SDS100/SDS200: URGENT should I sent sds100 back to saddle creek

[Whospoonbill]

So I don’t know if I should send it to saddle creek or just move on and keep my refurbished scanner. But when I remove the sdcard and reinstalled it and blowed on it to see if stuff was interfering and did the same thing to the antenna my rssi is showing excellent 40-60 but d error in a specific location goes up to almost 140. I don’t know if I broke something or if this is normal but I’ll like to know within a couple of days so I can move on cause I got to that specific location for 5 days know almost since I got this refurbished sds100 if you look at the video Streamable Video it’s showing to stick to -60 rssi it likes 60 know but I’m in a bad simulcast location I’m near multiple restaurant before it wasn’t giving me 60 know it is. I also heard maybe uniden repair can put a booster on it or something idk

 

[n1chu]

Not knowing of any booster Uniden can install, but other than that specific location, how does the SDS100 play? How big an area is in question? You mention multiple restaurants, probably with all kinds of electrical signage… neon signs, LED panels, etc., which can raise cain with multi-band receivers. All scanners are multi-band receivers (even if it’s an old single band crystal controlled radio which probably uses the same design as the multi-banders).It may just be a simple process of moving a foot or two, or in the case of some of the larger LED panels, away from the interfering signals all-together. I have a car dealership with a big roadside LED screen that interferes for a couple of blocks radius. And I get interference without setting a PL on my scanner (SDS200). There is one 220 MHz ham repeater I frequent that doesn’t use PL. (The dealership is aware of the “noisy” sign and there are corrective measures that are available but there is a cost for the fix, Its my understanding the signage doesn’t violate FCC rules so there’s no way to make the dealership install the fix. But that’s a different story for another time. It’s not all that offensive unless you live close and need to deal with the increased noise floor, a factor that’s probably not even realized by the average scanner owner.

 

[Whospoonbill]

So should I just leave it be other thing is when I turned my scanner on yesterday it said scan mode nothing programmed not nothing to scan nothing program but my favorite list are all there I’m slowly remaking the favorite list I have the location turned up to the max which was 6000.0 but I don’t want to be without a sds100 for another month while
It’s in saddle creek if the rssi is fine it just I feel like I broke something when I blow on it cause it never showed 60 rssi in that area know it is

 

[Whospoonbill]

Also is my sdcard suppose to say BCDx36HP or is everything messed up

 

[ten13]

I'm not sure that "blowing" on an SD card is a acceptable troubleshooting recommendation. After all, there's a lot of moisture being "blown" on that card. It's hard to tell from the OP's prose as to whether his problems came before or after he "blew" on the card but, in any respect, it would be advisable, at this point, to replace the SD card with a new one, for starts.

 

[Ubbe]

In that video it shows signal level fluctuating between -47dBm to -87dBm and d-error up to 10. It seems to be some other transmitters that interfere. Try to set the attenuator to On and see if that helps. Next step would be to check what the voice frequencies are for the site and then set IFX to all of them, by entering them Channel+freq+Channel and do Fn+7.

You are running the scanner with the squelch open. Set it to 2 to avoid that.

/Ubbe

 

[Whospoonbill]

I found out why my rssi is like that it’s cause of the remtronix antenna when I put the stock antenna back on it goes higher so my rssi is on the right track possible

 

[RandyKuff]

I find that a little hard to believe...
Every antenna I've ever used on my 100 was way better than the stock antenna...

 

[nessnet]

I found out why my rssi is like that it’s cause of the remtronix antenna when I put the stock antenna back on it goes higher so my rssi is on the right track possible

Which Remtronix - and what freqs are you trying to monitor?
Remember, that antennas are 'tuned' to specific freqs, (unless it is a wideband antenna) and if the Remtronix is for the wrong band, it certainly can effect things.

But.... generally speaking, they (Remtronix) are way better than the stock antenna, given the above.

