There have been a few units where the rubber was torn or worn. No huge problem meaning most units in service are still in good condition.
SDS100 your likes / dislikes
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jeffdafoe
Member
After wanting a scanner for 25 years the SDS100 my first purchase. I've been running Unitrunker 1 on a RTL-SDR dongle for about a year and found it interesting enough to go ahead and get the SDS100, primarily because the Palm Beach County P25 system went to phase 2. The radio performs flawlessly for me and I'm in love with it. I've ridden dirty with it up to Orlando twice so far and I can get Orange County, Seminole County, and Osceola County from basically any part of Orlando. Locally in Palm Beach County, I can get the airport and the regional air traffic no problem, of course the county's systems come in flawless, and I can even get rail sometimes even though I'm only using a RH77CA in my house.
I would love to see some sort of audio AGC (volume leveler) implemented. As others have mentioned, there can be substantial volume jumps across systems and departments. My hunch is it's somewhat based on which vocoder is being invoked (and of course analog). I've read it was attempted on one of the earlier models and didn't work well, but I suspect this radio has enough CPU to be able to do it.
-E
I would love to see some sort of audio AGC (volume leveler) implemented. As others have mentioned, there can be substantial volume jumps across systems and departments. My hunch is it's somewhat based on which vocoder is being invoked (and of course analog). I've read it was attempted on one of the earlier models and didn't work well, but I suspect this radio has enough CPU to be able to do it.
-E
You can just the volume on channels
+3
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+1
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Hold on channel
Function button then zero (LVL)
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jeffdafoe
Member
The problem is it's not just a volume discrepancy from system to system, inside of a single system there can be substantial volume differences across talkgroups. I believe the granularity is there to be able to adjust at the department level (I usually program thru Sentinel) but it'd be a little tedious on large systems and harder still to manage when on the road.
It's a minor thing for me, it was more along the lines of "here's the one thing I wish it had", and I know AGC implementation is pretty well known if there's CPU left to handle it.
-Jeff
The volume offset can be adjusted per channel/talkgroup...so...that should take care of it. If it varies a lot in one talkgroup I would suspect it is the users - some users holding the mic closer than others.
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Radiogreg
Member
Two issues, One technical
I have been using my SDS 100 for several months. After exchanging my first radio for a second one (due to low sensitivity) I believe they have struck a balance between sensitivity and selectivity. Especially in the congested 800mhz range. Cell site front end overload is a huge impediment.
That said....I would appreciate better performance on the narrow-band VHF-UHF area. S/N is rather poor in that range.
On a non-technical note. How about some additional tutorials for users who want to load, edit and run systems from the national database WITHOUT the need to load them into "favorite lists" on a computer?
For example. If, on short notice, I fly to city X and want to program the radio on the fly. How can I do that? The zipcode feature really hasn't worked for me.
Finally. Thank-You for the beefier battery. It is good to see a manufacturer make good on their promise.
I have been using my SDS 100 for several months. After exchanging my first radio for a second one (due to low sensitivity) I believe they have struck a balance between sensitivity and selectivity. Especially in the congested 800mhz range. Cell site front end overload is a huge impediment.
That said....I would appreciate better performance on the narrow-band VHF-UHF area. S/N is rather poor in that range.
On a non-technical note. How about some additional tutorials for users who want to load, edit and run systems from the national database WITHOUT the need to load them into "favorite lists" on a computer?
For example. If, on short notice, I fly to city X and want to program the radio on the fly. How can I do that? The zipcode feature really hasn't worked for me.
Finally. Thank-You for the beefier battery. It is good to see a manufacturer make good on their promise.
ZIP + service types should do it - assuming you keep the full database updated fairly regularly.
But, this points out the importance of the database being kept up to date which isn't automatic or magic - it is by users submitting the information to the db and then db administrators manually making the changes. It could be that where you went had outdated information in the db.
Customization is done in the favorites list(s).
ScannerSK
Member
The problem is this occurs on the same talkgroup. The dispatcher may be very soft while units in the field are very loud or vice versa. The GRE PSR-500/600 did not exhibit this problem. I have run the GRE scanners side by side with the SDS100. The GRE series of scanners have a constant volume on the same talkgroup while the SDS100 varies very widely in volume on the same talkgroup.
