freqseeker
Member
I have been scanning since I was a kid in the 70's. My parents bought a 4 channel Realistic crystal handheld. They were hooked. They bought a new Realistic 10 channel crystal set and oh boy!
In the late 70's my friends Dad let me borrow his BC210 programmable for the weekend. No crystals, but it suffered from strong signal bleed over. Now I was hooked.
In the late 80's I bought a BC100xlt from the Little Nickel paper. The 90's a Pro2006. Then trunking came along around '98 in my area. What a tragedy at the time. Oh wait, Uniden came out with a trunk tracker BC235xlt. It sold out right away, but there was a little known company called Tech America (Radio Shack), placed my order and had one from the first batch. I could listen again! Several trunk trackers and a Pro92B (didn't like the program structure) later, including the BCDx36 series brings me to modern day. Enjoyed the beta testing of DMR firmware. Paul (Upman) made it fun! RIP.
I held off on the SDS100 as I didn't have simulcast issues on my local system. I read the issues people were having and waited it out.
Then the SDS200 appeared. I like the size and display. I would like to see a true base size radio like the BC895xlt.
I watched the SDS200 issues for a long time and determined it was time to buy. I'm glad I did. No hum by the way (yet). My neighboring county has two simulcast P2 systems. I could monitor Tacoma with the BCD536HP pretty well. South Sound 911 for Pierce county was another story. I would get 30% at best and a lot of garbled transmissions.
When I first hooked up the SDS200 after updating firmware and favorites, I monitored my local 800 type 2 system. It worked as well as any other scanner previously. Then I tried the troublesome SS911 system. I literally said "WOW" out loud. Strong signal and clear as a bell.
I did notice interference on the 800 simplex interop channels. I was hearing transmissions from local type 2 800 system. So not perfect, but I was happy.
I just received my SDS100 a few days ago and it works just as well. Am I concerned about the cold solder issues? You bet! They have been around forever (cold solder), remember the Pro 2004 of the 80's?
I will say the battery clip is ridiculous. I know it will break. I have the external charger and extra battery and prefer not to charge in the radio.
I want to share my opinion of the future scanner production.
Paul took a lot of crap on these forums. I'm surprised he stuck around sometimes. During the DMR beta program there were disclaimers that updates could break things. There were simple instructions in his emails to download the firmware. Some were to make sure you read it all. People cried and complained about it being too difficult, or this or that. That's what a beta program is! Give constructive feedback. It was amazing how fast things were resolved, but again people would get so mad when it wasn't perfect.
I read the same when the SDS's came out. Yes these are expensive radio's. So was the Pro 2006 I bought in the very early 90's (around $400 back then). The way things improve is from trial and error.
Bottom line for me is that if we want Uniden and Whistler to continue to make new products WE have to be reasonable. It's a very small market and development is expensive. There are going to be issues. The loss of Paul is huge for Uniden and of course his family. The next person up has some huge shoes to fill. I feel if we the hobbyists continue to be so negative all the time the chance of the next person reaching out in a forum like this is slim to none.
I get excited when a new model is released. Sometimes I pass on a couple until a feature I have to have comes out.
I appreciate these forums. I have learned a lot by reading and asking questions. You know the "oh wow I never thought of doing it that way". I try to contribute when I know the answer.
Didn't intend to rant. I enjoy our hobby.
In the late 70's my friends Dad let me borrow his BC210 programmable for the weekend. No crystals, but it suffered from strong signal bleed over. Now I was hooked.
In the late 80's I bought a BC100xlt from the Little Nickel paper. The 90's a Pro2006. Then trunking came along around '98 in my area. What a tragedy at the time. Oh wait, Uniden came out with a trunk tracker BC235xlt. It sold out right away, but there was a little known company called Tech America (Radio Shack), placed my order and had one from the first batch. I could listen again! Several trunk trackers and a Pro92B (didn't like the program structure) later, including the BCDx36 series brings me to modern day. Enjoyed the beta testing of DMR firmware. Paul (Upman) made it fun! RIP.
I held off on the SDS100 as I didn't have simulcast issues on my local system. I read the issues people were having and waited it out.
Then the SDS200 appeared. I like the size and display. I would like to see a true base size radio like the BC895xlt.
I watched the SDS200 issues for a long time and determined it was time to buy. I'm glad I did. No hum by the way (yet). My neighboring county has two simulcast P2 systems. I could monitor Tacoma with the BCD536HP pretty well. South Sound 911 for Pierce county was another story. I would get 30% at best and a lot of garbled transmissions.
When I first hooked up the SDS200 after updating firmware and favorites, I monitored my local 800 type 2 system. It worked as well as any other scanner previously. Then I tried the troublesome SS911 system. I literally said "WOW" out loud. Strong signal and clear as a bell.
I did notice interference on the 800 simplex interop channels. I was hearing transmissions from local type 2 800 system. So not perfect, but I was happy.
I just received my SDS100 a few days ago and it works just as well. Am I concerned about the cold solder issues? You bet! They have been around forever (cold solder), remember the Pro 2004 of the 80's?
I will say the battery clip is ridiculous. I know it will break. I have the external charger and extra battery and prefer not to charge in the radio.
I want to share my opinion of the future scanner production.
Paul took a lot of crap on these forums. I'm surprised he stuck around sometimes. During the DMR beta program there were disclaimers that updates could break things. There were simple instructions in his emails to download the firmware. Some were to make sure you read it all. People cried and complained about it being too difficult, or this or that. That's what a beta program is! Give constructive feedback. It was amazing how fast things were resolved, but again people would get so mad when it wasn't perfect.
I read the same when the SDS's came out. Yes these are expensive radio's. So was the Pro 2006 I bought in the very early 90's (around $400 back then). The way things improve is from trial and error.
Bottom line for me is that if we want Uniden and Whistler to continue to make new products WE have to be reasonable. It's a very small market and development is expensive. There are going to be issues. The loss of Paul is huge for Uniden and of course his family. The next person up has some huge shoes to fill. I feel if we the hobbyists continue to be so negative all the time the chance of the next person reaching out in a forum like this is slim to none.
I get excited when a new model is released. Sometimes I pass on a couple until a feature I have to have comes out.
I appreciate these forums. I have learned a lot by reading and asking questions. You know the "oh wow I never thought of doing it that way". I try to contribute when I know the answer.
Didn't intend to rant. I enjoy our hobby.