 

[RandyKuff]

This is an antenna I made along time ago tuned to my local police dept...
They are still on the same freq, just using P25 Digital Voice now...
The ant was cut for 155.25 1/4 wave...
But... I can pickup the Ohio Marcs IP system in the 700's like they are standing next to me with this antenna...

 

[Whospoonbill]

Also is this normal for it to break up like this Streamable Video

 

[Whospoonbill]

And I’m using the 820s

 

[Whospoonbill]

When I put the stock antenna back on it goes higher when I put the 820 on it goes lower I can’t quite understand why I’m getting 60 rssi in a bad simulcast location where those restaurants are otherwise I have no problems beside the new video I link with that cutting out sometimes

 

[Whospoonbill]

Also is this normal for the radio not to show data right away look how long it takes to show data when I start a favorite list Streamable Video

 

[nessnet]

One note:
-60 dB is unusually high (real world)
Generally only seen if you are sitting right under the transmitter.

Either you have some really strong RFI, or something is amiss(?)
The 100/200 are more susceptible to RFI because of the way they were built ('wide' tuner chip used)

 

[Whospoonbill]

If you look at this video

stock vs remontix it shows the same -dbm as I’m getting idk maybe I fixed a mistake that saddle creek ****ed up on when they installed the sdcard cause after I did the blow I’m seeing different numbers with the remotronix antenna vs stock

 

[62Truck]

One note:
-60 dB is unusually high (real world)
Generally only seen if you are sitting right under the transmitter.

Either you have some really strong RFI, or something is amiss(?)
The 100/200 are more susceptible to RFI because of the way they were built ('wide' tuner chip used)

As @nessnet pointed out the 100/200 are susceptible to RFI due to the chip they are using.

What you can try is playing around with the IFX and Filter settings and see if that helps.

At my work location I get interference from LTE on 700mhz using the filters I'm able to combat this.

Also, it is highly unlikely that saddle creek messed up with they installed the sdcard. The sdcard is installed by the factor and if it was bad it wont load and you would get an error upon power up.

When looking at your videos, it appears the scanner is not in the same spot, moving the scanner around your house will give you different results.

It could be possible something in your house is causing interference to your scanner or there is a close by transmitter close to the frequencies you are trying to monitor that is causing overloading or intermod. With this you really need to play around with the different filter settings to try and optimize the signal.

 

[Whospoonbill]

As @nessnet pointed out the 100/200 are susceptible to RFI due to the chip they are using.

What you can try is playing around with the IFX and Filter settings and see if that helps.

At my work location I get interference from LTE on 700mhz using the filters I'm able to combat this.

Also, it is highly unlikely that saddle creek messed up with they installed the sdcard. The sdcard is installed by the factor and if it was bad it wont load and you would get an error upon power up.

When looking at your videos, it appears the scanner is not in the same spot, moving the scanner around your house will give you different results.

It could be possible something in your house is causing interference to your scanner or there is a close by transmitter close to the frequencies you are trying to monitor that is causing overloading or intermod. With this you really need to play around with the different filter settings to try and optimize the signal.

I only monitor trunking I try the ifx and it doesn’t work also my other scanner the put the battery and the sdcard from my original one into here cause I ask them to so that’s what I’m saying I don’t know if they messed up or not. What filters is best for gatrrs simulcast 7

 

[62Truck]

I only monitor trunking I try the ifx and it doesn’t work also my other scanner the put the battery and the sdcard from my original one into here cause I ask them to so that’s what I’m saying I don’t know if they messed up or not. What filters is best for gatrrs simulcast 7

You would have to play around with the filter settings to see which one will work the best for you. Filter settings might need to change depending on your location.

 

[Whospoonbill]

I move around the house and I’m greeting 70 80 60 rssi idk my question is why am I getting higher d error but excellent rssi according to the picture I sent and one other thing is it normal for the sds100 sdcard to say bcd436hp in windows