SDS100/SDS200: First attempt at using Sentinel

[RandyKuff]

Not the high endurance ones recommended, but it will work just fine...
32g is the max size you can go...
You would probably only see issues with it if you do a lot of recording... Maybe... Maybe not...

Some of the cards I use are not high endurance... I have no problems with them... But I don't use the recording feature...

 

[GregOH]

Not the high endurance ones recommended, but it will work just fine...
32g is the max size you can go...
You would probably only see issues with it if you do a lot of recording... Maybe... Maybe not...

Some of the cards I use are not high endurance... I have no problems with them... But I don't use the recording feature...

I don't plan to record, I just wanted a card I can put a couple FL's on.

 

[6079smithw]

I don't plan to record, I just wanted a card I can put a couple FL's on.

If you're not recording, you'll probably die from old age before you fill up that 32-gig card!
Always a good idea to make a backup of your data and store it in a safe location... Murphy and his law is on duty 24/7.
BTW great avatar! I was a AE2 (1965-1969)

 

[hiegtx]

I don't plan to record, I just wanted a card I can put a couple FL's on.

Remember that if you use the Replay option, you are recording. But it can be turned off at your discretion.

 

[jonwienke]

SanDisk is a good quality brand, so if you turn off recording and replay, it should be fine even if it's not a high endurance type. High endurance is only needed if you're constantly writing to the card.

 

[GregOH]

Exported FL's in Sentinel to new SD card and installed card in scanner today. The alert lights and avoids are set as I edited them in Sentinel and it seems I had success.

Thanks all for your help!

 

[GregOH]

One more off topic question. Does this mean I have the upgrades?

 

[Hop763]

You need to buy the key. That is where you install the unlocking key.

 

[hiegtx]

One more off topic question. Does this mean I have the upgrades?

View attachment 96700

If you hit Enter with ProVoice (or DMR or NXDN) selected, and you get a screen telling you to enter the key, that upgrade has not been applied. If it was already upgraded, you would get a message to that effect.

 

[GregOH]

Okay, figured that was the case.

Thanks.

 

[teknishun]

Do I keep only the sites that are in use with the departments I have selected and if so, do I use the database page to know what sites I must have included in this favorites list? For example, do I want to keep Tuscarawas and Wayne sites shown in he screenshot below, because those two counties are in my Favorites list and remove the others because I will not be monitoring them?

The MORE SITES you have in a scan list THE SLOWER the scanner will SCAN. Use only the sites that carry the traffic you want to hear.
Radio Reference will NOT have that type of information. It lists all the sites that are on your system, but it does not tell you
which PDs, EMS, Fire, etc are on which sites. (see P.S. below). That's left for YOU to figure out - OR ask a knowledgeable buddy in the local
area. Once you play with the scanner awhile you will get a feel for what sites carry which traffic and you can go from there.

The FEWER sites you have in a favorites list the better that favorites list will perform. Happy scanning.

Remember, this scanner can "find" the TG for you. There are many ways to do searches to discover stuff.

Have fun!

P.S. - I was talking about trunked systems here and not PDs or FDs or other stuff that have their own specific radio frequencies allocated.

 

[jonwienke]

The above is only true if you have Location Control turned off. If it is on, the scanner won't even try to scan sites that are clearly out of range. I have 3 complete statewide trunked systems in my favorite lists (MD FIRST, WV SIRN, & VA STARS) which combined have a couple hundred sites. But since I have location control on, the scanner only tries to monitor 4-6 sites total from all 3 systems combined at any given moment. I use GPS to update the scanner location when I'm traveling, and keep Range set to no more than 5 miles.

That keeps the amount of stuff being scanned small, without limiting the geographic area where the scanner will work well.

 

[GregOH]

The MORE SITES you have in a scan list THE SLOWER the scanner will SCAN. Use only the sites that carry the traffic you want to hear.
Radio Reference will NOT have that type of information. It lists all the sites that are on your system, but it does not tell you
which PDs, EMS, Fire, etc are on which sites. (see P.S. below). That's left for YOU to figure out - OR ask a knowledgeable buddy in the local
area. Once you play with the scanner awhile you will get a feel for what sites carry which traffic and you can go from there.

The FEWER sites you have in a favorites list the better that favorites list will perform. Happy scanning.

Remember, this scanner can "find" the TG for you. There are many ways to do searches to discover stuff.

Have fun!

P.S. - I was talking about trunked systems here and not PDs or FDs or other stuff that have their own specific radio frequencies allocated.

Prior to writing new FL's to a new SD card, I paid close attention to which sites with departments I'm interested in listening to at home and when I wrote those FL's to the new card, I initially intended to only include those sites and the ones for neighboring counties that I traveled to, but later decided I would keep every site in the system and the sites I don't need would be put on avoid.

The mistake I made was, I forgot to avoid the sites that I don't need with Sentinel and did the avoids last night by hand, which really sucked because there are hundreds of sites in this statewide system.

I've been using the Site Hold mode lately thanks to @jonwienke and it really doesn't matter how many sites I have unavoided because I hear everything I want to monitor with one site. It don't scan slow, and I don't feel like I'm missing anything. Also with using the Site Hold mode, I've been using ID Search, so I'm getting all departments I have programmed that I'm interested in listening to and searching for un-programmed ID's with just one site.

