SDS100/SDS200: Is the SDS100 deaf on the air band?

[JimD56]

I do NOT use the SDS200 or SDS100 for any analog at all. Trunk and Simulcast systems only.
All my analog stuff (Air, Ham, Fed Govt, etc) is on the BCT15X

 

[darkness975]

Some air and other analog work on my sds200 with the right antenna.

YMMV

 

[MStep]

I receive local air traffic just fine on an SDS100 and 200. Using a mag-mount on the ground floor rear yard. Compared to the Icom 8600 and AOR DV1, the sensitivity on the SDS series falls a tad short, nevertheless I don't see (or better still, "hear") anything significantly less on the air bands than on other frequencies the SDS covers.

The SDS are great scanners--- I consider them better for local traffic then attempting to tune around and DXing with them.

 

[m25man]

The biggest single issue with the SDS on Airband is programming.
People who continue to use both Auto Mode and Voice detection when programming FL's will see a huge impact in performance and miss a lot of transmissions.
All you need to do is ensure your FL's have Set Audio Type = Analog Only and Set Modulation = AM
Do not combine other modes/frequencies in your Airband Scanning Lists and you will see the difference.
My SDS Radios easily keep pace and catch as much traffic as my other Airband scanners.

The wide Rx characteristics of the SDR chip however do make them vulnerable to close channel interference and even the additional filter shift options and IFX don't address this annoying bug.
Its not the best Airband scanner that's certain but considering its other capabilities its a very (very) good scanner.

 

[Ubbe]

My SDS Radios easily keep pace and catch as much traffic as my other Airband scanners.

SDS scanners are locked to max 45ch/s scanning speed in the current firmware. Search speed are still what it used to be, some 85steps/s.

The wide Rx characteristics of the SDR chip however do make them vulnerable to close channel interference..

There's also a huge "mirror" frequency some 1,3MHz plus or minus and several other "mirror" frequencies up to about 2MHz from the monitored frequency.

Interference test 800MHz

/Ubbe

 

[GROL]

Mine is definitely not dead. I always program as analog and AM mode for any aircraft frequencies as well as 25khz channel spacing for custom search setups.
Interesting some are having issues on air band. I am not near anything that may desensitize or interfere, so it may be environmental for others. I compared mine to my BCD325P2 and BCD396XT and they seem the same on 118-137. I have not had a chance to compare UHF Air or Mil Air between 137 and 151. I have only had mine for one month. I may try to use my antenna analyzer as a signal generator to compare. I no longer have access to a good signal generator.

 

[AB5ID]

Are there any big FM broadcast towers nearby?

 

[Icanhearit]

My SDS100 is not deaf but I live near 2 airports.

On the other hands, experimenting with same antenna(s), reception wise BC125AT > BCD436HP > SDS100.

Putting SDS100 last is due to its scan speed, its round-robin scanning easily miss the short lived brief exchanges between ATC-pilot here and there (priority scanning is off) . The SDS100 tinny sound compounds with AM analogue band (noise) makes its air-band listening suffering.

BCD436HP and SDS100 share the same air band-only favorite list, but BC125AT use active 2 banks with slightly different channel lists, not totally fair comparison.

 

[Ubbe]

The SDS100 tinny sound compounds with AM analogue band (noise) makes its air-band listening suffering.

It's just the micro sized speakers fault that the sound is thin and treble oriented, where the analog noise are. It works better as a digital system speaker when there's no background noise.

I use a big external speaker that are bass focused and the SDS100 have the best AM sound of all my receivers and have the necessary narrow software filter that other scanners do not have. I did VHF AIR band searches and found new frequencies that I then programmed in other scanners but never heard anything from those. I then noticed that the transmission from a "new" frequency where heard on a different already known frequency from my other scanners. It was just interferencies in the SDS100 that where received, some are only 30dB attenuated from the true frequency signal level.

/Ubbe

 

[scannersnstuff]

Keep in mind that the SDS series was primarily designed to overcome LSM issues and was marketed as such. The end result seems to be that it performs better on these systems than previous models and reception on other bands and modes were more of an afterthought. Hopefully Uniden will start to work on firmware updates that can help with some of these issues.

What he said ! .

 

[GROL]

I would compare the speaker in the BCD436HP to that of the SDS100. Both sound very similar to me. The speaker in the BCD325P2 is much better and so air band receive sounds a lot better on the BCD325P2.

