SDS100 Question!!

[MayportDrone]

I currently have the Uniden BCD436HP. I am located and scanning in the Jacksonville, FL area wanting to listen to Jacksonville Fire and Rescue. I had the 436HP uploaded by someone with everything for JFRD, but I can barely hear anything most of the time. I saw a couple post about people raving about the SDS100 in my area Putnam, Duval, St. Johns, (but, the post were closed for replies so I couldnt ask them.) Would the switch be worth it? What is the pro and con of the SDS100 vs the scanner I have?? Thank you! Also, the Jacksonville Fire Rescue feed goes down 8/1/2023. So, I'm trying to get in line in case someone can't pick it up after! Again, Thank you.

 

[tvengr]

The SDS100 will work far better that your BCD436HP due to the simulcast site in Jacksonville. Your BCD436HP problems are most likely due to simulcast distortion.

 

[MayportDrone]

The SDS100 will work far better that your BCD436HP due to the simulcast site in Jacksonville. Your BCD436HP problems are most likely due to simulcast distortion.

Thank you very much for the info! Looks like I will be upgrading haha! Now, is a SDS100 capabale of being a feed provider on here if it works well for Jacksonville Fire Rescue?? Or any rec? I see the setup the guy has posted for the current Jacksonville Fire Rescue Feed, and to be honest. I'm not sure what it means or how complex. He goes silent on 8/1/2023. TIA

 

[hiegtx]

I currently have the Uniden BCD436HP. I am located and scanning in the Jacksonville, FL area wanting to listen to Jacksonville Fire and Rescue. I had the 436HP uploaded by someone with everything for JFRD, but I can barely hear anything most of the time. I saw a couple post about people raving about the SDS100 in my area Putnam, Duval, St. Johns, (but, the post were closed for replies so I couldnt ask them.) Would the switch be worth it? What is the pro and con of the SDS100 vs the scanner I have?? Thank you! Also, the Jacksonville Fire Rescue feed goes down 8/1/2023. So, I'm trying to get in line in case someone can't pick it up after! Again, Thank you.

Is this the system you are trying to monitor?

Jacksonville City - First Coast Radio Trunking System, Jacksonville, Florida

Jacksonville City - First Coast Radio Trunking System Profile

www.radioreference.com

Looking at your county, Duval, it appears that most of the public safety agencies, including Jackson Fire & Rescue, are in that system, though I do see a number of conventional (non-trunked) frequencies listed for EMS, mostly for communications with specific hospitals.

For the trunked system I linked, the primary site is Simulcast. Simulcast can be a major hinderance for every scanner except Uniden's SDS series.
More on Simulcast is in the Wiki. Simulcast digital distortion - The RadioReference Wiki

The Simulcast site has a number of transmit towers (sub-sites), which all transmit the exact same radio traffic, on the same frequency, from all of them.Those signals, at various distances from you, arrive at your location out of sync, so your 436HP cannot readily decode the transmissions. Click on the Simulcast site line to see the tower locations for that site. Comments on the system's page indicate that 7 more sites will be added,, bringing it from the current eight towers to fifteen.

As already mentioned, your 436HP cannot reliably receive & decode transmissions from a simulcast site. The SDS100 can handle that.

I would also note that for Jacksonville Fore & Rescue, the Dispatch talkgroups for Fire & EMS, as well as foreground talkgroups, are available via the Calls platform.


If you click on one of the talkgroups highlighted in blue, you can listen to that TGID without using a scanner.

 

[MayportDrone]

Is this the system you are trying to monitor?

Jacksonville City - First Coast Radio Trunking System, Jacksonville, Florida

Jacksonville City - First Coast Radio Trunking System Profile

www.radioreference.com

Looking at your county, Duval, it appears that most of the public safety agencies, including Jackson Fire & Rescue, are in that system, though I do see a number of conventional (non-trunked) frequencies listed for EMS, mostly for communications with specific hospitals.

