SDS100/SDS200: How Do You Use Your SDS100?
- Thread starter CQ
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Use my SDS100 primarily as a base station, having replaced my HP2. Also as a portable packed in my suitcase when I travel on the road. however, my mobile unit is my Unication G5, which replaced my 436. It's small size fits perfectly in my cup holder, has great battery life, good audio for my vehicle, & works excellent w/ the 700/800 simulcast systems we have here.
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safetyobc
Member
I use mine 100% mobile with a portable antenna. I like the grab and go portability of the radio.
NWI_Scanner_Guy
SCANNING THE AIRWAVES SINCE 1987
Mine is used mostly as a base with the antenna being in my attic. Sometimes it will go mobile in my car with a mag mount antenna and this past summer, it went mobile on my bike with a RS 800mhz antenna a time or two.
jasonhouk
Member
I use my SDS100 as my daily portable driver while monitoring my local PD, SO, Fire & State Police on MARCS P25 from home and while mobile. It's also used for DMR as many local businesses and schools have switched over from analog to digital.
For VHF analog my BCD996P2 is my rail fanning base at home and while mobile I use BC72XL.
Houk
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For VHF analog my BCD996P2 is my rail fanning base at home and while mobile I use BC72XL.
Houk
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Upon arrival, I replaced the stock antenna and now I use it strictly as a portable, in the house or in the car. On a recent road trip, I used an external magnetic antenna and GPS but only to check out the radio. It performed beautifully. Other than the road trip, it's a grab-and-go radio.
TailGator911
Silent Key/KF4ANC
It is my go-to scanner for whatever and wherever I am. I use it at the base station utilizing a directional yagi on the roof, and I use it in my vehicles with a window clip BNC mount and Remtronix duck. I monitor the Ohio MARCS P25 system for public safety, fire/ems. For vhf/uhf analog, DMR, NXDN and other stuff I use my TRX-1 w/Watson W-889 telescopic angled antenna for mobile applications together with the SDS100. The best of both worlds when mobile.
JD
kf4anc
JD
kf4anc
do you consider the trx better at uhf dmr then ?
TailGator911
Silent Key/KF4ANC
Not that it's better, but when I am out and about and monitoring with both radios (sds & trx) I use the SDS for the simulcast in my area and the TRX for everything else. The SDS is definitely better deciphering LSM and P25, so that is what I use it for at all times. I have switched the roles with the radios and I quickly switch back. The TRX is not bad on my local LSM system (Ohio MARCS P25), but the SDS blows it out of the water in that regard. But, to answer your question and compare uhf dmr reception, I would say they are neck and neck when I do scan that band with the SDS. Both do pretty well. I think the SDS with the Remtronix antenna pulls in the farthest signals over the TRX with the same antenna.
But, I must be in THEE sweet spot here for base station reception. I am about a mile from the main gate at Wright-Patterson AFB, 1/4 mi from I-675, 4 miles from the MARCS towers at the Nutter Center, and I can throw a rock from my back door and hit the closest cell phone tower. The Air Force relay towers are just beyond that. I should be overwhelmed with intermod, interference, front end overload, overmodulation and everything you can imagine, but I am not. I have a directional yagi 25-ft high at the apex of the roof along with a Diamond discone five feet above that, things split up evenly with 2 Stridsberg multi-couplers, my 536, TRX-1 and SDS100 on the yagi. I have zippo problems with vhf reception on my SDS, pulling in signals loud and clear from downtown Dayton, Springfield in Clark county, and some Preble county (faintly).
Actually very happy with both the SDS100 and the TRX-1, and they work well together for me on the go as well. I don't have a permanent antenna install in my vehicles for scanners, so I use a pair of BNC window clip mounts with their respective duckies - a Remtronix on the SDS and a Watson W-889 telescopic angled antenna on the TRX. I have several counties on the Ohio MARCS P25 system programmed into the SDS and TRX and I always utilize the SDS100 to bring up neighboring counties such as Clark/Miami/Montgomery. I will use the TRX to listen to Germantown on the Montgomery County MARCS system while listening to the Greene county system on the SDS (nephew is LE in Gtown) and the TRX handles that ok, just listening to the south dispatcher. But when mobile I usually use the SDS to monitor the Ohio MARCS p25 Greene/Montgomery systems, the TRX for Germantown and all other freqs. They do a fantastic job on all systems.
JD
kf4anc
Tramagod
Member
Short answer, both at home and as a mobile.
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Hit_Factor
Member
One is mounted in the car with an external antenna. The other is used in multiple configurations from a base with external discone to a portable with stock antenna.
I keep it in a drawer....
I use it like a scanner
Let's finish the SDS100 then worry about another new one.
Tramagod
Member
My works quite nicely, maybe I got a “bad” one. [emoji23]
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Mine has performed flawlessly. I'm about to embark on 3,000 mile road trip using the GPS with it, It worked great last time.
Tramagod
Member
I haven’t used mine with GPS yet, don’t have the correct cable. But I did use it with my 536 last summer in a round trip from Tx to PA and as you say, it worked flawlessly. I plan to have the cable next month for my trip to Iowa.
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