SDS 100 for CT

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bobmich52

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Not going to be a early adopter BUT

I & others I'm sure would like to know how the SDS 100 works here it CT, Location, systems listened to etc

Will archive all responses & when the time comes, I will refer back to the answer's B4 I make a purchase ( Prices comes down etc)

Word of mouth is the best business card IMHO

TIA
 

wesct

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Jul 20, 2005
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Connecticut
Not going to be a early adopter BUT

I & others I'm sure would like to know how the SDS 100 works here it CT, Location, systems listened to etc

Will archive all responses & when the time comes, I will refer back to the answer's B4 I make a purchase ( Prices comes down etc)

Word of mouth is the best business card IMHO

TIA


MAP pricing is in effect. Do not look for the price to be advertised below map.
UPMAN can elaborate on this topic.
 

bobmich52

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I'll let ya know next week!

MAP pricing is in effect. Do not look for the price to be advertised below map.
UPMAN can elaborate on this topic.

Thank u SK, looking forward to your 1st impressions for SDS 100 in CT operation

Wesct

Well aware of the pricing structure, But it will be awhile b4 I consider purchase,@ least Sept/Oct & if the price stays @ that number (Which I doubt) after the 1st wave of sales, it will slow down & the price will go down accordingly

I learned my lesson with the 436 & got burned

Used a little patience & bought my HP 2 4 $396.00 (Flash sale) just by waiting it out 4 about 3/4 months after initial sale date & had a separate SD card customized for Hartford & Tolland county $ 30/40 & still have the original SD card if I choose to travel nationwide

I have 3/4 places I'll be looking @ the prices from, Amazon 4 1 & 3 more dedicated small radio outlets
 

Cheeseburgers

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Initial impressions are favorable. The SDS 100 seems to perform a smidge better than my 325p2 for my location (Bristol/Burlington/Farmington). I will be able to provide a significantly more detailed list of pros/cons in the coming days. I like the build, feels sturdy, love the screen as far as aesthetics go.

Multi-site trunking seems to be less of a challenge as I straddle the line between Troop H/A&I/L. As H is the strongest of the 3 I tend to park on that site with the 325. The TRX is awful and I wind up having to lock out everything BUT H in the annoying system menu (6 clicks in). The SDS seems to handle having those three sites on without issue, although like I said I tend to use H&W, less farts and gurgles. I like it so far.
 

snowscout

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Feb 20, 2010
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Southeastern CT
Bob, thank you for starting this thread! I was going to post about this. I'm going to wait a little bit and make sure all the bus and such are worked out. I'm interested to see how the SDS will sound and work down here in Southern CT!
 

jfr454

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Jan 18, 2002
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Central Connecticut
had mine since last Thursday. love the radio, the screen, feel of the unit and the audio sounds great.
as for performance, frustration; running side by side with my 396xt, same antennas, the SDS100 is missing transmissions on both trunked and conventional channels, digital and analog.
occurs on Hartford's EDACS and the CSP systems as well as on local conventional channels. Perplexing.
I am hopeful that some of this can be corrected with firmware upgrades.
 

Cheeseburgers

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had mine since last Thursday. love the radio, the screen, feel of the unit and the audio sounds great.
as for performance, frustration; running side by side with my 396xt, same antennas, the SDS100 is missing transmissions on both trunked and conventional channels, digital and analog.
occurs on Hartford's EDACS and the CSP systems as well as on local conventional channels. Perplexing.
I am hopeful that some of this can be corrected with firmware upgrades.
tonight i ran my 325p2 alongside the sds100... im getting the same results on CSP unfortunately. Same stock antenna, I have a bnc to sma and I tossed on the antenna from my old 436hp, same issue.

After some others posted about performance, I decided to run my other radio next to it to confirm if I was hearing less... Not a considerable amount... but definitely noticeable in a comparison.

Ill get a youtube video up to get some input. Just want to make clear, im not fuming mad, or disappointed in the scanner. There are always issues out of the gate. Just trying to be helpful.

It is one sexy radio tho. [emoji3]

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk
 

jfr454

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Central Connecticut
Ill get a youtube video up to get some input. Just want to make clear, im not fuming mad, or disappointed in the scanner. There are always issues out of the gate. Just trying to be helpful.

It is one sexy radio tho.


Nope, i feel the same way. I really like this thing.

Quoting Stephankramer didn't work right...
 
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leadjammer

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Dec 28, 2011
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Hamden, CT
Sds 100 for ct

I really think that instead of Uniden making new scanners with fancy bells and whistles they should go back to making scanners that actually work. Last fall I purchased a new 436 HP and I must say in my over 40 years of scanning it gets the worst analog reception of any scanner I have every owned. Digital it is fine. analog it is the pits. I've tried a couple of different antennas with no luck. In fact my little $69 BC92XLT has it beat hands down for reception, clarity with no drift at all. Even the speaker is better. And how much is this new scanner? I don't need color screens but a scanner that actually gets proper reception might be a good thing. How can these $400-$600 scanners get such lousy analog results? Its a disappointing mystery to me.
 

Cheeseburgers

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My wife is out tonight which leaves me in charge of dad duties this evening. Hopefully I can steal away for a minute to shoot a video on my phone of the SDS100 and the 325p2 side by side. I still haven't traveled to Hartford to check the EDACS receive on my unit.

