SDS 100 and CB

[blong]

Does the SDS really receive the CB band and does it work in a vehicle as a CB receiver? What Antenna will work, currently have Remtronix 802.
TKS

 

[Reconrider]

Stock works fine.
Of course it works, it’s a scanner

if you’re getting an sds100 just to listen to cb, it’ll be way cheaper to buy a cb radio on amazon than a 700$ scanner that you can’t talk back to people with.

 

[trentbob]

Sure it works. That is if you have CB transmissions in your area. If it's a busy area you'll pick them up but the worst antenna to use for 11 meters or 27 megahertz is the remtronix 800 megahertz antenna. You can try using the stock antenna.

Tri-band mobile antennas are 150 450 800 megahertz antennas but I do remember the Austin Spectra which was a four band mobile antenna with an nmo mount. It is capable of picking up low band. If you're going to mount a mobile antenna you're going to want it to cover everything your radio can pick up. I believe the Austin Spectra is still sold by Scanner Master. I don't use mine anymore and haven't for a long time and before that I used the antenna specialists m o n - 51 which also could pick up low band. Good luck trying to get one of those LOL. I've been using the Larson 150 400 800 tri-band for decades now on the car and just upgraded to the new one last year with the spring and heavy duty mount but it doesn't pick up CB.

You might want to search filters here on RR. There are many many posts as you will probably need to filter CB Transmissions. I don't have any CB transmissions in my area but I have programmed it into my radio on my sds200 and 100 and once in awhile I'll get a couple of trucks passing on the turnpike talking with each other with just normal filter which is the default.

Good luck with it... Bob.

 

[wtp]

i used a uniden 396T with radio shack 800 antenna and was going down the highway with CB search on.
i had to see the trucks that were talking to hear them, really, really, close in other words.
probably any CB antenna outside will help.

 

[slowmover]

I find it unlikely that a do-it-all scanner is going to have the receive sensitivity (range) of a standard CB.

I bought the least expensive Uniden scanner recently (space limit + price) to experimentally Scan CB channels while my “big” radio stayed on AM-19.

With the supplied inner-glass antenna, “range” was barely across a two-lane highway.

With a dedicated 27-MHz 4’ antenna, it was (maybe) 1.5-miles. (My “big” radio doesn’t really fall below three-miles).

My suggestion is to get a UNIDEN 980 AM/SSB radio and set it up as a scanner.

Traveling the country there is enough other signals traffic not confined to AM-19 to justify the purchase. Sideband can get overwhelmingly busy near dusk, and from all over the country.

There is ENOUGH activity on 11-Meter that a receive-only set-up can keep one busy.

There’s the 40-channels. Then Upper and Lower Sideband to each (40-channels with three modes). A 980 will scan all of it (unlikely on the scanner).

As adjunct to a main radio, it’s then the backup spare and scanner.

$120 is what I paid for the last one. The latest little base-load steel whip was about $30. $175 or so ought to do it with external speaker and coax (add a bit more for mount + power).

$200? Now you’re set for a decade of use.

Do a worthy installation for your vehicle and it’s backup comms to a cell phone.

The Receive is noisy. Adjusting Squelch and RF Gain about half the battle. The other is proper noise abatement.

(There are other radios a step up in quality — price — which also scan).

Install


.

 

[trentbob]

Does the SDS really receive the CB band and does it work in a vehicle as a CB receiver? What Antenna will work, currently have Remtronix 802.
TKS

I find it unlikely that a do-it-all scanner is going to have the receive sensitivity (range) of a standard CB.

I bought the least expensive Uniden scanner recently (space limit + price) to experimentally Scan CB channels while my “big” radio stayed on AM-19.

With the supplied inner-glass antenna, “range” was barely across a two-lane highway.

With a dedicated 27-MHz 4’ antenna, it was (maybe) 1.5-miles. (My “big” radio doesn’t really fall below three-miles).

My suggestion is to get a UNIDEN 980 AM/SSB radio and set it up as a scanner.

Traveling the country there is enough other signals traffic not confined to AM-19 to justify the purchase. Sideband can get overwhelmingly busy near dusk, and from all over the country.

There is ENOUGH activity on 11-Meter that a receive-only set-up can keep one busy.

There’s the 40-channels. Then Upper and Lower Sideband to each (40-channels with three modes). A 980 will scan all of it (unlikely on the scanner).

As adjunct to a main radio, it’s then the backup spare and scanner.

$120 is what I paid for the last one. The latest little base-load steel whip was about $30. $175 or so ought to do it with external speaker and coax (add a bit more for mount + power).

$200? Now you’re set for a decade of use.

Do a worthy installation for your vehicle and it’s backup comms to a cell phone.

The Receive is noisy. Adjusting Squelch and RF Gain about half the battle. The other is proper noise abatement.

(There are other radios a step up in quality — price — which also scan).

Install


.

So to the o p... Not sure exactly what you're looking to do but was just answering your basic question and the answer is yes. I assume you use your 100 for police and fire and if they are simulcast you got the right radio. If you want to include Channel 19 to what you listen to now when you're driving your car it will work but it certainly is not going to be an optimal CB receiver. If that's what you're looking for then by all means buy a cheap CB radio and slap a 102 in quarter wave whip on your bumper LOL.

If you're looking to make a permanent Mobile Installation in your car for the 100 don't expect the 100 to provide great CB performance but it will work.

Picking up 700 megahertz tdma Phase 2 with an SDR Radio is not the same as 27 megahertz AM in a vehicle as slowmover points out. There are many considerations for noise problems.

