SDS100 your likes / dislikes

[hardsuit]

KERZNR.
I really want to like Uniden/Bearcat. I think its unfair to consumers to hide features behind a PAYWALL, oh so you think Whistler is not paying, perhaps. but then Explain how ICOM and AOR don't charge for ANY Digital Modes, they are ALL completely FREE. just saying, I would be a Uniden customer if they Dropped all the PAY upgrades, that the others get for FREE. paywalls and lootboxes are not fair.

 

[jonwienke]

KERZNR.
I really want to like Uniden/Bearcat. I think its unfair to consumers to hide features behind a PAYWALL, oh so you think Whistler is not paying, perhaps. but then Explain how ICOM and AOR don't charge for ANY Digital Modes, they are ALL completely FREE. just saying, I would be a Uniden customer if they Dropped all the PAY upgrades, that the others get for FREE. paywalls and lootboxes are not fair.

Icom and AOR aren't scanners, and they don't trunk track either. Icom, AOR, and Whistler don't pay for the trunking tracking license, so they don't charge for it. Uniden pays so they charge. It's really that simple. And Icom and AOR receivers are about double the price of a Uniden, so they have more margin to throw things in for "free"...

 

[hardsuit]

jonwinke .
Wrong again. I bought ALL of my AOR and HAM receivers PRE BAN and I can legally operate them. just not Supposed to scan Celluar and I am NOT supposed to down convert any scanners to receive Celluar either. Current ICOM and AOR receivers also have cellular removed, but they Do Not have any Gaps in Coverage, they can tune HF really good, SW is Trickey, MW - Broadcast Radio is fantastic, including Digital Voice in 1.3Ghz to 3Ghz. just saying Uniden and Whistler need to up their game, they are NOT the only ones with I/Q LMR radios.

 

[ShyFlyer]

The end consumer pays, one way or the other. Nothing is "free."

 

[qman62]

jonwienke.
that is FALSE. ALL Unidens have gaps in coverage in the Radio Spectrum (except cellular), FACT : Uniden SDS100 = Receives ONLY 25-512, 758-824, 849-869, 894-960, and 1240-1300. but where is 0mhz - 24mhz ?, 513 - 757 ?, 961 - 1239 ? and ends at just 1300 ? you know there are things to monitor from 1.3 Ghz to 3.0 Ghz right , including voice transmissions. this is the Same for my current scanner which is a Whistler. it has the Exact same gaps in coverage. My AOR 1000 has Zero gaps from 0mhz - 1300, I can even receive Celluar, if I want to .

Not ALL Unidens have gaps. BR330T has continuous coverage from 100kHz to 1300Mhz (minus your precious cellular of course). And it could trunk track as well.

And please stop trying to compare specifically made wideband receivers to consumer police scanners. It's nothing but the "T" word when posted in a thread that has nothing to do with what the thread's purpose really is. You're not helping anyone.

 

[hardsuit]

jonwinke .
the Uniden SDS100 is more expensive @$650 + upgrades compared to the ICOM IC-R30 @$599 with a free GO Bag. factually the ICOM does not have Trunking, but the GPS tracking is nice and I can still Monitor ALL Trunking and Digital with Dual Receive and even Record both conversations or Two Different ones. but, I digress. Im still in the market for a LMR capable Whistler or Uniden.

 

[hardsuit]

qman62.
All current Uniden Bearcat scanners. I am hopeful that Uniden may stop charging for Upgrades. and looking foreward to the Whistler TRX 100 in Q4. will have to wait and see if Uniden drops price when WH SDR scanner comes out.

 

[werinshades]

qman62.
All current Uniden Bearcat scanners. I am hopeful that Uniden may stop charging for Upgrades. and looking foreward to the Whistler TRX 100 in Q4. will have to wait and see if Uniden drops price when WH SDR scanner comes out.

I expect Whistler to be about $100 cheaper because I have yet to read anywhere they will be trunk tracking NXDN or DMR. For some it doesn't matter if they trunk, if you live in an area with a large pool of DMR and NXDN trunking systems, you will need to trunk track. You have an option to buy either or, and both companies will survive on whatever decision you make. But...this thread is for those of us who have purchased the SDS100 and to post our likes and dislikes, not for those who like or dislike Uniden scanners, which their are many threads on.

