SDS 100 and NYS Thruway

[jgorman21]

For years I’ve listened on many different radios to the NYS Thruway on 453.525 and 453.425 without a hitch! I’m learning a lot about my SDS 100…and still learning. But for some strange reason, where I am located (Glenmont NY), I can’t seem to pick these frequencies up clearly! Maybe I’m too close? Trying various filters. FM vs NFM. And the “magic“ IFX? Still not good. I placed this here in the NY forum rather that Uniden Technical in the hopes that someone might have had a similar situation that they found the solution to!

Thanks!

 

[vikingegfd]

SDS100 doesn't pick up that band unless you're within 5 miles. I can pick up Rensselaer police and fire from the East Greenbush area but thats all.
Troy fire and the thruway cannot be heard, have to use my old 205xlt.

 

[jgorman21]

SDS100 doesn't pick up that band unless you're within 5 miles. I can pick up Rensselaer police and fire from the East Greenbush area but thats all.
Troy fire and the thruway cannot be heard, have to use my old 205xlt.

Actually, I’ve made a lot of analog and digital frequencies improve greatly on my Sds 100! Took about a year. And I got a lot of help from people here on RR! In fact I pick up Troy FD and Rensselaer here just find. I’m almost right on top of the Thruway. I think that’s the issue here.

Thanks!

 

[GTR8000]

Have you tried enabling attenuation on the frequency? Also, being right next to the Thruway doesn't necessarily mean that you're close to one of the transmitters. You didn't make it clear as to whether you knew the location of the nearest transmitter.

The SDS series tend to struggle at times in the VHF and UHF bands, in particular with analog signals, and especially if you're in a high RF environment. Using an outdoor antenna could make things worse, not better.

Oh and the Thruway channels are all narrowband, so NFM, not FM.

 

[jgorman21]

Have you tried enabling attenuation on the frequency? Also, being right next to the Thruway doesn't necessarily mean that you're close to one of the transmitters. You didn't make it clear as to whether you knew the location of the nearest transmitter.

The SDS series tend to struggle at times in the VHF and UHF bands, in particular with analog signals, and especially if you're in a high RF environment. Using an outdoor antenna could make things worse, not better.

Oh and the Thruway channels are all narrowband, so NFM, not FM.

Thanks! I’ll try some attenuation next.

 

[k2hz]

There is no magic solution to fix the SDS100 problems with filter or other settings. What works is dependent on what specific frequency is affected and what other strong signals are present in the area. In some cases you can find a "magic" combination of settings for your problem on a specific frequency at a specific location but it will not work for other frequencies or at other locations.

An outdoor antenna in a strong signal area will usually overload the SDS100 to the point where it is useless. And, I find the SDS100 attenuator usually is ineffective. One solution to minimize problems is to use a "stubby" antenna. One of the approximately 2" long, all band rubber antennas may help in some cases to receive local signals without the intermod and desense problems.

But, my experience is to use the SDS100 for what it does well (receive your local P25 simulcast system) and get another scanner for everything else.

 

[Joshuascanner2021]

I honestly can't wait for them to go digital, their current UHF analog system seems to be a a little under maintained and only fixed when absolute necessary. Also, I did listen when they had that police chase just the other day out near buffalo and there are defiantly some very weak areas (yes I know ALL systems will have weak areas).

 

[jgorman21]

There is no magic solution to fix the SDS100 problems with filter or other settings. What works is dependent on what specific frequency is affected and what other strong signals are present in the area. In some cases you can find a "magic" combination of settings for your problem on a specific frequency at a specific location but it will not work for other frequencies or at other locations.

An outdoor antenna in a strong signal area will usually overload the SDS100 to the point where it is useless. And, I find the SDS100 attenuator usually is ineffective. One solution to minimize problems is to use a "stubby" antenna. One of the approximately 2" long, all band rubber antennas may help in some cases to receive local signals without the intermod and desense problems.

But, my experience is to use the SDS100 for what it does well (receive your local P25 simulcast system) and get another scanner for everything else.

Thanks. I’m starting to get better results on the SDS 100 thanks to people on RR. It’s quite a ”mind shift” for me having had real radios for many many years! I have a Unication G5 (that despite some opinions) blows the 100 away, side by side with identical programming. I just figured that I’d try the “latest and greatest” scanner! I probably would have done better with one of the two model scanners (Uniden) before it, or another radio/brand entirely. But now that it is working better and more importantly “hearing” somewhat better, I’m sticking with it! I have other radios that perform flawlessly if need be!

 

[jgorman21]

I honestly can't wait for them to go digital, their current UHF analog system seems to be a a little under maintained and only fixed when absolute necessary. Also, I did listen when they had that police chase just the other day out near buffalo and there are defiantly some very weak areas (yes I know ALL systems will have weak areas).

Good stuff! I remember when they were on VHF tuning them in! Their frequency (at that time) was very close to the Albany Police frequency!

I think it’s going to be a while for the new system though!

 

[IFRIED91]

Keep in mind the NYS thruway is voted scan system… each division is programmed as a single channel with the radio scanning between receive freqs and voting out the weaker signal (yes even troop t equipment is purchased/maintained by the nysta )…

 

[IFRIED91]

Also there’s quite few areas along the thruway near power lines I.e sloatsburg service area curve that are absolute dead zones for portables

 

[k2hz]

In Zone 4 Buffalo the main problem is their repeater receiver coverage with what appears to be a particular problem with their reception of portables although even mobiles may be poor at times. I don't think the system was ever really designed for solid portable coverage.