For the trunked system I linked, the primary site is Simulcast. Simulcast can be a major hinderance for every scanner except Uniden's SDS series.
More on Simulcast is in the Wiki. Simulcast digital distortion - The RadioReference Wiki

The Simulcast site has a number of transmit towers (sub-sites), which all transmit the exact same radio traffic, on the same frequency, from all of them.Those signals, at various distances from you, arrive at your location out of sync, so your 436HP cannot readily decode the transmissions. Click on the Simulcast site line to see the tower locations for that site. Comments on the system's page indicate that 7 more sites will be added,, bringing it from the current eight towers to fifteen.

As already mentioned, your 436HP cannot reliably receive & decode transmissions from a simulcast site. The SDS100 can handle that.

I would also note that for Jacksonville Fore & Rescue, the Dispatch talkgroups for Fire & EMS, as well as foreground talkgroups, are available via the Calls platform.
View attachment 143587

If you click on one of the talkgroups highlighted in blue, you can listen to that TGID without using a scanner.

Wow! Awesome! Thank you for the great information! I shall upgrade to the SDS then and hopefully get better results! Also, since the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue broadcast goes down on 8/1/2023 per the provider. I think he is done? Not sure. Would the SDS be able to be a provider scanner? Could I provide the feed? TIA

 

[hiegtx]

Wow! Awesome! Thank you for the great information! I shall upgrade to the SDS then and hopefully get better results! Also, since the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue broadcast goes down on 8/1/2023 per the provider. I think he is done? Not sure. Would the SDS be able to be a provider scanner? Could I provide the feed? TIA

The SDS100 would work. I'm not doing a feed at the present time, so someone that is. would be more able to explain what you need, ProScan does have a free program that can be used for feeds. That does not do programming, but can be used to provide a feed. There's a separate forum available to help set up & operate feeds.

I saw the comments you are referring to on Broadcastify, that the current feed will be taken down in August. I have no idea if that same member is also providing the "Calls" feed, and they might also be pulled. You might ask that this thread be moved to the Florida forum, where someone in your area might be able to answer the questions. To do that, click on the Report link in the lower left corner of your post, and request that a moderator move the thread for you.

Feeds are handy if you are out somewhere with your phone or tablet, and can access them. But a feed is only what the provider directs. You can't pause it on a specific agency or talkgroup; your limited to only what the provider is furnishing. With your own scanner, you can control what you are listening to, and stop the radio on a specific incident without waiting to see if, and when, it comes back up on the feed.

I don't use the feeds that cover my area, since I can assign a scanner to whatever I want to hear. But they are very handy to pick up a feed from another area, where a major incident is unfolding. I listened to some of the 'miracle on the Hudson' rescue efforts when Captain Sully made his forced landing in the river. When there were numerous wildfires here in Texas, I monitored some of the feeds in areas where I have friends, to see how close it might get to them. The area I was monitoring was about 100 miles west, so well out of range for listening directly to their channels.

 

[MayportDrone]

The SDS100 would work. I'm not doing a feed at the present time, so someone that is. would be more able to explain what you need, ProScan does have a free program that can be used for feeds. That does not do programming, but can be used to provide a feed. There's a separate forum available to help set up & operate feeds.

I saw the comments you are referring to on Broadcastify, that the current feed will be taken down in August. I have no idea if that same member is also providing the "Calls" feed, and they might also be pulled. You might ask that this thread be moved to the Florida forum, where someone in your area might be able to answer the questions. To do that, click on the Report link in the lower left corner of your post, and request that a moderator move the thread for you.

Feeds are handy if you are out somewhere with your phone or tablet, and can access them. But a feed is only what the provider directs. You can't pause it on a specific agency or talkgroup; your limited to only what the provider is furnishing. With your own scanner, you can control what you are listening to, and stop the radio on a specific incident without waiting to see if, and when, it comes back up on the feed.