There is an easy modification, just slightly overdrive the audio into one of the amplification stages and it will have the effect of evening out the volume differences with the only drawback being just some very slight distortion on the louder sounds. If I had a way to operate the SDS100 while the two inside boards were separated from each other, it would be fairly easy to pin down the best stage to implement the modification. It would just be the simple change of a resistor or capacitor.
I ended up selling my SDS100 due to the annoying volume discrepancies and as it was only better than the BCD436HP in the reception department in that it could more easily regain the control channel after being lost due to strong local RF than did the BCD436HP. I also ended up selling the BCD436HP.
There is an easy modification, just slightly overdrive the audio into one of the amplification stages and it will have the effect of evening out the volume differences with the only drawback being just some very slight distortion on the louder sounds. If I had a way to operate the SDS100 while the two inside boards were separated from each other, it would be fairly easy to pin down the best stage to implement the modification. It would just be the simple change of a resistor or capacitor.
I ended up selling my SDS100 due to the annoying volume discrepancies and as it was only better than the BCD436HP in the reception department in that it could more easily regain the control channel after being lost due to strong local RF than did the BCD436HP. I also ended up selling the BCD436HP.
ScannerMan1989
Member
Lack
] Costs too much right now.... And lack of 75 MHz...
] Costs too much right now.... And lack of 75 MHz...
ScannerSK
Member
It covers the following frequency range which does includes 75 MHz:
25.000 MHz - 512.000 MHz
758.0000 MHz - 823.9875 MHz
849.0125 MHz - 868.9875 MHz
894.0125 MHz - 960.0000 MHz
1240.000 MHz - 1300.000 MHz
25.000 MHz - 512.000 MHz
758.0000 MHz - 823.9875 MHz
849.0125 MHz - 868.9875 MHz
894.0125 MHz - 960.0000 MHz
1240.000 MHz - 1300.000 MHz
] Costs too much right now.... And lack of 75 MHz...
Remember, he or she is from "Celtris III, A Cardassian Planet" according to their location. Their understanding of things here on earth may be lacking
Remember, he or she is from "Celtris III, A Cardassian Planet" according to their location. Their understanding of things here on earth may be lacking
Good point!
Well this may be useless to post since there really has not been a posting for a while but I will try.
Overall I have very mixed feelings about the SDS100. I do not like the keypad at all. (I did not need a water proof scanner but oh well). The reception of 700/800 trunked systems seems to be flawless. A great improvement. But as far as "distance" goes (I have a few systems that are in fringe areas to me) there seems to be no improvement, possibly slightly worse reception. I have programmed my 396XT and 996XT by hand for years and after figuring out how to program them I have little or no problems and can do it quite quickly. However, I thought I figured out the Favorites - Systems - and Departments programming but apparently it is no where as simple as the two previous scanners. I have yet to figure it out. It can't be that hard. The manual, a great thing to have, is really only good as a fire starter. It only explains the very basics and really does not explain in detail what you really need to do in each step.
I "want" to like this scanner. For the price I have to like it but it is very hard. I have only been able to work with it for a short while. (My life has turned out to be very complicated in the last six months) So I usually only get a day or two, or an hour or two, each week to play with it. So that does not help.
I was really hoping that Uniden would knock this scanner out of the park, but there was a strong wind blowing in from left field that held it up. For every item they improved on the scanner there were others that were changed or made more difficult.
This is my opinion. Have a great week ahead everyone.
Overall I have very mixed feelings about the SDS100. I do not like the keypad at all. (I did not need a water proof scanner but oh well). The reception of 700/800 trunked systems seems to be flawless. A great improvement. But as far as "distance" goes (I have a few systems that are in fringe areas to me) there seems to be no improvement, possibly slightly worse reception. I have programmed my 396XT and 996XT by hand for years and after figuring out how to program them I have little or no problems and can do it quite quickly. However, I thought I figured out the Favorites - Systems - and Departments programming but apparently it is no where as simple as the two previous scanners. I have yet to figure it out. It can't be that hard. The manual, a great thing to have, is really only good as a fire starter. It only explains the very basics and really does not explain in detail what you really need to do in each step.
I "want" to like this scanner. For the price I have to like it but it is very hard. I have only been able to work with it for a short while. (My life has turned out to be very complicated in the last six months) So I usually only get a day or two, or an hour or two, each week to play with it. So that does not help.
I was really hoping that Uniden would knock this scanner out of the park, but there was a strong wind blowing in from left field that held it up. For every item they improved on the scanner there were others that were changed or made more difficult.
