Advice needed for new SDS200

[jr63049]

Hello all. I am new to the SDS200, but not new to scanning. I have searched numerous forums here and couldn't find a solid answer to my query.

I am in the St. Louis, MO area and have the SLATER and MOSWIN systems programmed for Fire/EMS listening in STL City and County. It seems that my scanner is scanning extremely slow. I have the squelch down to 2. No delay on the dispatch TG. But I still miss an incredible amount of radio traffic. My G5 pager is similarly programmed - in that I have things entered by region (North, South, East Central, JeffCo, etc.), rather than TG type.

My thinking is that this should be scanning quick and smooth. But it's not. It seems laggy, at best. The audio that it DOES catch is crystal clear and the sound is strong. So no issues there.

Perhaps I could send someone who knows better than me a copy of my FL programming and have a peek at it - just to see that I haven't missed anything??? Any takers??

 

[Enforcer52]

Export your programming file to .hpe format, zip it up and post it here so someone can take a look at it.

 

[jtwalker]

You probably have too many sites active in your programming. On trunked systems, the SDS scanners scan sites not talkgroups, so this is what takes time.

You can delete extraneous sites, avoid them, use site quick keys or location control to limit the sites you are scanning to the ones close to you.

 

[jr63049]

I have attached the file as requested.

 

[jr63049]

You probably have too many sites active in your programming. On trunked systems, the SDS scanners scan sites not talkgroups, so this is what takes time.

Something else that I was wondering, if perhaps I ONLY need to use the data frequencies, and not the other frequencies for the specified site. Would that have any impact on how fast things run?

 

[jtwalker]

Something else that I was wondering, if perhaps I ONLY need to use the data frequencies, and not the other frequencies for the specified site. Would that have any impact on how fast things run?

You mean the control channel capable frequencies? I’ve heard this makes a very small difference on the first pass of a site, but probably not the slowness you are observing.

 

[MissouriSirens]

You mean the control channel capable frequencies? I’ve heard this makes a very small difference on the first pass of a site, but probably not the slowness you are observing.

I live in Saint Louis and I actively monitor the SLATER System. I was in your shoes once however I "fixed" that problem by separating the North and South TGs and Sites into two different trunking systems on my SDS100.

I have CCE Fire South as a system and CCE Fire North as a system.

 

[ka3jjz]

See the threads linked in our SDS FAQ - you won't find a better one for these radios - here

SDS100 and SDS200 FAQ Page - The RadioReference Wiki

wiki.radioreference.com

MIke

 

[scanman1958]

Just enter the 'sites' that are in the St Louis region. You could potentially just program MOSWIN sites in St Louis City, Jeff Co, St Charles Lincoln Co, Franklin Co and maybe a couple more close by. It sounds like you may have programmed the entire state. Sorry if I/we are wrong with that.

 

[jr63049]

I live in Saint Louis and I actively monitor the SLATER System. I was in your shoes once however I "fixed" that problem by separating the North and South TGs and Sites into two different trunking systems on my SDS100.

I have CCE Fire South as a system and CCE Fire North as a system.

Yes. This is exactly how I have mine set up. North, South, Kirkwood, East Central, etc... Each of those with their normally used Tac Channels - instead of everything being separate.

 

[jtwalker]

What do you consider slow? You have 6 sites in this FL and it typically takes between 1.5 and 2 seconds to connect to a site and evaluate it for traffic. This means 9 to 12 seconds for this one FL, when there is no TG active that is in your programming.

What value do you have for global filter ? AUTO is reported to be slow.

Can't really compare to a G5 that stays on one system and one site. Perhaps do a system and site hold on your SDS to match what your G5 is doing and then compare results.

I don't have any other ideas for you.

 

[MissouriSirens]

Yes. This is exactly how I have mine set up. North, South, Kirkwood, East Central, etc... Each of those with their normally used Tac Channels - instead of everything being separate.

I dont know if Im misunderstanding you but it seems like you have them all together? I have all of them except kirkwood as separate systems (Kirkwood and South dispatch share the system)

I can export my HPE if you want to give it a try

 

[jr63049]

I dont know if Im misunderstanding you but it seems like you have them all together? I have all of them except kirkwood as separate systems (Kirkwood and South dispatch share the system)

I can export my HPE if you want to give it a try

I'd gladly have a look at it. Couldn't hurt to see what someone else is doing.

