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SDS Radios
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Joseph Shynn
Hi Jim,
What’s your opinion of the SDS100? What’s the difference between it and my 436/536/TRX-1/TRX-2. Like I need another scanner. Regards, Joey VA3GOC, VE3XMU |
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Jim Walls
Hi Jim, What’s your opinion of the SDS100?I like it. I largely bought it for one system. I used to work for Southern California Edison - the electric utility for most of southern California. I ran their trunked system for the last 8.5 years that I was there. They upgraded from analog Motorola SmartZone trunking to P-25 phase 2 a half dozen or so years ago (well after I left). I still like listening to them and it's REALLY nice when there is a power outage. So after having nothing I could listen to them on for several years, I finally got the SDS100 a couple years ago. Although I have a few other systems in it, primarily I use it for the SCE system. I have some stuff on the system I run programmed as well, and it definitely handles simulcast better than the 396 or 996 scanners. I don't need a scanner for my system since I have several issued radios on the system (including most of the encryption), but the scanner was a nice test. I had thought about getting the P2 version of the 996 for my truck, but I will likely go with the SDS200 instead. What’s the difference between it and my 436/536/TRX-1/TRX-2.The big one is that it is a software defined radio so is far more upgradable. Essentially everything is in firmware. It is more of a battery hog however. Like I need another scanner.Don't we all? 73 ----- Jim Walls - K6CCC jim@... |
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Dewey
I think you'll get differing opinions, but my personal opinion, worth what you're paying for it, is that the SDS' biggest, biggest, biggest, biggest difference is the simulcast reception, what the SDS was designed for. I know that has been said many many times already, but I'm a firm believer after personally experiencing the difference on the PG County, MD (https://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?sid=6341) TDMA system. Other than that, the x36 series scans faster, but the SDS has the highly customizable screens.
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Dewey -----Original Message-----
From: main@Uniden.groups.io <main@Uniden.groups.io> On Behalf Of Joseph Shynn via groups.io Sent: Thursday, September 2, 2021 11:31 To: main@uniden.groups.io Subject: [Uniden] SDS Radios Hi Jim, What’s your opinion of the SDS100? What’s the difference between it and my 436/536/TRX-1/TRX-2. Like I need another scanner. Regards, Joey VA3GOC, VE3XMU |
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Dewey
... also, who outside of Uniden knows what's in store for the future of the SDS series. My thought is that the x36 series is already tapped out as far as future *features* go.
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Dewey -----Original Message-----
From: main@Uniden.groups.io <main@Uniden.groups.io> On Behalf Of Joseph Shynn via groups.io Sent: Thursday, September 2, 2021 11:31 To: main@uniden.groups.io Subject: [Uniden] SDS Radios Hi Jim, What’s your opinion of the SDS100? What’s the difference between it and my 436/536/TRX-1/TRX-2. Like I need another scanner. Regards, Joey VA3GOC, VE3XMU |
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Michael Hunter
SDS100 does everything better especially the range! I can pickup outlying areas in town no problem! Hi Jim, |
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jimpearson808@...
Hi, the sds100 is expensive, but you simply type in the zip code and all the available frequency's auto program. Any where I've traveled, it has programed properly. You can also buy the GPS option and it will auto program while you drive. Hi Jim, |
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giebelr
My view: the SDS100 is a good scanner wrapped in great eye-candy. You’ll find functionality similar to the 436/536 line.