I don't use the feeds that cover my area, since I can assign a scanner to whatever I want to hear. But they are very handy to pick up a feed from another area, where a major incident is unfolding. I listened to some of the 'miracle on the Hudson' rescue efforts when Captain Sully made his forced landing in the river. When there were numerous wildfires here in Texas, I monitored some of the feeds in areas where I have friends, to see how close it might get to them. The area I was monitoring was about 100 miles west, so well out of range for listening directly to their channels.

Right! I travel for work and use the feed to listen while im traveling, on my phone or iPad. So if I can be the one who host the feed once this one comes down in August that would be fantastic. It would be the best of both worlds!

 

[eaf1956]

I personally would suggest a SDS 200 for a Feed scanner over the SDS 100

 

[morrisr3nd]

I personally would suggest a SDS 200 for a Feed scanner over the SDS 100

I would agree with this as long as you don't plan on taking the SDS100 mobile. The 200 would be the better choice.

I also agree with using ProScan. It is a very versatile software and if you have a Premium Subscription you can download whatever you need for the system. The favorites will setup very much like your 436HP.

Enjoy.

 

[iMONITOR]

+1 on eaf1956's suggestion on the SDS200 over the SDS100 if you don't actually need a hand-held.

+1 on morrisr3rd's suggestion on using ProScan.

 

[MayportDrone]

I would agree with this as long as you don't plan on taking the SDS100 mobile. The 200 would be the better choice.

I also agree with using ProScan. It is a very versatile software and if you have a Premium Subscription you can download whatever you need for the system. The favorites will setup very much like your 436HP.

Enjoy.

Thank you! I don’t plan on going mobile due to the fact of having a feed provided so I can listen to that on the go. Thank you for all of the advice! Would proscan be the only software needed for the SDS? Also, if I get the scanner pre programmed for JFRD from zip scanner. Would I still need proscan?

 

[morrisr3nd]

Thank you! I don’t plan on going mobile due to the fact of having a feed provided so I can listen to that on the go. Thank you for all of the advice! Would proscan be the only software needed for the SDS? Also, if I get the scanner pre programmed for JFRD from zip scanner. Would I still need proscan?

ProScan is not the only software you can use. You can use Sentinel from Uniden, but ProScan is better in my opinion. Also, Would not pay to have the scanner programmed. It's not hard to do at all. You can upload your current favorites into Sentinel and then download them to the 100/200 if you know that your current freqs/TG's are good on the 400. Just Import from 436 and Export to 100/200. Works great. But I wouldn't pay for programming that they most definitely will get wrong and not to your liking. I highly suggest finding someone in the area with a 100/200 and using Sentinel or ProScan and get a backup file from them and then load it into yours. Then you can see how things are setup and can make adjustments to that the way you want it.

Just a suggestion.

 

[tvengr]

Also, if I get the scanner preprogrammed for JFRD from zip scanner. Would I still need proscan?

If you get the scanner preprogrammed, you will be up the creek when system changes occur and you don't know how to program it yourself. Also, the preprogramming is one size fits all. You may not like how it is setup. Part of the fun is doing your own programming and setting it up the way you like it. ProScan is useful for streaming, especially using the SDS200 ethernet port.

 

[morrisr3nd]

ProScan has a fully functional 30 free trial. If you like it after you have used it then buy it. I don't think there are many folks on here who have used it that don't like it.

 

[MayportDrone]

If you get the scanner preprogrammed, you will be up the creek when system changes occur and you don't know how to program it yourself. Also, the preprogramming is one size fits all. You may not like how it is setup. Part of the fun is doing your own programming and setting it up the way you like it. ProScan is useful for streaming, especially using the SDS200 ethernet port.

You know what you are exactly right! Why not learn. That sounds like the fun of it. Thank you all very much for the great suggestions! This all helps really well and hope that I can do something great with all of this information!

 

[ProScan]

Thank you! I don’t plan on going mobile due to the fact of having a feed provided so I can listen to that on the go. Thank you for all of the advice! Would proscan be the only software needed for the SDS? Also, if I get the scanner pre programmed for JFRD from zip scanner. Would I still need proscan?

