not back up and render your favorite list un-usable, you are out of luck.  I managed to break mine several times before I got the process right.

First thing you need to do is determine which file you need to copy.  Usually the folder in is your Documents, Uniden, BCDx36HP or HomePatrol, FavoriteLists.

You will find a bunch of files similar to f_000001.hpd or favorites_000001.hpd.  look for a f_list.cfg or favorites_lists.config file.  Open it with notepad and you can figure out which list you need to edit.

Because there are hidden control characters in the favorite lists, we need to take the radio ID list I exported from Unitrunker and reformat it.  Also, the Home Patrol list is formatted somewhat different than the BCDx36 lists.

This file with the ID's is 700ids.txt, and the favorite list is f_000011.hpd

First step is to process the radio id list and create a new list that can be imported into Sentinel (BCDx36 lists only).  Also, if you are planning on importing the ID's into multiple favorite lists, you only have to perform this step once.

rm rid.out
cat 700ids.txt | while read line
do
a=$(echo $line)
echo -e "UnitIds\t\t\t"$a"\tOff\tAuto\tOff\tOn" >> rid.out
done

If you are doing this for a Home Patrol 1, replace the echo line with this:
echo -e "UnitIds\t\t\t"$a"\tOff\tAuto" >> rid.out


This may take over 5 minutes to run, however if you are working with multiple favorite lists, it will save time in the long run.

The next step is to cut the top and bottom of the favorite list (the id's are in the center)
sed -n '/UnitIds/q;p' f_000011.hpd > top.out
sed -n '/Site/,$p' f_000011.hpd > bottom.out

Now we put it all back together again
cat top.out > f_000011.out
cat rid.out >> f_000011.out
cat bottom.out >> f_000011.out

Finally, we need to run the unix2dos command, otherwise the software will not read the file properly and it will not work.

unix2dos -n f_000011.out f_000011.hpd

If you did everything properly, it should have worked.  Because everyone's setup is different, it would be impossible to a simple script for everyone to use.  Since I have several favorite lists, I setup a script that copies all the favorites over, creates the new radio ID section, updates all the lists and copies them all back.   I also incorporated the Unitrunker export from yesterdays blog, so I can accomplish all this in 1 step.

Finally, I do not have a Home Patrol-2, so I have no way of knowing if this will work on that.  If someone wants to provide me a favorite list from one (Trunk System with Radio ID's), I can look at it and I will update the instructions.

Remember, if you are going to try this...BACK UP EVERYTHING FIRST, and make sure your backup works.

Exporting Radio ID's from Unitrunker

Happy New Year!

I still have to complete my GPS series, but for now I am changing gears for a bit and going to post how to easily export Radio ID's from Unitrunker, so you can easily cut and paste them into Uniden Sentinel or GREComm software.  In my 2nd part to this, I will show you a way to update your Sentinel favorite lists without the hassle of cutting and pasting.

First a warning, unless you are somewhat familiar with Linux, this probably isn't going to be for you.  2nd, before attempting anything like this, BACK UP EVERYTHING.  I would go so far to back up your files, move them to another computer if you have one, and make sure they work there.  I am not responsible if you make a mess of your stuff.

Unitrunker is a great problem, and for keeping a watch on a trunk system, it is invaluable.  You can alpha tag all the talkgroups and radio id's and keep watch for new users and/or new talkgroups.  Where it falls short is that it does not really give you an easy way to export the data into something usable.  You can load up the unitrunker file in excel and do the manipulation there, however it is messing and time consuming.

It is very simple to export the radio ID"s out.  My method requires you to have access to a linux bash shell.  This means either a PC with linux on it, running it in a virutal machine, or you can install cygwin (https://www.cygwin.com) and do everything from there.

First step is to copy your Unitrunker.xml file over to a working directory.  Before you do, you should hit the "X" on the main unitrunker screen.  It will say it saved the data and ask you if you want to quit.  We do this to make sure all the updated data has been saved.

Since I have cygwin on the computer that runs unitrunker, I do this:
cp "/cygdrive/c/Users/John/AppData/Roaming/UniTrunker/Unitrunker.xml" .

Next we want to pull out only the Radio ID's
grep User Unitrunker.out > uni.out

Which leaves you a file with a bunch of lines that resemble this:
<User id="9681" label="Troop Car 2212P" color="00FF00" lockout="0" rank="50" group="53296" first="20140318174455" last="20140718182323" hits="11" voice="1" mask="1" logon="2" />

Next we issue this command to grab only user ID and Label, it also will move label to the left for easier import into Home Patrol.

paste <(cut -d "\"" -f 4 uni.out) <(cut -d "\"" -f 2 uni.out) > uni1.out

Finally, more often than not, there are a bunch of radio id's that have not been identified or alpha tagged yet, you won't want to import those, so we issue this command to ignore those, and create the text file:
grep -Ev '00FF00' uni1.out > 700ids.txt

You now have a text file that you can load into excel and  cut and paste into Sentinel or the GRE program.  That User id entry above now looks like this:
Troop Car 2212P 9681 (There is actually a delimiter between 2212P and 9681)

One final caveat to this, if you have several systems in your Unitrunker file, you will have to isolate the system before pulling out the radio id's, otherwise you will wind up with a file with all the id's from all your systems in your Unitrunker setup.  By looking for a unique pattern (The system ID is usually a good one), you can do this this the sed command:

Cuts from the top of the file to a pattern match:
sed -n '/pattern/q;p' old_file > new_file

Cuts from a pattern match to the bottom of the file:
sed -n '/pattern/,$p' old_file > new_file

You can combine the 2 commands above if you have a bunch of systems and the one you want is in the middle.

As you can see, this is very specific to how each person has things setup, so there really is no way to come up with a universal setup.

The next segment will show how I take apart a Home Patrol favorite list, and re-assemble it with an updated ID list.