So my SDS100 arrived today, and I've had a chance to play with it. Here are my initial impressions.
SIMULCAST WORKS AS ADVERTISED.
Monitoring local simulcast systems, I'm not getting any choppy stuttering on any site. I used to be able to receive one site of the Franklin County system reasonably well, but the other was pretty much unusable at home. The SDS100 picks up both with no issues. This honey badger eats simulcast for breakfast.
Faster scanning. Like 25-50% faster plowing through conventional channels, or 100-120 channels/second vs 80 for the x36.
The screen is much clearer than the displays of the x36 scanners. MUCH CLEARER. And it's color, and customizable. Did I mention it's clearer?
It will charge and run simultaneously, although you have to turn on an option in the battery menu first. You can only charge the scanner with the USB-mini port. The USB-micro port does not charge the scanner.
The speaker is slightly better than that of the 436, but not something audiophiles are likely to cream themselves over.
The SDS gets noticeably warmer than the 436. It draws about 1400mA from the USB port when charging, about 800mA just scanning with the screen on, and about 750mA with the screen off. That's almost exactly 4x the power consumption of the 436, and why AAs are not a practical option.
It's slightly shorter than the 436, narrower (especially with the taper at the bottom), and significantly thicker. It has a kind of hand grip molded into the bottom half. It the rubber trim around the handgrip area feels slightly slicker than the rubber trim around the 436.
Sensitivity seems quite good. The SDS100 has picked up a few things on analog FM that my 536 completely missed, even when I manually held on the channel and turned the squelch all the way down to 0.
The only negative compared to the 436 is battery life. But overall, it's worth the price, despite that. Three thumbs up.
SIMULCAST WORKS AS ADVERTISED.
Monitoring local simulcast systems, I'm not getting any choppy stuttering on any site. I used to be able to receive one site of the Franklin County system reasonably well, but the other was pretty much unusable at home. The SDS100 picks up both with no issues. This honey badger eats simulcast for breakfast.
Faster scanning. Like 25-50% faster plowing through conventional channels, or 100-120 channels/second vs 80 for the x36.
The screen is much clearer than the displays of the x36 scanners. MUCH CLEARER. And it's color, and customizable. Did I mention it's clearer?
It will charge and run simultaneously, although you have to turn on an option in the battery menu first. You can only charge the scanner with the USB-mini port. The USB-micro port does not charge the scanner.
The speaker is slightly better than that of the 436, but not something audiophiles are likely to cream themselves over.
The SDS gets noticeably warmer than the 436. It draws about 1400mA from the USB port when charging, about 800mA just scanning with the screen on, and about 750mA with the screen off. That's almost exactly 4x the power consumption of the 436, and why AAs are not a practical option.
It's slightly shorter than the 436, narrower (especially with the taper at the bottom), and significantly thicker. It has a kind of hand grip molded into the bottom half. It the rubber trim around the handgrip area feels slightly slicker than the rubber trim around the 436.
Sensitivity seems quite good. The SDS100 has picked up a few things on analog FM that my 536 completely missed, even when I manually held on the channel and turned the squelch all the way down to 0.
The only negative compared to the 436 is battery life. But overall, it's worth the price, despite that. Three thumbs up.