 

[MissouriSirens]

I'd gladly have a look at it. Couldn't hurt to see what someone else is doing.

Here, try this:

Its for an SDS100 so keep that in mind. Maybe you can copy it over or something.

 

[scanman1958]

What part of the city do you live in. I'm in sw city. I have limited reception to surrounding SLATER systems (jeffco and St charles) because I live in a low elevation area. Hopefully you hear more than me. Or you can PM me with more.

 

[N5ZKK]

I have been reading up on FILTERS this weekend and noticed a lot of talk about the filter being set to "Auto" causing a huge slow down in scanning. This was the best information that I have found on filters. File:SDS100 SDS200 Filter Settings.pdf - The RadioReference Wiki

 

[rjvalenta]

i'm late in to this thread, but i've had similar issues scanning SLATER and MOSWIN... what helped me was selecting which towers i was going to listed to instead of all of them. i believe they are both simulcast, which causes the same signal from multiple places (confusing scanners)... and... while it's been a while since i worked all this out, i remember looking for the best towers close to me (170/40), importing just those as part of my SLATER system and talkgroups, and doing the same for MOSWIN.

and tbh, it was interesting... not some epic multi-day challenge, just... i'd have to set up like a SLATER FIRE North group with just the north towers and see how well i could hear things, then try SLATER FIRE South, with just the south towers and see how well i could hear things...

ALSO - if i understand these systems correctly, each set of towers only repeats the talkgroups currently affialited with them... meaning... if you are listening to the north towers and all the Pattonville apparatus are affiliated with north towers, then the south towers aren't going to broadcast any Pattonville traffic because it doesn't think there are any Pattonville radios listening.

MOSWIN is in an interesting system, the city system is part of MOSWIN, so in theory a city radio could drive to Joplin and get city traffic... but MOSWIN isn't going to send city traffic all the way to Joplin if there are no affiliated radios there. so, you would need city towers (where city radios are affiliated) to hear city traffic, and then you'd need MOSWIN towers to hear MHP... but wait, if a MHP car affiliates with a city tower, then the city towers will carry MHP traffic for the talkgroups affiliated.

i'm not sure if all this makes sense or helps, i hope it does... i just know that i had similar issues, and my solution was to find the best towers to assign to the groups i was attempting to hear.

 

[scanman1958]

Yeah. SLATER is an odd one. You can hear all "dispatching" for north and south. I believe you can hear all or most of the fire main, north and south, on both sites. But what gets interesting, as you pointed out, you can only hear north departments on the north site and only the south departments on the south site when they are using tac channels. I live in sw city and have no problem hearing the south units on the south tac channels. But I rarely, if at all, hear the north tac channels.

What's even more interesting, is some of the departments that are right along the line dividing the north and south seem to have the capability to use both. Maybe it's just a 'location' thing, not sure. Departments like Creve Couer, Maryland Heights, Monarch are a few.

It seems when they respond to calls I can hear them on both north and south tac channels. Maybe I am hearing it wrong but that's what I think is happening.

 

[bdzig]

MOSWIN is in an interesting system, the city system is part of MOSWIN, so in theory a city radio could drive to Joplin and get city traffic... but MOSWIN isn't going to send city traffic all the way to Joplin if there are no affiliated radios there. so, you would need city towers (where city radios are affiliated) to hear city traffic, and then you'd need MOSWIN towers to hear MHP... but wait, if a MHP car affiliates with a city tower, then the city towers will carry MHP traffic for the talkgroups affiliated.

Theoretically, this is how trunking systems work. However, you have to factor in the programming of the system with regard to talkgroups. Most talkgroups are not set to affiliate with all the towers within a system, whether or not a radio is currently logged into that tower on a given talkgroup. In the case of St. Louis City Police and Fire talkgroups, these talkgroups will only affiliate with the city towers. There may be an occasional city talkgroup that can affiliate with other towers (like Imperial or Weldon Springs), but otherwise their use is limited to the St. Louis area (you won't hear them in Joplin). The same goes for other talkgroups. Every talkgroup has a defined area that it will operate in (what towers it will work on). For instance, MHP Troop C talkgroups will only light up on Region C towers and on towers adjacent to Region C, Rolla City talkgroups will only light up on the towers in Rolla and surrounding them, and etc. Some agencies' talkgroups are setup to affiliate statewide, but that's generally what the Travel and Statewide I/O talkgroups are for.