HS code for SDS 100 (shipping to Georgia issue)

[NewbieFromTbilisi]

Hello. I live in Georgia (not in American state Georgia, but in a country with the same name, in Tbilisi). I am trying to buy a scanner Uniden SDS 100. The first time I tried to buy it in American shop, but Americans wrote me that they cannot deliver this reciver to Georgria due to "differencies in scanner laws". I don't know about laws prohibiting shipping radio receivers to my country. Now I am going to order a reciever in a British shop - Britains wrote me that they deliever goods to Georgia. I asked a Georgian lawyer whether it is legal to ship scanners to my country - he answered that ne needs a HS (Harmonized Systems) code of this reciever to find out this. I tried to find this code on the Internet - and nothing, I wrote to Uniden America and didn't get an answer, I called them - they said that they can't find such code. The lawyer says that the manufacturer of SDS 100 must know such code. Can anybody here help mew with finding a HS code of SDS 100?

 

[AvidHiker]

This is the site I use here in the US: Census Bureau Schedule B Search Engine

This HS code looks pretty close: 8527.19.0000

 

[ko6jw_2]

I can find no specific information on two way radio in your country, but please be aware that many European countries use TETRA which the SDS 100 cannot receive. Also band allocations differ between the US and other parts of the world. As an example, I spent some time in Ireland where the police (Garda) use TETRA and the fire services were in the 66-88MHz band. This may have changed now. Nevertheless, an American scanner would have been of little if any use. You might want to contact a local amateur radio club in your city. They may have good information. You would be able to receive amateur and aircraft signals. However, the expensive features of the SDS 100 would be of limited use. Better off with a less expensive radio.

 

[NewbieFromTbilisi]

Thank you all for answers! I have already ordered an SDS 100. In this post I'll try to explain my choice. When 5+ years ago I lived in Russia, I had a receiver ICOM IC-R6, it could recieve only analog signals. I listened Russian police and avia with it - at that time police at my town used analog. Now I decided to return to a my old hobby and buy more advanced receiver. The main advantages for me were abilities to receive digital formats and to recieve short band (SSB). I was upset when I found out that some receivers can recieve digital formats, but not all of them, and some recievers with digital formats don't have SSB. The choice was between several models. For example: ICOM IC-R30 has SSB and some digital formats, but cannot recieve DMR. Or Uniden recievers, as ko6jw_2 wrote, have almost all digital formats, but don't have TETRA and SSB. To be honest, I don't know exactly, what digital fomat do use public services in country where I live now. I suppose that this is not TETRA because Georgia is a postsoviet country and it is not in EU. Maybe Georgian police uses P25... I know exactly, that P25 is used now by Russian police. Generally the manin advantage of SDS100, which made me to buy it, became that it has most of modern digital formats (especially DMR). I decided that I can do without short band. Of course the best solution was to buy AOR AR-DV10 - I know, that it can receive all possible formats of signans, including SSB modulation and even TETRA. But DV-10 is to expensive for me((( I have money only for SDS100. Also it is bad, that I didn't found any information on the Internet about scan amateurs in Georgia, almost nobody sells scanners here... Am I alone here?

 

[AvidHiker]

Also worth noting that the SDS100 can scan trunked digital systems (if you can program it correctly) which are commonly employed in public safety networks. Icom and AOR receivers have never supported trunk tracking.

 

[NewbieFromTbilisi]

Also, espesially about TETRA... Does somebody know:
1. Can this feature be added to Uniden recievers in future?
2. Does manufacturer need to change a hardware or software to add a new mode? In other words, will it be enough to update a reciever's software to get a new mode or will I need to buy a new reciever?
3. Can I decode TETRA with some PC software through plugging a receiver to PC?
I am sorry, if my questions are stupid, I am not good enough in radio yet.

 

[AvidHiker]

UNIDEN TETRA

Hello everyone, I created this topic for discussion when the tetra will appear in Uniden SDS100/200. I would like to get information from the developers Uniden! Can we expect this update this year? This standard is used not only in Europe, but also in the United States. Does it make sense to...

forums.radioreference.com

 

[NewbieFromTbilisi]

UNIDEN TETRA

Hello everyone, I created this topic for discussion when the tetra will appear in Uniden SDS100/200. I would like to get information from the developers Uniden! Can we expect this update this year? This standard is used not only in Europe, but also in the United States. Does it make sense to...

forums.radioreference.com

I read this topic) My question is: can I decode TETRA signal trough plugging Uniden to PC and using some special software like DSD+? As i suppose, I will need the data from discriminator tap for this. Can this be done without a scanner modification?

 

[AvidHiker]

You had 3 questions, two of which I think that thread covers. The third I didn't address because I have little knowledge of software decoding, but I'm not aware of anything more you can do with the SDS, you probably should be looking at an RTL-SDR dongle.

 

[SteveSimpkin]

The SDR technology used in the SDS100 prevents you from adding a traditional discriminator tap so it would be unlikely you could use it to decode Tetra. There are methods of decoding Tetra that use a low-cost RTL-SDR with a computer like the following.

RTL-SDR Tutorial: Listening to TETRA Radio Channels

NOTE: There is now a plugin available for SDR# that will decode TETRA fairly easily. It is still in beta and misses a few features found in telive. Check it out in this post. TETRA is a trunked radio communications system that stands for 'Terrestrial Trunked Radio'. It is used heavily in many...

www.rtl-sdr.com