SDS100/SDS200: Receiving Sites Issue

[Pcamp1227]

I'm near a P25 site that I listen to. I'm only a few miles away with a clear line of sight.

When I use the Analyze feature on the SDS100 to determine the signal strength and activity of this site , the signal Quality is Excellent but the Activity shows nothing. The signal bars flash on and off.

The same happens with another site that I'm close to. No activity and the singal flashes on/off.

I attached a pic.

 

[mc48]

This may be normal, the system is always transmitting Data(signal), but there is no activity to decode.

 

[TedTobias]

I have seen the same thing thinking it’s Somthing in the SDS 200. Have not tried it in a few months.

 

[Ubbe]

When I use the Analyze feature on the SDS100 to determine the signal strength and activity of this site , the signal Quality is Excellent but the Activity shows nothing. The signal bars flash on and off.

At the moment when you took the pic you have no reception of the data channel. There's no quality at all and no system or site ID can be decoded.

The signal strenght indication on SDS scanner are a bit wide in the frequency range where it senses the RF level, some 10MHz, so that's not something to go by. You probably need to experiment with different filter settings and IFX to make that Q value raise.

It might be easier if you set your display to show D-ERROR and NOISE and try and get those as low as possible, D-error below 50 and NOISE below 1000 when you are in scan mode and stop scan by the CHANNEL softbutton and enter the sites control channel frequency and then that soft button again. Set squelch to a 2 level and start applying different kinds of filter settings and if that doesn't help then do Fn+7 to add IFX and try the filter settings again.

/Ubbe