justinkmunger
Member
Hello everyone!
My SDS100 just arrived this afternoon and I cannot even begin to express how excited I am about this scanner!
There is a very active STARCOM21 Statewide Illinois site (Cook North / NWCD - Simulcast [P2] https://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?siteId=21646) that primarily serves the Chicagoland suburban cities and towns that are part of the Northwest Central Dispatch.
When I'm in the NW suburbs, for the most part, I've had no problems receiving it on the BCD436HP as long as I'm in a city/town that is part of the NWCD or towns that immediately adjoin them.
However, I live on the north side of the city of Chicago proper and I'm a good distance (around 10 miles I think) to the nearest suburban transmitter, and the BCD436HP just refused to decode this site, no matter what I did. The best I could get is a partial garbled transmission once every 15 minutes.
From reading through the forum posts about the SDS100's simulcast site reception performance, it seemed like a mixed bag but overall it looked like people were seeing some improvements. So I kept my expectations low and hoped that maybe I could decode the site if I got the scanner in just the right spot.
This STARCOM21 simulcast site was the first thing I listened to on the SDS100 and I was just blown away by the difference! Rock-solid reception and decoding no matter where I walk around in my home! I put the two scanners side-by-side to make sure it wasn't some strange enhancement happening, but sure enough, the BCD436HP was still deaf as ever.
The difference was so dramatic that I decided to make two videos comparing the BCD436HP and SDS100 system status and reception of the STARCOM21 Cook North - NWCD Simulcast site so that people can see it for themselves. I would not have believed the difference to be this substantial had I not experienced it for myself:
STARCOM21 Simulcast System Status Comparison between Uniden BCD436HP and Uniden SDS100:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHgujivgia4
STARCOM21 Simulcast Reception Comparison between Uniden BCD436HP and Uniden SDS100:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDNqgZbifp4
Obviously, your mileage may vary and there might be other complications that would still make the SDS100 unable to decode a simulcast site. However, I have a good amount of trash generated by cell sites near me that messes up my scanners for 700/800/900 MHz trunked systems that are actually here in the city and closer to me than this STARCOM21 site, so I'm confident that you don't need a "quiet" RF environment to see simulcast reception improvements.
Hopefully this helps some of you who may be on the fence and want to see some objective proof of the difference the SDS100 makes. For me, it's really like night and day!
My SDS100 just arrived this afternoon and I cannot even begin to express how excited I am about this scanner!
There is a very active STARCOM21 Statewide Illinois site (Cook North / NWCD - Simulcast [P2] https://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?siteId=21646) that primarily serves the Chicagoland suburban cities and towns that are part of the Northwest Central Dispatch.
When I'm in the NW suburbs, for the most part, I've had no problems receiving it on the BCD436HP as long as I'm in a city/town that is part of the NWCD or towns that immediately adjoin them.
However, I live on the north side of the city of Chicago proper and I'm a good distance (around 10 miles I think) to the nearest suburban transmitter, and the BCD436HP just refused to decode this site, no matter what I did. The best I could get is a partial garbled transmission once every 15 minutes.
From reading through the forum posts about the SDS100's simulcast site reception performance, it seemed like a mixed bag but overall it looked like people were seeing some improvements. So I kept my expectations low and hoped that maybe I could decode the site if I got the scanner in just the right spot.
This STARCOM21 simulcast site was the first thing I listened to on the SDS100 and I was just blown away by the difference! Rock-solid reception and decoding no matter where I walk around in my home! I put the two scanners side-by-side to make sure it wasn't some strange enhancement happening, but sure enough, the BCD436HP was still deaf as ever.
The difference was so dramatic that I decided to make two videos comparing the BCD436HP and SDS100 system status and reception of the STARCOM21 Cook North - NWCD Simulcast site so that people can see it for themselves. I would not have believed the difference to be this substantial had I not experienced it for myself:
STARCOM21 Simulcast System Status Comparison between Uniden BCD436HP and Uniden SDS100:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHgujivgia4
STARCOM21 Simulcast Reception Comparison between Uniden BCD436HP and Uniden SDS100:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDNqgZbifp4
Obviously, your mileage may vary and there might be other complications that would still make the SDS100 unable to decode a simulcast site. However, I have a good amount of trash generated by cell sites near me that messes up my scanners for 700/800/900 MHz trunked systems that are actually here in the city and closer to me than this STARCOM21 site, so I'm confident that you don't need a "quiet" RF environment to see simulcast reception improvements.
Hopefully this helps some of you who may be on the fence and want to see some objective proof of the difference the SDS100 makes. For me, it's really like night and day!
