SDS100/SDS200: Programming issues

[curthardin]

My name is Curtis and I'm never written on a forum so I'm new to this.
I'm soon to be 65 and I have had scanners for many years. I many health issues and the scanner brings me lots of company. I bought a Uniden sds100 scanner and I have learned that I'm not as high tech as I thought. I do have it programed but, I miss stuff and it's just not working to capacity. I know there's nothing wrong with the scanner, the problem is the operator. My email is curtinchrist@gmail.com
I'm hoping to find someone to talk me through how to make this scanner work the way it should. Thank You.

 

[trentbob]

Use the manual and make sure all your service types are enabled.

 

[curthardin]

Use the manual and make sure all your service types are enabled.

Thank You! I did that and yes everything is set correctly there. However it's still not working to potential. When I programmed it, it has the NEW frequencies in it AND the OLD frequencies as well. I want to delete the old frequencies but I have no idea how to do that. As the nicest and easiest way to say it,,,, HELLLLLLLLLLP!!!!!!!!

 

[trentbob]

Thank You! I did that and yes everything is set correctly there. However it's still not working to potential. When I programmed it, it has the NEW frequencies in it AND the OLD frequencies as well. I want to delete the old frequencies but I have no idea how to do that. As the nicest and easiest way to say it,,,, HELLLLLLLLLLP!!!!!!!!

I understand, this thread that we're on is in the tavern and is a thread on sds100 cases. So assisting you with programming, would involve looking in the database, finding out what systems we are talking about etc etc which is off topic for this particular thread.

What I suggest is that you post a new thread on the Uniden Tech Support forum asking for assistance in programming your SDS 100.

You will get responses there from folks that will assist you. It will involve you giving information like your hometown County and State and specifically what you're looking to listen to.

You will find that there's very helpful people here on radio reference that will assist you.

 

[curthardin]

I'm new to posting on a forum and don't know much of what I'm doing, so bear with me.
I'm soon to be 65 and have had scanners for many years. I have several health issues and not totally home bound but don't get out much. The scanner brings me lots of company. I bought a Uniden sds100 scanner and I have learned that I'm not as high tech as I thought. I do have it programmed and it is mostly working. Radio Reference has the OLD frequencies listed on the main page however, the NEW frequencies are listed with all of the P25 frequencies. So in my scanner I have both OLD and NEW frequencies. When there's a page out sometimes I hear it and sometimes I don't. I know alot of my problems are I don't have a 14 year old to show me how to make this scanner work the way it should. But if I could somehow get the OLD frequencies out, I think that would help. However I don't know how to do that. HELLLLLP!!!!! Thank You for your time!!

 

[AK9R]

What I suggest is that you post a new thread on the Uniden Tech Support forum asking for assistance in programming your SDS 100.

Posting the same question in multiple threads is known as cross-posting which is a violation of RadioReference forum rules. The proper thing would have been to suggest to the OP that he report his post so it could be moved.

Yes, it's straightened out, but I'm probably going to delete some messages that don't address the OP's question.

 

[Whiskey3JMC]

Do the "old frequencies" and "new frequencies" reside on the same favorites list? Are they entered as separate systems within said favorites list? if yes then all you should need to do is press MENU key. Scroll to MANAGE FAVORITES (E) > select favorites list (E) > REVIEW/EDIT SYSTEM (E) > select system > Delete System (containing old frequencies) > Confirm Delete (E)

 

[curthardin]

Where do I find the actual frequency numbers so that I can see the frequency???

 

[Whiskey3JMC]

Where do I find the actual frequency numbers so that I can see the frequency???

Assuming they're conventional frequencies and not a part of a trunked system (you didn't specify agency):
Press MENU key. Scroll to MANAGE FAVORITES (E) > select favorites list (E) > REVIEW/EDIT SYSTEM (E) > select system > EDIT DEPARTMENT (E) > select department > EDIT CHANNEL > select channel > EDIT FREQUENCY.
Once you're done viewing the frequency, press MENU twice to back out and view the next frequency if need be.

