Got an SDS200 a week or so ago and love it, have been messing around with filters and the ifx setting to tweak it to receive the best it can. So far it seems like normal filter works best on most of the stuff i monitor, off also works good on a few. I live in Bedford County, Pennsylvania and i monitor our county, fulton county, huntington county and allegany county MD. Everything is conventional except the PA StarNet and allegany MD's FIRST system. Here in PA, some are conventional P25. What ive noticed on the majority of the outlying conties analog transmissions is i get much cleaner sounding reception with the IFX enabled, in fact every single analog UHF frequency ive enabled IFX on it helps. So what im wondering is, is there a way to enable it on every frequency in the 450-460mhz range? Also is this normal for it to help on so many different frequencies? I dont think the noise is coming from in the radio but actually coming from my Wifi Router which is located in the next room but distance wise is only about 12 feet from the radio. The scanner will have a rapid clicking sound in the background when listening to distant analog stuff in the 450-460mhz range, if i enable the IFX, completely gone and the RSSI value goes from about -98 to about -94
SDS100/SDS200: IFX Setting on many frequencies?
- Thread starter fireman3214
- Start date
tvengr
Well Known Member
If you have more than one scanner, turn off the other scanners. Scanners can interfere with each other resulting in a clicking sound. I don't know of a way to put IFX on a portion of a band or an entire band.
I have a SDS200, SDS150, SDS100 and a Unications G5 sitting next to me on a plant stand that measures about 12” x 10”. I haven’t experienced any interference or clicking. I’m only monitoring P25 trunking. I use other receivers for analog modes and they’re not near the trunking receivers. YMMV
Individual
I'd recommend getting a multi-coupler if you have multiple radios in the same space.
Chris0516
Active Member
I have the SDS100 in a stand, and. The BCD436HP about 6" away. Both are on my desk. No clicking, but. I am sure their proximity to each other. Does create some form of signal interference.
Ubbe
Member
There are two different physical IF filters in the scanner, one at 265MHz and another at 380MHz that the scanner choose from depending of the received frequency. Filters can be a bit fragile and also be damaged from a hard impact or big temperature changes. It can also be different tolerances that one filter attenuates less than the other. What filter that are used can often be changed by the IFX function but IFX might also change the oscillator frequency.
If you receive 455MHz and it needs to go thru the 265MHz filter then the oscillator have to work at either 455-265=190MHz or 455+265=720MHz. If the oscillator use 720MHz then the receiver will also receive 720+265=985MHz and if the oscillator are at 190MHz it will also receive 265-190=75MHz. For the 380MHz filter it will be a mirror frequency of 1290 and at 305MHz. If there are other signals at those mirror frequencies then they could interfere.
If you suspect an external interference like a router then simply pull the power supply from the mains outlet for that device and compare scanner reception.
/Ubbe
Thanks for the detailed reply! I ended up doing what you said and unplugged the router and the noise disappeared. So I moved it to the other side of the house and it all seems good now without having to use the ifx.
