Reception is muted mid transmission randomly

[w2lie]

I've noticed a problem with my SDS200.

The radio will begin to receive fine, but at some random point in the transmission, the audio will just cut out. I still see the radio is receiving and I have -86 or so on the RSSI Scale. My other radios are all still receiving but the SDS200 Mutes. I have other radios on in the same area listening to the same frequency.

I've documented this on video comparing this with a BCD996P2. Before I publish the video I want to also document this is happening with the other filter settings.

Sometimes audio will come back in about a second, and sometimes it will stay muted for 5 or more seconds.

So far, I've seen the following makes no difference:
Upgrading the 'base' firmware to the current firmware (as of 2/22/19)
Changing the filter setting from Normal, Invert, Auto, or Off

I do not have priority set and I do not have Wx priority set. So the scanner is not trying to do anything other than receive this single frequency.


I'm monitoring the local fire department which transmits about 2 miles from here. I'm in the basement using the back of set antenna and not my external antenna, so I don't think this is an issue of overloading the receive on the scanner.


I'm monitoring a single analog channel using the direct entry mode, so this isn't a database problem.

Every once and a while I do see the LINK show up on the display, which tells me that the scanner things this analog signal is digital and it is probably trying to sync up, but this isn't a digital signal. However, I do not see LINK every time I have the problem.
My BCD996P2 keeps monitoring fine, so there is something going on with the SDS200.


Has anyone else noticed this problem? The radio randomly mutes mid transmission.
Are there log files I can pull and send over to @UPMan ?

 

[WA0CBW]

Do you have any "prorities" turned on? The scanner only has one receiver so when it checks for a priority it stops listening to a transmission in progress.
BB

 

[imd]

Do you have any "prorities" turned on?
BB

Did you read the post?

I have the same thing happening on my analog trunked system. Quite a bit of the time I'll see the LINK message come on when this happens, but as you mentioned, sometimes it happens and no LINK message. It's quite prevalent and annoying. My other radios sitting next to the SDS200 don't do this and I end up missing quite a bit of traffic and very annoying when mid sentence it drops.

 

[mule1075]

I've noticed a problem with my SDS200.

The radio will begin to receive fine, but at some random point in the transmission, the audio will just cut out. I still see the radio is receiving and I have -86 or so on the RSSI Scale. My other radios are all still receiving but the SDS200 Mutes. I have other radios on in the same area listening to the same frequency.

I've documented this on video comparing this with a BCD996P2. Before I publish the video I want to also document this is happening with the other filter settings.

Sometimes audio will come back in about a second, and sometimes it will stay muted for 5 or more seconds.

So far, I've seen the following makes no difference:
Upgrading the 'base' firmware to the current firmware (as of 2/22/19)
Changing the filter setting from Normal, Invert, Auto, or Off

I do not have priority set and I do not have Wx priority set. So the scanner is not trying to do anything other than receive this single frequency.


I'm monitoring the local fire department which transmits about 2 miles from here. I'm in the basement using the back of set antenna and not my external antenna, so I don't think this is an issue of overloading the receive on the scanner.


I'm monitoring a single analog channel using the direct entry mode, so this isn't a database problem.

Every once and a while I do see the LINK show up on the display, which tells me that the scanner things this analog signal is digital and it is probably trying to sync up, but this isn't a digital signal. However, I do not see LINK every time I have the problem.
My BCD996P2 keeps monitoring fine, so there is something going on with the SDS200.


Has anyone else noticed this problem? The radio randomly mutes mid transmission.
Are there log files I can pull and send over to @UPMan ?

Had the trouble on analog before the filters were available. Switching the filter when they became available to normal rectified the issue for me.

Just noticed you are talking about the 200 not the 100 not sure if that makes a difference.

 

[Pat]

Are there any high-powered transmitters near you in the same frequency range as the system you're monitoring? The radio may be getting desensitized when the nearby transmitter is on.

 

[imd]

Regardless of a high power transmitter near by, this is happening to the SDS200 and not happening to other radios sitting next to it. I would think the high power transmitter would affect both receivers, impairing the performance of both at the same time.

Shouldn't the performance of a $700 scanner be on par as a $300 scanner?

 

[w2lie]

There are no high power transmitters nearby. Plus I'm sitting with the radio in the basement with the 'stock' antenna not extended, so that should attenuate anything that is close by.

I forgot to add this is a UHF frequency, 453.4125

Here is a report from Antenna Search:

 

[eaf1956]

Did you try setting it to ANALOG only not to AUTO.

 

[UPMan]

What are the NOISE and RSSI values?

 

[w2lie]

What are the NOISE and RSSI values?

Thanks Paul for replying.