The 100 ain't your best choice for CB but you might catch an occasional bear or traffic report on the highway ahead of you with a very short range.

Slowmover, that is an awesome link on your post, that list of topics on the left side of the page is amazing, good reading. Makes me want to go find my lineman shears LOL.

 

[trap5858]

If CB is important to you why not just buy a CB radio, they are inexpensive.

 

[blong]

Thanks for the info, to be clear I didn't buy a SDS 100 to be a cb receiver. I appreciate those that can provide helpful information. I was merely trying to understand if someday I wanted to listen in as I travel if the radio would do it and if the current antenna would work. So I see that changing to the stock one would be best for that application.

 

[KK4JUG]

If CB is important to you why not just buy a CB radio, they are inexpensive.

Ask around. I'd be willing to bet that some of your friends have a CB in the closet or on the shelf in the garage.

 

[trentbob]

Thanks for the info, to be clear I didn't buy a SDS 100 to be a cb receiver. I appreciate those that can provide helpful information. I was merely trying to understand if someday I wanted to listen in as I travel if the radio would do it and if the current antenna would work. So I see that changing to the stock one would be best for that application.

Yeah I figured that. oh, nobody buys and sds100 unless they need overall coverage and performance. The stock antenna is not the greatest in the world but it's going to have broader coverage than the remtronix that is tuned for 800 megahertz. The Cb is not going to work great but you will hear local stuff.

 

[wtp]

blong,
if you put in CB channel 6 (27.025) all bets are off.
with the uniden 396T and the radio shack 800 antenna.
i listened to a guy from Louisiana one morning when the skip was in.
i live in Port Charlotte, Florida.so it could have been around 500 miles distance.
i do not know how much power he was using, a foot warmer might be an understatement.

 

[mikewazowski]

I scan the CB bands while mobile using my BCD536HP and an Austin Spectra antenna and it works well.

I’ve got a Motorola Mocat 40 with a tuned whip in my vehicle as well. I usually park it on ch 19 and tune to channels of interest that the scanner finds.

 

[Whiskey3JMC]

I use a Comet SMA-W100RX telescopic on my SDS100, whenever there is a good band opening on 11 meters (CB band) I can pick up the "Superbowl" Channel 6 indoors from my living room

 

[iMONITOR]

If CB is important to you why not just buy a CB radio, they are inexpensive.

Exactly! A cheap C.B. would probably receive C.B. better than any scanner. Why tie up a $600+ scanner for C.B.?

UNIDEN PRO505XL $39.99

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[trentbob]

blong,
if you put in CB channel 6 (27.025) all bets are off.
with the uniden 396T and the radio shack 800 antenna.
i listened to a guy from Louisiana one morning when the skip was in.
i live in Port Charlotte, Florida.so it could have been around 500 miles distance.
i do not know how much power he was using, a foot warmer might be an understatement.

I'm not a big fan of the feeds obviously but for a while there was a feed for Channel 6, I'm not sure where it was hosted from. If everything's right in the universe Channel 6 used to be a tremendous channel for dxing. Hard to understand the local dialect, we're going back a number of years but the skip off the ionosphere was amazing.

 

[slowmover]

Thanks for the info, to be clear I didn't buy a SDS 100 to be a cb receiver. I appreciate those that can provide helpful information. I was merely trying to understand if someday I wanted to listen in as I travel if the radio would do it and if the current antenna would work. So I see that changing to the stock one would be best for that application.

It will work. And it won’t. My $200 suggestion buys you a radio rig on which you can communicate.

Perspective. 10-years of use at a minimum.

With the suggested you can “adequately” scan (even if it’s not what it could be, it isn’t hard to improve, just some DSP & noise abatement.)

CB is conceptually local. Just a few miles. But in reality it can be a dozen to two dozen miles (what you’ll hear, versus being heard).

Being mobile is a whole other experience in CB land. It’s sort of, those who are, and those who aren’t.

When I’m home (a few days per month) my mobile rig is none too impressive. A difficult location. I need (am assembling) the gear for an antenna system which fits my situation at home.

On-road, there’s rarely a day that’s “quiet”. Sunday thru Thursday I ran some of the toughest weather I’ve ever encountered. Bout wore out this little radio.

Include sideband (get serious) and it’s a good chunk of the globe. Harder when mobile, ideal from a base station.

As intro to ham radio (quality of installation & problem-solving) 11-Meter is big boy stuff all the way. And at an affordable price. Easy entry.

Read some on installations. That’s more the leap than anything else.

Own the means.

.

 

[jonwienke]

The SDS100 receives CB just fine, if you connect it to an antenna tuned to that band. The factory antenna, and all other antennas tuned to VHF and above, receive 27Mhz very poorly, and will cripple reception. You'll probably want a separate antenna tuned to CB and a diplexer if you want to include CB in your scanning.

 

[Ensnared]

I loaded 27.185 on the conventional Texas DPS channels; however, since I have my 436HP squelch set on two you have to be fairly close to the source CB depending on the power being transmitted.

I don't know if the SDS has the capability of individual squelch settings with 2 being used for everything but CB.

When I have wanted to go to channel 19, I had to hold on the CB channel and then set the squelch to 0. It is a pain. However, when you are experiencing CB problems, it is very helpful.

 

[jonwienke]

That's likely because the antenna you're using isn't tuned anywhere near 27 Mhz.

And you can't set squelch per channel. It's a global thing on every Uniden scanner.

 

[Ensnared]

That's likely because the antenna you're using isn't tuned anywhere near 27 Mhz.

And you can't set squelch per channel. It's a global thing on every Uniden scanner.

Thanks, that is what I thought, but wasn't sure.