SDS100 And State Police

[darkness975]

darkness975 - I have to say that this sounds like a real disappointment...
Have you spoken with the guys at Lentini Communications in Berlin, CT to see what their experience has been?
Just a thought. Best of luck

I will talk to them when I can, but I am over an hour away from there so it has to be a planned trip. Ironically I used to live not that far from them.
For now, though, I am going to have to send it back. I can't wait around for that.

I have been talking to @ems170 and a couple other people. I am awaiting @ems170 report on how his new unit will function. He had one like mine that simply did not receive the State Police.

Most infuriating to say the least ...

 

[darkness975]

When this first started happening one of my theories was possible interference from WIFI or something. But even if that was happening, it would affect performance on everything and not just on certain systems ...

 

[Ubbe]

The key point is that you have a usuable signal strenght at 1/4 height of the bar in analyze mode, signal strenght at top of display shows full signal, but the quality bar are almost non existing. You are probably being interfered by some external signal that is being blocked a bit more when you place the scanner on your laptop. Have you tried setting the sites frequencies to IFX as that might help figthing interferencies.

One test are to program the sites frequencies into a favorite list, or quick save them, and edit them to analog only mode and listen how it sounds when you move your scanner from that sweet spot. Maybe you also can pinpoint the source of the interference if it is noticable while listening.

There's now new firmware with additional RF filter selections that might solve your problem.

/Ubbe

 

[darkness975]

The key point is that you have a usuable signal strenght at 1/4 height of the bar in analyze mode, signal strenght at top of display shows full signal, but the quality bar are almost non existing. You are probably being interfered by some external signal that is being blocked a bit more when you place the scanner on your laptop. Have you tried setting the sites frequencies to IFX as that might help figthing interferencies.

One test are to program the sites frequencies into a favorite list, or quick save them, and edit them to analog only mode and listen how it sounds when you move your scanner from that sweet spot. Maybe you also can pinpoint the source of the interference if it is noticable while listening.

There's now new firmware with additional RF filter selections that might solve your problem.

/Ubbe

I no longer have the unit. I might try one again after tax returns.

 

[darkness975]

Okay, so I feel that it is important to update this thread of recent events.

Today, via UPS, I received another SDS100 unit. I am pretty sure it is different than the first one I had since the knob feels different on top (hopefully this will not be an issue in the future since it feels kind of loose? IDK).

Anyway, knob questions aside, this SDS100 unit is doing what the previous one that I was complaining about in this thread did not do. Tracking the CT State Police. I am still in the early stages of testing obviously, but all of my scanners, including this new SDS100, have so far been doing what they are supposed to be doing and receiving the CT State Police broadcasts.

I will continue to test this unit and see how it performs, but I must say the initial results are promising.

The initial results of this also indicate to me that the previous unit may have indeed had an unknown hardware issue. It's as if the digital decoding chip in it was broken, thus it did not receive any P25 systems.

I will continue to monitor.

Now let us hope that after all this a nation wide encryption movement does not kill it all ...

 

[MOTORHEAD27]

That is great news.

 

[doctordialtone]

Yes - great news!

Where did you buy it and what did you pay?

 

[darkness975]

Yes - great news!

Where did you buy it and what did you pay?

Scanner Master.

The price is $649.99 basically everywhere that I have seen. I dont think it has been out long enough to find any for cheaper , unless I you find a used one on RR Classifieds or something.

Here's to the pipe dream that encryption doesnt take a choke hold and kill it.

I updated the firmware and the database on it earlier this evening and so far it is still going.

A couple of frequencies I have to find, my others are picking them up but not the sds100. But that is likely the result of a service type or system being on my Avoid list.

But the issue from the last one of the state police not coming in isnt happening in this one.

Here's to that *raises glass*

 

[darkness975]

Here we go again.

The new SDS100 I got the other day is now only receiving half of the traffic from the CSP.

Sometimes it displays the channels but does not transmit any audio.

I moved it into another room away from my other scanners and it's receiving maybe half the transmissions before cutting out.

Moving it into the other room, while should not have made any difference, seems to have improved it maybe 50% but it is definitely not 100%.

Not to mention the other day when I first got it I had all my scanners together in the same spot in the other room and all were receiving just fine.

I swear, if this thing fails like the last one did and I have to send it back AGAIN this will be IT for SDS scanners. This is absolutely beyond asinine.

Nothing has changed with the antenna (Diamond SRH789), talkgroups, frequencies, etc. from the first day to today.

As we speak it sounds better, though not 100%, being in the other room, but what is the deal with this thing?

Surely if there was something blocking signals from the CSP, even though there is a station not far from me, it would affect all of my units and not just the SDS100.

 

[darkness975]

The analysis fluctuates in terms of the three categories and the bar that they display, but here are a few screenshots that I took a few minutes apart earlier this morning before I left for work

 

[darkness975]

I am continuing to play with this. I came home for lunch and I'm fiddling around with settings.

I will update the firmware later on when I can. I have been hearing some things so it's not like its dead (yet).

 

[Dan6071]

are the state police on the new radio system yet

 

[doctordialtone]

are the state police on the new radio system yet

The transition of the CSP system is gradual - not a "cut-over". The answer is complex.

Read cg's comments throughout the CT forums...
and here.

 

[darkness975]

are the state police on the new radio system yet

Irrelevant since the Transmissions would still come through. I noticed that keeping it near the window in the kitchen or in the bedroom a lot more Transmissions come in.

At least as of lunchtime today, I might go home and find something different but I'm just really trying to troubleshoot this because I really do not want to send it back, I really like the scanner.

 

[darkness975]

A good suggestion is it's possible its suffering from something due to it being software based as opposed to the traditional type of scanner.

Whether or not the issue is fixable is the question.

 

[MFCJR]

Did you try the filter settings? I find that Invert works best for me.

 

[darkness975]

Did you try the filter settings? I find that Invert works best for me.

What does that actually do? Out of curiosity.

 

[jfr454]

I seem to get the best reception with Normal on both CSP systems. I will have to do more research.

 

[MFCJR]

The filters block out interference/noise. You need to find what filter is best for your area. Every area is different. In some cases off works best. The last update added more filter options.

 

[darkness975]

With this current unit I pick the CSP up in my bedroom and in other places but not in the living room where my other scanners have 0 problems. I cant possibly imagine what is in my living room that this flagship scanner cannot handle on a p25 system that 4 and 5 year old units like the HPII have no issues with.

I track CSP on my HPII and BCD325P2 in the living room.