I could not find any good info for programming my SDS200 scanner so I wrote some. I think they are pretty accurate. This comes after you have updated the database and firmware on the radio. That was pretty intuitive.
- Open the software to the left you will see a list: Database, USA, Canada and Favorites list. To start you will need to setup a profile. Just under the File menu tab (top left of the page) you will see a blank page if you hover the curser over it it will say New Profile. Click on it and a small window will open asking you to Enter a Profile Name. This can be anything you want as long as you haven’t used it before. I just named mine Roy. Then click OK.
- Next you will need to set up a Favorites List. Just under the new Profile icon (top left) you will see a blank page. Hover over it and it will say Set Up A New Favorites List. Click on the icon. A small window will open and ask you to enter a Favorites List name. I live in Baltimore Maryland and would like to listen to broadcasts in the Baltimore area so I named mine Baltimore then click OK. Expand the favorite list by clicking on the + button and you will now see a new entry under your Favorites List in the main window. If you made a mistake and want to remove the new entry just right click on it and select “Remove From Favorites List”.
- Now it’s time to put some radio stations in the Favorites list. Click on the new entry to highlight it in my case it would be Baltimore. Now expand the database data by clicking on the + button next to USA or Canada if you live there. You will now see a list of States with a + button next to them. Select your state and click on the + button to expand it. In my case I will select Maryland. Now you will see another list to select from. I will be selecting a county in Maryland named Ann Arundel by clicking on the + button opening up yet another list. You will see 3 things listed Nationwide, Statewide and County systems. I am not interested in Nationwide or Statewide just yet I just want to scan police radio stations in Ann Arundel County so I will click on the + button next to County Systems to Expand that list. The list will expand with all of the analog and digital channels. There will be airports, military, railroads etc. I am looking for police radio so I will expand the list for Ann Arundel County. Now I can see Fire/EMS, Sheriff, and Police. I will expand the Police list by clicking on it (this selection will not have a + button to click on. You will now see all of the radio frequencies for The Ann Arundel Police. To add them to your favorites list right click on Police in the left pane to highlight it then right click on it and select Append to Favorites List. A new window will open asking you which Favorites List you would like to add it to, I will Select Ann Arundel County and click on OK. The radio stations will be added to your list. Now if you collapse the USA list by clicking the – button you will see the new county added to your favorites list.
- Now before we send the information to our radio we have to make a few adjustments. To do this left click on your new county to highlight it then click on Edit from the top menu bar. Select “Edit Favorites List” from the dropdown panel. A new window will open, select county you want to edit in my case it will be Ann Arundel County and click ok. A new window will open expand the list. A new window will open. From this page you can adjust warning tons and lights on the scanner. To change the warning light click on the first cell under Alert light, a new window will open. Select a color in the Alert color box then select a pattern for the light. Because this is a police channel I selected Blue and selected the alert pattern to be on then click on OK. If I were programming a Fire channel I would have used red as the color for that channel. You will return to the previous screen. If you want the radio to produce a tone when the signal is received you could do it the same way under Alert Tone. You could assign light and tone to the other channels in the list by repeating those steps or and can cut and paste the selection from the first cell into the cells below. When you are done close the window the software will ask if you want to change the settings, select YES.
- The last thing we need to do before downloading the channels to the radio is to turn them on to monitor. To do this select the county from your favorites list by clicking on it then click on Edit from the tool bar at the top. Select Edit Profile. A new window will appear. You must turn on the county to Monitor and to Download in order for the scanner to use the data you just programmed. Highlight the county you want to turn on then use the buttons at the top of the window to turn them on. There will be two selections one that says Monitor with a button for on and off next to it than another that says Download with and On and Off button next to it. With the selected county highlighted click On for both Monitor and download.
- Now you are ready to send the programming to the scanner. To do this make sure that the radio is turned off then plug the provided Micro USB cable into the Micro USP port on the radio. Then plug the other end of the cable into your computers USB port. Turn the radio on then wait for a prompt to activate the USB connection. When the radio screen displays USP Cable detected enter USB mode my pressing the E key on the scanner (just above the Zip Services button). The radio will then display USB Mass Storage. This means that the radio has successfully connected with your computer. Select Scanner from the toolbar at the top of the page then click on Write to Scanner from the dropdown menu. A popup window will appear asking if you want to erase favorites list on the radio. I always click on Erase Favorites because I might have changed a few things and want to include the changes to the new update to the radio. After the download had completed disconnect the USB cable from the radio (do not turn the radio off at this point as it will update the database as soon as the cable is removed) You will see the screen loading your new counties then the scanner will start to scan all favorites. When a broadcast is received the blue light over the Push/ Func knob will light according to what you programmed in for Alert light status.
- Hope this helps... Happy Scanning, Roy
