FreeSCAN-GPS

This screen is used to edit your GPS coordinates in FreeSCAN. Normally scanner coordinates are entered in DMS format as seen in the top box. If you only have them in decimal format, enter them in the bottom box ("Find Coordinates by Lat/Long (Enter in Decimal)", then click on Convert To DMS, then click on Copy To to copy these coordinates into the top box. Clicking on OK will save them to memory.

You can also use geocoding to find an unknown coordinate. There are several ways to do this. If you know the postal code, simply enter it in the Postal Code box and click on Google Lookup to find the Lat/Long coordinates. You can then click on View In Google to confirm that this is the area you are interested in.

You can also search by entering city, state, and country, however these fields are not always mandatory. For example, in the case of famous land marks such as Disney World Florida or the Grand Canyon, only a basic description is needed and it doesn't matter which box you enter it in.

Another example: You want to look up Microsoft's location. Rather then dig up the address, you can simply enter "microsoft seattle" in the street field and FreeSCAN will look up the rest. Capitalization does not matter.

Make sure you only enter either a zip code OR street/state/country - entering them both will cause FreeSCAN to use the zip code only. In some cases, you may receive a message indicating that FreeSCAN is unable to connect to Google even though you are sure your Internet connection is working. In this case, just try again. It may also be an indication that your search is too broad and FreeSCAN is receiving multiple location, in which case you should narrow down your parameters.

Viewing maps in Google with FreeSCAN only functions with Mozilla Firefox. Internet Explorer automatically blocks out active content to protect you and will not allow this to work. If you are using Windows Vista, you will need to modify the permissions on the FreeSCAN folder to allow Everyone read and write permissions before this feature will work. However, this issue will be looked at in a future version.

File:Freescan-googlemaps.jpg

This is a screen shot of FreeSCAN's View in Google function. The exact coordinates are shown with a marker, and if a range is specified, a blue circle is drawn to show the effective range. At the top, the associated System/Site/Group name with the coordinates is shown in the title bar. A scale is provided in the bottom left.