SDS 100 and NYS Thruway

[KC2CQD]

Have you tried enabling attenuation on the frequency? Also, being right next to the Thruway doesn't necessarily mean that you're close to one of the transmitters. You didn't make it clear as to whether you knew the location of the nearest transmitter.

The SDS series tend to struggle at times in the VHF and UHF bands, in particular with analog signals, and especially if you're in a high RF environment. Using an outdoor antenna could make things worse, not better.

Oh and the Thruway channels are all narrowband, so NFM, not FM.

Seems kinda funny that Uniden would let that fly. I mean isn't most of what people listen to in the VHF/UHF bands? I'll stick with my 996P2 for a while before moving to an SDS... you know, til they work out the glitches...yeah that's it, Uniden will fix that....

 

[IFRIED91]

Remember vote scan… out of curiosity… are uniden scanners capable of votescan? For WX vhf stations at least

 

[62Truck]

Seems kinda funny that Uniden would let that fly. I mean isn't most of what people listen to in the VHF/UHF bands? I'll stick with my 996P2 for a while before moving to an SDS... you know, til they work out the glitches...yeah that's it, Uniden will fix that....

Not really, the SDS's series primary market are simulcast trunked systems. Unless you have simulcast issues the SDS series is a bit overkill

 

[GTR8000]

are uniden scanners capable of votescan?

If you're referring to polling for RSSI and jumping to the strongest channel based on that...no.

 

[jgorman21]

You won't find anything, as those are market licenses. They won't have transmitter specific locations.

So…is there a way to find “who is there?” Thanks!

 

[k2hz]

So…is there a way to find “who is there?” Thanks!

The important question is what frequencies are active at the site. This can be determined by on-site observations with a spectrum analyzer or a SDR in frequency spectrum display mode. Once you determine the frequencies you can see who is licensed to use the frequency in that area. But the real concern is the frequencies actually in use vs what licenses show could potentially be used.

Public records may only show who owns the tower and, in any event, are unlikely to show who all the users are or what frequencies are in use.

 

[W1KNE]

So…is there a way to find “who is there?” Thanks!

What @k2hz said. Go on site, with equipment and a highly directional antenna, spectrum analyzer and SDR. Another trick is to look at the buildings to see which carriers are there. (Most have signs with their logos).

 

[jgorman21]

Thanks! I’ve seen Verizon and “First Light!” I‘ll see what I can do. But I’m seriously wondering if whatever is there is blocking the Thruway signal for the SDS 100. It’s physically between me and the Thruway. I’m getting other UHF stuff from other directions ok.

 

[k2hz]

Thanks! I’ve seen Verizon and “First Light!” I‘ll see what I can do. But I’m seriously wondering if whatever is there is blocking the Thruway signal for the SDS 100. It’s physically between me and the Thruway. I’m getting other UHF stuff from other directions ok.

Have you tried checking the Thruway frequencies with PL off and open squelch to see what you hear? It may not be an apparent signal but there can be just general noise and crud producing several bars of RSSI on specific frequencies. The SDS intermod and desense problems can be specific to certain frequencies not everything in the band.

Reception of a specific frequency problem can sometimes be mitigated with the IFX function.

I don't see how knowing what frequencies are on that tower would help resolve your problem.

There may be something in the SDS design that is peculiar to the Thruway frequencies if you saw this post where the Thruway was part of the interfering signal mix.

Cheektowaga Fire dispatch - drops signal

I have the sds100 and for the past few months when i receive Cheektowaga NY fire dispatch on 453.625 with 662 dpl the signal drops every 3 seconds. The signal is strong at -45 or -50 with 5 bars. I am only 3 miles from the transmitter. I check the standard settings to make sure the WX is off...

forums.radioreference.com

 

[jgorman21]

Have you tried checking the Thruway frequencies with PL off and open squelch to see what you hear? It may not be an apparent signal but there can be just general noise and crud producing several bars of RSSI on specific frequencies. The SDS intermod and desense problems can be specific to certain frequencies not everything in the band.

Reception of a specific frequency problem can sometimes be mitigated with the IFX function.

