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.
Thursday, January 8, 2015
Friday, January 2, 2015
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.
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.
Thursday, January 1, 2015
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.
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.
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