SDS200 Michigan MPSCS Mystery?

[ratboy]

I have two SDS200's, and they both do the same thing and I'm stumped.

I live near the Michigan border, and my PSR-500 and PRO-106 are busy chattering away with Michigan traffic. Signal strength even with the stock duck is fine, full quieting.
I have all the service types on in the SDS200, range is set to max. The SDS200 has any site I can possibly hear NOT avoided, and all the far away ones avoided. They are set to ID Search. They aren't deaf, but they miss about 50-60% of what I hear on the two handhelds. Monroe County and Washtenaw County sites are full quieting, and seem to be getting most of what the handhelds do, but there is still some missing. A few minutes ago, the talk group "911 Dispatch" had a long key up on the PSR-500 sitting a foot away from the SDS200 All I heard on the SDS200 is the tail end of the transmission. Since I have set most of the sites in Mi to avoid, the cycle time to go through the system is maybe 15 seconds when there is no traffic, and that key up was over a minute long..

Now the mysterious part, if that isn't enough. If I wipe out the programming and use the Zip Code, it's all there. Of course, it takes forever to go through the system, but when it gets around to it, I hear it all. I then went and reloaded the file I have called SDSsecond one test, something like that, and I get everything, for a while. But within a few days, it gets pretty quiet again. I wipe out my favorites list and reload it and all is well. For a couple of days. NOTHING ELSE does this, not MARCS-IP, NWOHIO, etc. They always work the same, no problems. Any idea what's going on?

 

[tvengr]

Are the SDS200's set to receive the same sites as the PSR-500 and the Pro-106? In the profile, check that the appropriate service types are enabled.

 

[n1chu]

Have you tried the zip code load, then take that and avoid what you don’t want and see it it still goes quiet after a while? If it doesn’t, save it and use that going forward.

 

[ratboy]

Are the SDS200's set to receive the same sites as the PSR-500 and the Pro-106? In the profile, check that the appropriate service types are enabled.

Yes, and the SDS200 has more sites set to receive,. and all the service types are turned on. That's not the mystery, Read the last paragraph, the mystery is why I keep having to reload my favorites list every few days to get much of anything.

 

[ratboy]

Have you tried the zip code load, then take that and avoid what you don’t want and see it it still goes quiet after a while? If it doesn’t, save it and use that going forward.

That's how I made my original favorites list. And it does the same thing. BOTH SDS200's do the same thing. I don't get why only the MPSCS system seems to have an issue with this. Right now, it's been about 3 days since the last reload and there's little traffic compared to the PSR500 and 106. A reload will increase traffic to nearly the same as the old timer GRE design. The SDS sure sounds better though.

I found the solution purely by accident when I was getting the new SDS200 ready to go and had both side by side. The old one was in the deaf mode and the new one worked correctly. When I reloaded my favorites list, all was good. Well, better anyway.

 

[Hit_Factor]

Reload suggest a memory leak in the scanner's OS. Check to make sure you have the latest firmware.

Before making a comparison between scanners. Maybe select a couple TGs so that it's no more than about 20% utilized. Then compare, but keep in mind one out of 5 transmissions may still be missed just due to timing.

Holding on the same TG in both scanners would be the best you probably could do. There will be some differences in antennas, so pick a local site, to minimize antenna differences. Then start using different filter settings to optimize reception.

 

[iMONITOR]

Now the mysterious part, if that isn't enough. If I wipe out the programming and use the Zip Code, it's all there. Of course, it takes forever to go through the system, but when it gets around to it, I hear it all. I then went and reloaded the file I have called SDSsecond one test, something like that, and I get everything, for a while. But within a few days, it gets pretty quiet again. I wipe out my favorites list and reload it and all is well. For a couple of days. NOTHING ELSE does this, not MARCS-IP, NWOHIO, etc. They always work the same, no problems. Any idea what's going on?

Try setting the Range to 2 miles. What are you using for an antenna?

 

[ofd8001]

You do any tinkering with the Control Channels on the Favorites Lists? Could be a remote possibility the control channel went to an alternate channel that may not have been programmed.

 

[werinshades]

I would also suggest in the settings under Site NAC Operation, confirm Ignore Site NAC is enabled. It's possible the NAC changed and the other scanners do not use the NAC's.

 

[ratboy]

No NACs. firmware is up to date. Stock whip does fine for what I want to hear. Rubber duck on Pro-106 hears tons of MPSCS traffic. When it's been freshly reloaded, everything heard on MPSCS is full quieting. I live very close to the Oh/Mi border. My two RS handhelds have any traffic on MPSCS light the LED green, and it's green a lot, and signal strength is VG.

Control channels on the SDS radios are the same as day one. Maybe a memory leak is the cause.

I reload the files to the radios and it works pretty well for a couple of days, then it gets quiet. I'm going to redo the MPSCS system from scratch and see what happens. I'm slowly pruning sites from the favorites list but so far it hasn't helped or changed anything but the speed it gets through the system, which is an improvement in a way, but not really any big help. I need to start looking more closely at what sites I'm trceiving and get the list down to just those few.

 

[jonwienke]

Sounds like time to try a new card.

 

[ratboy]

I did my MPSCS favorites from scratch and it seems to have fixed the issues! I don't know what changed, but it gone like 10 days now without any changes.

I did buy some new cards, but haven't formatted any of them yet.

 

[iMONITOR]

I did my MPSCS favorites from scratch and it seems to have fixed the issues! I don't know what changed, but it gone like 10 days now without any changes.

I did buy some new cards, but haven't formatted any of them yet.

Make sure you format them FAT32, not NTFS or exFAT.

 

[ratboy]

Yeah, thanks.

 

[ratboy]

As an update, I went into Southern Michigan yesterday, up to near Flat Rock, and the SDS200 was non stop on MPSCS. It appears side by side in the car with the PSR-500, the SDS is just a little deaf compared to the GRE radios, enough that I have to go about a mile closer to the Michigan border to get it really going. Up in Flat Rock, and nearby, it was so busy it was almost like when I was in the LA/So Cal area about 40 years ago. not enough channels and scanners to get it all. I do have to shut both SDS200's down, I just do it daily now to prevent them getting "amnesia". I'm going to borrow an 800MHZ outdoor antenna and see what it does inside my spare bedroom. Sometimes I really wish I was still in a house.

 

[iMONITOR]

If you're on the move a lot you should consider getting a GPS mod from Jon jonwienke so you only scan for what you need, rather than the scanner trying to check so many systems in your programming.

Uniden Scanner Internal GPS Installation

Eliminate the hassle and wiring clutter of the Uniden GPS kit by installing the GPS inside your scanner! Scan on the go without having to manually toggle channels on and off while driving! The installation requires a 1" square cutout in the...

forums.radioreference.com