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On the downside, you will find it to have significantly less sensitivity than the 436/536. Side by side the 436/536 will hear more than the SDS100. But, if you’re having real trouble with simulcast systems, the SDS might do the trick. Just keep the sensitivity issue in mind. Have fun. On Sep 2, 2021, at 12:57, Jim Walls <jim@...> wrote: |
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Dotman
Hi Folks,
Just received my SDS200 yesterday and have been comparing it to my other scanners / VHF transceivers. My reference target is a transmitter that is 46 air miles away over VERY flat terrain. It is an APCO 25 trunked system site transmitting on 142 MHz.. I have 2 antennas - a home brew dual band J-Pole designed by Kazimierz Siswiak KE4PT ( the editor of QEX Journal ). It is up at 23' above ground. The other antenna - used exclusively by my scanners is a Diamond DJ-130 discone up at 15' above ground. The receivers I compared it to are Radio Shack PRO-2096, PRO-96 hand held and an old Kenwood TM742 Tri band amateur mobile radio along with a borrowed BCD536HP. The APCO 25 transmitter comes in at an S7 on my Kenwood using the J-Pole. I can't hear it at all using either of the RS scanners , and is buried in the noise on the 536HP. With the SDS200 the signal is also very weak ( -109dBm ) but is better copy than the 536HP ( marginally ). There is no signal from this site on anything using the discone. WRT to the SDS200 - PROs are the outstanding display. You can view an incredible amount of info in living color. Performance in simulcast systems is the best. Ease of programming. Use Sentinel to program the quick keys. Slicker than eel snot! Also the sheer number of system types it can receive ( even if some require an upgrade ) CONs are the SLOW scan rate. This is not unique to the SDS200. I noticed the same "problem" on the borrowed BCD536HP I have. I am missing a fair number of transmissions on the local APCO 25 trunked system compared to the RS PRO-2096. The 2096 is lightning fast and has limited but functional text tags for the TGIDs. I wonder if the scan rate is the affected by the DMA architecture having to find the data to display on the screen when it receives a signal. The other PITA is the load time for the databases on power up. I understand using an SD card to store everything but boot time would be speedier if it also was stored in an EEPROM local to the processor. It could be updated the same as the SD card and use the SD card for audio recording, QKs and FLists. I will be using the SDS200 for the simulcast systems and military aircraft monitoring. I'll stick with the PRO-2096 for the APCO 25 and conventional single site systems. All in all the SDS200 is light years ahead of my older scanners and I will enjoy it for many years. Thanks for plodding through my long winded opinion! Cheers! Mark VE3FEX My view: the SDS100 is a good scanner wrapped in great eye-candy. You´ll find functionality similar to the 436/536 line.for most of southern California. I ran their trunked system for the last 8.5 years that I was there. They upgraded from analog Motorola SmartZone trunking to P-25 phase 2 a half dozen or so years ago (well after I left). I still like listening to them and it's REALLY nice when there is a power outage. So after having nothing I could listen to them on for several years, I finally got the SDS100 a couple years ago. Although I have a few other systems in it, primarily I use it for the SCE system. I have some stuff on the system I run programmed as well, and it definitely handles simulcast better than the 396 or 996 scanners. I don't need a scanner for my system since I have several issued radios on the system (including most of the encryption), but the scanner was a nice test. I had thought about getting the P2 version of the 996 for my truck, but I will likely go with the SDS200 instead. What´s the difference between it and my 436/536/TRX-1/TRX-2.The big one is that it is a software defined radio so is far more upgradable. Essentially everything is in firmware. It is more of a battery hog however.Like I need another scanner.Don't we all? |
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Dewey and anyone else: Forgive my ignorance. I just moved to Maryland from Pennsylvania. All my scanners are older analog models. They served me well in PA but are limited here. My primary counties of interest are Queen Anne’s and PG. Am also interested in all Eastern Shore counties. I am living in QAC and have relative PO in PG. Which handheld scanner should I buy? Would the Home Patrol work? I no longer have windows computers for programming. Thanks, Bobby ——- I think you'll get differing opinions, but my personal opinion, worth what you're paying for it, is that the SDS' biggest, biggest, biggest, biggest difference is the simulcast reception, what the SDS was designed for. I know that has been said many many times already, but I'm a firm believer after personally experiencing the difference on the PG County, MD (https://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?sid=6341) TDMA system. Other than that, the x36 series scans faster, but the SDS has the highly customizable screens. Dewey |
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Be aware that a lot of the Eastern Shore is going encripted.
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John C. Lowe
To Dewey: I keep reading in these threads that the SDS’s scan slower. Just how much slower and is it recognizable enough to make a difference?
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Thanks, Gianni
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Joe M.
That depends on your RF environment (for any scanner).
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Joe M. On 9/3/2021 10:45 AM, John C. Lowe wrote:
To Dewey: I keep reading in these threads that the SDS’s scan slower. |
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John C. Lowe
Hi Joe,
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Please give me an example of “RF Environment”. I am in North East Ohio and there’s plenty of listening from Cleveland, to the east and to the western suburbs. Thanks! On Sep 3, 2021, at 10:53 AM, Joe M. <mch@...> wrote: |
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Joe M.
If you are in Cleveland (or any other urban area) or very close to a busy tower, the unit will scan slower due to RF saturation. If you are in a rural area, it will scan faster.