I will say that after looking closely at the options on both I think the CSP performance is generally similar. As opposed to importing settings from my 436, I just started fresh.

1 System CSP
My prefered TGs - East, West, Central, Special, Statewide & DEEP
1 Site - H&W, CC and all freqs

This is also how it is set up on my 325 P2

I gotta listen on a blisteringly hot Friday night...that's when the State's more entertaining individuals come out to play (my best to all those tasked with keeping them in check)

-SK
 

elwood_blues

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Mar 10, 2008
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Bethel, CT
I really think that instead of Uniden making new scanners with fancy bells and whistles they should go back to making scanners that actually work. Last fall I purchased a new 436 HP and I must say in my over 40 years of scanning it gets the worst analog reception of any scanner I have every owned. Digital it is fine. analog it is the pits. I've tried a couple of different antennas with no luck. In fact my little $69 BC92XLT has it beat hands down for reception, clarity with no drift at all. Even the speaker is better. And how much is this new scanner? I don't need color screens but a scanner that actually gets proper reception might be a good thing. How can these $400-$600 scanners get such lousy analog results? Its a disappointing mystery to me.

Bingo. My cheap **** Baofeng covers all my local FD's and PD's and gets better reception than my roof mounted antenna's on my car and house (roof mounted antenna feeding 3 scanners). The audio surpasses my 4 Uniden scanners. Drop in charger, and a $10 speaker mic. Uniden needs to $tep before Whistler runs them over.
 

Cheeseburgers

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Bingo. My cheap **** Baofeng covers all my local FD's and PD's and gets better reception than my roof mounted antenna's on my car and house (roof mounted antenna feeding 3 scanners). The audio surpasses my 4 Uniden scanners. Drop in charger, and a $10 speaker mic. Uniden needs to $tep before Whistler runs them over.

I can't say that I disagree.
 

tpp517

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Dec 30, 2006
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Dennis, MA
Got mine on Monday, listening to Waterford, CSP Troop E Simulcast and DEEP. I am missing parts of the conversation, my Whistler TRX 1&2 open up much quicker and I hear both sides. Also having issue when not plugged into external power of display not waking up, if it does it only stays on for a split second. Admittedly I am more comfortable with the Whistler when it comes to operation. Mixed feelings at this point, giving it a week before I make final decision.
 

Cheeseburgers

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I've talked to other CT folks and one of them swore up and down that CSP scanning did not suffer from simulcast issues...but I know for a fact I live in a weird area between two large simulcast zones and with hospitals and ESPN close by i know im getting some intermod stuff too. That being said...I have been impressed by my little 325p2 over the years, generally im getting full conversations, some times i get dead silence...then ill nudge the scanner on my desk and it comes to life again. Im thinking just general placement in those cases. Occasionally I get times where i'm hearing the garbled blips and bloops, unrelated to an officer's portable not making it, since I don't hear the dispatch stating so, and <i>that</i> is what I was hoping that the SDS might help with. So far in a direct comparison I've noted identical performance in most situations , with occasionally worse results. That is what my video will aim to capture.


Again, nobody held a gun to my head and made me buy it. Heck, I had a MP 9mm that I wanted for some reason...and I absolutely hated, but it was my choice to pick it up. That is somewhat different because I do like the SDS, and I am hopeful performance tweaks will follow.

Heck I want Uniden to succeed and Paul has been doing a great job in spite of all the **** that he's been going through.
 

mkt853

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Jul 24, 2016
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CT
On CSERN the SDS100 is better than my 436 (I have one of the first 436s ever made). Audio is damn near flawless, and I imagine if I had a better antenna and didn't have the SDS100 sitting in my center console cup holder it would be about as perfect as can be. No garbled or muffled transmissions or digital artifacts. My 436 has trouble just locking onto the control channels never mind producing quality audio consistently. I'll spend a little more time with the CSP system this weekend as I'll be traveling to the eastern part of the state where CSP is still on the old SmartZone 800 MHz system. Hard to believe it wouldn't work great on that system given that pretty much every digital scanner since the 296 and 796 could do it. On analog it seems about the same to me, but then again I'm not trying to pull in fringe stations. Digital systems are where everything seems to be heading at least in Connecticut, so it makes sense for Uniden to optimize their scanners for their reception.
 

Cheeseburgers

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Funny you mention it, im listening to CSERN now and holy crap... I am hearing so much from the Avon site... all the incompetent bus drivers!! Hahaha! This is crazy! I never picked any of this up before, Im also using an SRH789 btw

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk
 

APX7500X2

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Dec 13, 2010
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NY/CT
Reading all the problems they are having with this scanner Ill wait 6 months or so to event think of getting one.
I still think the BCD996P2 is the best scanner they have made, the newer ones don't do anything as well as the 996, I think the person above who said go back to the old scanners that work is correct.
 

W1KNE

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Reading all the problems they are having with this scanner Ill wait 6 months or so to event think of getting one.
I still think the BCD996P2 is the best scanner they have made, the newer ones don't do anything as well as the 996, I think the person above who said go back to the old scanners that work is correct.

The only issue I have with the BCD996P2 is, in order to get TG information about a conventional DMR channel requires programming them in as single frequency trunks. On the 536, I can get all that via quick search. Otherwise, I agree the 996P2 is an excellent scanner.
 
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