I'm not interested in GPS scanning and if I'm to travel to a neighboring county with the scanner, I know what sites are in those counties and I can easily stop site hold on the one I'm currently on and site hold on a site that I'm traveling to and ID Search while I'm doing it.

 

[GregOH]

What would be the best way to scan Ham, Aircraft, and Federal frequencies as well as a statewide P25 system? Is it possible, or would I have to use the SDS for the statewide system and dedicate a different scanner for the others?

I really don't want the ones that aren't on the statewide system on a favorites list of their own because I can only scan one favorites list at a time.

 

[trentbob]

Hey Greg how are you. If you want you can initially do a custom search at first or what we used to call a limit search. For Local 2 meter ham just search between 144 megahertz and 148 megahertz and see what comes up local. Should be a bunch of repeaters. When something sounds interesting stop on it press enter and put it on a favorites list called amateur radio.

Same goes for aircraft just make the limit search 118 megahertz to 136 megahertz. It will pick the mode of am on its own and it will automatically pick the right steps. See what's local see what comes in good. If you'd like something stop on it press enter and put it on a favorites list called Aviation.

Federal I don't know that's mostly p25 stuff and mostly encrypted. You do have sight hold on your system but at least you would have other favorite groups when you want to listen to ham or Aviation Make sure you're not using the remtronix antenna for ham and Aviation as it really stinks on VHF hi.

 

[GregOH]

Hey Greg how are you. If you want you can initially do a custom search at first or what we used to call a limit search. For Local 2 meter ham just search between 144 megahertz and 148 megahertz and see what comes up local. Should be a bunch of repeaters. When something sounds interesting stop on it press enter and put it on a favorites list called amateur radio.

Same goes for aircraft just make the limit search 118 megahertz to 136 megahertz. It will pick the mode of am on its own and it will automatically pick the right steps. See what's local see what comes in good. If you'd like something stop on it press enter and put it on a favorites list called Aviation.

Federal I don't know that's mostly p25 stuff and mostly encrypted. You do have sight hold on your system but at least you would have other favorite groups when you want to listen to ham or Aviation Make sure you're not using the remtronix antenna for ham and Aviation as it really stinks on VHF hi.

Hey Bob, doing good and hope you are as well.

I looked at sentinel after I posted and decided I'll create a new FL with a severe weather ham frequency and a local airport.

Also I won't pursue any Federal, I was mostly interested in adding milair and unsure where to look for it, but I figure I'll search the Ohio forum tomorrow for info on it.

 

[trentbob]

Yep when you make the Aviation list don't just put in airports, make sure to include 121.5 it used to be called the emergency frequency but if an airplane has an emergency they stay right on the frequency that they're on. It's called VHF guard, every aircraft monitors constantly. Also look for your local news Chopper air-to-air coordination frequencies. Look for your area Unicom Chopper frequency which is like a collision avoidance system where all Choppers entering the area announced their location and intentions. You might be interested in Medevac helicopters also. They would all go on that favorites list and you'll find them all in Sentinel in the database, just have to search the right places.

For the 2 meter ham band you going to look for local repeaters with a good signal. Often a club. It will hold regular Nets. Sometimes they're social Nets and sometimes they're emergency preparation Nets. Try around 8 p.m. in the evening or 9 p.m. in the evening and listen for net control who will do a roll call of all participants and then the conversation begins. You can search 144.0 to 148.0 Have fun!

 

[GregOH]

How much does having WX Alert Priority set to On affect normal scanning?

I like the feature and would like to have it set to On all the time if it don't interrupt scanning and searching too much.

 

[Ubbe]

Even if you have recording set to On and there's always a continous conversation that gets saved, it shouldn't wear out a SD card.

The recordings are done at a 128kilobit per second rate and a 32GB SD card are 32 gigabytes. One byte are 8 bits. It totals to more than 500 hours (20 days) of recorded audio where one memory cell in the SD card are written. After 1000 hours of recorded audio (in replay mode) two writes have been done to one memory cell. Then consider that SD card manufactures states at least thousands of writes for their lowest performing and cheapest cards.

I always have either record or replay running on all my Uniden scanners. My HP-1 have its original 2GB card and have at least 5 hours of use every day since 10 years back.

/Ubbe

 

[GregOH]

Even if you have recording set to On and there's always a continous conversation that gets saved, it shouldn't wear out a SD card.

The recordings are done at a 128kilobit per second rate and a 32GB SD card are 32 gigabytes. One byte are 8 bits. It totals to more than 500 hours (20 days) of recorded audio where one memory cell in the SD card are written. After 1000 hours of recorded audio (in replay mode) two writes have been done to one memory cell. Then consider that SD card manufactures states at least thousands of writes for their lowest performing and cheapest cards.

I always have either record or replay running on all my Uniden scanners. My HP-1 have its original 2GB card and have at least 5 hours of use every day since 10 years back.

/Ubbe

I don't have recording set to on and I'm not interested in recording, my intention is to go in to menu, turn WX Alt Pri to on and receieve alerts if/when a 1050 hz tone is detected. Just wondered if doing so would affect scanning much.