SDS Series- Is there a shortcut to Standby Mode?

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rickgans

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I have Fire Tone Outs programmed in my SDS 200, but to put the scanner into Standby Mode to make use of this feature, I have to go through three steps to put the scanner into Tone-Out Standby mode (Menu, Spin Dial to Tone Out for menu item and then select Tone Out for option). Not the end of the world, but it would be nice to have a one or two button shortcut to this mode. Anyone know if it exists for the SDS100 or SDS 200 (I have them both).
 

IndyScan

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I'm not aware of one but I'd like it if the 10 I have programmed in there would scan faster. Seems to sit on each tone combo for 2 seconds before moving on to the next one. Am I doing something wrong?
 

rickgans

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IndyScan mine seems to also sit on each tone a long time, but when testing it with a second scanner next it, it must be actually scanning the tones faster than the display shows since it picked up the dispatches immediately even when it was not displaying the tone being dispatched (it did switch to that tone immediately when I heard the tones). I am using a 10 second delay.
 

RBMTS

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The "Delay" is for how long the radio will remain open to the comms on the channel before resetting back to tone only mode. It has nothing to do with how long it sits on a tone set. Don't worry about how long the scanner is taking to cycle through the tone set personalities. The scanner is sitting on the one frequency and will instantly alert on any of the 1-10 tone sets you have programmed in (provided they are on the same receiving frequency).

As an example, let's say that the radio just started showing tone set 3, but tone set 1 is now being sent over the air. The scanner will alert on tone set 1 even though it is not showing it on the display. The radio starts matching the tones the moment it starts receiving them.
 

IndyScan

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Interesting, I'll have to play with it a little more because it's missing a lot. I've also been playing with just the A-Tone vs both because each town uses the same A-tone for all departments & separates the stations with the B-Tone. I think the delay in the setup is the scan delay after it gets a hit. I turned mine to 0 with no improvement.

In all honestly I was really excited to set this up but find I don't actually use it that much :)
 

RBMTS

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I think the delay in the setup is the scan delay after it gets a hit.
You'd be wrong. Think about it . . . . it's sitting on 1 frequency. There is no scan delay because it isn't scanning. The delay is used for how long the scanner will sit in open receive mode after receiving a page before resetting back to silent tone-out mode. So I think you are getting the definition of your tone outs confused.

I've also been playing with just the A-Tone vs both because each town uses the same A-tone for all departments & separates the stations with the B-Tone
I don't believe the scanner works like this - just a tone A and a wildcard tone B. Having just a tone A is for single tone pages of less than 3.75 seconds (take note of the "single tone" page). Having a tone in B and leaving A empty is for long tones greater than 3.75 seconds (typically known as a "long tone C" or group call. Again, I don't believe the SDS scanners will do what you are referring - at least they haven't for me.
 

IndyScan

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Probably why it's not working for me! :)

I'll put the proper A/B tones in and play around with it this weekend. Thanks!
 
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