SDS100 Prerelease Discussion

[milcom_chaser]

Nobody in MY area (Los Angeles, CA and surrounding counties) uses DMR, NXDN, and such. I don’t care about listening to those ham repeaters that do, but no police, fire or EMS agency I listen to uses them, or is planning to.

"Nobody in MY area (Los Angeles, CA and surrounding counties) uses DMR, NXDN"

Are you sure? Click this link, https://digitalfrequencysearch.com

fill in LA County, Ca.

 

[milcom_chaser]

Don’t forget that the SDS100 is also supposed to have superior decode on weak digital signals.

In addition, if it does have an RSSI read-out I may be able to finally use my 8 element 800 MHz Wilson beam to find the best direction to point it in. At present, it takes such a small signal to give five bars of signal strength on my 436hp that this has proven difficult.

You may not need that Wilson Beam with this radio's ability to decode LSM...

 

[milcom_chaser]

Rafael Micro R836 Spec Sheet

http://archive.espec.ws/files/Rafael Micro R836 High Performance DTV Silicon Tuner Datasheet.pdf

 

[RF23]

According to the Rafael Micro R836 Spec Sheet you posted, the minimum operating temperature for this tuner appears to be only 0 degrees C or 32 degrees F.

The winter temps in the northern U.S. would be a real challenge for this tuner.

 

[jonwienke]

A typo I hope! I would expect better than ±5 PPM

I was referring to the cheapo oscillator in rtlsdr sticks, not any Uniden product.

 

[trp2525]

Not sure where the $100 came from. Parts costs more than that. Add royalties. Add production labor. Add engineering cost. Add sales and marketing cost...

Not sure where that arbitrary $100 "cost" for the SDS100 came from either. That figure is certainly WAY too low when you factor in everything that is involved in R & D, production, sales, support, etc.

For comparison purposes I have some information regarding what Whistler invoiced Radio Shack to produce their PRO-651 and PRO-652 scanners. The following information is from the Radio Shack/General Wireless bankruptcy court proceedings which is readily available online.

Whistler's invoice cost to Radio Shack for the PRO-651 handheld scanner (same scanner as the PRO-106 and the GRE PSR-500) was $165.00 with 3,600 scanners ordered/produced. Radio Shack's MSRP for the PRO-651 was $400 (which was their regular selling price) and it frequently went "on sale" for $300.

Whistler's invoice cost to Radio Shack for the PRO-652 desktop/mobile scanner (same scanner as the PRO-197 and the GRE PSR-600) was $161.00 with 2,730 scanners ordered/produced. Radio Shack's MSRP for the PRO-652 was $400 (which was their regular selling price) and it frequently went "on sale" for $300.

Of course Radio Shack had to pay the added costs for their sales and marketing costs for these scanners as well as any warranty repair/replacement costs involved. Also keep in mind that the above invoice prices were from 2015 so that also has to be considered as the prices would more than likely be higher in 2018. Here's the direct link to the actual Whistler invoices to Radio Shack (pdf file) if you want to have a look at the information yourself: https://cases.primeclerk.com/generalwireless/Home-DownloadPDF?id1=NTY0NTYz&id2=NTA1ODY5

 

[MississippiPI]

Little high, think I will wait for price drops.


Be Safe

 

[springtx]

There were a few who said they would have some Video up this weekend but looks like nothing was posted.

 

[eorange]

Oh **** yea!

I couldn't find too much information (other than the specs) for the R836. Is it currently in the guts of any available SDR product? I know it's a new successor.

 

[WX4JCW]

I couldn't find too much information (other than the specs) for the R836. Is it currently in the guts of any available SDR product? I know it's a new successor.

It’s in the guts of several well known SDR’s

I have 2 RTL-SDR’s and an Airspy Mini


Sent from my iPhone 8 using Tapatalk Pro
Jason WX4JCW
Unication G4, BCD536HP

 

[eorange]

It’s in the guts of several well known SDR’s

I have 2 RTL-SDR’s and an Airspy Mini

Which ones? The Airspy Mini is not one of them.

 

[jcook11]

I don't think it is in any of the current SDRs but the current tuner that most of them use is going obsolete and this is one of the alternatives. From the Airspy list:

"Rafael Micro officially discontinued the R820T2 since a few months. This is the tuner we use in the Airspy R2 and Airspy Mini."

"The newer tuners are slightly better (lower NF, more DR), but are also more complex and require a lot of work to get right."

 

[WX4JCW]

yes my bad, its the R820T2 which looks like is going out of production

 

[Grego]

Is the VHF Conventional better than the BCD436? I have noticed that the performance is very weak.

 

[eorange]

Thanks, I came to that same conclusion on the R836. Just wanted to be sure I wasn't missing something.

 

[jasonhouk]

Columbus City Simulcast here:

https://youtu.be/rtDeNRZED2k

Houk

 

[mtindor]

Columbus City Simulcast here:

https://youtu.be/rtDeNRZED2k

Houk

I'm sure you'll get people bellyaching that the video was way too short. I think the audio on the City Simulcast sounds superb -- absolutely no hint that you're listening to a simulcast site.

Mike

 

[wise871]

Columbus City Simulcast here:

https://youtu.be/rtDeNRZED2k

Houk

Now that was a great video. Thanks for sharing. I like the comparison with the 436.
Seems like the 436 is just getting smoked in all these comparison videos. Its like the scanner is death compared to the SDS100. I'll probably sale mine cheap seeing I won't need two.

 

[springtx]

Columbus City Simulcast here:

https://youtu.be/rtDeNRZED2k

Houk

Thanks jasonhouk, this is what we need.

 

[jasonhouk]

I'm sure you'll get people bellyaching that the video was way too short. I think the audio on the City Simulcast sounds superb -- absolutely no hint that you're listening to a simulcast site.

Mike

Already thought of that Mike here's all of the recorded audio from the SDCard driving around downtown then ST RT 315 home to ST RT 23 with stock antenna!

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1nF3-RxEsPe33oKFfqai1-w4sbIHcb8tf

Houk