You will need Sentinel for profile editing, and firmware updating (we don't know if or when there will be a new firmware version). Sentinel is also needed for updating the full Uniden (HPDB) database, if you're scanning the full HPDB database. You may not need to update the full Uniden database since you're a Premium Subscriber as ProScan can import directly from the RadioReference database.

 

[Chris0516]

I currently have the Uniden BCD436HP. I am located and scanning in the Jacksonville, FL area wanting to listen to Jacksonville Fire and Rescue. I had the 436HP uploaded by someone with everything for JFRD, but I can barely hear anything most of the time. I saw a couple post about people raving about the SDS100 in my area Putnam, Duval, St. Johns, (but, the post were closed for replies so I couldnt ask them.) Would the switch be worth it? What is the pro and con of the SDS100 vs the scanner I have?? Thank you! Also, the Jacksonville Fire Rescue feed goes down 8/1/2023. So, I'm trying to get in line in case someone can't pick it up after! Again, Thank you.

I also have the BCD436HP. My state capitol in the neighboring county, is also simulcast. I can get it most of the time. Some(not a lot) TGIDs' don't come through. But that is a very small. I know the SDS100 is better on simulcast. But the $650 price tag isn't worth it. I keep seeing more negative than positive reviews of the SDS100.

 

[morrisr3nd]

I would suggest buying used. So far out of all the scanners I have, none were bought new. All have worked very well.

 

[MayportDrone]

Is this the system you are trying to monitor?

Jacksonville City - First Coast Radio Trunking System, Jacksonville, Florida

Jacksonville City - First Coast Radio Trunking System Profile

www.radioreference.com

Looking at your county, Duval, it appears that most of the public safety agencies, including Jackson Fire & Rescue, are in that system, though I do see a number of conventional (non-trunked) frequencies listed for EMS, mostly for communications with specific hospitals.

For the trunked system I linked, the primary site is Simulcast. Simulcast can be a major hinderance for every scanner except Uniden's SDS series.
More on Simulcast is in the Wiki. Simulcast digital distortion - The RadioReference Wiki

The Simulcast site has a number of transmit towers (sub-sites), which all transmit the exact same radio traffic, on the same frequency, from all of them.Those signals, at various distances from you, arrive at your location out of sync, so your 436HP cannot readily decode the transmissions. Click on the Simulcast site line to see the tower locations for that site. Comments on the system's page indicate that 7 more sites will be added,, bringing it from the current eight towers to fifteen.

As already mentioned, your 436HP cannot reliably receive & decode transmissions from a simulcast site. The SDS100 can handle that.

I would also note that for Jacksonville Fore & Rescue, the Dispatch talkgroups for Fire & EMS, as well as foreground talkgroups, are available via the Calls platform.
View attachment 143587

If you click on one of the talkgroups highlighted in blue, you can listen to that TGID without using a scanner.

So when you click on the blue links. It said feed hasn’t been broadcasted in the last 15 hours. I have been listening to it that way since you posted. Do you think something happened? The regular JFRD feed on Broadcastify that the guy is a feed provider for also, hasn’t had any audio in about a week either. The blue links just happened yesterday though. Could it be an update? Is someone putting those feeds on? Thanks!

 

[hiegtx]

So when you click on the blue links. It said feed hasn’t been broadcasted in the last 15 hours. I have been listening to it that way since you posted. Do you think something happened? The regular JFRD feed on Broadcastify that the guy is a feed provider for also, hasn’t had any audio in about a week either. The blue links just happened yesterday though. Could it be an update? Is someone putting those feeds on? Thanks!

It looks like the feed for Jacksonville Fire & Rescue is back up:

Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Live Audio Feed

Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Live Audio Feed on Broadcastify.com

www.broadcastify.com

However, the talkgroups on the city's system are no longer tagged as part of the Calls platform. The provider may have had PC issues, or perhaps was away on vacation & his computer crashed. If that was the case, he would not be able to check out & correct the problems until he is back in town.