Intermediate ATT step needed?
I live in the congested Toronto-Buffalo corridor. For me, the SDS-200 does have some intermod (overload/mixing product) issues that are hard to deal with. On a few channels (marine 156.8 MHz for example), I get intermod with ATT off. Putting ATT on clears up the intermod, but then more distant signals are very noticeably hissier with it. I find the 20 dB attenuation needs an intermediate step - 10 dB. However despite this, overall I'm satisfied as I can live with it. It's not that bad. I've been scanning my local area for over a week now. The number of channels where intermod is hard to control is small in number. None of my scanners have ever approached my Icom R-8500 & R-8600 for reception quality/intermod-proofing - but those receivers cost thousands of dollars. My analog Uniden BC780XLT was a decent scanner with some intermod. I was really disappointed when replacing it with my 1st digital scanner - the BC796D. It was very intermod-prone. I'd say my worst scanner ever (I've only purchased Realistics or Unidens) because it really was unusable for daily scanning without making it partially-deaf by putting extra attenuation ahead of the antenna jack. I find the SDS-200 has issues when close in frequency to blowtorch stations, but seems to behave much better than my older Bearcat scanners on most of the rest of the bands farther away in frequency from the blowtorches. It seems like a decent compromise. But - things would be better if Uniden would include a 2-step attenuator 10/20 dB, instead of just the 20 dB choice. Perhaps this could be done with firmware. P.S. - I've tried IFX, but it doesn't seem to change anything. In the one case I did notice a change - it made the mixing product much stronger (I guess it's a 50/50 chance). P.S.#2 - I still haven't figured out the filters yet - and I'm a hard-core DXer. I need more info about what bands they affect. I've put the global setting back to "normal". It did seem that "invert" worked better on the 161-162 MHz band, but to be honest I really can't tell anymore. Uniden needs to provide us with clearer instructions on what the different filter settings actually do. P.S.#3 - I've never been able to listen to my intermod-prone police interop channel (142.77) on any of my scanners. I always end up locking it out. (The channel is fine on the Icoms). But lo and behold, on the SDS-200 the channel is ok with the ATT on. BTW, antenna here is a 100-1300 MHz LPDA, vertically polarized, rotatable on a 64' tower with tower-mounted preamp.