I don't see how knowing what frequencies are on that tower would help resolve your problem.

There may be something in the SDS design that is peculiar to the Thruway frequencies if you saw this post where the Thruway was part of the interfering signal mix.

Cheektowaga Fire dispatch - drops signal

I have the sds100 and for the past few months when i receive Cheektowaga NY fire dispatch on 453.625 with 662 dpl the signal drops every 3 seconds. The signal is strong at -45 or -50 with 5 bars. I am only 3 miles from the transmitter. I check the standard settings to make sure the WX is off...

forums.radioreference.com

Interesting. I’ll try this too. A lot of the things folks suggested didn’t do much. Attenuation. IFX. Standing on my left foot holding the radio over my head! 😂😂😂Just joking. I’ll try that too. Thanks.

 

[GTR8000]

@k2hz is right, the best thing to do is just to see if there is any signal under the noise. No PL, wide open squelch when you know the Thruway is busy, and see if you hear anything. Of course best aided by having another scanner/receiver parked on the Thruway channel receiving good signal.

At the end of the day, the fact is that as well as the SDS series can perform on 700/800 P25 simulcast...that $8 RTL chip the scanners are built around can be a fatal flaw in some circumstances.

 

[jgorman21]

OK So I started to try to do an update/follow-up on this. Suffice to say that the reception of the Thruway System is still bad on the SDS 100 only! I tried most all of the suggestions here to no avail. Its great (as it has always been) on several other radios. To me the "kicker" is that several other things in the UHF 450-460 band come in fine on the 100. Its so strange. Im going to go with W1KNE's suggestion on the local cell tower perhaps? Just trying to understand and bring "closure" here.

Thanks!

 

[GTR8000]

Bottom line is that the heart of the SDS series scanners is an $8 RTL tuner chip that was originally designed for very wide band reception (6 MHz), and is the same tuner chip used in most of the dongles people use with software like DSD+ and Unitrunker, and they run at ~2.4 MHz bandwidth in those software packages. Any nearby strong signals, even in a different band, are going to quickly overwhelm the tuner chip. And yes, it can happen on seemingly random frequencies and not affect another one that you think it should.

 

[Ubbe]

It's a 85 cent receiver chip, if you buy one, and much less if you buy a hundred or a thousand. The receiver in SDS scanners can be interfered on specific frequencies, it doesn't work at all as in "normal" scanners. Using attenuator, IFX and the different filters will at most time shift the frequency where the interferences occur. SDS100.mp4

/Ubbe

 

[jgorman21]

Update on NYS Thruway reception on the SDS 100. The attenuator did not work. Basically obliterated the reception. Back to the filters. It seems that either “Normal” or ”Global” work best. This is for 453.425 and 453.525. Funny think is that their maintenance frequency 460.3000 is very strong regardless. As are many other local conventional UHF frequencies. This problem seemed to only impact those NYS Thruway frequencies and only on the SDS 100.

I will consider this a ”victory” of sorts for this extremely labor intensive “radio” as it is!

 

[W1KNE]

So "Global" is whatever your global filter is set to, which my guess, is 'normal', hence why they both worked the same.
Menu > Settings > Global Auto Filter

 

[jgorman21]

So "Global" is whatever your global filter is set to, which my guess, is 'normal', hence why they both worked the same.
Menu > Settings > Global Auto Filter

It’s actually off! Hmmm….

so I wonder what is defaults to then? Just “off?” I have a lot of individual filters set up. Is the global then nullifying these?

 

[W1KNE]

It’s actually off! Hmmm….

so I wonder what is defaults to then? Just “off?” I have a lot of individual filters set up. Is the global then nullifying these?

No. Individual filters only look at Global when set to Global.

 

[jgorman21]

No. Individual filters only look at Global when set to Global.

Yes thanks! Just looked it up in the “easier to read” manual! Whew!

 

[DaveNF2G]

Thruway channels are simulcast, so that could also be an issue.
Have you picked up anything digital on NYTA channels yet? They have a whole new license for digital emissions. My expectation is that it will be P25, but so far even with CTCSS disabled, everything is still analog.