This is my opinion. Have a great week ahead everyone.
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- Feb 22, 2007
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scanman... Trying to understand exactly how you're programming the radio. Are you doing it completely manual like entering the frequencies for each site for a simulcast system? You are not using a computer or Sentinel at all? If so that's like trying to start a brand new 2019 vehicle with manual transmission by popping the clutch going downhill if that makes any sense to you. I guess it can be done but I think you're going to miss a few things if you don't know to put them in there with this kind of radio.
You want to at least use the database and search for the things that you want and put them on to a favorites list. Once you do that then you can go into the radio itself and customize the different sites that you want to use for that system or how you want the filters configured. Ignoring NAC or not, customizing the display to get all the Clutter off of it that you don't need and other stuff like that.
If you're not using a computer then you're not updating the latest firmware and changes to the database. That's going to really cripple you. The latest firmware update really made all the difference for me with this radio from being mediocre to actually being close to what I was expecting when I bought it.
Again I might be misunderstanding and you are programming with the computer you just prefer to put the talk groups that you want in manually and put the alpha tags in manually. I even do that myself for convenience sometimes.
Again this is not the kind of radio you're going to want to manually program without a computer at all. It's going to be very difficult to get the most out of this particular type of radio without the use of Sentinel.
You want to at least use the database and search for the things that you want and put them on to a favorites list. Once you do that then you can go into the radio itself and customize the different sites that you want to use for that system or how you want the filters configured. Ignoring NAC or not, customizing the display to get all the Clutter off of it that you don't need and other stuff like that.
If you're not using a computer then you're not updating the latest firmware and changes to the database. That's going to really cripple you. The latest firmware update really made all the difference for me with this radio from being mediocre to actually being close to what I was expecting when I bought it.
Again I might be misunderstanding and you are programming with the computer you just prefer to put the talk groups that you want in manually and put the alpha tags in manually. I even do that myself for convenience sometimes.
Again this is not the kind of radio you're going to want to manually program without a computer at all. It's going to be very difficult to get the most out of this particular type of radio without the use of Sentinel.
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Bob,
Based on comments in his other thread, he's programming manually, not via Sentinel/PC.
And you've already mentioned the reasons it's better to use a PC. Besides firmware and database updates, done through Sentinel, it's a heck of a log faster to use Sentinel for entering the doggone text tags for departments and channels/talkgroups.
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- Feb 22, 2007
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Okay scanman I was really wondering and I did a little investigation on your posts that you've made in the past and I see that you were talking to someone else on another thread about totally manually trying to program this radio like you did years ago to much less sophisticated radios.
I can definitely help you here. You should take the link that somebody gave you for Sentinel and download it into your computer and get familiar with it.
As frustrating as it is for you because you say you are old school if you are going to get anything out of the SDS 100 you will absolutely need to update firmware and the database. The programming requires a lot more information than older scanners and if you expect satisfactory performance you are going to have to program it from Sentinel. It's as simple as that, cut and dry.
I'm not a uniden fan in any way and can be pretty tough on them for poor quality control ect., ect. but this is one case where you not being impressed with your radio is not Unidens fault.
Bite the bullet and learn Sentinel and you will get so much more satisfaction out of your radio. If you have to then pay somebody to program it for you
Good luck to your brother, I hope you get it programmed and up-to-date, I think you'll be very satisfied.
I can definitely help you here. You should take the link that somebody gave you for Sentinel and download it into your computer and get familiar with it.
As frustrating as it is for you because you say you are old school if you are going to get anything out of the SDS 100 you will absolutely need to update firmware and the database. The programming requires a lot more information than older scanners and if you expect satisfactory performance you are going to have to program it from Sentinel. It's as simple as that, cut and dry.
I'm not a uniden fan in any way and can be pretty tough on them for poor quality control ect., ect. but this is one case where you not being impressed with your radio is not Unidens fault.
Bite the bullet and learn Sentinel and you will get so much more satisfaction out of your radio. If you have to then pay somebody to program it for you
Good luck to your brother, I hope you get it programmed and up-to-date, I think you'll be very satisfied.
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- Feb 22, 2007
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- 5,642
Yep I just saw your post because I was writing mine. You are right sir.
I will get back to you guys tonight or in the morning. I am working a 14hr shift now and I will need time to read through and reply. Thank you for your imput.
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