Zone 1 has a repeater licensed at Sloatsburg that was apparently never built so I think even mobiles have some problems in the area.

We went through some issues with getting good reception for our ARS-NET Broadcastify Thruway feed for Zone 1 and it appears they don't even use their Maintenance channels in that area. Our Zone 2 provider just moved and it seems to have improved our reception there in the Albany area. When he gets settled in we may see if we also can get any reception of the Amsterdam and Albany area Maintenance channels.

My Zone 4 feed covers the Henrietta and Batavia Maintenance channels as well as the Troop T dispatch.

Zone 3 is scanning Manchester, Weedsport and Syracuse Maintenance channels but I think only Manchester is heard reliably. We are considering relocating to a better site next year but it will require some antenna work so it is a project for good weather and other priorities. The feeds are set up with scan priority on the Zone channel so any truck to truck maintenance chatter doesn't block any Troop T activity.

 

[jgorman21]

Keep in mind the NYS thruway is voted scan system… each division is programmed as a single channel with the radio scanning between receive freqs and voting out the weaker signal (yes even troop t equipment is purchased/maintained by the nysta )…

Thanks! Answering both your responses here. Never a problem receiving either frequencies…ever where I am. Only on the SDS100! In fact listening to them right now on an old Radio Shack Pro 83. Full scale. No issues.

Just trying to figure out what the “magic” is for this one!

 

[jgorman21]

In Zone 4 Buffalo the main problem is their repeater receiver coverage with what appears to be a particular problem with their reception of portables although even mobiles may be poor at times. I don't think the system was ever really designed for solid portable coverage.

Zone 1 has a repeater licensed at Sloatsburg that was apparently never built so I think even mobiles have some problems in the area.

We went through some issues with getting good reception for our ARS-NET Broadcastify Thruway feed for Zone 1 and it appears they don't even use their Maintenance channels in that area. Our Zone 2 provider just moved and it seems to have improved our reception there in the Albany area. When he gets settled in we may see if we also can get any reception of the Amsterdam and Albany area Maintenance channels.

My Zone 4 feed covers the Henrietta and Batavia Maintenance channels as well as the Troop T dispatch.

Zone 3 is scanning Manchester, Weedsport and Syracuse Maintenance channels but I think only Manchester is heard reliably. We are considering relocating to a better site next year but it will require some antenna work so it is a project for good weather and other priorities. The feeds are set up with scan priority on the Zone channel so any truck to truck maintenance chatter doesn't block any Troop T activity.

Great reception where I am located (Glenmont NY just south of Albany) for years on many, many, different radios. Just trying to find out how to get the SDS 100 to “play nice” on this one too! It does ok on other UHF 450-460 conventional stuff since I’ve tweaked some stuff. This one is a bit of a mystery?

 

[W1KNE]

This may sound like a facetious question, but how close are you to any cell towers? Ever since T-Mobile has lit up their 600 MHz 5G service around here, if you're close to the site, there is major "desensing" happening. And with how poorly the SDS handles adjacent channel overloads, it wouldn't shock me if that is what you're having.

 

[jgorman21]

This may sound like a facetious question, but how close are you to any cell towers? Ever since T-Mobile has lit up their 600 MHz 5G service around here, if you're close to the site, there is major "desensing" happening. And with how poorly the SDS handles adjacent channel overloads, it wouldn't shock me if that is what you're having.

That’s a good call! Very close to the Thruway itself and not very far from a cell tower. However. I’ve been corresponding with ecps92 trying to figure out what if anything is “live” on that tower. Searching through RR shows older expired stuff. FCC site is inconclusive.

Thats very possible. Thanks!

 

[k2hz]

This may sound like a facetious question, but how close are you to any cell towers? Ever since T-Mobile has lit up their 600 MHz 5G service around here, if you're close to the site, there is major "desensing" happening. And with how poorly the SDS handles adjacent channel overloads, it wouldn't shock me if that is what you're having.

I had not though about the 600 Cell channels adding to my high RF environment here in Rochester but I had noticed my SDS100 reception of the Genesee P25 800 system had recently gone from about 75% to almost nil at times. I attributed it to some further buildout of the Monroe West 800 channels. I also have been having more issues with my SDR/UT for activity logging of Monroe East 700. I had to play with the SDR gain and the antenna and it is still marginal with a very high noise level in the SDR.

So I just checked the "Band 71" 600MHz cell band and I found very strong signals on 4 of the 7 channels and weaker signals on the 3 others so apparently the band is in full use now. So it probably is contributing to my issues with anything that is SDR based being desensed. No new problems with my "real" radios.

 

[W1KNE]

That’s a good call! Very close to the Thruway itself and not very far from a cell tower. However. I’ve been corresponding with ecps92 trying to figure out what if anything is “live” on that tower. Searching through RR shows older expired stuff. FCC site is inconclusive.

You won't find anything, as those are market licenses. They won't have transmitter specific locations.

 

[jgorman21]

You won't find anything, as those are market licenses. They won't have transmitter specific locations.

Interesting. I did not know that! Thanks. Perhaps a trusty old field strength meter and or a radio to catch “images!” There have been trucks from “First Light” and Verizon there recently.

 

[W1KNE]

Interesting. I did not know that! Thanks. Perhaps a trusty old field strength meter and or a radio to catch “images!” There have been trucks from “First Light” and Verizon there recently.

Verizon's 5G service is in the 2Ghz band, not in 600 Mhz. Only AT&T, and T Mobile are 600 Mhz.