SDS100 Initial Review

[darkness975]

Thanks for the tips!

 

[darkness975]

Are there any Telescopic antennas like the BNC-W100RX that are best for the SDS100? The RS800 is good. But is more suited to the lower MHZ bands. I like the range of the BNC-W100RX , would a connector diminish the quality of the reception at all? I have always worried about all of the diminishing when using connectors for an antenna.

 

[jbella]

I'm very comfortable with a PC. as far as the scanner? I might as well be going from a rotary phone straight to an iPhone X.

That's a pretty apt analogy.

I've had radios & scanners for a lot of years and the 436 for me was a huge learning curve. Thankfully the SDS100 uses the same software.

It's definitely a time investment.

 

[XN4Sir]

That's a pretty apt analogy.



I've had radios & scanners for a lot of years and the 436 for me was a huge learning curve. Thankfully the SDS100 uses the same software.



It's definitely a time investment.

I’m patiently awaiting the SD100 arrival that was delayed. Meanwhile, I’ve been learning the Sentinel software. So far it looks fairly easy. Just had to dig around in MSWIN for some talk groups that I wanted. Still debating the NXDN upgrade or wait for Madison County to get on MSWIN. I’m sure I’ll be in here again asking some stupid questions with inaccurate terminology.


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[WeBeCinYa]

Does anyone have side x side pics of a 436 and SDS 100 for size comparison? The pics I’ve seen with the new battery look obscene in size.

 

[XN4Sir]

. It’s fairly wide, but this is not some rinky-dink AA battery. It’s a lithium ion pack. Having used Motorola police radios, I don’t even notice the depth of it. Sorry I don’t have a reference pic.



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[KK4JUG]

Those look like the same radio.

 

[XN4Sir]

Those look like the same radio.

Hahaha. It is. It posted it twice.


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[WeBeCinYa]

If I bought one I’d want a smaller battery for mobile use. That bigger battery looks ridiculous, can’t imagine it fits well in a back pocket.

 

[XN4Sir]

Well, it has a belt clip for mobile use and I’m not really concerned about the aesthetics. It works well and It’s not eating disposable batteries.

 

[CQ]

Does anyone have side x side pics of a 436 and SDS 100 for size comparison? The pics I’ve seen with the new battery look obscene in size.

Had some from this post.

https://forums.radioreference.com/uniden-tavern/371618-anothermetoosds100.html#post2945363

https://forums.radioreference.com/uniden-tech-support/378467-big-battery.html#post3015363

 

[mrhermit]

I would like to see a new Home Patrol 3 with the features of the SDS100. I like the touch screen on the original Home Patrol.

 

[ScannerMan1989]

How's the Matoturbo and NXDN support on this thing?
Tired of NOT being able to LISTEN IN!!!

 

[Hit_Factor]

How's the Matoturbo and NXDN support on this thing?
Tired of NOT being able to LISTEN IN!!!

I monitor several DMR and NXDN sites, once I stopped applying what I thought should work and learned how to program it correctly all is good.

 

[ScannerMan1989]

Great!

I monitor several DMR and NXDN sites, once I stopped applying what I thought should work and learned how to program it correctly all is good.

Great news! Glad to see you are now rolling with the radio big boys now!

All these agencies are using systems to keep the casual listener and enthusiast from hearing stuff that the majority of these models don't do and now they are working with them... :roll:

 

[darkness975]

I finally got my SDS100. I have not had a chance to install this version of Sentinal (I have the HP2 version) so thus far it is just using whatever version of the database it had in there already. So far, the little bit I have been able to use it has been seemingly positive. I am able to pick up frequencies of NY state police, and some, others, even though I do not live in New York! So it appears the reception is better than my HP2 and BCD325P2.

I am using the Diamond SRH789 antenna.

The speaker is abysmal, though. But aside from that it appears to be a pretty good unit so far.

I will revisit this when I update the Firmware and what not.

 

[trentbob]

It's not actually the speaker it's the radio. You really can't assess the performance until you have updated the radio completely as they attempted to fix a lot of the problems.

If you find you have difficulties with missed transmissions on P2 simulcast there are steps you can take to try to correct that. There are a few systems in the country that don't perform well and I unfortunately am in one of them.

Let me know if you have any problems there are things that you can do with NAC ignore and system hold times if your missed transmission problem is not serious.

99.9% of the people here will tell you it's a terrific radio except sometimes the toaster option makes the toast too dark. LOL.

 

[darkness975]

It's not actually the speaker it's the radio. You really can't assess the performance until you have updated the radio completely as they attempted to fix a lot of the problems.

If you find you have difficulties with missed transmissions on P2 simulcast there are steps you can take to try to correct that. There are a few systems in the country that don't perform well and I unfortunately am in one of them.

Let me know if you have any problems there are things that you can do with NAC ignore and system hold times if your missed transmission problem is not serious.

99.9% of the people here will tell you it's a terrific radio except sometimes the toaster option makes the toast too dark. LOL.

I'm pretty sure my area is reasonably in the clear for simulcast P2 since my BCD325P2 and HP2 have been alright over time as far as I can tell anyway (excepting issues with woods and topography making reception hard to get).

Are you saying that the firmware updates will change the audio sound quality? I hope it does ...

I also wonder if it can be set to wait longer after a transmission is done before it starts to scan again (I think its 2 seconds by default) Any idea if this can be changed?

I am stuck at work for another 2 hours, otherwise I would have updated the firmware already and been figuring out how to lock out systems that I don't want it to try scanning since they are too far away and it wastes time. If I bring the unit to other areas in the state then I will unlock those systems for the trip.

 

[trentbob]

Increasing the delay on each individual Channel is basically the same as any scanner using the menu button. 2 seconds is a pretty good amount of time to delay a single Channel but you can modify each Channel to a different amount of seconds. The longer you delay on each channel the longer it'll take you to cycle through scanning what you are scanning if they are busy channels. A good rule of thumb is the less you scan the more you hear.

Until you completely update everything you will not know what your radio is going to sound like but I would think you will see an improvement. They made a lot of changes and dealt with numerous issues with updates.