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Joe M. On 9/3/2021 11:13 AM, John C. Lowe wrote:
Hi Joe, |
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Dan Bowman
The SDS series literally scans slower, but you also have people making unfair comparisons, scanning different things, with different reception styles between the BCDx36HP series and the SDS series. One setting in the SDS with the filters can make the scanner
seem like it's scanning at half-rate. Unfortunately, I don't really see many members, of groups, being very specific and can see some of the inherent and then passed on, fallacie. The BCDx36HP series won't get this person a Simulcast Digital Distortion beating
scanner, instead a scanner that can constantly fail on the most important of replies. Most of the Eastern Shore is flat, and while the Non-Simulcast "ASR" Sites might not need the SDS almost all the rest of the Sites and the 2 Systems he mentioned have Simulcast
used exclusively. Be a real bear for him to spend $450 to find out he need to spend another $60 to return it to spend $550 once and get the right product. Now if he wants to listen to Baltimore fire dispatch on 46.46mHz he could spend as little as $15 to
get the old Analog stuff around here that is left.
Dan Bowman 503-435-7606 From: main@Uniden.groups.io <main@Uniden.groups.io> on behalf of John C. Lowe <gianni777s@...>
Sent: Friday, September 3, 2021 2:45 PM To: main@uniden.groups.io <main@Uniden.groups.io> Subject: Re: [Uniden] SDS Radios To Dewey: I keep reading in these threads that the SDS’s scan slower. Just how much slower and is it recognizable enough to make a difference?
Thanks,
Gianni
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Ouch. Sorry to hear that. |
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Dan Bowman
Having lived and traveled the area all of my life, the SDS100/200 is definitely the way to go. Prince Georges is on a Phase 2 system and the eastern shore is on a mostly Simulcast Phase 1/2 on the State FiRST System. Most of the PD/Law side of things on the
Eastern Shore have gone encrypted, so not a lot of local PD monitoring. Having just travel through those areas you mentioned, this morning, the SDS100 was the most reliable to decode those Systems will little to no Simulcast Digital Distortion. Now how well
you can monitor PG from Queen Anne I don't know as I mostly turn that off before turning the corner into Anne Arundel county, I can say most of Queen Anne has a few Sites it can receive on FiRST, and some of them simulcast (old meaning now refered to as multicasting)
some transmissions from further away. With the Uniden BCDx36HP and SDS series, unlike some other makes and models you don't necessarily have to make 4-5 copies of a System, to listen to various Sites, simply use a few dots .. and you can turn the Sites On
and Off at will.
Dan Bowman 503-435-7606 From: main@Uniden.groups.io <main@Uniden.groups.io> on behalf of Bob Stern via groups.io <bobbystern@...>
Sent: Friday, September 3, 2021 1:09 PM To: main@uniden.groups.io <main@uniden.groups.io> Subject: Re: [Uniden] SDS Radios Dewey and anyone else:
Forgive my ignorance. I just moved to Maryland from Pennsylvania. All my scanners are older analog models. They served me well in PA but are limited here.
My primary counties of interest are Queen Anne’s and PG. Am also interested in all Eastern Shore counties. I am living in QAC and have relative PO in PG.
Which handheld scanner should I buy?
Would the Home Patrol work?
I no longer have windows computers for programming.
Thanks,
Bobby
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I think you'll get differing opinions, but my personal opinion, worth what you're paying for it, is that the SDS' biggest, biggest, biggest, biggest difference is the simulcast reception,
what the SDS was designed for. I know that has been said many many times already, but I'm a firm believer after personally experiencing the difference on the PG County, MD (https://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?sid=6341)
TDMA system. Other than that, the x36 series scans faster, but the SDS has the highly customizable screens.
Dewey |
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John C. Lowe
Thanks Joe.
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On Sep 3, 2021, at 12:37 PM, Joe M. <mch@...> wrote: |
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Bob,
And yes, you'll likely need access to a computer running Windows (Parallels on MacOS--at least prior to the M1 chip--should be OK too), at least for the use of EZ-SCAN (Whistler) and/or Sentinel (Uniden) for non-keyboard (or large scale) programming of the unit. I've had relatively good experiences with recent versions of WINE over Linux (and also older Uniden software, such as for 396/996 programming, under Windows 10) but most folks on RadioReference aren't keen on that approach. And I don't use it for firmware updates for either manufacturers just because I don't trust the USB/serial connection at that connection layer (I'm paranoid--I suspect that knowledgeable others have gotten it to work). Someone else can correct me, but I don't think either the manufacturers or third-parties (e.g., Butel) have released binaries for Linux, *BSD, or MacOS for their scanning programming software. 73's, Wayne, N6LHV |
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harvey morse
I purchased an SD100 and had the seller program a bunch of my “favorite” groups. In the menu, I can see a list of all my groups, however I need some instruction in learning how to select the one I wish to monitor. Thanks!
Harvey K1DJG |
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