 

[eaf1956]

I dislike the fact that all the venders are sold out of the adapter cable for GPS use on the SDS 100

 

[TexScan780D]

The owner's manual the worst I have ever seen for a scanner and I have seen a lot of them.

 

[eaf1956]

The owner's manual the worst I have ever seen for a scanner and I have seen a lot of them.

Really, I never even looked at it! Some scanners over the years never even had any manuals.

 

[kb8rvp]

Received mine yesterday and so far:

I like the ease of programming the scanner being that I had already programmed my 436HP. I just needed to download the new version of the software and then make sure the software was set to the correct model.

The audio and reception is great in my area in Michigan MPSCS on the APCO 25 800MHz digital single site as well as simulcast. I did have one issue at first.The signal strength was full and the stuff I did hear was loud and clear but I the system didn't seem very busy and that's not normal. I started checking the settings on the scanner it's self and I noticed most of the Service types (like EMS-Tac, EMS-Talk, Ham, Law-Tac, EMS-Dispatch) were almost all off under Settings/Select Service Types. I ended up turning them all on and wow the scanner came to life and everything was right with the world! I went back into the software and checked the settings under Edit/Profile/Service Types and sure enough only 4 were checked. It wasn't like that before I updated the software from programming the 436HP so please check that setting on yours. I also need to see if that setting is independent when you change the scanner model back and forth from the 436HP to the SDS100 in Sentinel of if the new version reset them. It seems like I had to turn on the service types when I first got the 436HP too as most of the service types were off.

I do notice the scanner runs very warm when you charge while scanning and when you have it plugged into power even with the charge turned off. I'm looking forwarding to buying a second battery pack and an external charger when they become available.

I'm using mine mostly in the car with an aux cable so I can feed the audio from the headphone jack into my car stereo and it works great. I'm using the supplied power cable plugged into a USB port in my car for power. I found a cute little mobile antenna on ebay that I stuck on the inside of the back window with the supplied double stick tape that I'm trying and on 800MHz. For the price it seems to work great with the SMA to BNC adapter on the scanner. This is the antenna:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/1x-Scanner...993045&hash=item284697cf2b:g:PEkAAOSw9OFZMuzP

I'm not going to talk about the supplied antenna as I never use them. For portable use I used the SMA to BNC adapter with a Radio Shack 800MHz antenna which you can now get from Whistler website if you don't have one.

So far my only dislike is only having one battery. With the 436HP I always had three sets of batteries that I charged in an external charger so I was always ready to go. This will be fixed once Uniden has extra batteries for sale as well as an external charger option.

Mike

 

[TexScan780D]

Really, I never even looked at it! Some scanners over the years never even had any manuals.

Yea "Really."

 

[SteveSimpkin]

Received mine yesterday and so far:

I like the ease of programming the scanner being that I had already programmed my 436HP. I just needed to download the new version of the software and then make sure the software was set to the correct model.

The audio and reception is great in my area in Michigan MPSCS on the APCO 25 800MHz digital single site as well as simulcast. I did have one issue at first.The signal strength was full and the stuff I did hear was loud and clear but I the system didn't seem very busy and that's not normal. I started checking the settings on the scanner it's self and I noticed most of the Service types (like EMS-Tac, EMS-Talk, Ham, Law-Tac, EMS-Dispatch) were almost all off under Settings/Select Service Types. I ended up turning them all on and wow the scanner came to life and everything was right with the world! I went back into the software and checked the settings under Edit/Profile/Service Types and sure enough only 4 were checked. It wasn't like that before I updated the software from programming the 436HP so please check that setting on yours. I also need to see if that setting is independent when you change the scanner model back and forth from the 436HP to the SDS100 in Sentinel of if the new version reset them. It seems like I had to turn on the service types when I first got the 436HP too as most of the service types were off.

I do notice the scanner runs very warm when you charge while scanning and when you have it plugged into power even with the charge turned off. I'm looking forwarding to buying a second battery pack and an external charger when they become available.

