SDS 100 OR 200

[vegasjjimbo]

Anyone using SDS100 or 200 in Las Vegas ?
How is the performance ?
I know that Las Vegas PD is encripted , but what in Clark county is coming in Good ?

 

[Joe_Blough]

I don't have an SDS100 or 200 yet but listen using a SDR USB dongle and SDR# or two SDR USB dongles with Unitrunker and DSD+.

I listen to the Southern Nevada Area Communication Council System (SNACC) P25 trunked system. I live on the west side of the city and pick up the Mandalay Bay site with no issues. I hear Henderson, Boulder City, North Las Vegas police, and UNLV police. I also hear Las Vegas, Henderson, North Las Vegas, and Clark County fire and EMS. I hear McCarran airport operations and administration as well as RTC buses and Hospitals including UMC Trauma when people are being transported to them by EMS. This system is very active and I even prioritized or locked out some talk groups in Unitrunker so I don't miss out on the Police and Fire calls.

I also listen to the Nevada Shared Radio System. I pick up the Rio site super strong but also pick up the UNLV and Sunrise mountain sites. Doesn't seem to be much activity on these sites other than Nevada Highway Patrol and most of that comes from the Sunrise Mountain site. Rio site doesn't seem very busy.

Of course there are also the casinos to listen to, most using DMR. I seem to recall reading somewhere that security for Caesars properties is encrypted but am not certain. I do hear security at other casinos though.

I have attached a screen shot of the Unitrunker real time call history so you can see the activity. I used the Sentinel Database to label the talk groups I could find and changed the colors from everything being green to blue for police, red for fire, etc but hopefully you can see it. The upper window shows the activity at that given moment. You can see multiple talk groups talking at the same time so I had to change the priority number in the 'R' column so if someone comes on with a lower number Unitrunker will switch from what it is listening to to the one with a higher priority.

 

[XTS3000]

Was so unhappy with the performance of my SDS100, I sold it for a $200 loss just to get rid of it! For around $130 you can get 2 RTL dongles and USB hub and Mini-Circuits 10mhz-4Ghz antenna splitter and DSD+ Fastlane. I get better decoding simulcast systems with a $130 setup than the SDS100 could ever do.

Also with a SDR and DSD+, you get many more digital decode modes for free. I don’t use unitrunker, but just DSD+ with batch files made with notepad.

Many may disagree with my disappointment with the SDS100, but I solidly stand by my statements about that scanner. Hated it!

 

[737mech]

I use the BCD536HP it works just fine in Vegas. A few tweeks to settings and it's all good.

 

[Joe_Blough]

I use the BCD536HP it works just fine in Vegas. A few tweeks to settings and it's all good.

I considered getting the BCD536HP over the SDS200 but was concerned about simulcast distortion on the SNACC or Nevada Shared Radio System. I have also seen You Tube videos and posts saying the SDS100/200 is picking up things the 536HP couldn't. I haven't bought either one yet but good to know the 536HP works well in Vegas. It's not like we have adjacent cities for hundreds of miles outside of Las Vegas.

 

[Joe_Blough]

Here is a post saying the SDS200 is better than the 536

 

[KR7CQ]

I used the SDS100 in LV for nearly a week during the recent holiday and I found that it did pretty well, but this is an informal report from someone who was just visiting.

 

[Mike-KC8OWL]

I use an SDS100 in Vegas. It works well on the simulcast SNACC system. I also have the DMR upgrade and it works very well on all of the DMR systems in use on the strip at various casino / resorts. I have an aftermarket 800 mHz antenna on it which made a big difference in terms of pulling in some of the systems that were fringe for me. I did not buy the scanner with any real intent on using it for civ or mil air or anything like that. It works okay there but I have other equipment I use for those purposes. Overall it does what I need it to do on various trunked systems very well in my own use.

 

[Jay_Black]

@Mike-KC8OWL I joined long ago, but haven't been active... I wanted to send you a message, but can't figure out how to do it. Anyway, I just purchased a SDS100 and am having some issues as far as getting things set just for Clark County - I am primarily interested in monitoring the following:

CCSD PD
Henderson PD
Boulder City PD
Las Vegas Marshals
North Las Vegas PD
Nevada Highway Patrol

I'd also like to set up the following to only monitor when I want to tune into an incident:

Henderson FD
Boulder City FD
Clark County FD
City of Las Vegas FD
City of North Las Vegas FD

Is there a way to program PD channels so I can simply hit a key on the keypad to monitor individual departments? The only way I can seem to get things to come through right now is using the ZIP service... hopefully you can help me out.


Thanks in advance,
Jay

 

[737mech]

Jay first you'll need to read up and watch some youtube videos on programming with sentinel software from Uniden. You will be creating Favorites lists inside those will be your SNACC system and departments. Pressing the "system" button will keep you inside snacc and away from the rest of the database, pressing dept when you hear for example HD PD then it will only monitor HDPD talkgroups. If you press channel it will hold on that talkgroup that is talking. Then there is the selection of services another way to weed out things like the rtc busses. It's a huge thing to learn much different from old scanners. Spend some time learning it and soon you will narrow down your favorites lists with quick keys or number assignments for the direct access you asked for in the original post. Everybody on your list is located on the County SNACC system except the NHP. They are on the statewide edacs system.

 

[Jay_Black]

@737mech Thanks for your help! After spending some time last night on Sentinel, I believe I have my favorites list set up correctly, however coming from a conventional system back home to the trunk system now I’m a little confused.

Do I need to enter and scan all of the sites, or are there particular sites I can enter that will receive everything for the valley? For instance, LV2 comes in pretty good over the Sunrise Mountain site, so is there a reason for me to have all of the other sites monitored?

Also, if there's any feedback you can send my way as far as "quick keys", that's also a little confusing.

 

[737mech]

For the EDACS system for just the valley I would only enter sunrise angel peak potosi and rio hotel site.

 

[Mike-KC8OWL]

@Jay_Black - I to use the Sunrise Mountain site primarily when I listen to NHP. For SNACC just use the simulcast site and you should be good. Fortunately the 100 does pretty well with simulcast.

 

[737mech]

Here's some help on quick keys