SDS-100 Ohio help

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w8now

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Can anyone help me better understand how to program the SDS100? I get "use the software". I have it programmed for my county which uses both conventional and trunking but it doesn't seem to scan fast enough. The trunking side has sites that aren't even close to the county I live in. I'm a retired police officer and just wanted to have some fun listening to the area but at this rate the SDS is about to be returned! Any Ohio folks that are able to lend a hand it would be greatly appreciated!
 

w8now

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OH... ok, I will try that! Do you know how to setup or explain the system, dept., channel hierarchy? I'm used to the old "banks" system. I am trying to keep all Richland County in one bank, Crawford County in one bank, Coast Guard, and CB (I know that's a weird one but I am at Lake Erie a lot and a former coastie and I like the CB to have when I am traveling to hear which lane is best near accidents lol). I can't figure out how to pull those up or program startup keys for that and then when I start messing around it all goes to pot and I have to reprogram the thing.
 

bdub5

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You may consider learning about how to create favorite lists. I use them to better control exactly what I want to listen to. Check out the YouTube video link below to learn a little more.

 

hiegtx

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OH... ok, I will try that! Do you know how to setup or explain the system, dept., channel hierarchy? I'm used to the old "banks" system. I am trying to keep all Richland County in one bank, Crawford County in one bank, Coast Guard, and CB (I know that's a weird one but I am at Lake Erie a lot and a former coastie and I like the CB to have when I am traveling to hear which lane is best near accidents lol). I can't figure out how to pull those up or program startup keys for that and then when I start messing around it all goes to pot and I have to reprogram the thing.
See if this page helps.
That page was originally for the 436HP/536HP scanners. But the basic programming layout for the SDS series scanners is identical.

In the older "banks" scanners, a single 'bank', depending on the number of channels it contained, might have a number of conventional channels, and/or perhaps a trunked system. You were fairly limited to one trunked system per bank, though you could also have conventional channels in there as well.

For the first DMA series scanners from Uniden, such as the 396T, you no longer had banks, But you did have Systems, which could be either a trunked system, with it's associated talkgroups, or a collection of individual conventional channels. Unlike the 'bank' scanners, you had the capacity for more talkgroups for a trunked system than could be entered on a banked scanner. For your Systems, whether for a trunked system or conventional channels, you also now had groups. Say a system was for a specific city or county. You could use the groups to define specific usage, such as a group, each, for Fire, PD, and EMS. Or, for a county, each city it's it's separate group. You had an overall limit as to the number of 'channels' that could be included, but generally, that was a larger number than the old banks system. Each System could utilize a quick key between 0 and 99, but Groups were limited to quick keys ranging from 0 to 9.

For the x36HP and SDS series scanners, you have Favorites lists, Systems, Departments, and Sites.

You could use the Favorites list category as if it were a "bank". Each list could be used as an area. For example, for your travels to the Lake Erie area, that list could contain the systems in that area, as well as Coast Guard, and CB, of you so desired. When you were not in, or headed to that area, you could assign a Quick Key to it, so that you could toggle it on or off as desired. For the two counties you mentioned, those could be either in their own individual Favorites lists, or in one list, but with the various systems in use. Whether individual lists, or separate systems within the same list, these could also be enabled or disabled via quick keys. Available Quick Keys are 0 to 99, and no two Favorites list can share a single Quick Key assignment.

Departments are the next level under systems,, and are the same purpose as 'Groups' used in the first DMA scanners. A Department could be a city in a System dedicated to a specific County. Or, if the City was used for the system, the Departments could be organized for Law Enforcement, Fire, EMS, and whatever categories you wanted to include, like Public Works, Parks, etc. Available Quick Key numbers are 0 to 99.

Sites are the transmit towers for a trunked system. In your state, Ohio, you have your statewide system, MARCS-IP. You have a large number of sites for that system. In use, you should only program the ones that are within reception range of your location. Additional sites, that are out of range, only slow down your overall scanning speed. Sites share the same list of quick keys as Departments, 0 thru 99. You can use the same quick key for a Department and a Site, to turn them on or off at the same time, or use separate keys so that you can enable or disable them individually.
 

IC-R20

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You probably have range set too high. Set it to no more than 5 miles.
What about zero? I was reading through some old homepatrol setup posts on here earlier and saw someone mention 0 being the best due to something with the database already having location assigned or something like that because of the zipcode programming.
 

jonwienke

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Zero is not wrong.

The scanner global Range setting is added to the range settings for each site and department in the database when deciding whether to scan something or not.
 
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