I have not heard a decent peep from my (SDS100) 2-year old scanner, mostly scratchy noises which I avoid (skip). Did not trust my own programming so I had it programmed remotely (May 2023). When monitoring those programmed lists display seems to indicate normal scanning and receiving, but still no intelligible audio. No taxi, no bus, no business, no aircraft, no emergency, no weather, nor any tactical traffic. When scanning database for entries into a favorites list, I receive no intelligible audio. Sounds like my (DMR, Provoice, NXDN) upgrades are not working, but BearCat Warehouse assures me they should still be active. At one time when new, scanner received one talk group (47008) -Tenn. Highway Patrol, but since then nothing else. I think I'm on information overload.
SDS100/SDS200: SDS100:No decode?
- Thread starter WA4EGJ
- Start date
There's nothing you can do, such as a reset, formatting or replacing the memory card, that will remove the DMR & NXDN (plus ProVoice if you needed that as well) from the scanner.
You say "no intelligible audio". Are you hearing anything at all?
Have you tried using Weather Scan? That's under the WX Operations item in the menu; also accessible by pressing Function then the 6 key. Weather scan looks for any NOAA weather radio frequency that can be received. If you are in range of one of these stations, whether in your home county, or a neighboring one, you should hear them.
If you do not even hear Weather, then I would look into one or more of these items:, something with wrong with either your antenna, or the scanner itself. If you can hear Weatherradio, but nothing much else, that would perhaps indicate a problem in your programming, such as: incorrect location & range entered in your profile; incorrect (or two few) service types enabled; one or more of your Favorites lists, and/or their departments, sites (trunked systems) or departments not enabled; a number of systems, and/or lists set as Avoid.
Have you tried another antenna? Has someone transmitted from a radio close to your scanner? If so, that can damage the unit to the point you won't hear anything.
You say your scanner is "two years old". Did you purchase it brand new, out of the box? Or from someone who was selling a previous owned scanner. If it really is just 'two years old', then it should have been manufactured after the point that Uniden took steps to deal with the 'cold solder joint' problems that drew a lot of attention. See this Wiki page to see how you can use the serial number of the scanner to determine when it was manufactured/ Uniden Scanner Serial Numbers - The RadioReference Wiki
Not hearing any voice traffic at all even on weather scan. (SDR# setup indicates local active WX channel on 162.5). When normal scanning pauses on my SDS100, antenna icon indicates 5 bars with or without antenna connected but no voice traffic- only static and scratchy noises coming from speaker. I tried another homemade antenna- same results. Noises are not on every single channel, but "seems" to be randomly coming from scanner itself as I've tried different locations around town. No signal overload that I'm aware of. Bought scanner new (BearCat Warehouse) and year code indicates 2020 model, made in Vietnam. As I've said when new, it received voice traffic on two talk groups: City bus 17446 and THP 47008 in my 37040 area. Since then I have had two accidents with it: I dropped it from a low level and it landed on the antenna, and once the SD card got corrupted when using Sentinel. Not sure how I got it going again or when problem developed. Suppose a new factory SD card would help?
No, if it's scanning the frequencies (systems) you want, the SD card is working. You say when it stops on a site, you get no audio or just scratchy noises. Have you tried using a headphone plugged into the radio for audio? Same problem? If yes, still crappy audio, I would look for a problem in the audio circuit and/or demodulator circuit. If you get good audio out of the headphone, you have a bad speaker.
A HA! Drops are never ever good, particularly when impact is made with antenna. Antenna input may have gotten disconnected from board in which case a trip to Uniden Repair may be warranted
Ubbe
Member
That's a strong indicator for the cold solder joint issue. Send it in to Uniden for the fixed repair rate and they will repair even if it also includes the antenna connector to be repaired.
/Ubbe
Thanks everyone. Here's a good one for you. I was in the process of a SDS100 repair request for no audio, when I connected one last time with Sentinel to tweek the profile (as I remember something about timing and delay). I cleared Sentinel and restarted my scanner and noticed it was scanning much faster than usual, and lo and behold I heard voice traffic loud and clear on a local THP talk group! I immediately paused the channel and continued to monitor it all night. After about midnight, I heard no more audio even after 12 more hrs of monitoring. I am very encouraged by this revelation- that my scanner CAN speak but does not want to. Not sure the connection to Sentinel had anything to do with it.
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