I'm using mine mostly in the car with an aux cable so I can feed the audio from the headphone jack into my car stereo and it works great. I'm using the supplied power cable plugged into a USB port in my car for power. I found a cute little mobile antenna on ebay that I stuck on the inside of the back window with the supplied double stick tape that I'm trying and on 800MHz. For the price it seems to work great with the SMA to BNC adapter on the scanner. This is the antenna:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/1x-Scanner...993045&hash=item284697cf2b:g:PEkAAOSw9OFZMuzP

I'm not going to talk about the supplied antenna as I never use them. For portable use I used the SMA to BNC adapter with a Radio Shack 800MHz antenna which you can now get from Whistler website if you don't have one.

So far my only dislike is only having one battery. With the 436HP I always had three sets of batteries that I charged in an external charger so I was always ready to go. This will be fixed once Uniden has extra batteries for sale as well as an external charger option.

Mike

The heat this model generates is a normal byproduct of the higher power circuitry the SDS100 uses.
If you register your scanner at myuniden, you will receive a second larger battery for free. There should have been a card in the box mentioning this. An external charger will also be available for sale soon. See details at:
https://forums.radioreference.com/uniden-tech-support/370751-nip-bud.html#post2934699

 

[TxScanner]

The heat this model generates is a normal byproduct of the higher power circuitry the SDS100 uses.

If you register your scanner at myuniden, you will receive a second larger battery for free. There should have been a card in the box mentioning this. An external charger will also be available for sale soon. See details at:

https://forums.radioreference.com/uniden-tech-support/370751-nip-bud.html#post2934699

I haven’t heard of the external charger, any further info on that, i wish it had some gold terminals on the bottom, and a charger, like a home cordless phone, where you could just drop the scanner in int and boom, charger begins, that would be nice, i guess you could call it “wireless” charging


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

 

[SteveSimpkin]

I haven’t heard of the external charger, any further info on that, i wish it had some gold terminals on the bottom, and a charger, like a home cordless phone, where you could just drop the scanner in int and boom, charger begins, that would be nice, i guess you could call it “wireless” charging

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

https://forums.radioreference.com/uniden-tavern/371491-sds100-your-likes-dislikes-2.html#post2943620

 

[jwpottberg]

Keypad lock

I'll start with the likes: almost everything! The SVRCS system I listen to in south SF bay area comes in like a champ, MUCH better than my 436. Love the display - I use white on black and have added RSSI to the simple display.

Biggest dislike so far: This has been talked about before, but I want to chime in. For me, the keypad lock (with associated switch to volume for the knob) is a very important convenience feature. I regularly carry the SDS100 in my back pocket or on my belt with the display off, many times held on one channel. Trying to adjust volume is dicey - I have to carefully push once to activate the display, then once more for the volume before turning the knob, all by feel. Half the time I don't push enough or push too many and end up switching channels without even knowing it 'cause I can't see the display. I realize this feature slipped through the cracks since there is evidence it was planned for and I eagerly await an update that adds this feature

Jim

 

[lowes1]

SDS 100 in Cleveland

Any reviews from the Cleveland area regarding likes/dislikes?

 

[TxScanner]

I'll start with the likes: almost everything! The SVRCS system I listen to in south SF bay area comes in like a champ, MUCH better than my 436. Love the display - I use white on black and have added RSSI to the simple display.



Biggest dislike so far: This has been talked about before, but I want to chime in. For me, the keypad lock (with associated switch to volume for the knob) is a very important convenience feature. I regularly carry the SDS100 in my back pocket or on my belt with the display off, many times held on one channel. Trying to adjust volume is dicey - I have to carefully push once to activate the display, then once more for the volume before turning the knob, all by feel. Half the time I don't push enough or push too many and end up switching channels without even knowing it 'cause I can't see the display. I realize this feature slipped through the cracks since there is evidence it was planned for and I eagerly await an update that adds this feature



Jim

Couldn’t agree more on the Volume, i didnt like it on the 436 that i tried out, or this one, i carry it while traveling, and if need to make a order or take a call, etc. Forget about Turning it down or better yet MUTE, forget about it. I would rather just be able to turn the knob and cut the volume up or down like the old scanners. If anything else a MUTE button would be great.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

 

[mule1075]

Push down on the knob turn it right to increase and left to decrease the volume. What is the issue with that or am I reading the posts wrong?