 

[vikingegfd]

The biggest single issue with the SDS on Airband is programming.
People who continue to use both Auto Mode and Voice detection when programming FL's will see a huge impact in performance and miss a lot of transmissions.
All you need to do is ensure your FL's have Set Audio Type = Analog Only and Set Modulation = AM
Do not combine other modes/frequencies in your Airband Scanning Lists and you will see the difference.
My SDS Radios easily keep pace and catch as much traffic as my other Airband scanners.

The wide Rx characteristics of the SDR chip however do make them vulnerable to close channel interference and even the additional filter shift options and IFX don't address this annoying bug.
Its not the best Airband scanner that's certain but considering its other capabilities its a very (very) good scanner.

I have changed all my air channels and I think this is helping, also changing the air channels in my 325p2.

 

[m25man]

I have changed all my air channels and I think this is helping, also changing the air channels in my 325p2.

👍I've found the more settings you can give it (rather than letting it try and detect for itself) the better it is!

 

[gosling1]

It's just the micro sized speakers fault that the sound is thin and treble oriented, where the analog noise are. It works better as a digital system speaker when there's no background noise.

I use a big external speaker that are bass focused and the SDS100 have the best AM sound of all my receivers and have the necessary narrow software filter that other scanners do not have. I did VHF AIR band searches and found new frequencies that I then programmed in other scanners but never heard anything from those. I then noticed that the transmission from a "new" frequency where heard on a different already known frequency from my other scanners. It was just interferencies in the SDS100 that where received, some are only 30dB attenuated from the true frequency signal level.

/Ubbe

What is the make/model of this "big external speaker"? Curious minds would like to know

 

[Ubbe]

What is the make/model of this "big external speaker"? Curious minds would like to know

It's a Motorola 2 ohm speaker GSN6035. It's a bit too much bass from it if a scanner doesn't filter subtones enough, like a TRX-2, that will make them annoyingly loud. On the other hand it has hardly any treble audio above 4KHz that will then block high frequency background noise. It's a pure radio communication speaker.

/Ubbe

 

[EJB]

I live beneath an escarpment, 4 or 5 hundred feet up and my cities airport is about 8 miles away on the hill. I compared my SDS100 to my other numerous scanners, with a good antenna it is amazing, much better than the HP, my 396 series, older radio shack scanners from last century.

I have around 4 mag mounts, I use one cut for VHF Hi, 144-173 to monitor our provincial system and it does well for the air band.

E

 

[GROL]

I live beneath an escarpment, 4 or 5 hundred feet up and my cities airport is about 8 miles away on the hill. I compared my SDS100 to my other numerous scanners, with a good antenna it is amazing, much better than the HP, my 396 series, older radio shack scanners from last century.

I have around 4 mag mounts, I use one cut for VHF Hi, 144-173 to monitor our provincial system and it does well for the air band.

E

This doesn't fit the narrative that the SDS100 is not good for anything other than digital. While I agree the speaker is a bit too treble, I find it no more so than the BCD436HP I have. I never much liked to sound from the BCD436HP. The BCD325P2 sounds a good bit better. Also, now that I have selected the Wide Normal filter for all air band frequencies the sensitivity is quite good and so far very little interference. I still prefer the BCD325P2 for air band, but the SDS100 works quite well enough itself. I will not use it as a primary air band radio, but it is quite good enough for only carrying one radio.

 

[jgorman21]

Very helpful. Just tried some of these suggestions!

 

[jgorman21]

I just realized I wrote IXF when I meant IFX. Anyway function 7 made a night and day difference on the air bands. If it means anything it also improved the weather bands.

In my particular location, I am starting to see a pattern with the filters, most of the time VHF- high is greatly improved when wide normal is added to Department options of various VHF groups, especially the Marine band... UHF repeaters do best on the default normal, and all of my tdma Phase ll simulcast systems definitely work better on wide invert applied to the one or two sites I use. No missed or clipped transmissions. Global of course stays at normal for everything else.

That's in my environment, I've noticed that when the filters are sampled in real time using all the right indicators reception is remarkably good on both SDS radios. I guess I'm just in a good spot.

Great tips here. What is your experience with VHF-Lo? Thanks

 

[trentbob]

Great tips here. What is your experience with VHF-Lo? Thanks

Other than Citizens Band on 11 meters AM, I have not had an occasion to listen to any vhf low Public Service radio. There is just nothing around me in that range, I am interested in.