Or if you have access to a PC you could download Uniden Sentinel, read your programming from your scanner to Sentinel then view your favorites lists that way

 

[dave3825]

Best thing to do is install Sentinel software (Uniden) and read your scanner into it. Then you can see everything on a pc screen rather a scanner screen

Since you just got the scanner, its recommended you read both of these. They pretty much explain everything you may run into.


Easier to Read SDS100/200 Digital Scanner Manual


SDS Sentinel Software Manual

.

 

[nessnet]

Hi Curtis:

A few things.
First, it's better to do this (help you) here - vs e-mail.
Sometimes a newb can also learn.
Also, the general philosophy here is 'teach a man to fish' - vs just giving him a fish.
We'll give you the resources to help you learn this sometimes overwhelming stuff.

Tell us where you are at (state/county/city) and we can look to see what systems are around you.
And... what do you want to listen to?

Install Sentinel. Needs to be a Windows computer and if you get a .net framwork error, go to control panel / programs and features / turn features on or off (left side). Right at the top is .NET framework - check it and hit OK, then install Sentenal.

Get back to us.
Great resources here if/when you need them.

 

[curthardin]

Hi Curtis:

A few things.
First, it's better to do this (help you) here - vs e-mail.
Sometimes a newb can also learn.
Also, the general philosophy here is 'teach a man to fish' - vs just giving him a fish.
We'll give you the resources to help you learn this sometimes overwhelming stuff.

Tell us where you are at (state/county/city) and we can look to see what systems are around you.
And... what do you want to listen to?

Install Sentinel. Needs to be a Windows computer and if you get a .net framwork error, go to control panel / programs and features / turn features on or off (left side). Right at the top is .NET framework - check it and hit OK, then install Sentenal.

Get back to us.
Great resources here if/when you need them.

I'm in Liberal kansas (Seward County) when going to Radio Reference the OLD frequencies are on the main page. The NEW frequencies are with the State wide P25 frequencies. When going to Sentinel you download the old and the new, then when something is paged out maybe you'll hear it or you kinda hear it with static. I've seen on YouTube how high tech this scanner is and that's what I want it to do. Yes, it is working just not to capacity. Does that make sense??? Here's what I would like to have in my favorites list. Seward County Ks, Meade County ks, Haskell County ks, and maybe Finney County ks. If possible I'd also like to add Beaver County Ok. And Texas County OK. With each County I'd like to have police, city fire, county fire, weather watchers, EMS, sheriff, jail staff and hiway patrol and anything else this thing is capable of doing that would be cool.
I have a friend of mine that I went to school with a she is friends with me and my wife, she will call me and say did you hear such and so call on xxx street??? Sometimes I say yes but, there are many times I say no.
Now, FYI, I'm I'm hearing a good part of the following, mostly Seward County, some of Meade County and Haskell County. Some of ks. Hiway patrol, nothing at all out of the Oklahoma frequencies. Im 80% sure that the Oklahoma frequencies are in the scanner.
I'm sorry this is so lengthy but, I just wanted you to know what is going on. Thank You so very much for your time and help.
Curtis R. Hardin
Liberal kansas 67901
curtinchrist@gmail.com
620-482-3972

 

[dave3825]

Here's what I would like to have in my favorites list. Seward County Ks, Meade County ks, Haskell County ks, and maybe Finney County ks. If possible I'd also like to add Beaver County Ok. And Texas County OK. With each County I'd like to have police, city fire, county fire, weather watchers, EMS, sheriff, jail staff and hiway patrol and anything else this thing is capable of doing that would be cool.

she will call me and say did you hear such and so call on xxx street??? Sometimes I say yes but, there are many times I say no.

The more your scanner is trying to scan the less you will actually hear. And I have the same thing. People calling me asking this and that about here and there. As hi tech the Sds scanners are, nothing, really nothing beats an sdr set up.

 

[nessnet]

ASs dave3825 stated above, the more you scan, the less you hear, and this especially pertains to sites.
In a trunking system, the radio stops and listens for XXX milliseconds on EACH site and it either hears a channel grant and it tunes to that freq. and you hear the transmission, or if nothing, it moves on to the next. EACH site takes a certain time for this and anything else going on, you miss it. If you are trying to scan all of the sites, you will miss a lot...