I don't have the Noise value displayed on the Quick Search Screen, but I can add it and observe.
The RSSI Value averages -85dBm

 

[w2lie]

The Noise value will range from around 41 to 295 when I lose the signal.

Here is a screenshot where I lost audio on the SDS200. LINK shows up on the display here, but that isn't always the case.
As you can see, the scanner is still showing it is receiving a signal. It just doesn't know what to do with it.
FWIW, when the audio comes back on, you can hear a pop when the audio is activated. I'll follow up with a video if it helps once I document this issue with "normal" "invert" "auto" and "off" filter settings. (this happened with the initial f/w too, so I assume that would cover "off")

 

[tvengr]

Make sure that the scan delay is not set to a negative value.

 

[w2lie]

There is no scan delay. This is a quick search parked on that frequency.

 

[Bob1955]

I've noticed a problem with my SDS200.

The radio will begin to receive fine, but at some random point in the transmission, the audio will just cut out. I still see the radio is receiving and I have -86 or so on the RSSI Scale. My other radios are all still receiving but the SDS200 Mutes. I have other radios on in the same area listening to the same frequency.

I've documented this on video comparing this with a BCD996P2. Before I publish the video I want to also document this is happening with the other filter settings.

Sometimes audio will come back in about a second, and sometimes it will stay muted for 5 or more seconds.

So far, I've seen the following makes no difference:
Upgrading the 'base' firmware to the current firmware (as of 2/22/19)
Changing the filter setting from Normal, Invert, Auto, or Off

I do not have priority set and I do not have Wx priority set. So the scanner is not trying to do anything other than receive this single frequency.


I'm monitoring the local fire department which transmits about 2 miles from here. I'm in the basement using the back of set antenna and not my external antenna, so I don't think this is an issue of overloading the receive on the scanner.


I'm monitoring a single analog channel using the direct entry mode, so this isn't a database problem.

Every once and a while I do see the LINK show up on the display, which tells me that the scanner things this analog signal is digital and it is probably trying to sync up, but this isn't a digital signal. However, I do not see LINK every time I have the problem.
My BCD996P2 keeps monitoring fine, so there is something going on with the SDS200.


Has anyone else noticed this problem? The radio randomly mutes mid transmission.
Are there log files I can pull and send over to @UPMan ?

Phil, Here is ANOTHER perfect example of Uniden America's POOR quality control. I would NOT tolerate this for a day. I would be calling Scanner Master or who ever it was purchased from, the next phone call would be to my credit card company. Phli, I'm very hard on this issue. Let all of us know here or via Scanner School what you are going to do about this> As always, have a great night and Sunday.

 

[w2lie]

Bob,
What I am going to do is give Uniden a chance.

I was an early adopter of the BCD436HP and BCD536HP, when there were clock issues. I appreciate that Uniden did the right thing and not only repaired the problem, but offered an extended warranty on those units for the trouble.

I'm also happy to see that Uniden quickly identified a fix for the hum issue on the SDS200. I'm even happier to see that this is a repair that I can do myself so I won't have to ship the scanner and be without it for a week or two. It's also nice that this won't void the warranty.


We live in a time where scanners are software driven. For now, I'm confident that when the Uniden tech team can identify a root cause to this problem, then a fix will be offered.

If it turns out that I have a unit with a hardware failure, I will certainly look for an exchange for a defective product.
At this time, I'm hopeful that this will be addressed in future firmware releases, and will even offer to run beta software for Uniden to see if any potential firmware candidates fix this issue on my radio.

Of course, I will be documenting the problem and any fix on my podcast, "Scanner School", my sds200review.com mailing list, and also my blog. My YouTube channel will have a video out today or tomorrow documenting this error. T

 

[sparklehorse]

I don’t know if it’s related, but a guy has posted a similar complaint about his SDS100 over in the General Scanning forum. If you watch his video you’ll see LINK appear on the screen right as the radio drops the audio:

https://forums.radioreference.com/threads/sds-100-custom-search-scanning-problem.384322/

He’s also stopped on an analog channel as you can see a CTCSS tone displayed. Could be a bug related to search modes? You mentioned Quick Search.

.

 

[w2lie]

@UPMan - here is a video of the issue. @sparklehorse , you'll see the LINK is displayed on the SDS200 as well.

 

[mule1075]

@UPMan - here is a video of the issue. @sparklehorse , you'll see the LINK is displayed on the SDS200 as well.

Does it do it when parked on the frequency not in search mode with the DPL enabled?

 

[w2lie]

That is parked. I've entered the frequency using the quick frequency entry mode.
I didn't load it from the database and the radio wasn't in the process of searching between the upper and lower limit.

 

[phask]

How about if entered in a F List and not using quick search? (Might be a QS anomaly).