I'll preface my reply with a few disclaimers.
- I do not own the SDS100.
- Observations were made while stationary during a short 3 hour hands on experience.
- The testing location was near I-25 and Arapahoe Rd.
- The SDS100 was tested side-by-side with a BCD436HP, Pro-106, and Unication G4.
- The SDS100, BCD436HP, and G4 were identically programmed. The Pro-106 was not, but had those same systems programmed. The systems tested were DTRS (Douglas County North Simulcast), Aurora, FRCC, and DIA.
- All radios present were using the widely used 800 MHz antenna. The SDS100's stock antenna was also around and briefly used.
Pros:
- The physical scanner feels very nice and solid. The keypad is not squishy and has a tactile feedback, which I like over the squishy rubber keys of other scanners.
- The display is very nice to look at.
Con:
- What appears to be very bad 800 MHz overloading (maybe cellular or overpowering DTRS site). All other radios present did not show signs of overload.
Unfortunately due to the con, there wasn't much that could be tested on the SDS100. The RSSI was constantly at -45 to -50 dBm regardless of the system selected, Uniden's Noise figure was constantly at 10000+, the Data/LNK icon would flash in and out, and the detailed trunking information would struggle to populate on the 800 MHz sites. System and site holds did not help, however channel hold did appear to help it lock on to the sites marginally better. Unfortunately, this meant that it did not act much like a scanner. We tried to attenuate the signal, which dropped it to below -100 dBm, but unfortunately that also wipes out the weaker signals.
I suspect that this either due to Chevron or a known cell site near Fiddler's Green Amphitheatre, both of which are about half a mile from the testing location. None of the other radios present had overload issues and could lock onto the sites being tested. This includes the Pro-106, which is known for its overload issues.
The only system that could be reliably tested was FRCC's 700 MHz North Metro Simulcast, which happens to be the system that all scanners could receive that pretty reliably as well. With that, it meant we couldn't really test for improvements in simulcast performance. There were isolated cases in maybe one out of in every 20 transmissions where the SDS100 failed to follow the talkgroup that it had successfully stopped on before. All other radios successfully stopped on the same talkgroup. The talkgroup would be used for upwards of 10 seconds while the SDS100 would sit there "scanning" the system.
Before someone comes in and tries to claim improper usage and all that, I had several others with me who were much more familiar with Uniden's DMA scanners that were there to keep me in check. We also eventually loaded someone's Favorites List into the scanner, although admittedly by that point I wasn't too focused on testing the SDS100.
I don't doubt the ability of the SDS100 to receive simulcast better, but unfortunately it just couldn't be tested in our location. I do hope that others will be able to more thoroughly test out the 800 MHz/cellular overload in other locations, but my isolated and very limited instance of testing it was not very promising.
On a note unrelated to the SDS100, the G4 was able to pull in DIA's system out of the gutter. I could barely hear the control channel over the noise floor with the squelch turned all the way down on the Pro-106. The G4 showed 0 to 1 bar of signal, but it somehow was able to decode the CC and voice. It did drop out a few times, but overall it was more impressive than the SDS100.