Have you even scratched the surface on location control yet? I ask because this is the best way to limit what the radio scans. Using location control, the radio knows where it is and only tries to listen to whatever site/system/dept is within range. Luckily, every site/system/dept already has location information, so when you create your favorite lists, it is also loaded.

The other thing to learn about are quick keys. By assigning these, you can manually choose to turn on/off sites/systems/depts to further limit what you are trying to monitor.

I'd suggest you build favorite lists by locations, and assign each a QK
ie:
Seward - 1
Meade - 2
Haskell - 3
Finney - 4
Beaver - 5
Texas - 6

 

[Einsteiger]

I've had success programming my SDS100 with Sentinel. Until now. I had programmed two favorites lists that turned out to be way too long. I could not resolve it on the scanner, so I did a reset. Now, when I write-to-scanner with the now corrected profile [with the two favorites lists], it will not write the favorites lists into the scanner. Only the main databases. I have my location set by zip code, but without those favorites lists I get WAY too may locations to scan. I've tried this several times. Is there a trick to writing to the scanner and properly disconnecting after the write? The online manual for Sentinel was not all that helpful. Thanks for any assistance.

 

[Einsteiger]

I went back to the online manual. My issue is likely something I missed along the way. I'll keep to the instructions and try again...and again...

 

[hiegtx]

For your two Favorites that are not 'writing to the scanner', be sure that the profile has them listed to be downloaded, If you also want them to be monitored (by default), make sure that is set as "Yes" as well.

Are those two Favorites set to use Location Control? And, if so, did you manually create them, or by appending from the main database (after appending, did you do some editing to clean up excess items carried over by the append process)?

If you manually created them, and have either or both of the lists set to use location control, did you manually enter the location and range details?

And neither of your two lists are over the 1Mb size limit?

Is your target model (in Sentinel) set correctly? Theoretically, that should not affect whether or not a list downloads, but occasionally, I've seen some off the wall results if the target is not correct.

 

[Einsteiger]

Both favorites lists were created in Sentinel and they are configured as above [yes - yes]

Target model is also correct.

This has worked for me once. The Sentinel-created favorites wrote to the scanner. I thought the reset and eliminating the user settings on the SDS100 itself might have caused the issue, but it should not have. I'm going to go over everything again and make another attempt in the morning. THANKS very much for the response!!!

 

[hiegtx]

Both favorites lists were created in Sentinel and they are configured as above [yes - yes]

Target model is also correct.

This has worked for me once. The Sentinel-created favorites wrote to the scanner. I thought the reset and eliminating the user settings on the SDS100 itself might have caused the issue, but it should not have. I'm going to go over everything again and make another attempt in the morning. THANKS very much for the response!!!

Did you do the "reset" via the Options under "Restore" in the Settings sub-menu?

Make sure that your lists are saved (correctly) in Sentinel.

Then, I'd suggest formatting the memory card using the SD Formatting tool.

After that, I would use the Clear User Data under the drop-down Scanner menu. That sets up the card to be used, but does not download Favorites.

After that, I would then try to, again, 'write your Favorites to the scanner'.

Memory cards cause some wonky issues, so maybe 'flushing it out' via a format, then go through the 'clear user data' (which creates the folders used on the card for the database, Favorites, and other items), then finally doing the 'write to the scanner' might help. All that would cost is a few minutes of your time.

 

[Einsteiger]

Thanks for the advice. My reference to reset was indeed using the restore setting on the unit's sub menu. I have one more thing to try: in between the first successful write-to-scanner with favorite lists, I switched cables. I wanted a back up cable so I got one off of....Amazon. Always top quality, right? The cable that came with the scanner got stored in the box and I used the Amazon substitute since it was a little longer. I know with ham radios USB cables are not all created equal. Even though the connectors might be the same, sometimes the pin alignment on the chinese aftermarket cables is just not 100% correct. SO...the next Sentinel session will be with the USB / mini USB cable that came with the SDS100. It'll be interesting if that is the fix. The substitute would then go to the car for charging only.

We'll see. I'll post the outcome when I can. Again, thanks for taking the time to look at this.