Coverage Tools

Coverage Tools

Four complementary ways to visualize what the scanner will scan around a given point.

Nearest Systems (tree annotations)

When Enable Location Filter is active, the top-level tree view prefixes each system with its distance-rank (#1, #2, ...) and sorts groups inside by distance from the center point. No extra dialog needed.

Coverage Heatmap

Heatmap... opens a pure-Tkinter dialog that renders a 200 x 200 grid around the active ZIP/City point. Each cell's color intensity shows the number of overlapping coverage circles that include that cell.

Pros:

• No third-party dependencies.
• Fast, renders instantly even on modest hardware.

Cons:

• No real map tiles; purely a relative density view.

Coverage Map

Map... opens a real tile-server map using tkintermapview. It shows:

• A marker at the active ZIP/City coordinate.
• Each system's coverage circle.
• A tile-server picker (OSM/Google map/satellite).

If tkintermapview isn't installed, the button tells you how to add it and hands you over to the Heatmap instead.

Install to enable:

python -m pip install tkintermapview

Export Effective Scan Set

Export Effective Scan Set... writes a CSV or TXT of exactly the rows visible under the current filter, with extra columns useful for analysis:

• Avoid flag.
• Lat, Lon, Range (mi), Distance (mi).

Great for spreadsheet triage or sharing a layout with another scanner owner.

Tuning the filter

• Tolerance slider (toolbar) widens / narrows the effective radius by +/- miles. Positive values include more distant groups; negative values trim aggressively.
• Exclude avoided hides entries flagged as Avoid from the visible tree (they still exist; they just aren't listed).
• Button filters (Police/EMS/Fire/DOT/Multi) restrict to service types that map to those physical buttons; see Scanner Button Service Types.